Assessing the risks and opportunities in corporate art sponsorship arrangements using Fiske’s Relational Models Theory

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address a particular tension in arts marketing, that is, the ongoing search for balance between achieving artistic excellence and financial stability, while keeping work accessible and satisfying a range of stakeholders, public and private.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Fiske’s (1992) relational models theory as a framework to categorize different modes of exchange between a sponsor and an arts organization, this paper focusses on the varied nature of interactions between parties.

Findings

Drawing on data from a longitudinal case study, the authors evaluate the many opportunities and risks associated with sponsorship arrangements and to explore how these become manifest and potentially resolved within the relational structure over time. Moreover, the authors examine how an arts marketer can employ particular relational models of exchange to mitigate the risks of another model which is operational within the sponsorship.

Research limitations/implications

The aim of this paper is to consider the variety of exchange ongoing in long-term sponsorship arrangements, and in using Fiske’s RM theory, to identify the risk and opportunities associated with these exchanges. The case study examined here is, of course, idiosyncratic in terms of people, time and place. However, what is general, and what the authors wish to draw attention to, is how managers can employ different models of exchange to mitigate risks arising out of the dominance of any one model in the sponsorship relationship.

Practical implications

For executives involved in the management of sponsorship relationships, a rich understanding of their risks and opportunities is important. For example, rather than assuming that market-based considerations or social bonds to be either wholly positive or negative, in this paper the authors have demonstrated that each can have an important role in the dynamic of sponsorship relationships. Therefore, for example, while strong social bonds will mitigate the risks of market-based mechanisms, the risks of social bonds themselves can be balanced through appropriate intermittent recourse to market-based mechanisms. In any specific sponsorship arrangement it will become a matter of balance, and a development of understanding of the role of market, hierarchical, reciprocal and communal dimensions associated with long-term relationships.

Originality/value

In this regard, the authors offer six propositions, which capture the mitigation and enhancement of risks and opportunities, respectively, as well as considerations for relationship dynamics arising from the analysis.

Citation

Ryan, A. and Blois, K. (2016), "Assessing the risks and opportunities in corporate art sponsorship arrangements using Fiske’s Relational Models Theory", Arts and the Market, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 33-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAM-02-2014-0010