International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship最新文献

Purpose

This paper proposes a structural model that explores the relationship between game/esports streamers’ credibility dimensions and viewers’ willingness to spend money (WTP) on online games. The study seeks to uncover the underlying mechanisms in this relationship by drawing on the source credibility model, social identity theory and S-O-R framework.

Design/methodology/approach

The study utilized an online survey conducted through Qualtrics survey software to validate the proposed framework. The sample (N = 612) consisted of viewers of a Turkish esports live streamer with a substantial following on both Twitch and YouTube. The main research framework was tested using AMOS 22, and the serial mediation analyses were done using Process v3.0 on SPSS.

Findings

The findings of this study are significant, revealing that streamer credibility (SC) factors – trustworthiness, attractiveness and expertise – have a profound impact on the response variables purchase intention (PI) and WTP through streamer identification (STI). Moreover, the study uncovers that the time spent watching the streamer significantly influences WTP for games, a crucial insight for the gaming industry.

Practical implications

By bridging the realms of social identity theory and the source credibility model within the context of game streaming, this study charts new territory in understanding the intricate web of factors shaping consumer behaviour in live-stream gaming environments. It highlights the multifaceted nature of viewer-streamer interactions and their implications for marketers and industry stakeholders seeking to navigate the expanding landscape of live stream commerce.

Originality/value

This paper offers a novel structural framework that synthesizes multiple perspectives to investigate the relationship between esports streamers’ credibility and viewers’ spending behaviour. By incorporating concepts from the source credibility model, social identity theory and S-O-R framework, the study not only expands upon existing theories of identity in the streaming domain but also provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing consumer behaviour in online gaming environments.

Purpose

This study investigates the role of athlete brands for the international marketing of professional sports leagues by examining how athlete brands contribute to initiatives of football leagues.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a single case study of the German Bundesliga underpinned by 17 semi-structured interviews with league, club and media executives, we identify specific brand co-creation opportunities of athlete brands and the sports league brand.

Findings

Our findings reveal that athlete brands play a significant role in enhancing league visibility, engaging global audiences and unlocking new markets. Moreover, we identify specific opportunities for co-creating league brand meaning through strategic partnerships and athlete endorsements.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the literature by highlighting the importance of athlete brands in sports league marketing and offering insights for practitioners on innovative marketing strategies. Using a multi-actor perspective, this study provides valuable insights by revealing how sports leagues can pursue innovative marketing strategies by considering the role of athlete brands, thereby offering new ways for fans and sponsors to engage with the sports league.

Purpose

This systematic literature review examines the domain of sports sponsorship involving controversial industries. We delve into the shared patterns, differences and overarching themes prevalent across various dark consumption industries (i.e. alcohol, food and beverages high in fat, salt and sugar, gambling and tobacco).

Design/methodology/approach

This study systematically reviews research on controversial sports sponsorships (CSS). Literature searches in Web of Science and Scopus, and additional searches in reference lists resulted in a total of 90 publications meeting the inclusion criteria, which can be grouped into three research clusters: prevalence, impact and (in)appropriateness of CSS.

Findings

This review revealed a high prevalence of so-called controversial sponsors in sports, particularly in – but certainly not limited to – soccer. Especially gambling sponsorships have become more prominent in recent years. Ethical concerns surfaced since CSS are positively related to attitudes, preferences, purchase intention and consumption, potentially causing health-harming consequences for children and adults.

Practical implications

This study provides scholars and practitioners with insights to advocate for policy measures curbing CSS.

Originality/value

In light of the identified research gaps, we propose a research agenda to particularly investigate causal relationships between exposure to CSS and its impact by conducting longitudinal and experimental research. Additionally, we propose to establish a consumer-centered framework for processing CSS.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to (1) identify the factors that affect the adoption of virtual reality (VR) for spectator sports, (2) examine the differences in the factors among the four adopter categories (i.e. continuers, discontinuers, potentials and resistors) and (3) determine whether these factors are useful for discriminating among the adopter categories, based on the “diffusion of innovation” and “uses and gratification” theories.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 216 participants were included in the analysis. Logistic regression and multiple analyses of variance were conducted to identify the factors that affect the adoption of VRS and examine the differences in the factors between adopter and non-adopter as well as between the continuers, discontinuers, potentials and resistors.

