Identification of Factors Affecting the Attraction of Sponsors in Championship Sport (Case Study: North Khorasan Province)

Today sport sponsorship is an effective marketing tool for businesses, which is considered as a revenue-generating method for the sport industry. The aim of the current study was to identify those factors affecting the attraction of sponsors in championship sport in north Khorasan province. The method was exploratory mixed. In the first phase, 30 sport experts in the province underwent deep interviews by purposive and snowball method. Qualitative data theme was analyzed and 100 different codes were generated in 15 sub-themes and 3 main themes. For the quantitative phase, a questionnaire with 100 items was designed and validated by 7 sport experts in the province. In the quantitative phase, the statistical population consisted of all members of sporting boards, clubs, sponsor companies, athletes and professional coaches, sport management professors and heads of Sport and Youth offices of cities (N=143) who were selected as the sample by census sampling method. First order and second order of confirmatory factor analysis of data obtained from the questionnaire showed that the fit indices of the model of the factors affecting the attraction of sponsors had a high potential, and 65 items out of 100 primary items were confirmed according to the results. Three factors affecting the attraction of sport sponsors were prioritized as follows: internal factors (management, financial resources, human resources, marketing system, information system, supportive production or operation and research and development), micro external factors (customers, media, potential competitors and indirect competitors) and macro external factors (political, economic, social and technological).