This study examines the use of intuition in sponsorship decision-making and seeks to identify factors affecting intuition’s use in the process. Findings support the view that intuition plays an important role in sponsorship decision-making. Support is also provided for the expectation that sponsorship decision-making in large organisations with more formalised decision-making processes is less intuitively based. Furthermore, organisations that place high importance on a trusting relationship when entering into a sponsorship arrangement use relatively high levels of intuition. An association was also found between three aspects of risk exposure and the use of intuition in sponsorship decision-making.
This study advances our understanding of the nature of the role of intuition in sponsorship decision-making. The importance of intuition in sponsorship decisionmaking has been examined in the investment decision-making literature but not the sponsorship literature, and with recent calls for greater use of formalised analytical procedures in sponsorship decision-making, it appears there is considerable potential for decision-makers in the sponsorship area to draw on points of focus raised in this study.