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The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of articles on sport published in leading business studies journals within marketing, organisational studies and strategy.

Based on a review of 38 identified articles within the subfields of marketing, strategy and organisation studies published between 2000 and 2015, the articles’ topical, theoretical and methodological orientation within the studied subfields were analysed followed by a cross-subfield analysis.

The authors identify considerable differences in topical, theoretical and methodological orientation among the studied subfields’ associated articles. Overall, the authors also find that articles across all subfields tend to be focussed on contributing to mature theory, even though the subfield of marketing in particular exhibits contributions to nascent theory in contrast to organisation studies and strategy.

This paper contributes by illustrating the current state of research that is devoted or related to the phenomenon of sport within three subfields in business studies. Furthermore, the authors discuss the role played by leading business studies journals vis-à-vis sport sector-specific journals and offer avenues for future research.

Professional sports organizations have a long tradition of utilizing stories as part of their marketing efforts. However, as the media landscape has undergone considerable change as a result of information and communication technologies, most notably through social media, the conditions under which storytelling evolve have altered significantly. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explain how storytelling in the sports sector becomes integrated in social media.

A conceptual review in three sequential steps is carried out. First, extant literature on the role and effects of storytelling is reviewed. This is followed by a review of the interplay between storytelling and the contemporary media landscape, with a particular focus on social media. Third, the authors link both literatures and, by doing so, illustrate the dynamic interplay of storytelling and social media in the sports sector.

The conceptual review shows that storytelling can enact four sequential roles that are characterized by varying degrees of co-creation which, in relation to extant literature, has strong implications for the manageability of storytelling from the perspective of professional sports organizations.

Based on the identified sequential roles that storytelling can enact in social media, this paper contributes to the field of sports marketing by depicting how the dynamics between storytelling and the social media landscape exhibit a shifting degree of manageability with regards to storytelling from the perspective of professional sports organizations.

The aim of this research was to identify and describe driving forces of importance in sponsorship during the seven years preceding a mega-sporting event like the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing. This was done through the development of a conceptual 'meansobjectives model' linking sponsorship to brand equity factors and to objectives. The proposed model enables matching with real data consisting of 200 randomly chosen advertisements, articles and press releases from Chinese newspapers and the internet, revealing six types of means-objectives in sponsorship.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the advertising behavior seen as an activation strategy performed by Olympic sponsors in an emerging market context. It provides insights into the strategic goals related to sponsorship.

The longitudinal approach taken opens the possibility to explore the dynamics of the strategies of Chinese as well as foreign firms in China. Theories on how sponsorship works cannot assist in explaining outcomes of sponsor-linked marketing, and since the actors involved rarely divulge their genuine intentions or their reciprocal contractual arrangements with the sponsored property, a new methodology has to be developed. A means-objective framework of sponsoring consists of six factors, which were applied to analyze 739 advertisements, articles and press releases collected from Chinese newspapers and Chinese official web pages covering a period of eight years (2001-2008) prior to the Olympic Games in Beijing. Based on a qualitative content analysis and nine means-objectives combinations in sponsorship patterns the authors discovered four dominant advertising strategies.

Lead-time is a key concept when analyzing sponsor advertising strategies. The authors conclude from the longitudinal data that the time gap between signing the contract and the dates of the event influences the strategy of the sponsoring corporations. The authors also observe that the advertising content changes over time and the sponsors craft different “advertising strategies” in different periods. Within this context the authors categorized two different advertising strategies. The sponsors are assumed to conduct a “Short Advertising Strategy” different from the “Long Advertising Strategy.” Both are examples of activation strategies.

Advertising strategies and activation seems to be dependent on the lead-time to the Olympic Games and the level of internationalization of the sponsoring firm.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the key driving forces in international sponsorship during the years preceding the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

A “means‐objectives model” is applied, thereby linking sponsorship to brand equity factors and to strategic aims. Co‐branding, revenue streams and new customers are identified as means factors. The objective factors are presented in three dimensions: product, corporation and region. The analysis is based on 492 advertisements, articles and press releases collected from Chinese newspapers and Chinese official web pages covering the period 2001‐2007.

Analysis sees seven dominant means‐objectives combinations in sponsorship leading to different pattern of sponsor advertising strategies depending on the lead time to the Olympic Games. First, sponsors mainly focus on co‐branding marketing efforts. In the second stage, global Olympic sponsors link co‐branding with corporation image, Chinese brands are focusing on product/corporation image and new customers. In the third stage global Olympic sponsors focus more on local markets and customers in advertising. Chinese brands tend to keep an activation strategy based on revenue and product. Only a few local sponsors place emphasis on leveraging their sponsorship investment toward creating an international image.

Data collection is limited to a period of altogether three months in 2006 and 2007, focusing on Chinese print media available in Beijing and Shanghai universities' libraries. Given the size of the Chinese media market the data therefore consist only of a random selection of advertisements. Further, the sample does not cover different marketing channels, like TV, radio etc., which might also be part of the sponsor's advertising strategy.

In addition to providing further understanding of Olympic sponsor advertising behavior and sponsorship in an emerging market context, this paper provides insights into how the strategic aims related to sponsorship depended on the level of internationalization of the firm.