Einleitung

To develop and sustain business-to-business partnerships, many corporations have utilized sporting events as a relationship-building mechanism to fulfill this objective. For instance, the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge (hereafter referred as MCC) first started in 1977 as an annual running race in New York City, with 200 runners representing 50 companies that J.P. Morgan did business with. Over the years, the number of participants at the MCC event has increased drastically. The 2013 event witnessed an all-time high of 262,311 participants, which made it the world’s largest corporateorganized road race series, covering 13 cities in seven countries throughout all five continents. In 2011, the MCC event was initiated in Shanghai; over a short period of time, the event has grown considerably, and in 2013, it attracted more than 7,200 race entrants from 280 companies in just its third year in China. Although the popularity of this event is increasing as evidenced by the number of participating companies and individuals, how effective a running event would influence an individual participant’s perceptions, beliefs, and attitude toward the event and the sponsoring company remains unknown. How does a sporting event really work to improve business partner relationships? What does a hosting company need to do to elevate the quality of the sporting event and also reach its marketing objectives? As a case analysis, this study was designed to conduct a preliminary investigation into participants’ cognitive and affective assessments of a MCC running event held in Shanghai, China and their impact on the commitment level of business clients on J.P. Morgan as the event sponsoring company.