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Effect of corporate image of the sponsor on brand love and purchase intentions:
The moderating role of sports involvement

Article  in  Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science · February 2020

DOI: 10.1080/21639159.2020.1717978

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 Effect of Corporate Image of the Sponsor on Brand Love and Purchase
Intentions: The Moderating Role of Sports Involvement

Abstract

Indians adore cricket and tend to establish an immediate connection with the brands that associate with
it. Of late, well-known brands have taken the road less traveled and sponsored non-cricketing sports
(sports other than cricket) leagues in India. This paper focuses on non-cricketing sports sponsorships and
explores the influence of the corporate image of the sponsor on brand love, which is further hypothesized
to influence purchase intentions for the sponsor’s products. The study further examines the moderating
role of sports involvement between corporate image and brand love. The moderating role of sports
involvement between brand love and purchase intentions is also studied. The mediating role played by
brand love between corporate image, and purchase intentions is tested. A structured questionnaire was
administered to 638 respondents who followed non-cricketing sports leagues. The results established that
corporate image is positively associated with brand love, which further leads to purchase intentions.
Sports involvement strengthened both these relationships.

Keywords: Sports involvement; Corporate Image; Brand Love; Purchase Intentions

1. Introduction
Non-cricket sports leagues (badminton, tennis, hockey, wrestling, football, and kabaddi, to name a few)
are turning into a multi-billion market in India, owing to the increasing interest among the fans, media,
and sponsors. Menon (2017) reported that sports sponsorship in India is growing at a rapid rate of 14
percent and that this number was expected to rise further, as sponsors consider increasing their
investments in multiple sports. As such, it becomes imperative to measure the effectiveness of sponsoring
non-cricket sports leagues. On these lines, this research tests the influence of the sponsor's corporate
image on brand love, which further results in purchase intentions for the sponsor’s products. The
moderating effect of sports involvement between corporate image and brand love is observed. The
moderating effect of sports involvement between brand love and purchase intentions is also tested. The
mediating role of brand love between corporate image and purchase intentions is also studied.

Meng-Lewis et al. (2014) posited that past studies have increasingly focused on the effect of sports
sponsorship on cognitive factors (brand awareness, brand recall), and conative factors (purchase
intention). Further, the same study also submitted that the extant research, which focused on affective
consequences of sponsorship, had measured its effect on variables like attitude and preference. However,
as brand love represents a stronger form of consumer-brand relationship as compared to brand attitude
and satisfaction (Thomson et al., 2005; Batra et al., 2012; Karjaluoto, Munnukka, & Kiuru, 2016), this
study becomes an essential addition to exploring the affective consequences of non-cricket sports
sponsorships in India.

Developed sports markets are home to many successful professional sports leagues (Keshtidar et al.,
2018). However, in an emerging market like India, sports leagues are a relatively new development
(Tripathi & Kapoor, 2017). In the last five years, Indian sports have benefitted due to the emergence of
several sports leagues. Sports leagues like football and kabaddi have seen increased viewer interest on
TV as well as on social media platforms (Ernst & Young report, 2016). From the advertising revenue
perspective, telecasting the league matches proved to be beneficial for the broadcasters as they earned
more than INR 100 crore from each league and a considerably high number of viewers also. (Choudhury,
2017). Notably, each sports league has a different viewership performance across markets in India, i.e.,
football and badminton leagues report higher viewership in the Eastern states of India, while the Kabbadi
and Hockey leagues report higher viewership in the Northern states (BARC Report, 2017). Broadcast
audience research council (BARC) is India's recognized source for TV ratings.

Marketers have known several advantages of sponsoring sports tournaments. Sponsorship is a proven
sports-marketing tool enabling marketers to leverage a favorable image, leading to an increase in
awareness of the firm’s products (Jin, 2017). Over a period of time, sports sponsorship has proven to be
useful owing to its broad reach and good brand & corporate exposure (Kropp et al., 1999). Enhancing
the corporate and brand image was ranked as a critical goal of sponsorship activities (Thwaites et al.,
1998). Crafting an appropriate corporate image is important owing to its effect on important constructs
like customer loyalty, product quality perceptions, consumer satisfaction, and positive word-of-mouth
(Tran et al., 2015). Building a corporate image involves concurrent efforts into maintaining
communication with key stakeholders (Dowling, 1993, Brown et al., 2006). Also, various marketing
associations help towards building the corporate image (Brown, 1998; Lemmink et al., 2003). One of
such a marketing association is the sponsorship of sporting events (Park & Yang, 2010). The ability of
sports sponsorships to connect with a diverse set of consumers is an important benefit on the marketer’s
plate (Lardinoit & Derbaix, 2001). One of the key differences between traditional advertising and sports
sponsorship is the ability of the latter to help establish a relationship between the sponsor and the
consumer (Crompton, 2004). Shank (2009) established that sponsoring a sports event helps new brands
enhance their awareness index in a short time. Cornwell (2014) suggested that marketers look at sports
sponsorships as an effective alternative to traditional communication platforms like advertising. Ukman
(2015) established sports sponsorship as an effective differentiation plank for brands in a competitive
market. With such multi-dimensional benefits on offer, developing a better understanding of sports
sponsorship effectiveness is of great interest to marketers (Ko, Kim, Claussan, & Kim, 2008). In spite of
being an important construct, few researchers have focused on observing the outcomes of corporate
image from an emerging market perspective (Heinberg et al., 2018).

