Sponsorship And Philanthropy:"Icing On The Cake" Or "Timely Help"?

Recently the corporate sponsorship behavior and philanthropy behavior has attracted great attention, especially after the main events happened these years such as the2008Beijing Olympics, the2010Shanghai World Exposition, and the earthquake of Wenchuan and Qinghai. The effect of corporate sponsorship behavior on the consumers is different from the philanthropy behavior. Therefore, the study is to examine the variation of individual’s attitude under the influence of the corporate sponsorship behavior in festive events and philanthropy behavior in disaster. The effect of negative information on individual’s attitude is also researched.At present, corporate sponsoring activities in China focus on the sports event sponsoring and entertainment events sponsoring. As the most prevalent sponsorship, our country’s sports sponsorship developed rapidly recent years. But so far, it is still in the primary stage, and compared to developed countries, the size and the market of ours is smaller than the United States, Germany, and Britain’s sports sponsorship.On the other hand, the corporate philanthropy in China also starts late, and the focus concentrates on the Sunshine Project and Philanthropic Foundation, while its development doesn’t gain enough public attention. Until the big earthquake of Wenchuan in the Sichuan province pushed the corporate philanthropy to the forepart of history, it attracted the attentions from millions people all over the world. Compared to developed countries, the corporate philanthropy in our country is with embarrassment nowadays. There are two main reasons. The first one is that the corporate lack a concept of philanthropy. The second one is the external environment limitations. The former causes the corporate not to realize the positive impact of the corporate philanthropy which will benefit itself in long-term development. The latter indicates a phenomenon that there are drawbacks in our country’s policies and systems, which make the corporate cannot participate in philanthropy initiatively and positively.Generally speaking, compared with developed countries, our country’s corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy are in the primary stage of the development, and need to be further developed and matured. In the theory research, there are several fields with respect to corporate sponsorship, including:basic theory(John&Stavros, Mc Carville,1994;Amie,1997;Author,1997),sponsorship pattern(Jiffe,Ross,1996) sponsorship effect (Crowley,1991;Marshall,1992; Meenaghan,1991;Meerabeau,1991)and sponsorship Benefit assessment (Mcdonald,1991;Meenahghan,1991).For current researches, the researches concerning corporate sponsorship have follow with interest in attitude and brand (Cornwell, Roy,2001;Irwin,Tony,Comwell,2003;Gi-Yong,Jerome,Leisa,2006).On the other hand, the highlights of current researches about corporate philanthropy around the world exist in followed aspects, such as basic theory (Wood, Jonesl995; Carroll,1979;Linowes,1974),philanthropy motivation (David Campbell.et.al,2002; Galaskiewicz,Joseph,1985;Williams R J,Barrett J D.2000), philanthropy influence (Amato,2007;Stephen&Andrew,2005),Corporate philanthropy evaluation methodology (Xuxuesong,2007) and corporate philanthropy’s idea and path (Xinjiansheng.2010). Corporate philanthropy’s current researches are in the primary stage, but rarely refer to researches of attitude, brand and corporate image.In view of the development of our country’s corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy and the research achievements in related research field all over the world, I attempt to draw the Dual Attitudes Model which is the basic theory of Psychology into Marketing Science, Strictly into Consumer behavior, investigate the variation of individual’s attitude in which created by the corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy. The researches around the world are less involved with the comparison between corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, so this domain is new, and also an innovation for this research.The significances of this research comprise two main respects. On one hand, it can perfect the Dual Attitudes Model and also enlarge the application scope of Dual Attitudes Model. On the other hand, it can enrich researches about corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, provide a new research orientation for related researches, and offer instructions for the practices of corporate. This study constructs the model by hackling and summarizing the related theory and researches around the world. The model is tested by our experiments, and the result is very remarkable. The main contents of this study are as follows:First, I abandon the attitude with single-dimensional but choose the Dual Attitudes Model in this study. Dual Attitudes Model includes explicit attitude and implicit attitude which is the basic theory in Psychology. Moreover, Dual Attitudes Model is studied systematically to find out the point which can link Dual Attitudes Model and research object of this study.Secondly, through researching of the theory, based on Dual Attitudes Model, Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR), Corporate Philanthropy Responsibility (CPR), Negative information effect and Temporal framing effect, I structure a theory model about the variation of individual’s attitude under the corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropySubsequently, the model is tested by empirical studies.In the first experiment with A2*2, I introduce corporate sponsorship corporate philanthropy, which are defined as "icing on the cake" and "Timely help". The experiment result indicates that individuals can produce dual attitudes which are explicit attitude and implicit attitude under the environment of corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, and the variation of explicit attitude is bigger than implicit attitude. Meanwhile, I find out another phenomenon that, compared with corporate sponsorship, the variation of individual’s dual attitude in the corporate philanthropy is easier. In the second experiment with A2*2*2, I introduce two new variables which are negative information and time. Given the negative information when individuals facing positive information, I want to observe the extent individuals’dual attitudes can defend and recover from the negative information. At the same time, I want to find out how individuals’dual attitudes forecast individuals’behaviors and decisions. The experiment results are followed. Firstly, both in corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, compared with explicit attitude, individuals’implicit attitude can defend the negative information more easily. Secondly, when suffered negative information, compared with corporate sponsorship, individuals’dual attitudes are more easily to vary in the corporate philanthropy. Thirdly, both in corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, individuals’explicit attitude can predict individuals’behaviors and decisions better in real time, but individuals’implicit attitude can predict delay better.There are many differences between this research and previous researches about attitude in the modeling and empirical studies, and they are also termed as innovation. Specific content are followed.Firstly, research fields cross different disciplines. In this study, Dual Attitudes Model is introduced from Psychology to Marketing Science, and this method makes a bold trial for both Psychology and Marketing Science. The research results can not only enrich the research of Dual Attitudes Model and increase empirical studies material, but also supply a new breakthrough point and orientation for the researches about consumers’attitude.Secondly, the research topic steps forward with Times. In recent years, our country’s international standing is highly promoted in politics, economy, and technology and so on, so our country’s international influence and responsibility are also highly promoted, such as2008Beijing Olympic Games,2010Shanghai World Exposition, an unparalleled feat in the earthquakes of "Wenchuan" and "Yushu". So, when corporate utilize events, especially national events, to marketing, such as corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, they cannot take costs and profits for their only purpose, but they also need to hold the subtle variety of consumer’s attitude to achieve long term development. This is an important goal for this study.Thirdly, videos intervene experiment process and computer controls the process. Compared with traditional experiments, the biggest characteristic of experiments in this study is making use of videos and computer. First, because research target is corporate sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, I employ videos to affect individuals’vision and hearing. Secondly, I choose computer to control the process to distinguish explicit attitude and implicit attitude because of Dual Attitudes Model. In numerous researches about consumer’s attitude, videos and computer are not the favorites in common use, especially computer, so this is an innovation.Fourthly, the dynamic mechanisms of Dual Attitudes Model. Through reviewing the researches about Dual Attitudes Model around the world, current researches’emphases are implicit attitude and the static researches about Dual Attitudes Model, but rarely refer to dynamic research. This study tries to acquire magnitude breakthrough and turns on another orientation for Dual Attitudes Model.