شناسایی و سطح بندی عوامل موثر بر جذب و نگهداری حامیان مالی در ورزش کشور با رویکرد ساختاری تفسیری (ISM)

Introduction
Since the 1970s, sport has played an increasing role in the globalization of business and public events, with sports participants, capital, and labor present worldwide. With global sports events such as the FIFA World Cup or the Olympic Games attracting audiences worldwide, sports events have become highly sought-after commodities. Given that sport has evolved into a global industry with diverse production, service, commercial, and tourism dimensions, its administration requires significant costs. Therefore, financing in sports is a primary concern for sports officials. Methods for funding sports include providing sports services, selling players, selling tickets and sports products, and offering ancillary services, which are suitable ways to provide resources and expenses in many clubs and sports organizations. Alongside these methods, financial support and sponsors are essential solutions for providing resources for the sports sector’s expenses. Sports event sponsorship is an exchange between a sponsor and an event organization, in which the event organization receives cash or non-cash costs and the sponsor gains access to the commercial potential associated with the event, in return for short-term or long-term benefits. Given the increasing investment of sponsors in sports and the declining efficiency of traditional advertising methods, the trend of sponsors entering the sports sector has been growing worldwide. Considering the economic challenges and the importance of sponsorship, this study aimed to identify and categorize the factors affecting the attraction and retention of financial sponsors in the country’s sports industry.
Methods
The present study was applied research in terms of purpose, and was mixed in terms of data collection and exploratory in terms of data analysis method. The statistical population of the study included scientific and experimental experts in the field of marketing and financial support in sports who had operational and research experience in attracting financial sponsors in sports. The statistical sample in the qualitative section was determined to be 23 people using the snowball method, which led to information saturation. Data collection tools were library studies, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and the Delphi questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using interview thematic analysis and ISM interpretive structural analysis. In this research, the validity of the ISM questionnaire has been obtained through content validity. To determine the content validity of the questionnaire, the opinions of 10 experts, managers of federations and clubs, and university professors in sports management were used, and the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed. Also, according to Creswell (2003), detailed and accurate note-taking and anonymous coding with the help of coding that was not part of the research team were used to ensure the reliability of the research.
Results
Interpretive structural findings in 52 effective indicators showed that the factors affecting the attraction of sponsors were classified into 7 levels and the factors affecting the retention of sponsors were classified into 2 levels. Based on the findings, marketing factors have the highest priority compared to other dimensions and act as the cornerstone of the model to provide the basis for the emergence and realization of other factors at higher levels of the model. The results showed that marketing factors are at the lowest level (most influential), which is the driving factor for the emergence and realization of subsequent factors. Consistent with this finding, the results of studies by Naseh et al. (2020), Rahbari et al. (2019), Mirzaei et al. (2017), Hemmati Nejad et al. (2016), Rashidlamir et al. (2017), and Takamatsu (2022) have emphasized marketing factors as an important factor in attracting financial support in the sports sector.
Conclusion
It is suggested to the officials of the federations and sports clubs to not only pay attention to other identified factors in attracting financial sponsors, but also pay more attention to marketing and structural factors. It is also suggested that paying the most attention to the financial and corporate benefits of sponsors for retention of sports sponsors. According to the findings, all promotional tools used by marketers of federations and clubs should be consistent with the needs and desires of financial sponsors. Determining and providing the goals of sponsors by federations or clubs enables the supporting company to undertake sponsorship and also be willing to re-enter this field. Finally, it can be concluded that when sports federations and clubs provide measurable or specific financial support benefits for companies, sponsors are in a better position to formulate goals in more precise conditions and pursue opportunities that have financial value.