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Maximizing the public relations agency—client relationship in the sports industry

journal contribution
posted on 2024-02-01, 14:30 authored by Argyro Elisavet Manoli, Peter Keefe, Ian HodgkinsonIan Hodgkinson

Despite the undoubted importance of Public Relations (PR) in the sport industry and the increasing reliance on external PR agencies, the study of the PR agency – client relationship within this context remains in its infancy. In this study, we focus on the question, how can PR agencies develop and maintain strong relationships with their sport clients for the benefit to both parties? Qualitative data generated through semi-structured interviews with twenty “business elite informants” comprising senior PR agency executives reveal a new multi-layered conceptualization of the PR agency – client organization relationship. The findings uncover a “surface” layer to the relationship captured by a client satisfaction – dissatisfaction continuum, a core layer of relationship management and trust, to the deepest layer characterized by power (im)balance between the two parties. Uncovering the complex, nuanced and multi-layered dynamics of the relationship highlights effective PR outsourcing practices to be utilized for future value maximization.

History

School

  • Loughborough Business School

Published in

Journal of Public Relations Research

Volume

36

Issue

5

Pages

426-440

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Publisher statement

This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Journal of Public Relations Research. Manoli, A. E., Keefe, P., & Hodgkinson, I. R. (2024). Maximizing the Public Relations Agency—Client Relationship in the Sports Industry. Journal of Public Relations Research, 36(5), 426–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2024.2312196. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Acceptance date

2024-01-24

Publication date

2024-01-31

Copyright date

2024

ISSN

1062-726X

eISSN

1532-754X

Language

  • en

Depositor

Prof Ian Hodgkinson. Deposit date: 31 January 2024

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