Findings

This study found that actualized innovativeness, complexity, companionship and gender significantly affect user adoption of VR for spectator sports. There were significant differences in the factors among the four adopter categories. The factors were also useful in discriminating between the four adopter categories.

Originality/value

This study highlights how individuals embrace emerging technologies differently based on their adopter category characteristics. From a marketing perspective, the insights gained from this study can inform the development of targeted strategies, campaigns and user experiences for VR spectator sports (VRS). This approach promises new revenue streams for the spectator sport industry and offers solutions to challenges like declining viewership and digital marginalization. It underscores the potential success of VR technology in transforming the spectator sport industry.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the complex dynamics of sports sponsorship within the context of mixed martial arts (MMA). Specifically, it explores how audience attitudes toward MMA influence their perceptions of players and sponsors, and subsequently, how these attitudes affect brand perceptions and purchase intentions. Furthermore, this research examines the moderating effect of fans' attitudes toward MMA on the relationship between their attitudes toward sponsors and their purchase intentions. MMA was selected as the focus of this study due to its propensity to evoke more intense emotional responses than other sports, as evidenced by previous research.

Design/methodology/approach

Study 1 was conducted to systematically assess the emotional responses elicited by MMA. This preliminary study involved 277 participants. Building on the findings from Study 1, Study 2 employed an online survey to investigate the relationships among various constructs related to MMA. This survey was facilitated through an external portal and included a sample of 459 participants residing in the United States. The constructs measured in this survey were attitudes toward the player (ATP), attitudes toward the sponsor (ATS), perception of brand quality (PBQ), purchase intention (ITP) and attitudes toward mixed martial arts (ATM).

Findings

The study reveals that respondents rated MMA the most negatively among the analyzed sports, with the highest standard deviation, indicating that MMA evokes extreme emotional responses. The findings confirm that attitudes toward the player positively influence attitudes toward the sponsor, aligning with sponsorship-linked marketing theory. Moreover, positive attitudes toward the player were found to enhance perceptions of the sponsor’s brand quality. The research further demonstrated that attitudes toward the sponsor and perceptions of brand quality mediate the relationship between attitudes toward the player and purchase intentions, underscoring the complex nature of consumer decision-making in MMA sponsorship.

Originality/value

This research provides novel insights into the critical role of audience engagement and personal connection with sports in formulating effective sponsorship strategies. It emphasizes the need for marketers to tailor their approaches to align with the sport’s personal significance to the audience, employing narratives that resonate with their identities and values. Enhancing player-sponsor associations through co-branded campaigns and endorsements is essential. Furthermore, consistently maintaining high product quality and fostering emotional connections with the sport are key strategies to drive increased purchase intentions.

Purpose

This study aimed to investigate the ecological validity of sponsorship effectiveness by examining the visual attention paid to sponsorship at a live sporting event and the subsequent impact of that attention on cognitive outcomes using eye tracking in a natural, real-world environment.

Design/methodology/approach

Two logistic regression analyses (i.e. sponsor recall and sponsor recognition) were conducted to evaluate the impact of sponsorship exposure time, fixation duration and fixation frequency on viewer attention.

Findings

The preliminary investigation unveiled that longer exposure, strategic placement and brand repetition led to more frequent and extended fixations. The statistical examination demonstrated that a greater fixation frequency yielded a higher probability of explicit memory. However, the amount of time did not appear to influence viewers’ explicit memory. Further, females exhibited a higher probability of explicit memory compared to their male counterparts. Finally, age emerged as a significant determinant of explicit memory.

Originality/value

The significance of conducting eye-tracking studies within an authentic sport environment enhances ecological validity, leading to the development of practical and realistic approaches to boost consumers' explicit memory of sponsors. Further, the tangible evidence of how sponsorship information is processed can inform and modify sport marketing strategies to enhance the effectiveness of sponsorships.