Extant research has focused on studying the cognitive and conative effect of sponsorship by observing
the resulting brand awareness (Pitts, 1998; Pope & Voges, 1994, 2000) and purchase intentions for the
sponsor’s products (Pitts, 1998; Madrigal, 2000; Ko, Kim, Claussan, & Kim, 2008, Fraser et al., 2016).
However, the limited efforts which have been made to observe the affective consequences of sports
sponsorship have focused on brand attitude, preference, and satisfaction (Thomson et al., 2005; Batra et
al., 2012; Karjaluoto, Munnukka, & Kiuru, 2016). In an era when marketers endeavor to establish an
emotional connection with consumers (Zorfas & Leemon, 2016), testing the effect of sports sponsorship
on a relatively new (Batra et al., 2012) affect-led marketing constructs like brand love is of interest to
marketers. Further, unraveling the factors that predict the formation of brand love is important for sports
marketers as it influences key marketing variables like purchase intentions, and word of mouth among
others (Thomson et al., 2005; Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006; Batra et al., 2012).
Shank and Beasley (1998) suggested that involvement is a significant factor influencing sports related
behaviors such as game attendance, television viewing, and commitment. On these lines, an individual’s
involvement with the sport is perceived to influence consumer processing of the sponsorship stimuli and
the event (Johar & Pham, 1999). Pham (1992) suggested that if an individual is highly involved in a
sport, the sponsor will benefit from the investments. These findings establish the importance of studying
the role played by involvement in the sports marketing context.

This research is important as few researchers have attempted to study the effect of the corporate image
of the sponsor on brand love, a strong indicator of consumer-brand relationship. Further, the role of
involvement as a moderator between these variables is also not tested earlier. Marketers in India are
making significant investments in non-cricketing sports leagues. One of its objectives is to establish an
emotional relationship with prospective consumers. It is important to study if sponsoring the non-
cricketing leagues bears the desirable outcomes for the sponsors (Dhanya, 2018).

The research paper is structured as follows: The literature review elaborates on the independent and
dependent variables leading to the formation of a proposed model. The methodology highlights the
sample details, measures, and statistical tools used for the research. The discussion gives a comparative
analysis of the results obtained in this work with the existing research results. The limitations and future
scope draw a blueprint for further work needed to understand this growing area better.

2. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

Literature encompassing existing knowledge in the area of sports involvement, brand love, and the theory
of reasoned action was reviewed to propose a research model. The review elaborates on the constructs
involved in the model and also draws the proposed hypotheses.

2.1 Brand Love (BL)

Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) defined brand love as "the degree of passionate, emotional attachment a
satisfied consumer has for a particular trade name." Brand love is a relatively new but important concept
in observing consumer-brand relationships (Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012; Huber et al., 2015).

As the focus of marketers shifts from promoting unique selling propositions to building an emotional
connection with their consumers, concepts like brand love continue to gain importance. Recent research
in the area of consumer-brand relationships have shown that consumers develop a love-like relationship
with brands and such relationships play a crucial role in nurturing consumer’s intent to prolong the
relationship (Albert et al., 2008; Wallace et al., 2014; Drennan et al., 2015; Kudeshia et al., 2016).
Fournier (1998) suggested that consumers loving a brand experience passion, dependency, and obsession
for that particular brand. These characteristics reflect the interpersonal theory of love (Langner, Schmidt,
& Fischer, 2015). However, the application of the interpersonal theory of love to product or brand
concepts is highly contested in the extant literature. Hence, researchers have explored this concept further
and added many dimensions to it.

Ahuvia (2005) submitted that brand love could be observed in situations where the desire for the product
crosses a certain threshold. Albert et al. (2008) suggested that brand love enhances when consumers
identify congruity between self-image and product-image. However, it is important to note that the
definition of brand love given by Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) brings out passion and emotional attachment
as the two distinct components of brand love. Passion is exhibiting a strong desire for a brand and is a
reflection of high arousal emotions (Batra et al., 2012). Emotional attachment is explained as the
emotion-laden bond between an individual and an object (Thomson et al., 2005).

Researchers submit that brand love is the result of a process and not an immediate consequence (Albert
et al., 2008; Huber et al., 2015; Langner et al., 2015). Hence identifying the antecedents of brand love is
crucial. A positive brand attitude, positive experiences, and a feeling of psychological proximity to the
brand are significant factors influencing the development of brand love (Joji & Ashwin, 2012). Other
researchers have identified brand trust, self-expressiveness, and brand's hedonic value as important
antecedents of brand love (Batra et al., 2012; Albert and Merunka, 2013; Drennan et al., 2015; Huber et
al., 2015).

