Volume 7, Issue 1

This article examines the impact of fan identification with a team on attitudes and purchase intentions toward the sponsors' products. To evaluate this relationship, a cause-and-effect model was developed that reflects the triangular relationship between sports team, fan, and sponsor. An empirical investigation was conducted with a German First Bundesliga football club and one of its sponsors in the season 2007/08. The random sample of n = 1.594 was generated using an online questionnaire. The empirical findings reveal that fan identification positively influences the attitude towards the team's sponsor, but has no direct effect on purchase intentions. In turn, the attitude towards the team sponsor correlates very strongly with purchase intentions. The results of this study support the premise that highly identified fans are more likely to exhibit positive attitudes towards sponsors. Thus it becomes clear that fan identity should not be underestimated with regard to the effectiveness of sports sponsorship.

A number of scholars today believe that organizations are able to influence the social integration of new employees through activities promoting socialization, such as physical activity programs. However, neither occupational and organizational psychology nor sports science has empirically examined this potential effect to date. The purpose of this quasi-experimental longitudinal study was therefore to examine the influence of a workplace physical activity program on the social networks and social integration of 64 new employees. The results indicate that the network parameters of the control group did not change over time, whereas the network parameters of the treatment group increased strongly in size, range, and strength. However, a significant interaction (group x time) was only found with regard to range. There was no effect on subjectively perceived social integration.

The incompatibility between top-level competitive sports training and the demands of school poses serious problems for school-aged athletes. This paper first discusses this incompatibility as a problem of inclusion, and then describes possible means of solving the problem by "functionalizing" school structures for athletic training. The focus here is on the structural coupling of elite sports and school structures. Taking the schools for gifted athletes NRW-Sportschulen and Spezialschulen Sport in Brandenburg as examples, we discuss possibilities and limitations of integrating school and sports training structures, and identify barriers to the "functionalization" of those schools.