“Why Can’t We Be Friends”? An Examination of Academic and Industry Alignment in Sport Sponsorship

The purpose of this study is to produce an analysis of content published in both academic literature and industry related publications that specifically examines the theme of sport sponsorship. Scholars suggest a gap between academia and industry, yet it is undetermined how published articles about sponsorship are aligned and why certain topics may overlap in interest where others are independent topics. While a number of other studies have examined content in academic publications, no study has yet been applied comparing industry publications. Our intention is to compare the published academic articles and what is written in industry publications to better understand the content that is being discussed across the various channels, and to see if there is a gap between industry and academia. Findings show academics focused on certain categories while industry focused on others. Within some categories there was a clear distinction in how differently they discussed certain topics. However, some categories did demonstrate balance.