Even though brand love is accepted as an important concept to study brand-consumer relationships,
research on its antecedents and resulting variables is limited (Albert and Merunka, 2013; Fetscherin,
2014). Brand love is an important variable to study as it indicates a stronger form of consumer-brand
relationship, compared to positive brand attitude, and satisfaction (Thomson et al., 2005; Karjaluoto,
Munnukka, & Kiuru, 2016). The literature described brand love to be an overarching variable which also
inculcates attachment as one of its element (Loureiro et al., 2012; Batra et al., 2012; Kaufmann et al.,
2016). In modern-day marketing, brand love has emerged as a central outcome leading to the formation
of a sustainable consumer-brand relationship (Kohli et al., 2014).

In this paper, the researcher intends to study if the corporate image of the sponsor of non-cricketing sports
leagues is a significant antecedent to brand love. It is notable that few papers have attempted to
investigate the effect of the sponsor’s image on brand love.

2.2 Corporate Image of the Sponsor (CIS)

The concept of the corporate image was introduced in the 1950s. Boulding (1956) explained the
corporate image as an organizational variable reflecting "functional" and "emotional "dimensions. Going
forward, Johnson and Zinkhan (1990) defined the corporate image as "the impressions of a particular
company held by some segment of the public." Keller (1993) posited that corporate image is the
stakeholders' perception of the company. Marteson (2007) explained the corporate image as “a valuable,
tangible entity which is hard to imitate, and it can help to obtain superior sustainable financial
performance." More recently, Tran, Nguyen, Melewar, and Bodoh (2015) described the corporate image
as "the tangible and intangible associations interlinked with the notion of reputation." It is the sum of
feelings, ideas, beliefs, knowledge, impressions, and values toward a corporation.

Javalgi et al. (1994) suggested that enhancing the corporate image is a focal objective for corporate
sponsors. Creating a corporate image involves improvising the customer experience offered by an
organization leading to the formation of mental imagery about the company (Aydin & Ozer, 2005).
However, most of the earlier researchers in this area have observed consumers' attitudes towards sponsors
to measure corporate image (Sandler & Shane, 1993; Nicholls et al., 1994; Turco, 1995). Johnson and
Zinkhan (1990) argued that it is important to measure the qualitative characteristics of a company's
personality to observe its corporate image. As such, Ene and Özkaya (2014) highlighted four dimensions
of corporate image, which included corporate service image, corporate product image, corporate
credibility image, and corporate nationality image.

Pope and Voges (2000) reported a significant positive relationship between a sponsor's image and the
resultant purchase intentions. In a recent study, Koronios et al. (2016) tested the impact of a sponsor's
image on the purchase intention of the sponsor's products. The results established the significant role
played by the sponsor's image on purchase intentions. It is observed that multiple researchers have tested
the role of the sponsor's image on the conative factors like purchase intentions. However, there is a lack
of research which has focused on observing the effect of a sponsor's corporate image on strong affective
variables like brand love in the sports marketing domain.

Ismail and Spinelli (2012) focused on fashion brands and studied the influence of brand image on brand
love. The results established a positive influence of the former on the latter. Islam and Rahman (2016)
again focused on fashion brands and reaffirmed the influence of brand image on brand love. The above
results helped infer that brand image has a significant influence on brand love.

However, few researchers in the area of sports marketing have attempted to observe the effect of the
corporate image on brand love, an important variable, indicating high strength of the consumer-brand
relationship, making the researcher curious to test the relationship in a non-cricketing sports sponsorship
context. Further, the extant literature on corporate image is limited from the perspective of its impact in
emerging markets (Heinberg et al., 2018). As strategists aim to build a favorable corporate image in
emerging markets, it is imperative for them to know its effect from multiple dimensions. One such
dimension is the consumer-brand relationship.

On these lines, the researcher intends to observe the impact of the corporate image of the sponsor on
brand love leading to the formation of the following hypothesis:

H1: Corporate image of the sponsor is positively associated with brand love

2.3 Sports Involvement (SINV)

One of the many definitions of involvement is “a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on
inherent needs, values and interests” (Zaichkowsky, 1985). There is little consensus on the definition of
the term “involvement” (Andrews, Durvasula, and Akhter, 1990). However, researchers have agreed that
involvement is best studied when it is associated with a particular domain like product involvement,
advertising message involvement, or involvement with a specific sport, as in this case (Andrews et al.,
1990). Sports involvement can be explained as “an unobservable state of motivation, arousal, or interest”
in viewing a game or participating in a sport-related activity that results in “searching, information-
processing and decision-making” (Laurent & Kapferer, 1985). Such involvement has the potential to
motivate the desired consumer action (Laurent & Kapferer, 1985). Shank and Beasley (1998) established
that involvement is a significant factor influencing behavioral factors like game attendance and
commitment. Grohs and Reisinger (2005) studied if the consumer’s involvement in the sponsored activity
increased interest in the sponsor. Their results reported a significant relationship between the consumer’s
level of involvement and interest in sponsors.
People who follow or get involved with a particular sport, teams playing that sport, and players gradually
may end up becoming a fan. A fan can be defined as "individuals who show interest and follow a sport,
team, and/or athlete." Sports spectators are those individuals who actively witness a sporting event in
person or through some form of media like radio or television” (Wann et al., 1990). Fan identification
with a sport’s team induces the feeling of personal commitment, perceived connectedness, and emotional
involvement of a spectator who then starts being affected by the team’s performance (Mael & Ashforth,
1992; Madrigal & Chen, 2008). Sports fans emphasize reading, watching, and listening to more sports-
related programs as compared to non-sports consumers (Beatty & Smith, 1987; Burnett, Menon & Smart,
1993). Marketers look at capturing a part of this valuable relation by sponsoring a popular sport. The
current pool of research has established a significant relationship between sports involvement and the
effectiveness of sports sponsorship (McDaniel, 1999; Lardinoit & Derbaix, 2001; Meenaghan, 2001).
Pham (1992) established that consumers who were highly involved with the sport developed a positive
image and high recall of the sponsors. Sponsoring sports events helped brands develop awareness among
the fan base enjoyed by the sport (Cornwell et al., 2000).

