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Building bridges: Connecting sport marketing and critical social science research

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Recently, sport management scholars have called for researchers to critically evaluate the ways in which research questions and resulting contributions truly disrupt what is known, how it is known, why it is important to know, and for whom. Historically, sport marketing research has adapted traditional research approaches from the parent marketing discipline to sport. Yet, sport is a constantly evolving social and cultural phenomenon and a reliance on conventional theories, concepts, and methods can serve to crystalize the discourse in sport marketing in ways that may limit knowledge production. Responding to this call, we believe that sport marketing research has much to gain from engaging with critical social science assumptions, worldviews, and perspectives to examine complex issues in sport. We position this paper as a starting point for advancing the field of sport marketing in meaningful and impactful ways by offering two research propositions, each accompanied by four actional recommendations. We employ a particular focus on the marketing campaigns that activate and promote corporate partnerships in sport to frame our two propositions, which discuss (1) consumer culture theory and (2) the circuit of culture as two important frameworks that begin to build bridges between sport marketing and critical social science.

Introduction

Researchers of sport and sport-related groups are being nudged by institutions, funding bodies, and publication “gatekeepers” (e.g., editors and reviewers) to justify the value of their work in ways that move beyond addressing a gap in the literature. While “gap-spotting” is a common way to formulate research questions from existing literature, Sandberg and Alvesson ( 1 ) claim that “it does not actively challenge the assumptions underlying existing theory” (p. 33). Alternatively, they suggest that problematization leads to more innovative and novel research questions that “disrupt the reproduction and continuation of an institutionalized line of reasoning” [( 1 ), p. 32]. Recently, Stenling and Fahlén ( 2 ) call for sport management researchers (broadly interpreted) to consider what is “worthwhile knowledge” and to “clarify on whose behalf a study is conducted and, thus, for whom, in what ways, and why its contribution is important” (p. 16). Further, their recommendations for sport management researchers align with Sandberg and Alvesson ( 1 ) in that research should disrupt prevailing assumptions to build “new, significant, and meaningful knowledge that alters the way we understand and explain sport management practice” [( 2 ), p. 16]. In the field of sport marketing specifically, Kim et al. [( 3 ), p. 59] argue that sport marketing research has historically “been more normal research practice focusing on post-positivistic [consumer] behavior-based studies,” with the notion of “normal research” stemming from Kuhn's [( 4 ), p. 163] reference to a “highly convergent activity based firmly upon a settled consensus acquired from scientific education and reinforced by subsequent life in the profession.” Kim et al. [( 3 ), p. 59] highlight the need for “optimal balance between normal research with convergent thinking and innovative practices with divergent ideas” for scientific progress.

The purpose of this commentary is to serve as a point of departure for discussions on progressing the field of sport marketing in meaningful and impactful ways. We echo Stenling and Fahlén's ( 2 ) “call to arms” with an explicit focus on bridging sport marketing and critical social science. We agree with others who advocate for collapsing disciplinary silos [e.g., ( 5 , 6 )], and assert that sport marketing research has much to gain from engaging with critical social science assumptions, worldviews, and perspectives to examine complex issues in sport. We outline how sport marketing researchers may challenge the pre-existing assumptions in the field by encouraging others to “read ‘horizontally' to gain a ‘multi-silo' perspective of the phenomenon of interest, thereby facilitating the creation of knowledge that makes us think of phenomena in new ways” [( 2 ), pp. 16–17]. In what follows, we discuss two research propositions, (1) consumer culture theory and (2) the circuit of culture, as two important frameworks that integrate sport marketing and critical social science. From the outset, we acknowledge that these are only two of many potential areas for synthesis, and even within these frameworks, there are numerous possibilities to explore. However, to help others envision our proposals, for each proposition we offer actionable recommendations as innovative research directions that promise new knowledge discovery.

Frisby [( 7 ), p. 2] describes critical social science as “a way of empowering individuals by confronting injustices in order to promote social change.” Research that adopts critical approaches features prominently in sport sociology, with scholars suggesting that incorporating these perspectives into sport management research can advance the field ( 8 ). Researchers that utilize a critical view “are concerned about goals other than profit and with representing the interests of those affected by managerial actions, such as workers, athletes, volunteers, customers, marginalized populations, and the public at large” [( 7 ), p. 6]. These approaches appear infrequently in journals within the domain of sport marketing, despite their importance in sport management research for “unpacking the less-desirable aspects of sport as a social system,” resulting in a stable foundation “upon which positive change in sport can be made” [( 9 ), p. 9]. According to Sayer [( 10 ), p. 768], the job of critical social science is “to ‘unsettle' existing academic ideas.” Therefore, incorporating critical social science approaches into sport marketing research may help to “expand our understanding of sport's role in society, how it may be an exclusionary space and to provide a strong theoretical basis for practical improvements by challenging power relations” [( 9 ), p. 2].

Sport is a commodity and practice, and is a globally popular, highly visible, and influential part of society. Corporate brands use the appeal and excitement of sport to communicate their messages to consumers ( 11 ) and accomplish their business objectives ( 12 ). Currently there is momentum—and arguably a strong need—for professional sport (and related corporate partnerships) to have positive social impact, to help achieve social justice, and to minimize (the effects of) inequality. Arguably, sport marketing plays an equally important role in attracting large audiences to sport and associating corporate brands with the social and cultural values of sport. In this sense, marketing campaigns that activate and promote corporate partnerships with sport are “privileged form[s] of social communication” that can be utilized by marketers to influence culture, social interactions, and identities [( 13 ), pp. 103–104]. Through marketing, brands create powerful stories and compelling narratives that consumers use to process their own tensions, desires, and anxieties that originate from broader societal problems ( 14 ). For example, Nike's “For Once Don't Do It” advertisement following the Black Lives Matter Movement, Amazon's Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, and Scotiabank's “Hockey for All” campaign, to name a few. Yet, the “corporatization, privatization, and branding” of social justice issues by commercial organizations has become “increasingly complex, messy, and blurred” [( 15 ), p. 523], with regards to corporate intentions and “rising consumer expectations of corporate social responsibility” [( 16 ), p. 132]. As consumers become more discerning of corporate partnerships with sport, brands may be perceived as exploitative, disingenuous, and superfluous ( 17 – 20 ). Additionally, athletes and coaches, given their celebrity status and large followings, can “shape fans' attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors” [( 21 ), p. 36], which can influence how sport marketers communicate with consumers. Crucially, framing sport marketing and consumer research from a position that upholds sport as a distinct social and cultural practice and queries why and how definitions and meanings of sport serve some interests over others [e.g., professional athlete, sport organization, corporate entity, fan/consumer; ( 22 )], begins a long, convoluted journey to problematize and disrupt our assumptions about the association of corporate brands with sport.

Consumer culture theory

Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) “refers to a family of theoretical perspectives that address the dynamic relationship between consumer actions, the culture marketplace, and cultural meanings” [( 23 ), p. 868]. It consists of four salient, interconnected theoretical dimensions consisting of: “(1) consumer identity projects, (2) marketplace cultures, (3) the sociohistoric patterning of consumption, and (4) mass-mediated marketplace ideologies and consumers' interpretive strategies” [( 23 ), p. 871]. According to CCT, supporters can create and attribute meaning to the images, texts, and objectives that are commercially produced and through which consumers make sense of their environment, which can lead to consumers redefining the meaning of a brand based on their collective interpretation thereof ( 14 , 24 ). Thus, supporter groups may dictate the symbolism of brands associated with sport, with positive values (e.g., distinctiveness) benefitting the brand ( 25 ), and resistance occurring if they do not perceive that the team derives value from the connection ( 18 ). Rokka [( 14 ), p. 114] recently commented that “CCT's future looks promising in its commitment and ability to foster critical, contextually sensitive, and reflexive cultural insights into marketing—an important foundation for marketing strategy and practices.” As such, CCT can play a role in exploring the contextual factors that influence how supporters and supporter groups interpret and attribute meaning to a brand.

At present, much sport marketing consumer research is largely informed by cognitive psychological (behavioral) or economic theories. While these studies are important for continued understanding of consumer attitudes toward products/services and purchasing behaviors, there is an opportunity to engage with CCT and social theories (e.g., social constructivism, feminism, critical race theory) to critique “the structural foundations and limitations of the consumers' experiential universe” [( 26 ), p. 386]. CCT is often set within the context of social historical production as well as the prevailing socio-economic conditions, which contextualizes consumer-based practices and perspectives within the structures and systems that transcend lived experience. This allows “CCT researchers [to look] toward understanding market systems and dynamics and [approach] consumer culture not just as a matter of what consumers do but also how the world in which they do it is constituted” [( 27 ), p. 135]. Ultimately, the goal is to give greater consideration to “the context of contexts” [( 26 ), p. 396]. That is, to “pay increased attention to the contexts that condition consumption” [( 26 ), p. 389]. Sport marketing research needs to, in the very least, consider how consumption experiences are embedded within broader social structures, cultural norms, and ideological injustices, including (among others): racism, gender relations, homophobia, and classism. These contexts cannot be ignored as consumers navigate, engage in, and challenge everyday consumer culture. “Looking at the ways that everyday consumption practices reproduce larger cultural and social frameworks is also a matter of asking not only how consumption is influenced by social forms and processes, but how it participates in the constitution of society” [( 26 ), p. 396]. Given this discussion, we offer our first research proposition and four corresponding actionable recommendations.

Proposition 1: Critical engagement with CCT can provide a lens to examine realities beyond the individual sport consumer/fan.

Actionable Recommendations:

• Develop a better understanding of the meanings and values linked with signs, symbols, rituals, and traditions that shape brand community identity creation and development in sport.
• Generate a better understanding of the micro- and macro-level contextual influences (systemic and structural) of market and social systems that guide sport consumption experiences, identities, and communities.
• Seek a better understanding of the important actors (e.g., marketers, sport organization executives, brand executives) that participate in the contexts of sport consumption—actors that have their own social and cultural values.
• Establish a better understanding of ‘sport consumer-brand consumption' relationships as functions of sport, wherein both sport and consumption are recognized as social and cultural practices that can confer identity, values, and beliefs.

The circuit of culture

Previous research on sport-related advertising and the communication of corporate brand partnerships in sport have adopted the circuit of culture as a framework to critically analyze sport-related promotion and advertising ( 28 , 29 ). Accordingly, the circuit of culture, which traces the “lifecycle” of a commodity in contemporary society ( 30 ), has become an important component of research related to the growth of advertising, consumption, and commercialization within society ( 31 ). It consists of five interrelated cultural processes: production, representation, consumption, and identity, the components necessary to adequately examine commodities ( 30 ). As a circuit, the starting point is irrelevant, since the journey of explaining the meaning of an artifact involves analysis at each moment; cognizant that the processes are not distinct, rather each element converses with and blends into the next ( 30 ), overlapping one another and, hence, mutually defining and jointly dependent ( 32 ). It is the combined articulation or linkages of these processes that begin to explain the meaning cultural artifacts possess and the identities that they construct and/or embody ( 30 ). According to du Gay et al. [( 30 ), p. 3], the five interlinked spheres facilitate the exploration of cultural artifacts in terms of “how it is represented, what social identities are associated with it, how it is produced and consumed, and what mechanisms regulate its distribution.”

In sport contexts, research often focuses more on the representation and identity components, and fails to examine consumption and regulation ( 31 ). Thus, this research captures more of the critical perspective that misappropriation and inaccurate representation can have on groups of people ( 28 ), while analyzing the individuals that are responsible for generating the advertisements ( 33 ). Conversely, sport marketing research often does not consider the content or sociocultural implications of advertisements (particularly on marginalized groups), nor that of the activations undertaken by brands involved with sport, instead focusing on the consumption of products (e.g., purchase intention), attitudinal outcomes (e.g., sponsor image), and other sponsorship constructs, including supporter identification, fit, and awareness ( 34 , 35 ).

