Strategic Sport Branding at the Personal, Product and Organizational Level:: Theory and Practice for Improving a Sports Brand's Interactions. Ph.d. afhandling

The purpose of this research collaboration is to add value to the qualitative groundwork of research activities within the context of sports branding and more specifically that of strategic sports branding at the personal, product and organizational levels. The overall contribution to theory and practice is to obtain empirical evidence from strategic sports branding practice as to how three different, yet interdependent, levels of strategic sports branding can shed light on how these levels of sports branding are interrelated and how they contribute synergetically to capitalize1 on the holistic process of hybrid sports branding by improving a sports brand’s interactions, cf. see below. In that regard, a sub-focus related to this dissertation includes the relationship between sports branding, sports sponsorship and strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR). The purpose of this sub-focus is to investigate how the strategic application of CSR may guide sports branding initiatives and sports sponsorship partnerships and lead to increased levels of brand capitalization via enhanced brand interactions. This dissertation is seeking to find a suitable scientific and qualitative approach that may guide future researchers and practitioners striving to produce new knowledge and to gain a deeper understanding within this context of improving a sports brand’s interactions. This PhD investigates sports branding while applying qualitative methodology and theory of science tied to the traditions of symbolic interactionism. Consequently, this dissertation concentrates on finding a research umbrella under which strategic sports branding practices can be optimized and can add value to the strategic focus of sports-related entities whether these are persons, products or organizations. When strategic sports branding (in part of the work strategic CSR) is investigated within a symbolic interactionist and qualitative context, the outcome is a thorough explanation of why and how the many intertwining building blocks of sports branding contribute to one another and come together and benefit the sports branding process (and act for the greater good of the sports world and the surrounding society), i.e. improving a sports brand’s interactions as stated above. So, the essence is to create better interactions for sports brands.