The Influence of Sports Sponsorship on the Economy of National Sports Industry

Abstract

Relevance. Economic sports market impact analysis of the national economy is significant in the context of each country (Cingienė, Laskienė 2013). Sports market develops and sells a variety of products (goods and services) contributing to the country's gross domestic product increasing value (Laurinavicius, Cingienė, 2011). It is noted that the support of the sponsors (Official Statistics Portal, 2014) is one of the largest sources of funds in the country, thus becoming an important contribution to the sport sector and the country’s economy. Sports economy is still a relatively new thing, and the scientific studies of the importance of constituents, as sport sponsorship, have not been conducted yet in Lithuania nor internationally. This raises the scientific question: what is the contribution of provided sport sponsorship, as an influence for the benefit to the economy of the country's sports industry. The aim was to investigate the influence of sport sponsorship for the Lithuanian sports industry economy. The goals: 1) to discuss the importance of sport sponsorship in the integration of sports industry; 2) to identify the factors and the mutual relationship between sports sponsorship and economic impact indicators, in addition to the importance of disclosure of achievements (medals). Methods: quantitative research, carried out in the following phases: empiric data collection, statistical processing data methods, analysis of the results. Data processing and statistical methods: comparison of data (horizontal and vertical analysis), selected indicators for graphic portrayal, correlation analysis. The study rationale. We distinguished 6 main indicators of economic benefits of sport sponsorship assessment: income from commercial activities, the number of sports facilities, the number of employees in the sports sector, the overall medal count in the year, the medals’ count (World and European Championships) of the year, the number of sporting events that are a part of the sports industry economic assessment indicators as income, employability, added value. Results and discussion. Sponsorship has grown each year, but there was a marked gap between 2009 and 2010, the amount of sponsorship received. In 2010, sport was given almost three times more than in 2009. The estimation of a basic change shows that support has increased by more than 18 million euros. Revenues from sports activities also evolved significantly, increased nearly six-fold compared with 2009. Sports facilities increased by 417. The number of employees in the sports sector in comparison with 2009 increased by 546 employees. The correlation matrix approach results reflect the importance of other indicators related to the sponsorship received from sponsors. The applied correlation method yields the results that show if there is a statistical relationship and what its strength is. Sponsorship received from sponsors and revenue from commercial activities had very strong statistical relationship (0.9978). The number of employees in the sports sector and received sport sponsorship show more than average statistical relation (0.5306). The number of organized sporting events also have a strong statistical connection with the sponsorship received from sponsors (0.7144), as well as won medals count (-0.7081) demonstrate the importance of sports sponsorship and the impact on the development of the soft power of the country. Conclusions. The analysis of basic changes revealed that all investigated indicators grew. Correlation analysis revealed that the sponsorship received from sponsors indicated its strong contribution to the development of the sports sector and the improvement of economic indicators in the country. These scientific studies of these indicators are defined as estimates to determine the economic benefits generated by sport.

Keywords: sports sponsorship, sports industry economics, employability, income, commercial activities.