In critical social science research, sport-related advertisements are critically analyzed using the circuit of culture framework to examine the content, how the advertisement was produced, how the cultural intermediaries responsible for creating the advertisement chose to represent the sexuality, gender, and race of the people that appeared in the advertisement, and how the advertisement was consumed and interpreted by viewers ( 28 ). However, the focus of this research adopts the critical perspective without considering the marketing-related outcomes for the advertised brand (e.g., awareness, attitudes) after the advertisement has been processed and interpreted. Therefore, marketing research evaluating corporate brand partnerships in sport should incorporate critical analysis of the production, identity, and consumption contained within the circuit of culture to move beyond the individual consumer into the broader societal and cultural context surrounding the positioning of the advertised brand. Given this discussion, we offer our second research proposition and four corresponding actionable recommendations.

Proposition 2: The circuit of culture offers a framework to explore how consumers react to and interpret the content of marketing campaigns that activate and promote corporate partnerships in sport.

• Examine how advertising content and messaging influences consumers' subsequent attitudinal and behavioral responses to the advertisements.
• Explore the power relations between cultural intermediaries and marginalized populations and any resulting social injustices.
• Investigate how marketers' idealized and/or stereotypical representations of particular groups (e.g., men/women, racial, Indigenous, LGBTIQ2S+, etc.) can impact a group's identity and consumption behaviors.
• Analyze the manner in which a product's intended meaning is altered through consumption experiences and identity regulation.

In this commentary, we propose two research propositions that connect sport marketing and critical social science research. These are unorthodox but imperative proposals that require radical reconsideration of two research fundamentals. First, these propositions challenge traditional ontological marketing worldviews that embrace a (post)positivist paradigm ( 3 ), and instead advocate for ontological claims that “reality is created through [macro and] microsocial interactions” (interpretivist paradigm) and/or “reality is rooted in the tensions surrounding historically entrenched power relations” (critical realist paradigm; [( 7 ), pp. 2–3]. Second, these propositions prompt the need for new research designs (e.g., ethnography) that necessitate the integration of qualitative or multi/mixed methods, which diverts from the “normal research” [( 4 ), p. 163] that is generally conducted in sport marketing. Taken together, we uphold that these propositions open up possibilities for sport marketing research to be innovative and impactful, to disrupt repeated and institutionalized lines of reasoning/inquiry, and to create new expectations for what is worthwhile knowledge in the field.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

ZE was responsible for conceptualizing and writing the manuscript. SG and TE offered guidance on the conceptualization and writing of the manuscript, in addition to edits, revisions, and helping to re-write some parts of the final manuscript. All authors have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to this manuscript and approved the manuscript in the form in which it was submitted.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Tracing the state of sport management research: a bibliometric analysis

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• Published: 24 February 2023

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• Jonas Hammerschmidt 1 ,
• Ferran Calabuig 2 ,
• Sascha Kraus   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4886-7482 3 , 4 &
• Sebastian Uhrich 5  

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This article presents a state-of-the-art overview of the sport management research discipline through a bibliometric analysis of publication data from the top five sport management journals in the decade 2011–2020. The analysis includes citation and productivity analysis of journals, institutions, countries, and articles, author citation and output analysis, and title and abstract (co-)word analysis. The data identifies the Sport Management Review as the most prolific journal of the last decade. Institutions and authors from the US are dominating the sport management research, which has increased its attractiveness in other disciplines. Co-word analysis shows recent and frequently discussed topics related to management of sport organizations and events, team and game, sport marketing and sponsorship, and behaviour and identification of the spectator. The article serves the ongoing debate on sport management as an academic field with deep insights into the publication structure and thematic dynamics of the last decade.

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1 Introduction

Sport has become a weighty player embedded in the context of economic development (Ratten 2010 ). The growing economic relevance of sport created an organizational need for operational and managerial structure. Research at the intersection of sport and management has established a discipline that tackles the complexity of managerial activity in the sport environment. In the slipstream of the increasing influence of sport, sport management research has developed into an attractive and exponentially growing discipline (Funk 2019 ). However, the rapid and proliferating growth of sport management research, especially in the last decade (Pellegrini et al. 2020 ), has led to seemingly uncoordinated progress. As a result, it is difficult to assess the current status quo of the research discipline, as well as uncertainty about the prevailing dynamics that have influenced the development of the field in recent years.

In the period from 1990 to 2000, sport management was dominated by topics related to athletic training and athlete programs with less focus on the commercial potential of sport (Ciomaga 2013 ). In the penultimate decade, from 2000 to 2010, the thematic landscape of sport management has evolved in the opposite direction, with the focus of the field on commercial issues and becoming more oriented towards management disciplines (Ciomaga 2013 ). Ciomaga ( 2013 ) and Shilbury ( 2011a , b ) noted that marketing had the greatest impact on sport management research during these years, and that influence appeared to increase over time. This development was viewed with suspicion because the extensive commercial view of the multifaceted world of sport could lead to a neglect of its special qualities (Ciomaga 2013 ; Zeigler 2007 ). Almost as a logical consequence, Gammelsæter ( 2021 ) criticizes the prevailing conceptualization of sport as an industry or a business, which ignores natural features of sport such as its sociality. In the current conceptualization of sport entrepreneurship, a sub-area of sport management, Hammerschmidt et al. ( 2022 ) has recognized that ‘sport is social by nature and thus is sport entrepreneurship’ (p. 9), which apparently is the case for sport management. However, the discussion about the lack of conceptual clarity in sport management research was initiated early on, accompanied by recommendations that subsequent research addresses this deficit of clarity through systematic analyses (Chalip 2006 ).

To take a first step towards a better understanding of the status quo of a scientific discipline, a bibliometric analysis is a well-established method (Deyanova et al. 2022 ; Kraus et al. 2022 ; Martínez-López et al. 2018 ; Tiberius et al. 2020 , 2021 ). In recent years, few reviews have been conducted in the sport management discipline. Ciomaga ( 2013 ) combined a content-related review with a quantitative analysis of three leading sport management journals for the period 1987–2010. The study examines how sport management research strives for legitimacy and asserts that sport management research is still strongly influenced by its reference disciplines (e.g., marketing and organizational studies). To assess the state of development of the research field and its influence on generic disciplines, Shilbury ( 2011a ) examined citations of sport management and marketing journals in management and marketing journals. Results show that sport management and especially sport marketing literature has gained traction in top tier generic journals. In addition, Shilbury ( 2011a ) observed that it takes just over six years after a sport management journal’s creation until it’s expected to generate citations in journals outside the field. However, six of the seven analyzed journals were then not yet listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), which makes it difficult to draw a real picture of journal usage and consequently impact. Moreover, Shilbury ( 2011b ) analyzed citations of reference lists of manuscripts published in the Journal of Sport Management (JSM), Sport Marketing Quarterly (SMQ), European Sport Management Quarterly (ESMQ) and Sport Management Review (SMR). JSM is the journal with the longest history and was the most frequently cited journal, highlighting its role as the leading journal in the discipline. It is followed by SMQ with the second most citations, which is correspondingly the journal with the second-longest history. Apparently, the time factor played an important role because influence, citations, number of citable items, and reputation have developed over time (Budler et al. 2021 ).

Previous studies were important for a better understanding of the publishing behavior of sport management journals and provided a comprehensive overview of the fields’ development. However, the discipline has had the greatest growth in the last decade (Pellegrini et al. 2020 ) and the diffusion of new theories can take several years (Funk 2019 ). For example, when the analysis of Shilbury ( 2011a ) was conducted, only one sport management journal was listed in the SSCI, indicating that it may have been too early to obtain conclusive results from bibliometric analysis. Since then, many sport management and marketing journals have been listed in the SSCI for numerous years. It is particularly interesting to see how the sport management journals have performed in comparison since the analyses of Ciomaga ( 2013 ) and Shilbury ( 2011a , b ).

The aim of this bibliometric analysis is therefore to quantitatively structure the field using bibliometric indicators, and to assess the thematic dynamics of the last ten years with bibliometric coupling to contribute to the debate on the path that sport management is taking. To achieve this, a holistic bibliometric analysis is required due to the high demands on an integrated view of the complex scientific field (Gammelsæter 2021 ). This is mainly due to the multi-faceted nature of sport management, which can be easily illustrated by the role of a sport manager who takes care of issues in the organizational environment such as the desire to win, business, sport for development, professional marketing or social welfare (Hammerschmidt et al. 2021 ). Consequently, the methodological approach to achieve the research aim goes beyond related previous work.

A bibliometric analysis is a capable tool to identify the most influential journals based on publication and citation trends (Baumgartner and Pieters 2003 ; Martínez-López et al. 2018 ). In doing so, the study identifies important aspects in terms of citations, authors, articles, institutions, and countries. Ciomaga ( 2013 ) calls for studies to be conducted with more and particularly specialized journals. In response to this call, we conduct a bibliometric analysis that goes further than what has been done so far and analyses five of the leading sport management and marketing journals: Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, European Sport Management Quarterly, International Journal of Sport Marketing & Sponsorship, and Sport Marketing Quarterly. The rationale for our selection of these five journals is their appearance in the SSCI. Whatever delimitations are set, bibliometric analyses can never provide a complete picture of the field, as recent work may not have reached its full bibliometric impact (Budler et al. 2021 ), but boundaries need to be set to manage the data, and given the work that has pre-dated this study, delimiting the scope of this work to a ten-year period since 2011 is logical.

The study is structured as follows. The next section explains in detail the methodology used for bibliometric analysis and data collection. The results of the bibliometric analysis are then presented, including basic bibliometric indicators, as well as leading institutions, countries, authors, and articles of the five journals. The bibliometric coupling and the analysis of the themes is then presented. Subsequently, the main findings are discussed, followed by the limitations and the conclusion in the last section.

2.1 Procedure

The method of bibliometric analysis aims to statistically and objectively map the current state of a scientific field and to quantitatively structure its publications (Merigó et al. 2018 ; Mukherjee et al. 2022 ). To obtain a holistic picture of the sport management scholarship, we performed several bibliometric procedures. Specifically, basic bibliometric indicators were calculated to analyze the top five sport management journals: publication behavior of specific institutions, citation measures of different countries, scientific productivity of authors within the field, and most cited articles in the field.

Quantitative numbers of publications indicate the scientific productivity and citation frequency reveals the influence of research (Luther et al. 2020 ; Shilbury 2011b ). In this context, the quantitative analysis offers a high level of objectivity (Zupic and Čater 2015 ). To measure the influence of journals in this study, the Impact Factor is used because compared to other metrics, such as CiteScore, the Impact Factor is still the more widely used and recognized metric and is more likely to reflect current developments because it is based on a smaller time frame (Kurmis 2003 ). Institutional and country data is collected to provide a potential basis for alternative explanations of thematic dynamics and trends (Ciomaga 2013 ). The results on authorship provide a useful basis for the interpretation of possible social influences within the scientific community (Small 2011 ). The analysis of the most cited articles offers information about what type of research can generate the most interest in the discipline (Ciomaga 2013 ).

The quantitative analysis includes additional metrics to evaluate the authors' research output: the h-index and the g-index. The h-index metric presents a balance between individual articles that achieve high citations, older articles, and articles with average citation counts (Alonso et al. 2009 ; Hirsch 2005 ). “A researcher has index h if h of his/her N p papers have at least h citations each, and the other ( N p  −  h ) papers have no more than h citations each” (Alonso et al. 2010 , p. 3). Thus, a h-index of 10 means that at least 10 articles have achieved 10 citations each. In addition, we present the g-index, which is intended to extend the h-index. Here, the threshold of achieved citations are exponentiated and aggregated (Egghe 2006 ). “A set of papers has a g -index g if g is the highest rank such that the top g papers have, together, at least g 2 citations. This also means that the top + 1 papers have less than ( g  + 1) 2 cites” (Alonso et al. 2010 , p. 4). Hence, a g-index of 10 means that the top 10 articles of an author have collected at least 100 citations. Taken together, these two metrics give a sharper picture of the correlations between productivity figures and the influence of authors. Since the data base for these metrics is limited to sport management publications, the h- and g-indexes correspond to their sport management publications.