Purpose

Sponsorship identification accuracy is typically assessed as the percentage of consumers answering “yes” when asked if a brand is a sponsor (hits). However, this fails to consider misattribution (answering “yes” for a non-sponsor brand; false alarms). Misattribution reflects consumer confusion and dilutes the benefits of an official sponsorship, offers an advantage to a non-sponsoring rival and reduces a brand’s return on sponsorship investment. Informed by signal-detection theory (SDT), we show how hits may be disentangled from false alarms using a measure of sensitivity called d-prime (d’). A related measure of response bias (c) is also discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

In Study 1, we report the results of an experiment. In Study 2, we rely on a field study involving actual sponsors and fans.

Findings

The use of d’ and c is superior to tallying “yes” responses because they account for accurate sponsor attribution and misattribution to non-sponsor competitors.

Originality/value

In the context of sponsorship, we demonstrate how d’ and c can be easily calculated using Excel. Our research also includes an experimental study that establishes the hypothesized effects and then replicate results in a field setting.

Purpose

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement has become a global phenomenon, penetrating even the sports branding industry. Accordingly, this study investigated whether ESG activities can lead to positive attitudes among customers and thereby affect their behavioral intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

We collected data by administering questionnaires to 154 consumers, after which we conducted partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The results indicated that ESG activities favorably influenced brand image and brand loyalty. Brand loyalty was positively associated with the willingness to pay (WTP) for a price premium. The indirect effect of brand loyalty was confirmed in the association between ESG activities and WTP a price premium. ESG activities indirectly affected WTP a price premium via serial mediation through brand image and brand loyalty.

Originality/value

This research extends our understanding of the mechanism behind consumers’ decision-making processes on the basis of ESG activities and their impact on WTP a price premium.

Purpose

This study comprehensively explains how sports consumers evaluate athletes’ post-transgression philanthropic activities. We specifically focus on the congruence effect between the pre-transgression philanthropic endeavors and the transgression issue, shedding light on the effectiveness of these strategies in reinstating the positive image of athletes and associated entities.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employed a rigorous research design, replicating two studies using sports-related (n = 409) and non-sports-related (n = 404) transgression cases. Data were collected by the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. A series of experimental studies aimed to investigate the congruence mechanism underlying athletes’ post-transgression philanthropic efforts.

Findings

When the post-transgression philanthropic initiative is related to the transgression, sport consumers are less likely to view it skeptically and are more inclined to positively evaluate the brand attitude and purchase intention, especially when the transgression is unrelated to the pre-transgression philanthropic efforts.

Research limitations/implications

As is the case with most research, this study has a limitation. This study used a fictitious athlete name to prevent any prior biases or preconceived notions about the athletes and to avoid any unforeseen influences of personal attitudes toward the athlete. However, designing this study around a fictitious athlete may pose construct validity issues because it may not reflect real-life interactions with the athletes. To increase the validity of findings, future research should aim to replicate the current findings using the names of actual athletes.

Originality/value

This unique approach provides valuable insights and equips sports marketers and brand managers with effective strategies to restore the positive image of athletes and associated entities after a transgression has been made public, empowering them to make informed decisions in challenging situations.

Purpose

The current study applied the concept of country image to a context of bilateral relations for two post-Soviet states to examine the impact of a mega sport event on the image of the host country Russia.

Design/methodology/approach

Surveys were collected before and after the World Cup to assess any changes among Georgians with regard to their views on Russia and intentions to visit.

Findings

The results showed a significant change in Russia’s pre-perceived cognitive image related to reputation, respect and development, as well as the emotional aspect and overall country image after the mega sport event. Interestingly, the affective image of Russia carried more weight in shaping the overall country image compared to the cognitive aspects, suggesting the increasing importance of emotional perceptions over beliefs. However, despite these changes, the study found that mega sport events did not significantly moderate the association between country image and behavior intentions in the context of Russo-Georgian hostile bilateral relations.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first examinations of the impact of hosting mega sport events in countries with hostile bilateral ties. The findings support that mega sport events can be an effective mechanism to gain soft power in that such events can arouse changes in people’s emotions and feelings towards the host country, even for those living in a country with a hostile relationship with the host country. The scope of applicability of these findings can be extended to other contexts, including future hosts of mega sport events in their geo-political contexts.