Joe Cobbs

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• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Northern Kentucky University

Research question: Despite pervasive attention to the concept of rivalry, there is neither uniform definition nor universal understanding. The purpose of this paper is to explore sport rivalry and derby matches from the fan perspective and identify the most influential elements that characterize rivalry. Research methods: This work employs a seq...

Data at www.KnowRivalry.com; Central to the conceptualization of rivalry is the process of social categorization and seeing the self and others as members of ingroups and outgroups. For some sport fans—especially those deemed highly identified—a favorite team becomes an extension of one’s self, and opposing teams and their fans are seen as dissimil...

While the benefits sought by engaging in non-traditional marketing tactics such as sponsorship are well-documented, determining return-on-investment (ROI) remains an evolving science. To advance ROI analysis in sponsorship, we utilize data on sponsorship prices and the televised exposure of sponsors in Formula One motor racing. Results validate a s...

The globalization of media content has encouraged the growth of cross-cultural promotional channels; yet empirical evaluations of advertising strategies at an international level are sparse. This paper advances research in this emerging area by analyzing the global financial markets' valuation of commercial sponsorships in Formula One (F1) motor ra...

Firms from a variety of industries regularly partner with Formula One racing teams to achieve marketing objectives on an international scale. The sponsored properties offer signals of brand foreignness/localness, country of origin, and the potential for highly visible achievements. Firms enter and exit brand partnerships with some of the world's mo...

Purpose A sponsorship performance cycle of business-to-business (B2B) exchange is conceptualized, where distinct types of resources are invested by sponsoring firms into sponsored properties and the competitive success of those properties enhances returns to sponsors. While the latter return channel in this cycle is well-documented, the former inve...

With increases in sponsorship expenditures outpacing traditional advertising, return on investment warrants greater scrutiny. Research overwhelmingly focuses on returns, however, while neglecting the associated investment. This study contributes to the literature on sponsorship costs by analyzing multiple years of prices paid for sponsorships of Fo...

While rivalry debates rage among soccer fans and the media, scholars have focused much of their research on clashes between specific clubs that share a considerable history of competition. Yet, historical conflict is just one of several elements that contribute to enduring sports rivalries, and several soccer teams—particularly in America and Canad...

Emotion impacts fans' information processing and evaluation of sport sponsors. This paper examines the emotion of schadenfreude (joy at others' misfortune) within rivalry contests under a cognition-emotion theoretical framework. Study 1 assesses the relationships between appraisals of 11 rivalry antecedents and schadenfreude using survey data from...

Rationale/Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop and test a parsimonious model of brand equity reverse transfer, where the reputations of sponsoring brands influence the brand of a sponsored sports enterprise. Design/methodology/approach Building on associative network theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this paper utilizes an ex...

Although prior research examined sponsorship announcements, differences in abstraction and when sponsorships are announced have been neglected. Based on Construal Level Theory, the effects of sponsorship announcement informativeness (abstract/concrete), personal level of construal (PLC; high/low), and temporal distance (proximate/distant) are inves...

Purpose - This paper examines how reference to a rival or favorite sports team within cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) campaigns affects fans' intentions to support the cause. The purpose of the studies is to assess the perils of featuring a specific team in league-wide activations of cause-related marketing. Design/methodology/approach - The...

Spectator sports embody social group conflict, where consumers periodically interact with opposing fans, thereby providing outlets for negative brand affect in the form of acrimony toward rivals. To assess the regional nature of rivalry, this study compared 5,145 sports consumers across the four United States Census regions and Canada, including fi...

This chapter provides a foundation for those new to rivalry inquiry. First, it introduces seminal social psychology concepts, such as group identity, social identity theory, social categorization theory, and ingroup/outgroup formation. Next, the chapter explains three properties of rivalry and the 100-point single-item measure of rivalry intensity....

While rivalry debates rage among soccer fans and the media, scholars have focussed much of their research on clashes between specific clubs that share a considerable history of competition. Yet, historical conflict is just one of several elements that contribute to enduring sports rivalries, and several soccer teams – particularly in America and Ca...

Purpose: The achievement of a requisite return on investment (ROI) from a brand’s investment in sponsorships of sport events is becoming increasingly important. Consequently, evolving trends in the consumption of the live television broadcasts of such events (e.g., increased usage of second screens by consumers) are an important consideration. This...