The data retrieved from the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) is decisive to build networks of co-occurrences. Although there is no standard approach of a bibliometric analysis, the most common methodologies include the investigation of citations, co-citations and co-occurrences (Ferreira et al. 2015 ). In this study, the VOSviewer software is used to perform bibliometric coupling by means of a co-word analysis of titles and abstracts. This method processes the bibliometric data and then visualizes the relationships in a distance-based map. The representation simplifies the illustration of the bibliometric data and helps with the subsequent interpretation of the results (Luther et al. 2020 ). The aim of this work is not to synthesize the entire literature of the discipline, but rather the most mentioned themes. This inheres the danger of neglecting current trends and topics with little influence. Considering the research question, however, this is by no means a disadvantage, but provides clarity on the themes that were frequently discussed in the period under study.

To increase the depth of the results, this study performs a co-word density map. The density of a term depends on the number of nearby items and the number of citations they have. The density map shows how dense the research on a topic is. The denser the color, the more research is being done on that topic (van Eck and Waltman 2010 ). By combining a co-word map and a co-word density map, we get a more complete picture, because this shows which terms are mentioned the most and which ones gather the most science around them. The unified approach sheds more light on the underlying structure of bibliometric networks and therefore adds value compared to the isolated use of either approach (Waltman et al. 2010 ).

2.2 Data collection

The data were collected from the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) using the Web of Science Core Collection™ (WoS). To be included, journals need to be directly related to either sport management or sport marketing, or both. Second, the journals need to be assigned with an Impact Factor in the journal citation report (JCR) at the time of the search. Table 1 provides an overview of the selected journals. The study is limited to published research between 2011 and 2020 that is labelled as either original or review articles, and excludes other types of articles. The search string was carried out on February 15, 2021.

This research contributes to the sport management discipline by providing a systematization of literature from the last decade. From 2011 to 2020, a total of 1516 articles (1417 articles and 79 reviews) were published in these five sport management journals by 1951 authors, belonging to 845 institutions from 49 countries.

3.1 Basic bibliometric indicators of the journals

The discipline of sport management and marketing is still a young area, as can be seen in Table 1 . The first sport management journal to be indexed in the WoS was the Journal of Sport Management, which first appeared in 1993. In 2007, a second journal was added, the International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship. The European Sport Management Quarterly was introduced one year later. There is an important quantitative leap until 2011 when the Sport Management Review was included in the index. Finally, the Sport Marketing Quarterly was indexed in 2014 and received the first Impact Factor in 2017.

The journal that contributes the most articles to the analysis is the Sport Management Review with 462 original articles or reviews, followed by the Journal of Sport Management with 410 articles or reviews.

The local citation score (LCS) indicates the number of citations the journal has received in the analyzed database of 1516 articles. The global citation score (GCS) indicates the number of citations that the journals’ articles have received throughout the WoS database. The LCS and GCS are aggregate data on the amount of citations and therefore, whether the variables are calculated for articles or journals, can be an indicator of influence (Mehri et al. 2014 ). On a general level, SMR is the most influential journal outside the discipline during the last decade, receiving 7557 citations (Table 1 ). It is followed at a large distance by JSM with 5985 citations and the European Sport Management Quarterly, which has 3719 citations in the general database of the WoS. The great influence of SMR is particularly notable considering that it is a very young journal in the WoS since it entered this index not until 2011. In addition, SMR received the highest Impact Factor (i.e., 6.577) in the field in 2020.

Figure  1 shows the development of published articles over the years. As more journals have been introduced into the WoS, the number of published articles has increased. However, the journals’ strategy of increasing the frequency of issues published per year to improve visibility and citation opportunities influenced the results. Growth has been steady, reaching the highest level in the historical series in 2020.

Total number of publications of the top five sport management journals

As far as the development of the number of published articles and reviews per journal is concerned, there is an upward trend for all of them (Fig.  2 ). In general, these journals have increased the number of their publications over the past decade. The journal that published the most articles in 2020 is SMR (72), followed by JSM (45) and IJSMS (38). In contrast, the journals that published the smallest number of articles in 2020 are ESMQ (28) and SMQ (17).

Number of publications of the top five sport management journals

As can be observed, there is a general increase in the IF, especially in the last year (Fig.  3 ). The IF of JSM shows an upward trend (IF 2011–IF 2019 = 1.55) and presented the highest improvement in 2017. Regarding SMR, the IF also showed a positive trend from 2014 (first year with IF) to 2019 (IF 2011–IF 2019 = 2.13), reaching the highest value of the top five journals in 2019 (IF = 3.34). ESMQ has also shown a positive trend in IF in recent years (IF 2011–IF 2019 = 1.01). The highest growth of its IF was between 2015 and 2016 and the highest value was reached in 2018 with 2.27. However, in 2019, its Impact Factor decreased to 1.89.

Impact Factor of the top five sport management journals

For the IJSMS, there was a positive trend in IF from 2011 to 2020. Though, it had no IF in 2012 and 2013. Since then, its highest IF was reached in 2020 with 2.93. Finally, SMQ received its IF recently, in 2017, and it increased sharply in 2018 (IF = 1.14), but decreased in 2019 (IF = 0.74), showing similar values to 2017 (IF = 0.69).

3.2 Institutions and countries

Slightly more than half of the contributing authors (814) come from the US, followed by Australia (252) and the UK (173). The European country with the highest number of contributing authors is Germany (105).

Figure  4 provides an overview of the most cited countries in the last decade. Darker colors indicate a higher number of citations. The US and Australia are the countries that have received the largest number of citations (> 2000 citations). However, it is important to highlight that the US is by far the country that has received the most citations (9834). The European country with the most citations is Germany (1589).

Number of articles published per country

Regarding the institutions, Griffith University ranks first by citation count in the WoS (1717), followed by Temple University, which is the second most cited university (1432). The University of Florida ranks third (1270). In addition, these three universities are also the most cited in searches within these five journals (LCS). The most productive institutions are Temple University with 96 articles, followed by Griffith University with 81, and the University of Florida with 79 published articles.

In terms of number of citations per article published in the WoS (GCS/Nb. Articles), the University of Technology Sydney ranks first (25.47), followed by Griffith University (21.20) in second, and Deakin University in third (20.72). University of Technology Sydney also ranked first in the number of citations per document published in these five journals (7.17) (see Table 2 ).

3.3 Authorship of published articles

We ranked the number of citations by author based on the date of data collection (February 15, 2021). The most outstanding authors are Funk with 850, Wicker with 618 and Breuer with a total of 581 citations in the WoS. Highly cited researchers are also highly productive. There is evidence that the number of publications is highly correlated with the number of citations (Parker et al. 2013 ). Looking at the number of publications of these authors, Funk stands out as the author of the field with the highest number of publications (39) in the mentioned sport management journals during the last ten years. In addition, Funk has the highest h-index with 19 and the highest g-index with 29. Both metrics indicate that his high number of publications is matched by a high number of citations. Therefore, he can be considered the most influential author in the discipline in absolute terms. Table 3 shows the most productive authors in sport management and marketing research. An additional way to determine the influence of authors is the number of citations received based on the number of articles published (Kostoff 2007 ). The GCS/Nb. index shows that Kaplanidou has the most global citations per published article with 35.55. The scholar is followed by Schulenkorf (31.20) and in third position is Lock with 30.35 citations per article.

Considering only the citations received in these five journals over the past ten years, the LCS/Nb. index shows that Lock has the most citations per article with 11.94. He is followed by Doherty with 10.57 and Yoshida with 10 citations per article.

The ten most cited articles in the WoS are displayed in Table 4 . It is noteworthy that the three most frequently cited articles are relatively recent literature reviews. SMR contributes seven articles and JSM contributes two articles, one is from ESMQ.

3.4 Co-word analysis

Figure  5 clusters the co-occurrence of words within titles and abstracts. The generated terms reflect frequently discussed topics in the literature. The relationships of the topics show four recurring thematic groups of the five sport management journals. Each color (blue, red, yellow, and green) corresponds to a theme and signals its group membership.

Co-word analysis of terms gathered in clusters

Figure  6 is a density map. A topic is denser if it has more terms nearby. Thus, the figure shows the interconnections and proximity of the themes to each other (van Eck and Waltman 2010 ). The range is displayed from yellow (most intense) to green, and blue (least intense).

Density map of co-word analysis

The co-word analysis revealed four thematic clusters. The red cluster (1) belongs to the management of sport organizations and events, the blue cluster (2) is about the team, fan and the game, the green cluster (3) is the sport marketing and sponsorship cluster, and the yellow cluster (4) is about the behavior and identification of the sport spectators.

3.4.1 Red: Examining the management of sport organizations

The red cluster is relatively diverse and appears to contain another subgroup. In principle, this thematic field is about the management of sport organizations, which are the origin of sport participation (Misener and Doherty 2009 ). This field is predestined to benefit from the knowledge of other disciplines. Thus, the principle of organizational capacity, a concept from the management discipline, can be a key determinant for the success of sport organizations (Hoeber and Hoeber 2012 ; Misener and Doherty 2009 ). However, sport organizations are exposed to unique circumstances and, therefore, a potential subject for research emanating from inside the field. An example of this is the research of volunteerism, which is currently in the conceptualization phase (Wicker 2017 ), but can be one of the most pressing issues of sport organizations in the future (Wicker et al. 2014 ).

3.4.2 Blue: the sport cluster about the team, the fan and the game

The blue cluster is much clearer and is dominated by only a few terms. It is somewhat surprising that team and identification appear in separate clusters, since team identification is one of the most developed concepts of sport management, especially within the last decade (Katz and Heere 2016 ; Lock and Heere 2017 ). This is probably due to the fact that the terms fan, team, game, and league create a kind of cluster of their own since they are typically mentioned together. They have apparently also connections to other topics (which can be observed at their central position) but should be seen more as a platform for gaining knowledge, rather than as a separate thematic field. The connection of the word pairs is also interesting because in the blue cluster, the fan, and fan attendance are connected, whereas the terms customer, spectator, and behavior appear in the yellow cluster. The blue cluster seems to have evolved out of sport because of the terminology, whereas the yellow cluster is obviously characterized by commercial concepts (consumer, spectator, behavior, identification). The blue cluster is also the only cluster that includes a specific sport, namely major league baseball and especially football (soccer).

3.4.3 Green: developing marketing and sponsorship in sports

Marketing is part of the green cluster, however, neither the co-word analysis nor the density map reveals an increased appearance or influence of the term marketing. However, this refers only to the term in the analysis, not to the influence of the marketing topic in general. The way in which sport is consumed is of great value for practitioners. They try to provide pleasurable sport experiences by focusing on service quality and customer satisfaction, which is based on knowledge about how sport is consumed (Funk et al. 2016 ). Sport consumer research is a popular and growing sub-discipline of sport marketing research (Funk 2017 ; Yoshida 2017 ). Sponsorships most prominent context is sport, and generated insights have the potential to impact generic disciplines. For example, sport management research is discussing whether a consumer can identify non-congruent messages in sport marketing more easily than congruent, consistent information (Alonso Dos Santos and Calabuig 2018 ).

3.4.4 Yellow: investigating the commercial aspect of the spectator

Research within the yellow cluster focuses on diverse aspects related to spectator identification, loyalty, and behavior with sport (Lock et al. 2012 ). The terms of the yellow cluster are strongly linked to the concept of team identification, which in turn is strongly linked to marketing research (Heere et al. 2011 ; Katz et al. 2018 ). Psychology also has a great influence on the yellow cluster. Chang et al. ( 2018 ) used the approach of cognitive psychology to create the concept of implicit team identification (iTeam ID). By integrating the unconscious nature of consumption, iTeam ID may provide sport marketers with new insights for understanding fans’ identification with teams.

