In search of management accounting in the sponsorship decision-making process

Consistent with other corporate expenditures, it is important that sponsorship investments are subjected to careful financial justification and control. Despite this, there has been negligible academic research into the role played by accounting in sponsorship management. The potential for accounting procedures to be invoked in the management and control of sponsorship would seem to be considerable. The findings of this study, which are based on an interview-based case study conducted in a university setting, provide minimal support for this expectation, however. It appears that senior management view sponsorship decision-making as falling outside the financial analytic jurisdiction. With respect to budgetary processes, it was found that the ‘authorising expenditure’ was the pre-eminent role in sponsorship management.