Austin C. Bogina
Thomas J. Aicher
Kaylee C. Bogina
and Brian S. Gordon

The primary purpose of this study was to explore how professional runners form attitudes toward sponsors. The secondary purpose was to understand perceived relationships of professional runners with sponsors. This study was guided by the relationship marketing theory, and the conceptual background on sponsorship relationships was presented in detail. The research was conducted with a USA Track & Field certified professional running team, using semi-structured interviews with eight of 12 team members. The results were categorized into three common themes: (1) relational benefits, (2)...Read more

Steve McKelvey
Dennis Sandler
Kevin Snyder

Prior academic research studies have examined the practice of ambush marketing from the perspective of sporting event non-participants (e.g., spectators, viewers and general sport consumers).This exploratory study furthers the line of research into ambush marketing by assessing the attitudes of participants in a major sporting event toward the practice of ambush marketing. Specifically, the researchers surveyed a random sampling of runners who participated in the 2005 and the 2008 ING New York City Marathons. In contrast to the findings in prior studies of sporting event non-participants,...Read more