The density map (Fig.  6 ) shows that the term ‘team’ has the highest density in the field, indicating that more researchers are conducting research related to topics that mention the term team. The terms sport club, sport management, and sport organization are also presented with a high degree of density and would likely overtake the term ‘team’ if more consistent terminology were used. Terms such as league, game, fan, behavior, consumer, identification, participation, sponsorship, and sponsor also have a high density and are all presented in a more concentrated color than the term marketing.

4 Discussion

4.1 productivity and citations.

Despite its relative newness to the WoS, SMR is the most influential journal in the sport management discipline in our analysis of the last decade. During this period, it published the most articles, collected the most local and global citations, and had the highest Impact Factor among the top 5 journals in sport management. In addition, 7 of the 10 most cited articles, including the one with the most citations, were published in SMR. Hence, our study reveals a potential shift from the Journal of Sport Management as the most influential journal in sport management to SMR.

Productivity in the analyzed journals has been dominated by the US. The majority of authors come from the US, indeed the number is eight times higher compared to the European country with the most contributing authors: Germany. However, among the 3 most cited authors in the field are two Germans (Wicker and Breuer), which, by the way, count for 76% of all German citations with 1199 out of 1589 citations. The most cited article comes from an Australian university. The dominance of the US therefore seems to be less due to the quality (what can be derived from the values of LCS and GCS per article), but much more due to the quantity of researchers from the US contributing to sport management. The high number of researchers from the US seems to have an influence on the topics discussed. Sport in the US is more commercial in its basic concept, and community-sport organizations have less influence than is the case in Canada or Europe (Misener and Doherty 2009 ), which in turn may be part of the explanation why commercial logic has taken over in the sport management literature. It is further surprising that the term football is so prominently represented, even though football is called soccer in the US and plays a minor role. Conversely, this indicates that the scholarship of other nations focuses all the more on football.

In terms of authorship, a two-sided picture emerges. On the one hand, there are authors like Kaplanidou and Schulenkorf who have achieved high GCS scores and thus many citations outside the sport management journals. The articles by Kaplanidou were focused on the field of sport events and sport tourism. The most influential articles by Schulenkorf belong to sport for development literature and the most influential article is a review on sport for development, which accounts for a good quarter of the total global citations. Without this article, the value would fall back to the midfield. Research in these areas thus seems well suited to be cited by disciplines outside the field, but less suited to generate traction within the field. In terms of local citations, however, research on consumer satisfaction/behavior and sport organizations, respectively done by Yoshida and Doherty, are leading the scoring board. Lock is the only one whose research on team identification is frequently cited, both within and outside the sport management discipline. This possibly stems from the fact that Lock is also a co-author in other areas, such as sport and social media, eSports or sport consumption, and therefore has a very diverse research portfolio. Whether these findings about the choice of a topic and its influence on citation generation can be systematically replicated remains unclear. It can, however, support academics in choosing future projects and contributes to Funk's ( 2019 ) findings that on the one hand the ‘How?’ influences the diffusion of knowledge and on the other hand the ‘What?’ influences where knowledge can generate impact.

In Ciomaga's ( 2013 ) analysis, the papers with the most citations were reviews. Likewise, the three most cited articles in this analysis are reviews, a phenomenon that can also be observed in other disciplines (Vallaster et al. 2019 ). Surprisingly, the three authors with the most citations do not have an article in the top cited article list. However, the authors also have high scores in the h- and g-indexes, which means that they are highly productive, but also able to gain traction in terms of citations.

4.2 Exploring the thematic complexity of sport management research

In the results section, the thematic clusters were presented and their content discussed. In this section, we link our results to the ongoing debate in some substantive areas within sport management research.

The most obvious finding when looking at the visualization of co-occurrences is also the most influential: the thematic map of sport management research has become more diverse. The thematic complexity of the discipline that we present in our study contrasts significantly with the previous one-dimensionality of issues. Previous reflections mentioned that the focus of sport management research was characterized by a lack of systematic management strategies (Slack 1998 ) and then oscillated to an over-representation of commercial logic (Chalip 2006 ; Ciomaga 2013 ; Gammelsæter 2021 ). Our findings have carved out four thematic clusters and two of them, namely the green cluster on sport marketing and sponsorship and the red cluster on the management of sport organizations and events, are noticeably influenced by management disciplines and commercial thinking. However, both also show research streams that intend only to apply theories from other disciplines in the sport context, but to develop their own theories concerning, for example, the voluntary work of sport clubs, the management of community-sport-organizations or the peculiarities of sport sponsorship. The yellow cluster remains vague in this respect. On the one hand, this thematic group is also dominated by a commercial perspective and deals with the fundamental question of what motivates a spectator to consume sport. In this context, spectators are also referred to as customers, a term normally used in business. On the other hand, sport management scholars managed to establish a firm basis of evidence around the team identification topic. This thematic area, while based on identity theory and the social identity approach, has subsequently built up a sport-specific and data-based knowledge base step by step, rather than accumulating theories through the constant introduction of new general management theories.

The blue cluster in this analysis is a novelty and represents a dominant thematic field of sport management that deals with sport specific characteristics: the team, the fan, the league, and the game. This cluster represents a thematic development of the last decade in sport management research, which is in line with the demand to put sport back into the center of sport management (Gammelsæter 2021 ). It is also important to note that the term ‘team’ is the term on which most research has been conducted. However, this conclusion may also be deceptive, as other thematic fields have greater diversity in the use of terms and, cumulatively, would likely yield more influential scores.

In general, commercial research areas continue to dominate the field. A common characteristic of these topics is that they are related to important sources of income and, hence, the findings are relevant from the perspective of practitioners as well. Sport has its grassroots in voluntary, community-based sport clubs. Despite the ongoing professionalization of sport, most sport organizations have a social background and are non-profit (Misener and Doherty 2009 ). As Morrow ( 2013 ) notes, sport ‘has always been and continues to be […] economic in basis, but social in nature’ (p. 297). In contrast, the term ‘social’ was not represented in our analysis and therefore future research could take a more holistic approach and engage in distinct social aspects of managing sport.

Football (soccer) is the only sport besides major league baseball that appears in the co-word analysis. Moreover, both terms, i.e., soccer and football, are still represented and together their influence would be mapped even more strongly. Nevertheless, football is the most represented sport in the sport management journals in our analysis, thus underlining its significant and leading role in research.

Looking at the development of sport management topics in the past, it is interesting to note that these have grown mainly within sport management journals. Shilbury ( 2011a ) noted that only 25 sport management related papers were published in generic management journals. In contrast, sport entrepreneurship, a young and emerging sub stream of management research in sport, has originated from the field of entrepreneurship and mainly grown up outside the major sport management and marketing journals. Sport entrepreneurship attaches great importance to the specifics of sport (Hammerschmidt et al. 2020 , 2022 ) and can therefore help to support the missing distinctiveness of sport management (Shilbury 2011b ). It remains open whether it is a trend or an exception that new sub streams arise outside the discipline.

4.3 Bridging sport management facets: an integrative view

The integrated view of sport management is a holistic approach that considers the various aspects of sport managements research. This approach recognizes that, for example, the success of a sport organization is not solely dependent on one aspect, such as management or marketing, but rather on the interrelationship of all elements.

In our analysis, we were able to depict the multi-faceted landscape of topics in sport management over the past decade. As described above, the dominant themes and ultimately the concepts and theories that emerged from them can be traced back to a strong influence of commercially oriented generic management research. This commercial focus runs throughout the discipline of sport management. Interestingly, however, the inherent tasks of managing sport lead to a much more diverse landscape of topics. Therefore, the integrative view of sport management does not refer to focused topics, but attempts to point out the multi-faceted nature of sport management through a holistic approach.

An integrated view of sport management considers the management of sport organizations, including the development of unique and sport-specific theories that address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the sport industry. This approach also includes the marketing and sponsorship of sport events and the spectator sport experience. In addition, an integrated view of sport management considers the volunteerism and community engagement aspect of sport organizations, recognizing the important role that volunteers play in the sport management discipline. This approach also embraces the role of sport in promoting social development, for example, through the use of sport as a means of education and promoting healthy lifestyles. The integrated view of sport management thus allows for a better understanding of the sport industry as a whole and the interactions between the different elements of the industry. This can lead to better prediction of industry trends and a more accurate understanding of the competitive landscape. The integrated view of sport management is a holistic approach that considers all aspects of sport organizations and events. Therefore, the integrative view offers opportunities for unique and sport-specific theories, and allows for more effective strategies and decision-making by recognizing the interrelatedness of the sport management elements.

4.4 Sport management research on the rise: a sport-specific perspective

The results of the study underline that sport management research has been attractive outside the field over the last decade. Many of the papers published in sport management and marketing journals are cited in journals from other fields. The ten most cited articles presented in this study show high citation indicators in the general WoS database and are good proof that research in sport management attracts the interest of the larger scientific community. This underlines the findings of Ciomaga ( 2013 ) who analyzed sport management research following the direction of a reference discipline as a trend.

One possible explanation for the increased influence of sport management research is provided by the assumption of Ciomaga ( 2013 ) that sport management research has increasingly shown the ability to build unique theories and thus may become a reference discipline. In this study, we presented the main thematic clusters of sport management research and showed that there are research areas characterized by a gradual development of unique theories. One of these areas is volunteer management in sport, the theories of which are well-developed due to their great relevance for sport clubs and sport events and thus play a leading role in volunteerism research. Another topic is sport for development, of which two articles appear in the ten most cited articles. The term already indicates that these are developed findings from a sport management sub stream that focuses primarily on sport-specific contexts. In addition, the development within the topic area of team identification is noteworthy. The articles we analyzed showed a steady theoretical development because they built on each other stepwise with a high degree of consistency. Although the number of articles in the field of team identification is comparatively small, well-researched and advanced theories and concepts have been developed. Moreover, it has been shown that sport management research has grown and the topics of the discipline have become more diverse, which logically has increased the number and possibilities of theories to be used for other disciplines. In addition, the blue cluster presented in this study (terms: team, fan, league, game) shows a greater cohesion to sport-specific topics compared to the dominant topics presented so far, suggesting that more unique sport management theory is emerging. However, the methods presented in this study cannot answer the question of how sport management research has increased its attractiveness in other disciplines and whether this is related to the emergence of unique theories.

In essence, a reference discipline states its progress of knowledge by getting cited by other disciplines (Shilbury 2011b ). Being a reference discipline is strongly linked to the fundamental debate on conceptual clarity of sport management. The ability to create theories reinforces the view that sport has a special quality (Gammelsæter 2021 ), whereas the application of theory from broader disciplines to sport management suggests that it is rather a sub-discipline of management (Ciomaga 2013 ). Regardless of which way is chosen to generate knowledge in sport management, it should be considered that the diffusion of new theories in sport management proves to be a slow and uncomfortable process (Funk 2019 ). The ongoing debate shows that sport management is still in its discovery phase.

5 Conclusion

This study applied the bibliometric method to analyze the five leading journals in sport management and marketing literature (Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, European Sport Management Quarterly, International Journal of Sport Marketing & Sponsorship, and Sport Marketing Quarterly). The analysis covers data of 1516 articles in the period from 2011 to 2020 and leads to theoretical and practical contributions in several ways.