Chih et al. (2012) established that international firms looking forward to setting up a market in Asian
countries could do so by sponsoring western teams that enjoy the local fan following. This result indicates
that high sports involvement of the consumer leads to significant benefits to the sponsor. Jensen (2012)
submitted that televised brand exposure is one of the primary benefits of sponsorship. The televised
exposure helps the brand reach out to a new audience beyond traditional geographical limits (Ratten and
Ratten, 2011). In recent times grabbing consumer's attention through traditional advertising is tough,
owing to their tendency to avoid commercials (Carlson, 2006). Fulgoni and Lipsman (2014) added that
it is crucial to catch the consumer's attention during live-action, owing to the proliferation of other devices
like tablets and mobile devices in one’s life. Thus the role of sponsorships assumes greater importance
in today’s multi-screen world.

From the above literature, we can observe that the researchers have reported a positive and significant
influence of sports involvement on various sponsorship-related variables like brand awareness, sponsor’s
image, and sponsorship effectiveness, to name a few. However, it would be interesting to observe if
sports involvement can influence brand love.

Pham (1992) posited that the level of an individual’s involvement with a sporting event determines the
benefits to the sponsor. The study further gave that an involved individual will pay attention to the other
stimuli associated with the game like a sponsor's message. While sports involvement is established as an
antecedent to multiple consequences such as purchase intentions for sponsor's products/services, game
attendance, and awareness about the sponsor, Koo and Lee (2019) suggested that there is a lack of
research focused on studying the moderating role of sports involvement in the sports marketing literature.
The study also stated that observing the moderating role of sports involvement is important as it may
alter the effect of stimuli on the sponsor's benefits.

Hence, in this study, the researcher intends to test the moderating effect of sports involvement between
the independent variable – corporate image and the dependent variable – brand love, leading to the
following hypothesis:
H2: Sports involvement increases the strength of the positive relationship between corporate image and
brand love

2.4 Purchase Intentions (PI)

Measuring the returns on sponsorship investments remain a challenging task for most marketers
(Crompton, 2004; Jensen and Cobbs, 2014). In this study, the researcher intended to observe if the brand
love converted into purchase intentions for the sponsors’ product.

The theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) established behavioral intentions as an important
antecedent to actual behaviour. Behavioral intentions are measured to observe the actual acceptance of a
product or service in the market (Mackenzie & Lutz, 1989). Purchase intention was explained as the
consumers’ judgment if they will endeavor to purchase an advertised brand in the near future (MacKenzie
& Lutz, 1989). Research done in multiple industries established the role of intentions as an antecedent to
the actual behaviour (Bassili, 1995; Kendzierski & Whitaker, 1997; Sheeran & Orbell, 1998). The
relation between sports event sponsorship and purchase intentions have been established by earlier
researchers in the area (Pitts, 1998; Madrigal, 2000). Howard and Crompton (1995) established purchase
intentions as the most useful indicators of the impact of the sponsorship. Recent research has confirmed
that brand love has a positive and significant effect on purchase intentions (Pawle & Cooper, 2006;
Fetscherin, 2014; Kudeshia et al., 2016).

However, extant research has a limited focus on studying this relationship from an emerging sports
market perspective. Hence, in this study, the researcher intended to observe the impact of brand love on
purchase intentions of the sponsors' product, leading to the formation of the following hypothesis:

H3: Brand love is positively associated with purchase intentions

Further, brand love is a relatively new marketing construct, but of great importance to marketers owing
to its ability to form a stronger consumer-brand relationship. Hence it is imperative to improvise the
understanding of this variable.

