This past summer, members of the UCONN Sport Management program (Michael Mudrick, doctoral student, Raymond Cotrufo, Ph.D. UCONN ’14, and Laura Burton, Associate Professor) partnered with the UCONN School of Business SCOPE program (Sustainable Community Outreach and Public Engagement) and the Special Olympics for a project involving an examination of strategic alliances.

Through an extensive analysis, the research team discovered opportunities for the Special Olympics to achieve several goals as ancillary benefits from the procurement and continuance of successful partnerships. These goals included: augmented awareness of the Special Olympics brand, program relationship building, and additional participation opportunities for its athletes.

On September 30, 2014, the research team presented results of the project to Jon-Paul St. Germain, Senior Director of Unified Sports and Sport Partnerships and Aldis Berzin, Senior Director of Sport of Special Olympics and SCOPE program director, Wynd Harris, with a best practices guide toward strategic alliance success. In addition, the research team proposed an application model to be utilized for analyses of partnership benefits and value.