The bibliometric analysis allowed us to identify key authors, institutions and journals in the field, as well as the mapping of research trends and patterns over time. Our analysis shows that authors from the US dominate, not qualitatively but quantitatively, and suggests that their focus may be part of the explanation why the theoretical structure of the sport management field is highly commercialized. Despite the US dominance, the term football is prominently represented suggesting that football (soccer) is a popular empirical setting for sport management research. In terms of thematic development, commercial thinking in sport management has become firmly entrenched within the discipline and an abrupt change in the prevailing paradigms seems naïve, even if it neglects sport-specific idiosyncrasies as a result. One of these idiosyncrasies is the inherent social nature of sport (Morrow 2013 ), which receives hardly any attention in sport management. The result of our co-word analysis showed that there are four dominant thematic clusters in the field (management of sport organizations and events; team, fan and the game; marketing and sponsorship; behavior and identification of the spectator). Despite the dominance of commercial topics, the cluster around the team, fan and game seems to have evolved out of sport with a focus on the sporting aspect. Moreover, Ciomaga ( 2013 ) predicted that research within sport management will ‘follow lines of research on sport that have been legitimized by reference disciplines’ (p. 572). The analyses of this study indicate that the influence of sport management literature on other disciplines is growing. In addition, developments in substantive areas and the introduction of sport-specific theories in several contexts, including volunteerism, sport for development, or team identification are emerging within the discipline. This enriches the field in diversity and has the potential to (a) drive a paradigm shift to put sport back in the spotlight and (b) increase the legitimacy of the field through growing influence on other disciplines.

On the practical side, our analysis showed that SMR is, in the period under study, the leading journal in almost every productivity category which can be a useful information for authors looking to publish their work, or for organizations and institutions to identify potential partners or competitors. In addition, the analysis of citation data support authors in future articles by showing what research achieved high popularity. Within the study period, reviews in particular achieved high citation scores. Articles in the field of sport for developments, sport events and sport tourism were cited remarkably often outside the discipline. Within sport management, articles in the thematic area of consumer behavior and sport organization in particular achieved high citation values.

The presented findings in this study are constrained by various limitations. Quantitative data were collected from the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) of the Web of Science database. Hence, the limitations of the database also limit the results of this study. Therefore, future studies may select other sport management and marketing journals indexed in other databases (e.g. Scopus) and perform a bibliometric analysis to compare the themes and trends with the results obtained in this study. Further, recognizing scientific contributions and developing academic impact takes time (Xi et al. 2015 ). As a result, recently published articles were yet not able to unfold their full potential and have relatively lower impact than well-established papers in the field. In addition, the journals’ impact was measured based on their scientific productivity, which is influenced by the time period of being indexed in the WoS. As a consequence, we created indexes by putting absolute numbers in relation, like citations per article or global citation score per year. Further, our approach mainly rests on quantitative metrics and the results should therefore not be used to evaluate the research quality of countries, journals, or individual articles and authors. The results can contribute to making such assessments, but we suggest to refrain from using any of the rankings presented here as a direct measure of research quality.

Data availability

No data will be made available for this article.

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The role of sports marketing in attracting audiences towards less popular sports

Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences

ISSN : 2632-279X

Article publication date: 7 December 2020

Issue publication date: 18 April 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine how sports marketing can attract audiences towards less popular sports.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 22 interviews were conducted first to explore the opinions of sports professionals about how audiences can be attracted towards less popular sports. Then 479 responses to an online questionnaire were collected. The online questionnaire includes a pretest-posttest experiment in which each respondent has watched a video. Confirmatory factor analysis, reliability test and hierarchical regression analysis have been performed.

The elements of sports marketing that can help to attract audiences towards less popular sports are sports media, sports advertising, star athlete and sports sponsorship. The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports advertising and attraction towards less popular sports.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a definition of sustainable sports marketing is introduced for the first time. Sustainable sports marketing can be defined as the continuous implementation of marketing activities in the sports context to ensure the continuous existence of the sports themselves (all types of sports) and the prosperity of future generations. Elements that can attract audiences towards less popular sports have been examined for the first time.

• Sports marketing
• Sustainability
• Less popular sports
• Sponsorship
• Advertising
• Star athlete

Sedky, D. , Kortam, W. and AbouAish, E. (2022), "The role of sports marketing in attracting audiences towards less popular sports", Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences , Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 113-131. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHASS-04-2020-0059

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Copyright © 2020, Dalia Sedky, Wael Kortam and Ehab AbouAish.

Published in Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence maybe seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

In January 2017, the Egyptian national football team played in the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon. At the same time, the Egyptian national handball team played in the World Men’s Handball Championship in France. A total of 100 Egyptians were surveyed by the researchers. They were chosen randomly in a convenient way. Of the respondents, 67% did not know about the handball championship; however, the majority of the Egyptians followed passionately the national football team. This pushes the researchers to think about the possibility of attracting audiences towards different types of sports other than football. A total of 22 interviews were conducted with sports professionals to explore their opinions about how audiences can be attracted towards less popular sports (discussed later in the methodology section).

When the taekwondo player Hedaya Malak won a bronze medal in Rio Olympics 2016, media focus was at the peak. Few months later, no one cares. Media focus should be continuous.

As mentioned by the acting executive manager of the Egyptian Taekwondo Federation.

Sports media, sports advertising, star athlete and sports sponsorship are the elements mentioned by the interviewees to attract audiences towards less popular sports. These elements form the integrated sports marketing communication mix. Interviewees have also mentioned that the performance of national teams can attract audiences and media. The stimulus–response theory of learning views any action that is taken by an individual as “a form of learned behavior in response to certain stimuli” ( Baker, 1976 , p. 69). In this research, sports marketing and its elements (sports media, sports advertising, star athlete and sports sponsorship) are the stimuli. However, attraction towards less popular sports is the response. According to Cialdini et al. (1976) and Kwak et al. (2015) , performance of national teams has been used as a moderator (as discussed later).

The purpose of this research is to examine how sports marketing can attract audiences towards less popular sports. Arora and Hartley (2017 , p. 6) have asked a question: “How can a positive sustainable world be initiated?” Trying to find an answer to their question, this research aims to introduce the concept of sustainability to sports marketing. A definition of sustainable sports marketing is introduced for the first time. This research aims not only to provide insights to academic researchers and sports practitioners, but also to protect future generations from the dangers of drugs and terrorism by attracting them to different types of sports. The following paragraphs cover the literature review and hypotheses, research methodology, data analysis and findings, discussion, implications, limitations and future research.

2. Literature review and hypotheses

2.1 less popular sports.

Oxford Dictionary (2018a) defines the word “popularity” as the state of being liked by many people. Accordingly, “less popular” means liked, but not by many people. In the current research, less popular sports refer to sports with a small base of audiences. Football is the most popular sport in Egypt ( Ebrahim et al. , 2018 ). Football in Australia is called soccer; however, it “struggles” to attract media coverage ( Vann et al. , 2015 , p. 108). This indicates that the popularity of a certain sport differs from one country to another depending on the size of its audiences.

The word “niche” is not used in the current research because a market niche refers to “a very homogenous group of consumers” ( Shank and Lyberger, 2015 , p. 242). The audiences of niche sports are more homogenous than those of popular sports ( Greenhalgh and Greenwell, 2013 ). However, the purpose of the current research is to widen the base of audiences of less popular sports and attract individuals from different segments. Similarly, the word “grassroots” is not used because it refers to amateur or non-professional games that anyone can play as a leisure activity ( European Commission Report, 2016 ).

Miloch and Lambrecht (2006) have considered sports such as archery, cycling and bowling as less popular sports because they are not mainstream and do not have a wide base of audiences. Girginov and Hills (2008) have chosen to study volleyball in the UK because it does not have publicity and funding as other sports. Schwarzenberger and Hyde (2013) have described trail running in New Zealand as a less popular sport because of its small base of audiences and limited media coverage. Vann et al. (2015) have described netball in Australia as a less popular sport because of the limited media coverage.

Sparks and Westgate (2002) have described Canadian women’s ice hockey as a less popular sport, when compared with men’s hockey games which have a wide base of audiences and broad media coverage. Trail and Kim (2011) have chosen to study women’s basketball games because they are less popular than football and men’s basketball in the USA. Although tennis has witnessed a huge increase in its base of audiences in China, the sport still faces many challenges ( Xu et al. , 2017 ). Mackintosh et al. (2014) have recommended thinking out of the box to increase the popularity of sports. They have examined the program, created by the English Table Tennis Association, which provides flexible outdoor table tennis facilities to assure the sustainability of the sport itself.

2.2 Attraction

Funk and James (2001) have developed the psychological continuum model, which is composed of four stages – awareness, attraction, attachment and allegiance – to examine how people are psychologically connected with sports. Attraction, in social psychology literature, has been examined between individuals and is referred to as interpersonal attraction ( Singh and Simons, 2010 ). In the sports context, Bee and Havitz (2010 , p. 40) have referred to attraction as the “interest” of a person in a certain sport. Attraction to a sport is formed because of several factors such as personal, psychological and environmental factors which react together producing “interest and liking for” a certain sport ( Funk, 2008 , p. 110). The next paragraphs discuss these two terms “interest” and “liking”.

If one is interested in something, it means that one cares about it ( Harackiewicz and Hulleman, 2010 ). Hidi and Renninger (2006) have defined interest as the tendency to become involved in certain matters or activities. Interest can be classified into two types: individual (personal) interest and situational interest ( Silvia, 2006 ). Individual interest refers to the interest that is formed because of the accumulated knowledge and values of a person and is shaped by his/her personality and traits, whereas situational interest refers to the instant affection that arises because of external factors and may last for a short time ( Harackiewicz and Hulleman, 2010 ).

Situational interest can be maintained to last for a long time through continuous exposure to the external factors, which gives individual interest a chance to be developed ( Silvia, 2006 ). Individual interest is difficult to be managed because it is related to a person’s background; however, situational interest can be fostered by inducing certain catalysts that motivate people to be interested in a certain object ( Hidi and Renninger, 2006 ). The current research handles only situational interest by studying how sports marketing activities can induce people to be interested in less popular sports.

Schraw and Lehman (2001 , p. 23) have defined interest as “liking and willful engagement in a cognitive activity”. Interest and liking have been used interchangeably by these two authors. In the current research, both terms are used interchangeably because studying consumers’ interest in or liking for less popular sports will give the same meaning. Based on what has been previously mentioned, the definition of attraction that has been adopted by this research is “the interest in and liking for a certain sport”. In the pretest-posttest experiment which has been conducted, attraction is measured using this definition (discussed later in the methodology section).

Attraction has been examined in a few sports context research studies ( Filo et al. , 2008 ; Bee and Havitz, 2010 ; Hoegele et al. , 2014b ). Filo et al. (2008) have examined the motives that can attract individuals to charity sports events. Hoegele et al. (2014b) have examined individuals’ attraction to German football stars, who play for competing teams. They have measured attraction to competition by asking whether an individual’s preferred star plays for his/her preferred team or for a competing team.

Bee and Havitz (2010) have examined individuals’ attraction to women’s professional tennis using Madrigal’s (2006) scale. According to Madrigal (2006) , the factors for which individuals experience sports events are fantasy, flow, evaluation, personalities, physical attractiveness and aesthetics. Madrigal’s (2006) scale is different from Wann’s (1995) scale. Wann’s (1995) scale includes eustress, self-esteem, escape, entertainment, economic, aesthetic, group affiliation and family dimensions. Funk (2008 , p.117) has referred to the dimensions of both scales as the “benefits” that individuals can get from sports. Madrigal’s (2006) scale focuses on sports events consumption; however, Wann’s (1995) scale focuses on individuals’ interest in sports ( Madrigal, 2006 ). In the five-point Likert-type scale question of the questionnaire, attraction is measured using items adapted from Wann’s (1995) scale (discussed later in the methodology section).

2.3 Sports marketing

Sports marketing can be used to increase fan’s interest, sports participation and the consumption of sports-related products ( Ratten, 2016 ). The elements of the sports promotion mix include advertising, sponsorship, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion ( Shank and Lyberger, 2015 ). Hopwood (2007 , p. 213) has used the term “sports integrated marketing communications mix” to describe the traditional promotion mix. She has proposed that this mix is broad enough to include elements other than the traditionally known ones to cope with the features of the sports products.

Sports marketing attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way.

2.3.1 Sports media.

Television (TV), radio, the internet and newspapers are considered as the most important outlets of mass media because they are accessed by a large number of people all over the world ( Funk, 2008 ). Media coverage means the amount of attention given by media to shed light on a certain issue ( Shank and Lyberger, 2015 ). The newspapers coverage of the American and Canadian men’s ice hockey teams, competing in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, are more than that of the women’s teams ( Vincent and Crossman, 2012 ). When TV media coverage is little or absent, social media can be used to promote sports where fans can control the content ( Vann et al. , 2015 ).