Koronios et al. (2016) established a significant positive relationship between corporate image and
purchase intentions. Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) posited brand love as an antecedent to purchase
intentions. However, extant literature has not considered the mediating role of brand love between
corporate image and purchase intentions. Moreover, Roy et al. (2012) suggested that it is important for
researchers to study the antecedents and consequences of brand love from different contexts in order to
identify factors leading to an emotional consumer-brand relationship. Hence in this study, the researcher
intended to observe if brand love mediated the relationship between corporate image and purchase
intentions from a sports marketing perspective, leading to the formation of the following hypothesis:

H4: Brand love mediates the relationship between corporate image and purchase intentions

As stated above, literature posits that brand love may exhibit a significant effect on purchase intentions.
However, as there is a significant gap in studying the moderating role of sports involvement, it becomes
interesting to observe if sports involvement moderates the relationship between brand love and purchase
intentions, leading to the formation of the following hypothesis:
H5: Sports involvement increases the strength of the positive relationship between brand love and
purchase intentions

The hypotheses are exhibited in figure 1, as given below:

Figure 1: Author’s Proposed Model

H4

Corporate Image of H1 Brand Love H3 H3Purchase Intentions for

the Sponsor (CIS) (BL) Sponsor’s Products (PI)

H2 H5

Sports Involvement ------ = Indirect Effect (mediation)

(SINV) = Direct Effect

3. Methodology

3.1 Data and Sample

This study focused on sponsors of non-cricketing sports leagues in India. The objective of this research
was to observe the effect of the corporate image of the sponsor on brand love, which further results in
purchase intention for the sponsor's products. The moderating role of sports involvement was also tested.
The mediating role played by brand love between corporate image and purchase intention was also
studied. The descriptive research design was chosen for the study. A structured questionnaire was created
and administered to respondents in the age group of 22-40 years. This age group formed the largest sports
viewing cohort in India (Statista, 2015). The respondents hailed from four metropolitan cities in India
(Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai). This because these metropolitan cities have registered high
viewership for sports league telecasts (Business Standard, 2017).

Using social media platforms, about 800 respondents were invited to participate in an online survey with
a link to the web-based questionnaire using Google Docs. To ensure the eligibility of the respondents,
they were asked three screening questions. The first question tested whether they followed at least one
non-cricket sports league in India, second their age group, and third, their city of residence. This ensured
that the respondents were aware of at least one of the prominent non-cricket sports leagues like the pro-
badminton league, pro-Kabbadi league, Indian super league (football), pro-wrestling league, and hockey
India league. Leading brands like Vodafone (telecom industry), Star TV (media industry), Hero Moto
Corp (automobile industry), Dabur (herbal FMCG industry), and Coal India (coal mining Indian
government organization) were the sponsors of the most recent version of the above leagues respectively.
The respondents were suggested to answer the questions on the basis of their perceptions regarding non-
cricket sports leagues and their sponsors. A total of 638 respondents, who chose to participate in the
survey, were found eligible.

Of these 638 respondents, about 48% of respondents fell in the age group of 22-30 years, and the balance
52% belonged to the 31-40 years age group. Around 27% of the respondents were from Delhi, 29% of
the respondents were from Mumbai, 26 % of the respondents were from Chennai, and 18% of the
respondents were from Kolkata. 52% of the respondents were male, and 48% of the respondents were
female. Further, about 42% of the respondents were single, 56% were married, and 2% were separated.
The household income of around 4% of the respondents was up to INR 5,00,000, 53% of respondents
earned up to INR 10,00,000, and the balance 43% earned above INR 10,00,000. The questionnaire was
administered in English, as all respondents were well conversant with the language. Of the 638 forms,
seven forms were partially filled and hence discarded. The data were analyzed using 631 forms.

3.2 Measures

Existing scales were adapted for designing items to measure each variable. The scale for measuring brand
love was adapted from the study done by Karjaluoto, Munnukka, and Kiuru (2016). The scale for
measuring the corporate image, purchase intentions, and sports involvement were adapted from research
done by Ko, Kim, Claussan, and Kim (2008). Responses to items for CIS, BL, and PI were measured on
a seven-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." Responses to SINV were
measured on a 7-point semantic differential scale. The questionnaire consisted of 22 items. Table 1 enlists
the items used for each variable.

3.3 Data Analysis Tools

Cronbach's alpha was executed to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory
factor analysis (EFA and CFA) were administered to examine scale validity. CFA was conducted using
AMOS. Harman’s single factor test was executed to check for common method bias. The hypotheses H1
and H3 were tested by performing structural equation modeling using AMOS. Hierarchical regression
analysis (HRA) was executed using SPSS to observe the moderating effect of SINV between CIS and
BL, i.e., hypothesis 3. HRA was also used for testing the moderating effect between brand love and
purchase intentions, i.e., H 5. The mediation test was done by employing the bootstrap method (Preacher
& Hayes, 2008), again using SPSS. This helped test H 4.

4. Data Analysis

4.1 Measurement Model

Cronbach’s alpha was executed to test the reliability of the questionnaire. The alpha values obtained were
above 0.70 and hence, acceptable (Nunnally, 1978). KMO and Bartlett's test for sphericity was executed
to observe the need for conducting factor analysis. The resulting KMO value was 0.925, and Bartlett's
test was significant, indicating the need for factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was
executed to observe the validity of the items for each variable. The factor loadings obtained were above
0.60 and hence acceptable (Hair et al., 2006). To check for multicollinearity issues, variance inflation
factors (VIF) values were tested. The VIF values were below the suggested level of 5 (Hair et al., 1998),
indicating the absence of multicollinearity issues (CIS =1.923, BL=1.200, and SINV=1.823).

