ABSTRACT
Long overlooked, the internal audiences for sponsorship offer a value of sponsoring that is typically not measured. A new employee identification and sponsorship engagement model is introduced. The model explains how employees evaluate a sponsorship by asking themselves two questions: (1) is there some relevance of the partner event to my sense of self, and (2) is there some congruence between my organization and this partner event? Answers to these questions in turn inform their feelings of organizational identification. When employees have positive feelings of identification, this is argued to result in citizenship behaviors or extra role behaviors such as saying positive things about their employer. Sponsorship might also speak to potential employees through employer branding.
