Determinants of Purchase Intention Toward Sponsoring Product: Mediating Role of Sponsor Identification in Korean Professional Baseball Games

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of sponsor identification in the relationship between team identification and purchase intention of a title sponsor's product in the Korea Baseball Organization League (KBO League). Fans of seven teams (N = 691) in the KBO League participated in the study. Results showed that multi-dimensional team attributes such as team attractiveness, team similarity and team awareness, positively affected team identification, and that sponsor identification fully mediated the relationship between team identification and purchase intention. These findings extend previous studies on sponsorship effectiveness and provide empirical support for the relationships between team identification, sponsor identification, and purchase intention.