Abstract
This article investigates consumers’ perceptions of three types of sponsors that play a role in backing financially Canadian artistic and cultural organisations: government ministries (or departments), Crown corporations and private companies. In addition to the type of sponsor and the nature of the sponsorship (philanthropic or commercial), the perceived congruence between the sponsor and the sponsored event (strong as opposed to weak), and the form of arts and cultural events (high art versus popular art and performing arts versus heritage arts) are explored in an experimental setting combining within‐subjects and between‐subjects factors. The main hypothesis of this research was that consumers’ perceptions are not the same when it comes to the different kinds of sponsors that evolve in the cultural and art fields. As the researchers explored this issue, they observed that significant differences do exist. It is believed that the rich findings of this study will be useful to civil servants.
Notes
1. Canada is made up of two linguistic communities, one English‐speaking and the other French‐speaking. The latter, accounting for 24% of the population, is concentrated in the province of Quebec.
2. Example of a strong link: the Ministry of International Affairs sponsoring the foreign tour of a theatre company. Example of a weak link: the Ministry of Industry sponsoring a children’s show.