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the measurement properties of all the variables.
CFA was executed using maximum likelihood estimation. The model exhibited an acceptable fit. The
model fit indices tested were CMIN/DF, GFI, AGFI, CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR. The values obtained
were 2.135, 0.901, 0.872, 0.908, 0.896, 0.08 and 0.07 respectively indicating an acceptable fit (Hair et.al,
1998). Four items were removed from further analysis owing to factor loadings lower than 0.7.
Composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) were calculated to establish internal
consistency. The values obtained for post-CFA Cronbach’s alpha, factor loadings, CR, and AVE are
exhibited in Table 1. To achieve satisfactory discriminant validity, the square root of the AVE for each
variable should be greater than the correlation between that and other variables (Bhattacherjee &
Premkumar, 2004). The results obtained are as exhibited in Table 2.

4. 2 Common Method Bias

As the research instrument used to collect the data was only a questionnaire, it becomes necessary to
confirm the absence of common method bias error. Harman’s single factor test was conducted for the
same. EFA was performed without any rotation, and all items were loaded on an only factor. The results
showed that a single factor accounted for 31% of the variance, indicating the absence of error due to the
common method (Hair et al., 1998).

4.3 Structural Model Measurement

The proposed hypotheses H1 and H3 were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The model
exhibited an acceptable fit. The model fit indices tested were CMIN/DF, GFI, AGFI, CFI, TLI, RMSEA,
and SRMR. The values obtained were 1.628, 0.917, 0.891, 0.915, 0.904, 0.07, and 0.06 indicating an
acceptable fit (Hair et al., 1998). The results of the regression analysis are as exhibited in Table 3.
Corporate image of the sponsor (CIS) exhibited a significant influence on brand love (BL) (p = 0.001, β
= 0.663). BL exhibited a significant influence on purchase intentions (PI) (p = 0.000, β = 0.941).

4.4 Hierarchical Regression Analysis (HRA) – Moderation Test

The researcher intended to observe the moderating role of sports involvement between CIS and BL. A
hierarchical regression analysis was conducted for the same. HRA is a preferable method for testing
interaction effects, especially in the case of non-categorical data (Raudenbush & Bryk 2001; Chen, 2016;
Sabah, 2017). Holmbeck (2002) suggested that moderation analysis indicates if the interaction between
the moderating and independent variable is a significant predictor of the dependent variable. The
moderated regression technique proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) and Sharma et al. (1981) was
executed.

A three-step hierarchical regression was conducted. In the first step, the effect of CIS was observed on
BL. In the next step, sports involvement (SINV) was added to the model, and its effect on BL was
observed. In the last step, an interaction term obtained by multiplying CIS with SINV was also entered
into the model. Thus the effect of this interaction item on BL was tested. To negate the issue of
multicollinearity resulting from correlation, these variables have their data mean-centered (Aiken &
West, 1991). Regression results obtained in Table 4, establish the moderating role of SINV between CIS
and BL. As exhibited in Table 4, section-1, the increasing value of R-squared from model-1 to model-3
indicates the moderating effect. The increase is also statistically significant, indicating the moderating
effect (Aiken & West, 1991). Figure-2 exhibits that increased sports involvement strengthens the
relationship between the corporate image of the sponsor and brand love.

On the same lines, the moderating role of SINV between BL and PI was tested. As can be seen in Table
4, the moderator item (created by multiplying the standardized values of BL and SINV) exhibits a
significant effect on the PI. Also, as exhibited in Table 4, section 2, the R-squared value also increases
between model-1 and model-3, indicating the moderating role of SINV. The increase is also statistically
significant, indicating the moderating effect (Aiken & West, 1991).Figure-3 exhibits that increased sports
involvement strengthens the relationship between brand love and purchase intentions.

Figure 2: The Moderating Role of Sports Involvement (SINV) between Corporate Image and Brand Love

5
4.5
4
Brand Love

3.5
Low
3 SINV
2.5 High
SINV
2
1.5
1
Corporate Image
Figure 3: The Moderating Role of Sports Involvement (SINV) between Brand Love and Purchase
Intentions

4.5

4
Purchase Intention

3.5
Low
3 SINV
2.5 High
SINV
2

1.5

1
Brand Love

4.5 Mediation Analysis

The bootstrap method (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) was executed to confirm the mediating role played by
BL between CIS and PI. This is necessary to negate the presence of type-2 error (Preacher & Hayes,
2008). The test was conducted using model 4 in PROCESS Macro extension installed in SPSS 21.0. The
direct effect of CIS on PI was found to be insignificant (p = 0.067). The bootstrap value contains zero
between the LLCI (Lower Limit Confidence Interval) and ULCI (Upper Limit Confidence Interval)
(LLCI = -.0028 and ULCI = 0.1920). However, the indirect effect of CIS, mediated by BL, was found to
be significant (p = 0.000). Also, the absence of the zero between the LLCI and ULCI confirms the
mediating effect (LLCI = 0.1207 and ULCI = 0. 3286). The test was conducted with a 95 percent
confidence interval and 5,000 bootstrap samples.