Although the concept of rivalry is widely recognized as a contributing factor to consumer demand for sporting events, who constitutes a rival and to what degree rivalry influences attendance remains vague. Previous demand models consistently included rivalry as an explanatory variable but represented rivalry in inconsistent ways that often violated...

Previous research on sports rivalry has emphasized fans’ social identity and the threat posed by rivals. Much of this scholarship is based on intercollegiate sports, where many fans, such as students and alumni, have a formally defined identity with the university. In this study, fans (N = 4,828) across five major professional leagues—MLB, MLS, NBA...

Social involvement research in the sport industry is still evolving, leaving much to be understood regarding the social activities of sport organizations (Walker and Parent 2010). While research suggests that CRM can positively affect purchase intentions and behavioral responses (e.g., Bhattacharya and Sen 2003), the rise in CRM activities in profe...

Rivalry is ubiquitous across sports, yet the representation and specification of rivalry varies widely. Such discrepancy poses problems when distinguishing between multiple out-groups and when employing rivalry to explain related questions such as demand for sport consumption. In this paper, we critically examine the many differing conceptions of r...

Accessing and exploiting organizational resources are essential capabilities for competitive sport organizations, particularly those engaged in motorsports, where teams lacking resources frequently dissolve. Corporate sponsorship represents a common method for resource acquisition, yet not all sponsorships equally benefit the sponsored organization...

Rapid advances in technology have influenced the ways in which consumers experience live events, both in person and via television. One of the most prevalent of recent trends has been an increase in the use of “second screens,” or the simultaneous consumption of an event and use of an electronic device, such as a smartphone or tablet (Galily 2014)....

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has become a prominent management theory that firms can use to analyze resources as potential sources of competitive advantage. Theorists have suggested sponsorship of sport properties as one such resource, yet specific cases of sponsorship's role in a firm's achievement of a sustained advantage over compet...

Despite the prominence of B2B sponsorship in practice and scholars’ recognition of the importance of B2B sponsorship objectives, studies evaluating business-to-consumer (B2C) sponsorship objectives and execution still dominate published research on the topic. While the line between industrial and consumer marketing has been somewhat blurred (Wind 2...

As described by Porter (1980), a niche marketing strategy concentrates on serving a particular market niche – defined by geographic boundaries, type of customer, segment of the product line, or a combination of these three elements. Yet focus on a single niche can entail risks of instability and collapse, which can be countered by the market flexib...

Cause-related marketing (CRM) has become increasingly popular with professional sport leagues and large charitable organizations (Genzale 2006). A prominent example is the National Football League’s (NFL) Pink Campaign, branded “A Crucial Catch,” with the American Cancer Society (ACS). While a large body of research suggests that CRM can positively...

This research suggests that sports fans are skeptical of league-wide CRM campaigns that feature their hometown team. This skepticism is posited to be rooted in manipulative feelings that stem from insincere borrowed interest appeals. Using the NFL as the league, this study suggests CRM support could be diminished when featuring a hometown team.

Corporate financial contributions fund many events and organizations, such as art exhibits, concerts, and sports teams. Often corporations make such contributions in exchange for the right to affiliate with the sponsored event or organization. Sponsorship is thus regarded as a marketing communication instrument. Besides communicating via sponsorshi...

A sponsor portfolio exists where multiple brands sponsor a single activity or property, such as a sporting event, team, league, or a charity simultaneously. While sponsor portfolios are common in practice, little is known about how the brand perceptions of several concurrent sponsors spill over to influence each individual sponsor’s brand. This pap...

Corporate sponsorship has become an integral component of the marketing communication mix for companies across the globe. In addition to communicating through sponsorship, sponsors and sponsored entities also communicate about a sponsorship. This form of “sponsorship-linked marketing” is frequently employed when announcing the initiation of a spons...

The absence of a uniform metric of return for non-traditional marketing techniques, such as sponsorship, amplifies the challenge of analyzing ROI for such tactics (Clark, Cornwell, & Pruitt, 2002). The purpose of this study was to advance the scarcity of research that evaluates ROI in sponsorship. Utilizing the context of Formula One (F1) motor rac...

