期刊名称：Scientific Annals of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi – Economic Sciences Series
印刷版ISSN：2501-1960
电子版ISSN：2501-3165
出版年度：2020
页码：495-515
DOI：10.47743/saeb-2020-0030
出版社：Sciendo
摘要：This research aimed to identify how esports sponsorships affect the sponsors’ brand image. An exploratory focus was adopted along with a convergent-parallel mixed method with equal status. Twenty-two experts in esports sponsorships were interviewed and 5,638 esports fans were surveyed. Quantitative data was processed on SPSS 25 and qualitative data on NVivo 10. The two data sets were analysed separately from one another, but the results were interpreted together and given the same level of importance. The results showed that all experts believe that sponsoring esports can positively affect the sponsors’ brand image and roughly one-third of fans perceive more positively a small number of brands as a result of them sponsoring esports. This image improvement is, however, dependent on multiple variables, including activation strategy, brand type, and target audience. The findings are relevant for academics and companies looking to better understand the brand image effects of sponsoring esports.
