The long reach of sponsorship: How fan isolation and identification jointly shape sponsorship performance

© American Marketing Association 2018. Globalization and technology have expanded the reach of sports teams, giving brand sponsors new opportunities to engage and build relationships in real time with fans outside a team’s home market. This research investigates the role of fan isolation, or the experience of feeling separated from the team community, in shaping sponsorship effectiveness. The authors posit that such isolation increases the desire to affiliate with the team community, which can increase preferences for team-linked brands. However, the effect of isolation on sponsor performance depends on the strength of fan identification. Isolation increases strong fans’ desire to affiliate with the team community, thereby enhancing sponsorship performance; by contrast, isolation causes weak fans to avoid team-linked brands. Two field studies and four quasi experiments conducted across three countries (N = 1,412) confirm these predictions. Isolated strong fans exhibit increased recall, attitudes, purchase intentions, and word of mouth for sponsors, while isolated weak fans display the opposite effects. For brand managers, the proposed framework reveals whether isolated fans provide the best or worst returns on their sponsorships

A Relative Clause Whose Antecedent Is Determined by the Indefinite Article: Observations on determination, qualification and stabilization of occurrences

The purpose of this paper is to observe the properties of undetached relative clauses qualifying nouns determined with the indefinite article A in the framework of the theory of enunciative operations. In this framework, determination is seen as a process through which indeterminacy is eliminated and occurrences are stabilised. We have observed the interaction of indefinite determination with the qualification expressed in the relative clause to sort out when the relative clause gives the conditions for determination in A and when its role is to qualify an occurrence whose conditions of existence are to be found elsewhere in the utterance. This contributes to explaining why undetached relative clauses with an indefinite antecedent are problematic vis-à-vis the classical distinction between determinative and appositive relative clauses.Le but de cet article est d'observer les propriétés des propositions relatives non détachées dont l'antécédent est déterminé par l'article indéfini A dans le cadre de la théorie des opérations énonciatives. Dans ce cadre, la détermination est envisagée comme un processus d'élimination d'indétermination et de stabilisation des occurrences. Nous avons observé l'interaction de la détermination indéfinie et de la qualification exprimée dans la proposition relative afin de dégager les cas dans lesquels la proposition relative véhicule les conditions de la détermination en A de ceux dans lesquels elle qualifie une occurrence dont les conditions d'existence sont posées ailleurs dans l'énoncé. Ceci nous a permis de montrer en quoi les propositions relatives non détachées dont l'antécédent est déterminé par A posent problème au regard de la distinction classique entre propositions relatives déterminatives et appositives

Interference effects in competitive sponsorship clutter

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This article examines the effects on consumers’ attitudes of the concurrent exposure of competitive brands sponsoring different properties during an event (i.e., sponsoring an event vs. the athletes participating in this event), thus creating a competitive sponsorship clutter. In contrast with previous research having examined interference effects in advertising, the results of this research reveal that in a sponsorship setting, clutter effects on consumer responses depend on perceived sponsor–sponsee congruence and do not result from deeper information processing. More precisely, it was found that whereas the evaluation of a congruent sponsoring brand is negatively affected by clutter, the impact of clutter on attitude toward an incongruent sponsor is positive. In addition, articulating the sponsorship was shown to decrease the negative effects of clutter. Implications for research and practice are derived from these findings

Determinants of community-based sponsorship impact on self-congruity

Sponsors increasingly shift from large professional to community-based properties, as these can deliver an engaged audience and enable them to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility (CSR). This research comprises two studies and shows that community-based sponsorship may improve CSR image and, in turn, self-congruity, a key determinant of consumer behavior. Study 1 investigates perceived sponsor-club fit, confirming attitude and corporate positioning similarity as relevant predictors. Importantly, CSR image similarity does not impact fit, suggesting sponsorship opportunities for organizations independent of their initial CSR image. Study 2 shows perceived sponsor CSR image to mediate the relationship between the perceptions of a community-based property's CSR image and consumers' self-congruity with the sponsor. While perceived sponsor-club fit and sponsorship awareness moderate the relationship between property and sponsor CSR image, attitudes toward CSR moderate the association between sponsor CSR and self-congruity. The paper concludes with implications and future research directions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Pascale Quester, Carolin Plewa, and Karen Palmer, Marc Mazodie

The color of support: The effect of sponsor–team visual congruence on sponsorship performance

© American Marketing Association 2019. Brand sponsorship connects brands with large, passionate audiences. The sponsorship literature emphasizes the importance of brand sponsor–team congruence; however, prior research has largely focused on the relevance of the brand to the sport or geographic area. This article offers the first real-world empirical investigation of the effects of visual congruence through color matching on sponsorship performance. A wide-scale study of 703 Major League Baseball fans’ evaluations of their team’s sponsors, merged with real stadium signage data, offers evidence of the benefits of visual congruence. Two experiments in the contexts of product packaging and online advertising provide converging evidence of the positive effects of created visual congruence on attitudes toward the sponsorship, brand attitudes, and intentions. Brands without an inherent match to a team can enjoy enhanced sponsorship benefits with little additional costs simply by adopting the team’s colors in visual displays. However, the viewer’s motivation (fan status), opportunity (fan exposure), and ability (lack of color blindness) to process visual congruence moderates its effectiveness. By using the proposed framework, managers can maximize the value of their sponsorship rights