5. Findings

This study was conducted from the perspective of non-cricketing sports leagues in India. As exhibited in
Table 3, CIS has a significant impact on BL, thus supporting H1. This finding is similar to the results
obtained by Islam and Rahman (2016), which reported a significant impact of brand image on brand love.
However, this research established the corporate image of the sponsor as a significant determinant of
brand love, making this a unique contribution. As brand love is an affect-laden indicator of consumer-
brand relationship, the result obtained here established the importance of corporate image towards
building an emotional relationship with consumers. Further, as exhibited in Table 3, brand love exhibited
a significant impact on purchase intentions for the sponsor’s products, supporting H2. This result is
similar to the findings of Fetscherin (2014), and Kudeshia et al. (2016). The results suggest that once
consumers develop an affective relationship with the sponsor’s brand, they may form purchase intentions
for that brand.

However, as can be seen in Table 4, consumers’ sports involvement (SINV) moderates the relation
between CIS and BL. Extant literature on sports involvement has focused on observing it as an antecedent
to various consumer actions (Pham, 1992; Ko et al., 2008). This research examines and establishes the
moderating role of sports involvement between CIS and BL, thus supporting H3. The increased R-
squared value and beta value of model-3 compared to model-1 in Table 4, section-1, helps establish that
sports involvement positively strengthens the influence of CIS on BL. The moderating effect of SINV
between brand love and purchase intention was also tested. The increased R-squared value and beta value
of model-3 compared to model-1 in Table 4, section-2 helps establish SINV as a moderator between BL
and PI, helping the author accept H5. The results in Table 4 validate the hypothesis that sports
involvement positively strengthens the relation between BL and PI.

The mediating role of BL between CIS and PI was also established, leading to acceptance of H4. This
result differs from the finding of Koronios et al. (2016) where the corporate image had a significant direct
influence on purchase intentions. In the current study, CIS did not have a direct influence on the PI. BL
mediated this relationship. Hence it can be inferred that a strong corporate image of the sponsor does not
always lead to purchase intentions for the sponsor’s products. Only if the consumer forms an affective
relationship with the sponsor, they endeavor to purchase the sponsor’s products. It is notable that the
consumer's level of involvement moderates the impact of CIS on BL. Hence sponsors should identify the
sports leagues, which are followed by their target audience to ensure the formation of a strong consumer-
brand relationship and further purchase intentions.

6. Contribution to Literature

Extant literature has stated that brand love is an evolving but important determinant of consumer-brand
relationships, and hence there is a need to identify its antecedents. Literature also posits that brand love
is a stronger determinant of the consumer-brand relationship as compared to brand attitude and
preference. However, the extant research in the area of sports sponsorships has focused on observing the
effect of the sponsor's image on affective variables like brand attitude and preference.

First, this study contributes to the literature by establishing the corporate image of the sponsor as an
antecedent to brand love. Few researchers have attempted to observe the effect of corporate image on
brand love, especially from the emerging markets perspective, making this a unique contribution to the
literature of sports marketing. The results empirically validate that the corporate image of the sponsor
(CIS) has a significant impact on brand love (BL). Moreover, it is important to note that the research
focuses on sponsorship of non-cricketing sports leagues in a crazy cricket country like India. Hence, the
fact that a strong consumer-brand relationship can be cultivated by sponsoring non-cricketing sports in
India is a significant contribution from the study.

Second, this study establishes brand love as a mediator between CIS and PI. The results obtained here
suggest that only a sound corporate image is not sufficient for a consumer to form purchase intentions.
A well-cultivated and maintained corporate image leads to the formation of an affective consumer-brand
relationship (here brand love), which further leads to purchase intentions (conative effect). This finding
furthers the understanding of the role of brand love in the context of sports marketing.

Third, this research observes the role of sports involvement (SINV) as a moderator between CIS and BL
and also between BL and PI. Few researchers have tested the moderating role played by sports
involvement, making this a unique contribution. This paper empirically establishes SINV as a moderator
between CIS and BL. Further, SINV also moderates the relationship between BL and PI. Hence sports
involvement strengthens the effect of corporate image in forming consumer-brand relations. Further,
sports involvement also strengthens the effect of consumer’s brand love on their purchase intentions
(conative effect), hence establishing sports involvement as a moderator in the context of the proposed
model.

7. Implications for Practice

A highly competitive Indian market makes it difficult for businesses to establish a strong relationship
with their consumers. Marketers in India have been spending a significant amount of money on
sponsoring cricket tournaments as they see a strong possibility of entering into their consumers' minds
and heart by sponsoring a popular sport. However, as non-cricketing sports start gaining acceptance in
India, it becomes important for marketers to know if sponsoring these tournaments will help them form
a strong affective consumer-brand relationship.

There is limited research focused on the impact of corporate image on consumer-brand relations from an
emerging market perspective. Hence, marketers are unsure about the outcomes of investments in building
corporate image. This study unravels the importance of building a corporate image by exhibiting its
significant positive association with brand love. Consumers in emerging markets form an emotional
connect with brands signaling a strong corporate image. This is an important takeaway for marketers, as
modern marketing literature has indicated a significant positive correlation between consumers’
emotional connection with the brand and its success.

