Is doping really a problem? How sponsors make sense of a sport with a dubious image

ABSTRACT

Doping is claimed to create a negative image of sport, and of professional cycling in particular. Yet few studies have investigated interrelations between doping and sponsorships. Thus, this study aims to answer the question: How do company representatives make sense of sponsoring a sport like cycling with its dubious doping image? Theoretically informed by a sensemaking perspective and the strategy-as-practice approach, this interpretive study draws on sixteen semi-structured interviews with managers who, in the period between 1998 and 2016, were engaged in sponsoring professional Danish cycling. Findings reveal that cycling is more than just a sport with a dubious image as multiple frames such as sporting levels, existing business landscapes, personal interests and sport-for-all practices influence managers’ sensemaking. Furthermore, doping occasionally creates an advantage for sponsors. Accordingly, the study contributes to a research field dominated by quantitative marketing methodologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Risks
• professional cycling
• sensemaking perspective
• strategy-as-practice
• sponsorship fit
• power
• critical management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ulrik Wagner

Ulrik Wagner is an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen and affiliated with the research group SoRSE - Sociological Research in Sport and Exercise. His research interest lies with sport and exercise in the intersection between business, politics and mass media.

Kasper Roe Iversen

Kasper Roe Iversen is a former doctoral student at the University of Southern Denmark. He is now working as a business developer at Destination Fyn where he is in particular engaged with sport events.