Sports media attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way.

2.3.2 Sports advertising.

Advertising can help to develop the attraction of audiences towards sports ( Funk, 2008 ). Advertising is used to tell, convince and remind consumers about certain products ( Kotler and Armstrong, 2016 ). One of the issues that has been observed from RIO Olympics 2016 is that companies prefer sport as a channel for advertising because audiences follow the games live and there is a little chance to miss the advertisements ( Plutsky, 2016 ). Using sports as channels to advertise can help to create good responses towards advertisements because of the glamor of the games ( Pyun and James, 2011 ). Kim(Yongjae) et al. (2013) have recommended marketers to make advertisements that emphasize patriotic values during sports events such as the Olympic Games because patriotic advertisements result in creating good reactions towards the advertised brand.

Sports advertising attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way.

2.3.3 Star athlete.

Hyman and Sierra (2010) have used the word “celebrities”. Hoegele et al. (2014a , 2014b ) have used the word “superstars”. Liu and Brock (2011) have used several words in the same paper such as popular athletes and sports stars. In this research, the researchers have chosen to use the words “star athlete” for the purposes of differentiation and specification.

Hoegele et al. (2014a) have defined a star athlete as a player who excels in his/her performance and has an outstanding popularity. The researchers want to add the code of ethics to this definition. It is important that a star athlete has good manners and keeps the code of ethics of sports. The respondents of the questionnaire (as mentioned later in the discussion part) have emphasized this point of view.

According to the theory of meaning transfer ( McCracken, 1989 ), the image of the star is transferred to the product and from the product to the consumer. Star athletes can influence the decisions of young people in Australia to change brands ( Dix et al. , 2010 ). The attractiveness of the star is the most important characteristic that can affect young Egyptians’ intentions to buy, especially the females ( AbouAish, 2011 ).

Star athlete attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way.

2.3.4 Sports sponsorship.

Sports sponsorship is an element of the promotion mix where an exchange exists between a sponsor and a sports entity (athlete, league, team or event) for the benefit of both sides ( Shank and Lyberger, 2015 ). This goes in accordance with the theory of social exchange which states that individuals are inclined to build relationships where benefits are exchanged ( Inoue et al. , 2016 ). Sports catch greatly the attention of sponsors because they can reach audiences all over the world and affect their attitudes ( Plewa and Quester, 2011 ).

Linking corporate social responsibility programs with sports sponsorship has a positive impact on company’s reputation, word of mouth and consumption behaviors ( Walker and Kent, 2009 ). Corporate social responsibility in sports can be in the form of actions that support the environment, cultural diversity, disability, etc. ( Djaballah et al. , 2017 ). From the researchers’ point of view, supporting less popular sports can be one of the forms that links corporate social responsibility with sports sponsorship. Companies are trying to discover new sponsorship opportunities to avoid the crowd of sponsoring popular sports ( Shank and Lyberger, 2015 ). Therefore, sponsoring less popular sports can be a new opportunity for them to exploit.

Sports sponsorship attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way.

2.4 Sustainability, sustainable marketing and sustainable sports marketing

Sustainability is the ability to keep something in existence continuously ( Balbinot and Borim-De-Souza, 2012 ). Sustainability is a concept, that is globally adopted, which aims to enhance the well-being of humankind ( Nkamnebe, 2011 ). Kotler and Armstrong (2016 , p. 627) have defined sustainable marketing as “socially and environmentally responsible marketing” that satisfies the needs of customers and companies and at the same time meets the needs of future generations.

Oxford Dictionary defines sustainability as the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level ( Oxford Dictionary, 2018b ). In September 2015, more than 150 world leaders attended the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York where they have committed to adopt the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development ( United Nations, 2015 ). The International Olympic Committee has started to adopt the concept of “sustainable sports development” since 2002 ( Girginov and Hills, 2008 , p. 2092). This means that marketing activities, to promote sports, are needed to be done continuously.

This research aims to introduce the concept of sustainability to sports marketing. Sustainable sports marketing can be defined as the continuous implementation of marketing techniques in the sports context to ensure the continuous existence of the sports themselves (all types of sports) and the prosperity of future generations. Attracting people to different types of sports may protect future generations from the dangers of drugs and terrorism. This goes in accordance with the theory of utilitarianism which states that the principal goal of one’s action is attaining the welfare of humankind ( Nakano-Okuno, 2011 ).

2.5 Performance of national teams

For the purpose of easy writing, “national performance” has been used in this research to refer to the “performance of national teams” variable. Both names have been used interchangeably. Jang et al. (2015) have found that team performance is an important element which participates in building the reputation of the team. They have defined team performance as the performance that audiences perceive which results in winning. Team performance influences consumers’ intentions to buy the products of sponsors ( Ngan et al. , 2011 ). Kwak et al. (2015) have examined the moderating role of team performance on consumers’ intentions to buy products that carry the logo or name of the team. They have found that when a team performs well, this increases the possibility of buying team-related products.

The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports marketing and attraction towards less popular sports.

The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports media and attraction towards less popular sports.

The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports advertising and attraction towards less popular sports.

The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between star athlete and attraction towards less popular sports.

The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports sponsorship and attraction towards less popular sports.

3. Research methodology

This research is a cross-sectional one where data have been collected at one period of time ( Sekaran, 2003 ). The research design used is a mixed-methods design known as exploratory sequential design where qualitative data have been first collected to explore a certain phenomenon, and then quantitative data have been collected to examine relationships found in the qualitative data ( Creswell, 2012 ). Regarding the qualitative part of the research, a judgment sample was used because the interviewees were chosen based on the judgment of the researchers. A total of 22 unstructured, open-ended, face-to-face interviews were conducted with sports professionals (coaches and managers of clubs, federations and Ministry of Youth and Sports). Each interview was around 40 minutes long, where notes were taken. Interviews were conducted till theoretical saturation was reached ( Bryant, 2017 ). These interviews have provided insights that have helped to choose the research variables, develop the research model and formulate the research hypotheses.

Regarding the quantitative part of the research, a quota sample has been used where gender has been taken into consideration. An online questionnaire has been used because it has included a video that needs to be watched by each respondent. The population elements are all Egyptians whose ages start from 18 years old. The sample subjects are the Egyptians that surf the internet, especially facebook. Sekaran (2003) has provided a table that shows a generalized scientific guideline for sample size decisions. According to that table, the sample size is 384.

Because the response rate to an online questionnaire is low ( Malhotra, 2015 ), 1520 facebook messages have been sent randomly to individuals that are not known to the researchers after checking their facebook accounts to make sure that they are Egyptians. A total of 479 responses to the questionnaire have been received in 53 days. This is more than the decided sample size (384).

The questionnaire (designed using Google Forms) includes 27 statements to measure the independent, the moderator and the dependent variables. The scales items used to measure sports media, sports advertising, star athlete, sports sponsorship and national performance are adapted from Schlinger (1979) , Arai et al. (2013) and Speed and Thompson (2000) and are also developed based on insights from the qualitative interviews and literature review ( Cialdini et al. , 1976 ; Dalakas et al. , 2004 ; Vincent and Crossman, 2012 ). The measurement scale used is a five-point Likert-type scale. The scale items used to measure each variable are given codes.

Attraction is measured using items adapted from Wann’s (1995) scale. Wann’s (1995) scale includes 8 dimensions represented by 23 items. Some dimensions and items are excluded or grouped together. For example, economic dimension is entirely removed because it refers to gambling, which is unaccepted in the Egyptian society. Self-esteem dimension refers to the glory that individuals feel because of the victory of their preferred teams ( Wann, 1995 ). Self-esteem dimension is excluded to prevent any kind of multicollinearity between such a dimension and the moderator of the research (performance of national teams).

Eustress dimension refers to the positive stress that arises from the unpredictable results of the game ( Wann, 1995 ). Escape dimension refers to individuals’ needs to separate themselves from routine activities ( Wann, 1995 ). On the other hand, entertainment dimension refers to individuals’ desires to enjoy life ( Wann, 1995 ). Escape and entertainment dimensions can be merged together into one dimension “escaptertainment”, which means that one escapes from daily routine pressure to enjoy life.

Similarly, group affiliation dimension and family dimension can be grouped together in one dimension “social interaction” as named by Kim(Yu) et al. (2013 , p. 40) because they refer to individuals’ desires to avoid being alone. The final dimension is aesthetics which refers to the artistic feature of sports ( Wann, 1995 ). This dimension is excluded to prevent any kind of multicollinearity between such a dimension and the independent variable (star athlete) because both are related to the performance of athletes.

Attraction is measured using three dimensions which are escaptertainment, social interaction and eustress. Escaptertainment is represented by two statements in the questionnaire, social interaction is represented by one statement and eustress is represented by one statement. Attraction scale consists of four statements. Therefore, it is decided to treat attraction as a first-order construct.

The questionnaire includes a pretest-posttest experiment. One-group pretest-posttest design is a type of pre-experimental designs “in which a group of test units is measured twice, before and after exposure to the treatment” ( Malhotra, 2015 , p. 165). The respondents of the questionnaire have been asked first about whether they will follow a sport event, which will be held in Egypt in 2021, relating to a sport other than football. Then they have watched a video, after which they have been asked again whether they are “interested in and like to” (i.e. attracted to) follow the same sport event.

The video is an advertisement about the World Men’s Handball Championship which will be held in Egypt in 2021. It includes the appearance of a star athlete, the names of sponsors of an old sport event and the name of a TV channel. It shows the performance of the Egyptian national handball team in an old sport event. The video’s duration is about 21 seconds. It includes a song that is played from its beginning and scenes of audiences’ cheers. This video is created by the researchers.

The questionnaire also includes a question that asks about the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The questionnaire was translated into Arabic. Backward translation was done. A pilot test of 20 sample units was conducted to check the difficulties perceived by the respondents. The collected data were revised and tabulated using SPSS. A confirmatory factor analysis (using AMOS) was done to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs.

Convergent validity can be assessed using factor loadings and average variance extracted whose values should be 0.5 or higher as an indication of adequate convergence ( Hair et al. , 2014 ). Table 1 shows that the factor loadings of all scales items are above 0.5, indicating adequate convergent validity except the third item of star athlete variable (star athlete 3) which has a factor loading of 0.350. Therefore, it has been removed. Although (media 3) item has a factor loading of 0.764, it has been decided to remove it because its removal will enhance the final regression estimates. The following statistical analysis excludes these two items (star athlete 3) and (media 3). The values of the average variance extracted of sports media, sports advertising, star athlete, sports sponsorship, national performance and attraction variables are 0.5, 0.592, 0.504, 0.673, 0.5 and 0.57, respectively, indicating adequate convergent validity.

Discriminant validity is assessed by “comparing the average variance extracted values for any two constructs with the square of the correlation estimate between these two constructs” ( Hair et al. , 2014 , p. 620). Table 2 shows that the average variance extracted values (written in italic) are greater than the squared correlation values, indicating adequate discriminant validity. A reliability test was performed to indicate the internal consistency of the items of each scale using SPSS. The recommended level of Cronbach’s alpha is 0.70 or higher ( Hair et al. , 2014 ). Sports media, sports advertising, star athlete, sports sponsorship, national performance and attraction have Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.715, 0.894, 0.803, 0.889, 0.784 and 0.836, respectively, indicating a satisfactory level of internal consistency.

4. Data analysis and findings

A total of 479 valid responses to the online questionnaire were received. The demographic characteristics of the sample are shown in Table 3 . The overall mean of sports media, sports advertising, star athlete, sports sponsorship, national performance and attraction variables are 4.30, 4.07, 4.53, 3.99, 4.13 and 3.75, respectively. A hierarchical regression analysis has been conducted using SPSS to measure the impact of the moderator variable on the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent one ( Berkman and Reise, 2012 ). A hierarchical regression analysis also measures the impact of the independent variables on the dependent variable before using the moderator variable.