The success of any brand is largely predicated on how distinctive the brand is relative to competitors (Aaker 1996; Keller 1993; 1998). Brands with distinct images are more easily recalled by individuals and represent more attractive relationship partners for consumers (Fournier 1998; Currás-Pérez et al. 2009). The clarity of a brand’s positioning...

Event sponsorship in sport has become one of the most prominent nontraditional components of the marketing communication mix for many companies across the globe (IEG 2011). Since many companies use sporting events to promote their brands, studying the effects of event sponsorships on both sponsoring brands and sponsored events has become increasing...

Professional baseball operates a tiered system of talent development facilitated by alliances between Minor League Baseball (MiLB) clubs and higher status Major League Baseball (MLB) parent teams. This study applies management theory to advance the literature on MiLB demand modeling by proposing and testing a new set of demand determinants based on...

Purpose – Advances in technology allow fans to consume live broadcasts of sports events almost anywhere via personal computers, tablets and smartphones. These devices are also frequently utilized as "second screens" to communicate with fellow fans on social media, access additional content, or otherwise multitask during televised game consumption....

Purpose – Due in large part to the proprietary nature of costs, there is a dearth of academic literature investigating the factors influencing the costs for sport marketing investments, such as sponsorship. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide an analytical framework for market intelligence that enables managers to better predict and...

International products can achieve mass adoption in some countries, while languishing outside the mainstream in other countries. Theoretically, global organisations can manage market entry and divergent demand by practicing a niche portfolio strategy that requires marketers to appropriately prioritize and cultivate key resources in underdeveloped n...

Advertising, sponsorships, and other marketing communications are commonplace in the contemporary world of sports. Are sports fans irritated and annoyed by this commercial bombardment or are they accepting of the role of sports advertising? This study investigates consumers’ perceptions of commercial messages during televised sporting events. The r...

The business model of motorsports has evolved to prominently feature corporate sponsorship as a business-to-business (B2B) exchange mechanism in both the supply and marketing channels. As a result, racing series managers and teams are often simultaneously positioned as a buyer and seller in relation to their corporate sponsors. The sustainability o...

The congruence or fit between a sponsored brand and sponsoring firm is a central tenet of sponsorship research. The influence of such congruence on the sponsored brand however, has received scant attention. This question is important because the strength of a sponsored organisation's brand equity is the basis for many sponsorship alliances. The two...

Purpose While various scholars have identified relationship marketing objectives as a rationale for sports sponsorship engagement, analytic investigations of the implications of a relational approach to the corporate sponsorship network have been slow to materialize. The purpose of this paper is to advance the discussion of sponsorship as a means o...

Theorists have emphasized brand differentiation in achieving a competitive advantage through sponsorship, and managers of sports sponsorships have recognized product category exclusivity as among the most valued rights afforded sponsoring firms. Yet the proliferation of sponsorships in the sports marketplace poses a challenge to sponsors attempting...

Despite the global economic slowdown and an increased scrutiny of marketing expenditures, corporate spending on commercial sponsorship in North America increased by 11.4 percent in 2008 to US$16.6 billion (IEG 2009). The sponsorship relationship has traditionally been defined as “the provision of assistance either financial or in-kind to an activit...

The image transfer between a sports enterprise or celebrity endorser and a single corporate sponsor's brand is well documented in the literature (e.g. McCracken 1989; Gwinner and Eaton 1999; Speed and Thompson 2000; Till and Busler 1998, 2000). However, these sponsor or endorsement relationships seldom exist in isolation (Smith 2004). Numerous firm...

The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival” appears frequently in academic work, researchers have not applied a consistent approach to determine what constitutes a rival. The purpose of this research is to identify key characteristics of a rivalry and the antecedents to rivalry formation. Also explored a...

In this case study, the Russell Corporation's acquisition of Spalding creates an opportunity for Spalding's marketing staff to reevaluate their licensing strategy. Prior ownership has heavily leveraged the equity of the Spalding brand to generate maximum licensing revenues with a minimal concern for the long-term impact on the brand. Placed in the...

This teaching note presents instructors with several avenues for incorporating the case study, "The Practice of Brand Extension through Licensing: The Spalding Challenge," into their classrooms. By proposing classroom demonstrations and exercises based on the authors' experience as well as selected readings that correspond directly to the theoretic...