Although the fit between a sponsor and an object (e.g., event, sponsored organization, and endorser) in sport has been shown to be an important construct in predicting sponsorship effects, little attention has been given to understand the concept of sponsor fit. The purpose of this study was to review the literature on sponsor fit at sporting events. This paper was consisted of four categories: 1) construct of sponsor fit, 2) theoretical development of sponsor fit, 3) measurement and methodology of sponsor fit, and 4) the antecedents and consequences of sponsor fit on consumer behavior. This paper also provides directions for future research that focuses on the development of new concept based on traditional marketing concepts such as personality fit and portfolio fit, as well as the development of integrated model for sponsor fit including moderator variables.

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Although the relationship between a sport team and its fans has been long understood as team identification which is a type of self-team connection, limited attention has been devoted to the idea of communal-team connection (also called fan community identification). This study is one of the first attempts to conceptualize fan community identification and examine its antecedents and consequences. Data were collected from spectators attending professional baseball and soccer games in Japan. The results indicated three points of attachment (sport, player, and local city) were significant precursors of fan community identification. The findings also suggested fan community identification positively influenced team identification. Moreover, the impact of fan community identification on future attendance frequency was stronger for those spectators having a short-term relationship with the team than for those spectators having a long-term relationship. Including fan community identification, the results extended previous research that has focused primarily on team identification.

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