Variables named “interaction (1), (2), (3), and (4)” are formed by multiplying each independent variable by the moderator after centering (subtracting the mean from each observation value) the independent variables and the moderator variable to avoid multicollinearity ( Field, 2013 ). These variables are formed to examine the interaction effect of the moderator variable on the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent one ( Field, 2013 ). A hierarchical regression analysis enters all variables at one time in three blocks. The first block includes the independent variables, the second block includes the moderator and the third block includes the interaction variables to measure the change in R 2 .

Table 4 shows that the assumption of no multicollinearity is supported because the values of the tolerance are greater than 0.10 and the values of the variable inflation factor (VIF) are less than 10 ( Hair et al. , 2014 ). Table 4 shows that F-test is significant ( p = 0.000). Table 4 also shows that the independent variables (sports media, sports advertising, star athlete and sports sponsorship) explain 27.7% of the variance of the dependent variable (attraction towards less popular sports).

The coefficient ( B ) of sports media variable is 0.144 ( p = 0.039), which means that as sports media increases by one unit, attraction will increase by 0.144 unit. Therefore, sports media attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way. Thus, H1a is supported at 95% confidence level. The coefficient ( B ) of sports advertising variable is 0.210 ( p = 0.002), which means that as sports advertising increases by one unit, attraction will increase by 0.210 unit. Therefore, sports advertising attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way. Thus, H1b is supported at 95% confidence level.

The coefficient ( B ) of star athlete variable is 0.340 ( p = 0.000), which means that as star athlete increases by one unit, attraction will increase by 0.340 unit. Therefore, star athlete attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way. Thus, H1c is supported at 95% confidence level. The coefficient ( B ) of sports sponsorship variable is 0.155 ( p = 0.006), which means that as sports sponsorship increases by one unit, attraction will increase by 0.155 unit. Therefore, sports sponsorship attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way. Thus, H1d is supported at 95% confidence level.

When the national performance variable (moderator) is entered, R 2 is increased from 27.7% to 40.5%. There is a significant positive relationship between the national performance variable (moderator) and attraction towards less popular sports ( p = 0.000). When the interaction variables are entered, R 2 is increased from 40.5% to 41.2%. Table 4 shows that the relationship between interaction 1 variable (product of multiplication of media and national performance variables after centering them) and attraction is not significant ( p = 0.368). Therefore, national performance variable does not moderate the relationship between sports media and attraction. Thus, H2a is not supported.

Table 4 shows that the relationship between interaction 2 variable (product of multiplication of advertising and national performance variables after centering them) and attraction is significant ( p = 0.021). As national performance increases by one unit, the influence of sports advertising on attraction towards less popular sports will increase by 0.151 unit. Therefore, national performance variable moderates the relationship between sports advertising and attraction. Thus, H2b is supported at 95% confidence level. The influence of sports advertising on attracting audiences towards less popular sports increases when the themes of advertisements focus on the achievements of national teams.

Table 4 shows that the relationship between interaction 3 variable (product of multiplication of star athlete and national performance variables after centering them) and attraction is not significant ( p = 0.441). Therefore, national performance variable does not moderate the relationship between star athlete and attraction. Thus, H2c is not supported. Table 4 also shows that the relationship between interaction 4 variable (product of multiplication of sponsorship and national performance variables after centering them) and attraction is not significant ( p = 0.083). Therefore, national performance variable does not moderate the relationship between sports sponsorship and attraction. Thus, H2d is not supported.

To sum up, it can be concluded that H1a–H1d hypotheses are supported. Thus, H1 is supported at 95% confidence level. This means that sports marketing attracts audiences towards less popular sports in a significant positive way. It can also be concluded that H2a , H2c and H2d are not supported; however, H2b is supported. Thus, H2 hypothesis is not supported except for sports advertising element. This means that the performance of national teams does not moderate the relationship between sports marketing and attraction towards less popular sports except for sports advertising element.

5. Discussion

Although the hypotheses of this research have been tested using scales items as previously mentioned, the researchers have decided to expose the respondents of the questionnaire to a pretest-posttest experiment in which each respondent has watched a video (as discussed in the methodology section). Before watching the video, the answers of the respondents show that 66% of them will follow the news of an international sport event which will be held in Egypt in 2021, whereas 34% of them have mentioned that they will not follow. After watching the video, 17.3% of the respondents have mentioned that they are not interested in or like to follow the news of this championship. It can be noticed that the percentage of the respondents who are not “interested in or like to” (i.e. attracted to) follow the news of this championship have decreased from 34% to 17.3% after watching the video. It can be concluded that designing attractive marketing campaigns can attract audiences towards less popular sports and change their way of thinking.

Egyptians are eager to sports other than football. They want media to shed more light on less popular sports. Of the respondents, 78.5% encourage increasing the amount of coverage allocated to less popular sports in the news. A total of 87.1% of them encourage making programs about less popular sports local competitions. This is because most of the news and programs are about football. Of the respondents, 89.8% assure that light should be shed on children and young people who are participating in less popular sports local competitions. Young people may change future generations’ behaviors regarding these sports.

Egyptians support the idea of making less popular sports advertisements. Of the respondents, 81.2% encourage making advertisements that induce people to follow less popular sports. A total of 84.9% of them agree that advertisements (if existed) will increase their knowledge about less popular sports. Egyptians give great consideration to the manners of athletes. Watching fights between football players drives them to search for good examples in less popular sports. Of the respondents, 92.7% prefer less popular sports athletes who respect their competitors. A total of 85% of them prefer less popular sports athletes who are socially responsible towards their society.

Egyptians appreciate companies which support less popular sports because these companies serve their society. Of the respondents, 75.2% encourage companies to sponsor less popular sports. A total of 78.3% of them agree that sponsoring less popular sports is a corporate social responsibility towards the society. Egyptians are affected by less popular sports achievements because they arise patriotic feelings. Of the respondents, 89.8% feel proud when less popular sports national teams gain Olympic medals. A total of 77.7% of them feel sad when these teams lose. A total of 70.8% of the Egyptian respondents agree that watching or practicing less popular sports renews their energy to be able to meet the challenges of life. A total of 53% of them agree that watching less popular sports gives them the opportunity to be with their families and friends. These descriptive statistics results have provided insights to write the practical implications.

6. Theoretical implications

This research has developed and tested a conceptual framework that identifies the elements which attract audiences towards less popular sports for the first time. Academic researchers can use sustainable sports marketing as the new name of sports marketing with the aim of having better marketing and better world. Many previous research studies, which discussed different types of less popular sports, have been reviewed and displayed for the first time in one research. This can be a reference for academic researchers in case they need to use in their research studies.

7. Managerial implications

Sports organizations need to hire professional marketers to design creative marketing campaigns to increase attraction towards less popular sports. When marketers design sports advertisements, they can depend on ideas that show how less popular sports refresh one’s life and increase family ties. Marketers can highlight the achievements of less popular sports national teams when they design marketing campaigns. Marketers can depend on star athletes to attract audiences towards less popular sports. Marketers need to choose star athletes whose manners are highly regarded by audiences to appear in less popular sports advertisements.

High ranking positions in the country can direct different media outlets, especially state media, to make programs about less popular sports and to increase the amount of coverage allocated to less popular sports in the news. Light can be shed on children and young people who are participating in less popular sports. Sports organizations can convince sponsors to support less popular sports as doing part of their corporate social responsibilities. Sponsoring less popular sports can be a new opportunity for companies to exploit to save costs and avoid the crowd of sponsoring popular sports. Supporting less popular sports needs to be a top-down strategy adopted by the country to guarantee the sustainability of supporting these sports.

8. Research limitations and future research

This research is applied only in Egypt. Future research can be done in different countries using facebook messages. This research is a cross-sectional one. Future research may adopt longitudinal research design. Data gathered using online questionnaires have limitations ( Malhotra, 2015 ) because respondents may be enthusiastic and only individuals with access to the internet can be included in the sample. However, facebook messages have allowed the researchers to reach individuals from different governorates of Egypt, which would be difficult to be done if personally administered questionnaire was used.

Although the video in the pretest-posttest experiment is about a handball event, attraction towards less popular sports is measured using a five-point Likert-type scale as mentioned in the methodology section. Future research can be done to investigate the opinions of sponsors regarding supporting less popular sports. Future research can be conducted to examine the impact of movies industry, sports events and social media on attracting audiences towards less popular sports as mentioned by some of the interviewees. Researchers can start to depend on attraction as a variable to build their conceptual models instead of the traditional concepts. Future research can be done to examine the opinions of professionals about sustainable sports marketing definition.

9. Conclusion

Sustainable sports marketing can be defined as the continuous implementation of marketing activities in the sports context to ensure the continuous existence of the sports themselves (all types of sports) and the prosperity of future generations. The elements of sports marketing that can help to attract audiences towards less popular sports are sports media, sports advertising, star athlete and sports sponsorship. The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports advertising and attraction towards less popular sports.

Audiences can be attracted towards less popular sports if right marketing tools are used. The performance of less popular sports national teams can be the starting point that ignites their attention. Shedding light on less popular sports well-behaved athletes may satisfy audiences’ search for role models, away from football players’ fights. Audiences appreciate companies which support less popular sports because these companies do their social roles. Audiences encourage less popular sports advertisements and media programs because they will increase their knowledge about these sports. Highlighting children and young people who are participating in less popular sports may help to change future generations’ behaviors regarding these sports.

Scales items’ factor loadings

Discriminant validity assessment

Sample’s demographic characteristics

Hierarchical regression analysis results

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Contingency framework for strategic sports marketing

Sports marketing, implementing and controlling the strategic sports marketing process, emergence of sports marketing, impact of team identification on fans’ trust after negative incident: moderating role of mass media.

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6 Market research in the sport industry

Learning Objectives

• Define market research and explain its importance in the context of sports marketing.
• Analyse different market research methods used in the sports industry, such as focus groups and interviews, and understand how to apply these methods effectively.
• Evaluate the benefits and limitations of using market research to inform sports marketing strategies.
• Analyse how sports organisations can use data to make informed decisions, such as analysing customer demographics, preferences, and behaviour.
• Understand the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) and its relationship with sports marketing.

Introduction

Sports marketing is a highly competitive industry where success depends on effectively reaching and engaging with a large and loyal fan base. To achieve this, market research and data analytics are crucial tools to help sports marketers understand their target audience and develop effective marketing strategies. While last week we discussed market segmentation and target marketing, it’s important to understand how fans perceive a sports brand.

This week we will emphasise the significance of market research and data analytics in sports marketing and how they can provide a competitive advantage. While you are already exploring these concepts in the Fundamental of Marketing Analytics unit, we will delve deeper and apply them specifically to the sports industry.

What is market research?

Market research encompasses various components beyond just telemarketing and focus groups in the new age of digital fan engagement. Sports organisations can use market research to gain a deeper understanding of their customers (fans), their environment, and the values that are significant to them.

There are numerous ways that market research can assist sports organisations. Watch the following video [1] to get some insights into how some companies have used market research to better position their brand in competitive markets.

Now let’s test your knowledge on this video!

So that is interesting for non-sports brands but what are some of the most common ways sport clubs gather information from their fans?

• Focus Groups: Focus groups are always a collective of people (more than 2 people who are usually sat together) and asked their opinions on a topic.

According to Caroline Oates and Panayiota Alevizou (2018), the three types of focus groups that can be used by the sports marketing team to understand their fans better are unstructured focus groups, exploratory focus groups , and semi-structured focus groups . Focus groups are where a bunch of fans (can either be from a particular segment or just random) sit in a room and are asked questions about their thoughts and experiences [2] .

• Interviews: Interviews are valuable for sport marketers to gain insights into the thoughts and perceptions of their fan base, especially when focusing on specific segments such as female fans under 30, to understand their perspectives on their club or interest in sports.