Protection from inflammatory organ damage in a murine model of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis using treatment with IL-18 binding protein

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life threatening condition due to the association of an infectious agent with lymphocyte cytotoxicity defects, either of congenital genetic origin in children or presumably acquired in adults. In HLH patients, an excess of lymphocyte or macrophage cytokines, such as IFN-gamma and TN Fu is present in serum. In animal models of the disease, IFN-gamma and INF-alpha have been shown to play a central pathogenic role. In humans, unusually high concentrations of IL-18, an inducer of IFN-gamma, and INF-alpha have been reported, and are associated with an imbalance between IL-18 and its natural inhibitor IL18 binding protein (IL18BP) resulting in an excess of free IL18 Here we studied whether IL-18B P could reduce disease severity in an animal model of HLH. Mouse cytomegalovirus infection in perforin-1 knock out mice induced a lethal condition similar to human HLH characterized by cytopenia with marked inflammatory lesions in the liver and spleen as well as the presence of hemophagocytosis in bone marrow. IL-18B P treatment decreased hemophagocytosis and reversed liver as well as spleen damage. IL-18BP treatment also reduced both IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha production by CD8+ T and NK cells, as well as Fas ligand expression on NK cell surface. These data suggest that IL-18B P is beneficial in an animal model of HLH and in combination with anti infectious therapy may be a promising strategy to treat HLH patients

Robust tests for heteroskedasticity in the one-way error components model

This paper constructs tests for heteroskedasticity in one-way error components models, in line with Baltagi et al. [Baltagi, B.H., Bresson, G., Pirotte, A., 2006. Joint LM test for homoskedasticity in a one-way error component model. Journal of Econometrics 134, 401–417]. Our tests have two additional robustness properties. First, standard tests for heteroskedasticity in the individual component are shown to be negatively affected by heteroskedasticity in the remainder component. We derive modified tests that are insensitive to heteroskedasticity in the component not being checked, and hence help identify the source of heteroskedasticity. Second, Gaussian-based LM tests are shown to reject too often in the presence of heavy-tailed (e.g. t-Student) distributions. By using a conditional moment framework, we derive distribution-free tests that are robust to non-normalities. Our tests are computationally convenient since they are based on simple artificial regressions after pooled OLS estimation

An Efficient Intergeneric Conjugation of DNA from Escherichia coli to Mycelia of the Lincomycin-Producer Streptomyces lincolnensis

Streptomyces lincolnensis is a producer of lincomycin, which is a lincosamide antibiotic for the treatment of infective diseases caused by Gram-positive bacteria. S. lincolnensis is refractory to introducing plasmid DNA into cells because of resistance of foreign DNAs and poor sporulation. In this study, a simple and efficient method of transferring plasmids into S. lincolnensis through the intergeneric Escherichia coli-mycelia conjugation was established and optimized for the first time. The recipient mycelia of S. lincolnensis were prepared in liquid SM medium containing 10.3% sucrose for three days. The dispersed mycelia were conjugated with competent E. coli donor cells. The exconjugants were regenerated efficiently on solid mannitol soya flour (MS) medium containing 20 mM MgCl2. The average conjugation frequency was observed at 1.1 × 10−4 per input donor cell and validated functionally by transferring two types of vectors containing lincomycin resistance genes lmrA, lmrB and lmrC into S. lincolnensis mycelia. The data of fermentation in shaking flasks showed the lincomycin yield of the exconjugants increased by 52.9% for the multiple copy vector and 38.3% for the integrative one, compared with the parental strain. The efficient and convenient method of intergeneric E. coli-mycelia conjugation in this study provides a promising procedure to introduce plasmid DNA into other refractory streptomycetes

PifC and Osa, Plasmid Weapons against Rival Conjugative Coupling Proteins

Bacteria display a variety of mechanisms to control plasmid conjugation. Among them, fertility inhibition (FI) systems prevent conjugation of co-resident plasmids within donor cells. Analysis of the mechanisms of inhibition between conjugative plasmids could provide new alternatives to fight antibiotic resistance dissemination. In this work, inhibition of conjugation of broad host range IncW plasmids was analyzed in the presence of a set of co-resident plasmids. Strong FI systems against plasmid R388 conjugation were found in IncF/MOBF12 as well as in IncI/MOBP12 plasmids, represented by plasmids F and R64, respectively. In both cases, the responsible gene was pifC, known also to be involved in FI of IncP plasmids and Agrobacterium T-DNA transfer to plant cells. It was also discovered that the R388 gene osa, which affects T-DNA transfer, also prevented conjugation of IncP-1/MOBP11 plasmids represented by plasmids RP4 and R751. Conjugation experiments of different mobilizable plasmids, helped by either FI-susceptible or FI-resistant transfer systems, demonstrated that the conjugative component affected by both PifC and Osa was the type IV conjugative coupling protein. In addition, in silico analysis of FI proteins suggests that they represent recent acquisitions of conjugative plasmids, i.e., are not shared by members of the same plasmid species. This implies that FI are rapidly-moving accessory genes, possibly acting on evolutionary fights between plasmids for the colonization of specific hosts