The results obtained in this study establish that the sponsor's image has a significant effect on brand love,
which increases as the consumers' involvement with the sporting event grows. This study also establishes
sports involvement as a moderator between brand love and purchase intentions. Hence it is evident that
corporates sponsoring non-cricket sports leagues should invest in increasing consumers' involvement
with the sport. Going by television viewership reports, millennials (individuals born after 1980) form the
largest cohort following these leagues (BARC report, 2017). As established in the extant literature,
millennials are easy to access through digital channels. Hence sponsorer should develop presence over
popular social media channels like Facebook in an endeavor to develop a large follower base. Other
popular tactics like online competitions focused on the sports league, developing team fandom, and
online league communities can be considered to increase involvement. Such attempts may lead to a faster
return on investment from league sponsorship, which is an important metric for marketers.

As involvement strengthens the relationship between CIS and BL, corporate can choose to sponsor events
that are followed by their target audience. As explained in the introduction section, sports league
viewership in India exhibits a fragmented pattern region-wise (BARC Report, 2017). This means that
people belonging to different regions follow a certain league. In this case, post measuring the viewers’
involvement using the BARC data, marketers can choose to sponsor only those leagues wherein they
find their target audience. Additionally, this region-wise audience involvement paves the way for
regional brands to invest in sports sponsorship. Regional brands, which have marketing interests into
limited geography, can observe these viewership trends and choose to sponsor sports league followed by
the audience in markets of their interest, thereby channelizing their resources more appropriately.

8. Limitations and Scope for Future Research

Sports has a nationwide appeal across India. However, this research was able to collect consumer
perception data from the four metropolitan cities in India only. While these four metro cities are a
reflection of the diversity of Indian culture, they may not be the exact reflection of the rural and semi-
urban consumer perceptions. The data collected for this research was cross-sectional. Consistency of
consumer perceptions about sponsors of non-cricketing sports leagues can be ascertained if data is
collected at different time periods. In a country like India, which is the world's second-largest population
base, increased sample size can lead to better generalization of the findings.

As non-cricketing sports sponsorships grow in India, future studies can focus on other important
constructs like sponsor sincerity, sponsor-event fit, celebrity endorsements for leagues, and effect of
league promotion on social media platforms, all of which could make for an interesting addition to the
pool of literature on sports marketing. At a broad level, it is important to note that more research is needed
to explore the effectiveness of non-cricketing sports sponsorships, especially from the perspective of an
emerging sports market like India.

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Appendix

Table 1: Post CFA Cronbach’s alpha values, Factor loadings, Average Variance Extracted (AVE)
and Composite Reliability (CR)

Factors Alpha Factor AVE CR

Value Loading
Corporate Image of the Sponsor (CIS) 0.923 0.710 0.924
XYZ has good products/ services 0.879
XYZ are well managed 0.882
XYZ are involved in the community 0.805
XYZ respond to consumer needs 0.808
XYZ are a good company to work for 0.835
Sports Involvement (SInv) 0.882 0.568 0.887
Non-cricket sports leagues are Boring / 0.741
Exciting
Worthless / Valuable 0.715
Not needed /needed 0.756
Irrelevant / Relevant 0.718
Unimportant / Important 0.792
Unappealing / Appealing 0.796
Brand Love (BL) 0.847 0.557 0.863
I am very passionate about XYZ 0.725
I am very attached to XYZ 0.758
XYZ is an awesome brand 0.710
I love XYZ 0.760
XYZ is a pure delight 0.778
Purchase Intentions (PI) 0.724 0.615 0.761
I seek out the products/ services of XYZ 0.815
I am willing to buy the products/ services of 0.752
XYZ

Table 2: Discriminant Validity

CIS BL SINV PI
CIS 0.842
BL 0.668 0.753
SINV 0.706 0.640 0.746
PI 0.487 0.567 0.709 0.784
(Note: CIS = Corporate Image of the Sponsor, BL = Brand Love, SINV = Sports Involvement, and PI =
Purchase Intentions)
 Table 3: Analysis of Relationship between CIS, BL, and PI

Beta
IV DV Value p Value R2
CIS BL 0.668 *** 0.447
BL PI 0.941 0.001 0.512
(Note: IV = Independent Variable, DV = Dependent Variable, CIS = Corporate Image of the Sponsor,
BL = Brand Love, SINV = Sports Involvement, and PI = Purchase Intentions)

Table 4: The Moderation Analysis of Sports Involvement

Beta
p-Value R2 Adjusted
Value
Models IV DV R2
Section- SINV moderating role between CIS
1 and BL
Model 1 CIS BL 0.668 0.000 0.446 0.445
Model 2 SINV BL 0.540 0.000 0.548 0.546
Model 3 Moderator (CIS*SINV) BL 0.689 0.000 0.591 0.589
Section- SINV moderating role between BL
2 and PI
Model 1 BL PI 0.939 0.000 0.502 0.501
Model 2 SINV PI 0.790 0.000 0.506 0.504
Model 3 Moderator (BL*SINV) PI 0.944 0.000 0.586 0.584
IV= Independent Variable, DV= Dependent Variable (Note: CIS = Corporate Image of the Sponsor, BL
= Brand Love, SINV = Sports Involvement, and PI = Purchase Intentions)

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