An Exploratory Investigation of Sport Sponsorship by Small Business in Australia

There is a growing volume of academic literature examining sports sponsorship. Most of this has examined large organisations use of sponsorship as a promotional tool. This paper takes a different focus and examines the sport sponsorship activities of smaller organisations and is designed to provide a broad overview of small business sport sponsorship activities in Australia. The study examines the views of 18 of the 28 key informants within small organisations in Australia who were engaged in the sponsorship of rugby league teams in one regional competition. Given the exploratory nature of the study a number of sponsorship issues were examined, including: 1) Responsibility for the sponsorship arrangement; 2) Firms objectives for choosing sponsorship; 3) Types of other sponsorship activities; 4) Perceived sponsorship effectiveness; 5) Sponsorship and the promotional mix; and 6) Sponsorship entitlements