However, interviewing fans is tricky (trust me I know) and to ensure you get the most out of the interview it is important to know how to ask the right questions! Let’s look at a research study conducted by Ron Garland and others who wanted to know why NZ Rugby Union had declined – in a similar fashion to the decline of Rugby Union in Australia [3] .

Here is some context for you. [4] .

You will find a full copy of their research in this weeks extended readings but basically the researchers wanted to find out two things;

• To identify issues that influence New Zealand provincial rugby union spectators to attend professional provincial rugby events.
• To identify the differential influence of these issues upon different groups of fans with a view to adopting segmentation strategies for subsequent marketing effort.

Through interviewing 150 fans they found that most important factor influencing attendance was the live sport action itself. However, other factors such as stadium conditions, atmosphere, and community involvement, affected different fan groups differently, indicating targeted marketing tactics may encourage home game attendance [5] .

Data Diving

Sports organisations can utilise a vast amount of data to inform their marketing strategies. Unlike interviews and focus groups, the collection and analysis of big data can provide a holistic picture of the market. This can include broad demographic information from sources like ABS data (Australian Bureau of Statistics) or more specific data gleaned from fan engagement with the sports organisation’s app, website, ticketing, and membership purchases.

Sports organisations can use different types of data to help guide their marketing strategies. Data can come from a variety of sources, such as fan engagement, demographic information, and data from Ausplay , which shows what sports people enjoy and how much they are moving. This information can be helpful for teams to grow their brand exposure and make sure they have fans for a long time, not just attending games.

Remember- having strong junior numbers is important for the financial success of sports teams, so it’s essential to improve the teams reach at the grassroots level. Using data in these ways can help sports organisations stay competitive and successful. Have a look at the most recent AUSPLAY report (click the link here) [6] and answer the following questions.

Sports organisations can also collect data from their own platforms, such as their website, app, and ticketing system. This data includes information about who downloads their app, purchases tickets and merchandise, and who is reading news about player signings. For paid members of a sports team,  it is likely they may receive targeted emails about special tickets and discounts or personalised messages. For example, every year I receive an email from Everton Football Club wishing me a happy birthday! This data helps sport organisations to better understand their audience and create targeted marketing campaigns.

But it goes further…

Have a read of the article linked here called How The Patriots Use Data To Try To Improve The Fan Experience [7]

As the above article explains, the New England Patriots, a professional American football team, have a team of data experts called the Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) who collect data about their fans’ behaviours. They track fan purchases, ticket sales, email responses, and even parking lot attendance to understand their customers and improve their fan experience. KAGR’s data helps the Patriots make better decisions about game-day staffing, stadium improvements, and ticket prices. The team can also use this data to forecast when fans will arrive at the stadium and how many will show up for each game. KAGR even tracks which fans are missing games and why which means the Patriots can use this information to build stronger relationships with their fans. While some people might be concerned about the team collecting so much information, the Patriots say it’s a way to serve their fans better.

What is CRM and it relationship with market research in sport?

In this weeks additional reading Fried and Mumcu (2016) offers you a detailed explanation of what analytics in sports marketing can look like. They argue that the goal of sports marketing is to attract individuals to games and events, but being a fan does not always convert individuals into loyal attendees [8] . Think about your own fandom – are you a fan of a club possibly overseas where you don’t necessarily attend the games or a fan of your local team but rarely make it to live games?

We know that the challenge for sport marketers is to convert fans into long-term loyal customers who are active in their consumption of tickets and other sport related items. Fried and Mumca (2016) explains that customer relationship management (CRM) then becomes a crucial tool for successful sport organisations to engage with their customers effectively by sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time via the right platform.

Mumca in her chapter on analytics in sports marketing argues that CRM systems provide a comprehensive view of an organisation’s customer base via information technology systems [9] . Whilst this is a HUGE topic and you don’t need to know the intricacies of operating systems it is important to understand how CRM is increasingly becoming one of the most important tools for sports teams to use to hit the mark with their fans!

As the above video [10] explores, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and analytics are both important components of sports organisations. CRM refers to the processes and technologies used by sports teams to manage and analyse their interactions with fans and customers, while analytics involves the collection, processing, and analysis of data to derive insights and make informed decisions [11] .

So the relationship is simple! In the sports industry, analytics is used to build on a sports team CRM strategies by providing teams with a better understanding of their fans and customers. By analysing data from sources such as ticket sales, social media, and online engagement, teams can gain insights into their customers’ behaviours and preferences. This information can then be used to tailor marketing campaigns and improve the overall customer experience, ultimately leading to increased revenue and fan engagement.

Therefore successful sport organisations practice CRM as a business philosophy and use data analytics to understand their fans in great detail to build deeper long-term relationships and add value.

Media Attributions

• Computer screen showing data © Carlos Muza
• Attest 2022, How TOP brands use market research – with examples! , 14 January, online video, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtPCyQaMeu8>. ↵
• Oates, C & Alevizou, P 2018, Conducting focus groups for Business and Management students , SAGE, London. ↵
• Garland, R, Macpherson, T & Haughey, K 2004, 'Rugby fan attraction factors', Marketing Bulletin , vol. 15, article 3. ↵
• ABC News Australia 2021, What went wrong? A look at the state of Rugby Union | The Drum, 5 March, online video, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HfuC-XefFs>. ↵
• Australian Sports Commission 2022, AUSPLAY™: National sport and physical activity participation report: November 2022 , Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. ↵
• Springer, S 2016, 'How the Patriots use data to try to improve the fan experience', 22 December, wbur: Morning Edition, <https://www.wbur.org/morningedition/2016/12/22/kraft-analytics-group>. ↵
• Fried, G & Mumcu, C (eds) 2016, Sport analytics: A data-driven approach to sport business and management, Routledge, London. ↵
• Mumcu, C 2016, 'Analytics in sport marketing', in G Fried & and C Mumca (eds), Sport Analytics, Routledge, London, pp. 113-36. ↵
• Salesforce 2021, What is CRM and how does it work? , 24 March, online video, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlhESAKF1Tk>. ↵
• Kim, KT, Kwak, DH & Kim, YK 2010, 'The impact of cause-related marketing (CRM) in spectator sport', Journal of Management & Organization , vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 515-27. ↵

Sports Marketing Copyright © by Jessica Richards is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Perspective article, building bridges: connecting sport marketing and critical social science research.

• Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

Recently, sport management scholars have called for researchers to critically evaluate the ways in which research questions and resulting contributions truly disrupt what is known, how it is known, why it is important to know, and for whom. Historically, sport marketing research has adapted traditional research approaches from the parent marketing discipline to sport. Yet, sport is a constantly evolving social and cultural phenomenon and a reliance on conventional theories, concepts, and methods can serve to crystalize the discourse in sport marketing in ways that may limit knowledge production. Responding to this call, we believe that sport marketing research has much to gain from engaging with critical social science assumptions, worldviews, and perspectives to examine complex issues in sport. We position this paper as a starting point for advancing the field of sport marketing in meaningful and impactful ways by offering two research propositions, each accompanied by four actional recommendations. We employ a particular focus on the marketing campaigns that activate and promote corporate partnerships in sport to frame our two propositions, which discuss (1) consumer culture theory and (2) the circuit of culture as two important frameworks that begin to build bridges between sport marketing and critical social science.

Introduction

Researchers of sport and sport-related groups are being nudged by institutions, funding bodies, and publication “gatekeepers” (e.g., editors and reviewers) to justify the value of their work in ways that move beyond addressing a gap in the literature. While “gap-spotting” is a common way to formulate research questions from existing literature, Sandberg and Alvesson ( 1 ) claim that “it does not actively challenge the assumptions underlying existing theory” (p. 33). Alternatively, they suggest that problematization leads to more innovative and novel research questions that “disrupt the reproduction and continuation of an institutionalized line of reasoning” [( 1 ), p. 32]. Recently, Stenling and Fahlén ( 2 ) call for sport management researchers (broadly interpreted) to consider what is “worthwhile knowledge” and to “clarify on whose behalf a study is conducted and, thus, for whom, in what ways, and why its contribution is important” (p. 16). Further, their recommendations for sport management researchers align with Sandberg and Alvesson ( 1 ) in that research should disrupt prevailing assumptions to build “new, significant, and meaningful knowledge that alters the way we understand and explain sport management practice” [( 2 ), p. 16]. In the field of sport marketing specifically, Kim et al. [( 3 ), p. 59] argue that sport marketing research has historically “been more normal research practice focusing on post-positivistic [consumer] behavior-based studies,” with the notion of “normal research” stemming from Kuhn's [( 4 ), p. 163] reference to a “highly convergent activity based firmly upon a settled consensus acquired from scientific education and reinforced by subsequent life in the profession.” Kim et al. [( 3 ), p. 59] highlight the need for “optimal balance between normal research with convergent thinking and innovative practices with divergent ideas” for scientific progress.

The purpose of this commentary is to serve as a point of departure for discussions on progressing the field of sport marketing in meaningful and impactful ways. We echo Stenling and Fahlén's ( 2 ) “call to arms” with an explicit focus on bridging sport marketing and critical social science. We agree with others who advocate for collapsing disciplinary silos [e.g., ( 5 , 6 )], and assert that sport marketing research has much to gain from engaging with critical social science assumptions, worldviews, and perspectives to examine complex issues in sport. We outline how sport marketing researchers may challenge the pre-existing assumptions in the field by encouraging others to “read ‘horizontally' to gain a ‘multi-silo' perspective of the phenomenon of interest, thereby facilitating the creation of knowledge that makes us think of phenomena in new ways” [( 2 ), pp. 16–17]. In what follows, we discuss two research propositions, (1) consumer culture theory and (2) the circuit of culture, as two important frameworks that integrate sport marketing and critical social science. From the outset, we acknowledge that these are only two of many potential areas for synthesis, and even within these frameworks, there are numerous possibilities to explore. However, to help others envision our proposals, for each proposition we offer actionable recommendations as innovative research directions that promise new knowledge discovery.

Frisby [( 7 ), p. 2] describes critical social science as “a way of empowering individuals by confronting injustices in order to promote social change.” Research that adopts critical approaches features prominently in sport sociology, with scholars suggesting that incorporating these perspectives into sport management research can advance the field ( 8 ). Researchers that utilize a critical view “are concerned about goals other than profit and with representing the interests of those affected by managerial actions, such as workers, athletes, volunteers, customers, marginalized populations, and the public at large” [( 7 ), p. 6]. These approaches appear infrequently in journals within the domain of sport marketing, despite their importance in sport management research for “unpacking the less-desirable aspects of sport as a social system,” resulting in a stable foundation “upon which positive change in sport can be made” [( 9 ), p. 9]. According to Sayer [( 10 ), p. 768], the job of critical social science is “to ‘unsettle' existing academic ideas.” Therefore, incorporating critical social science approaches into sport marketing research may help to “expand our understanding of sport's role in society, how it may be an exclusionary space and to provide a strong theoretical basis for practical improvements by challenging power relations” [( 9 ), p. 2].

Sport is a commodity and practice, and is a globally popular, highly visible, and influential part of society. Corporate brands use the appeal and excitement of sport to communicate their messages to consumers ( 11 ) and accomplish their business objectives ( 12 ). Currently there is momentum—and arguably a strong need—for professional sport (and related corporate partnerships) to have positive social impact, to help achieve social justice, and to minimize (the effects of) inequality. Arguably, sport marketing plays an equally important role in attracting large audiences to sport and associating corporate brands with the social and cultural values of sport. In this sense, marketing campaigns that activate and promote corporate partnerships with sport are “privileged form[s] of social communication” that can be utilized by marketers to influence culture, social interactions, and identities [( 13 ), pp. 103–104]. Through marketing, brands create powerful stories and compelling narratives that consumers use to process their own tensions, desires, and anxieties that originate from broader societal problems ( 14 ). For example, Nike's “For Once Don't Do It” advertisement following the Black Lives Matter Movement, Amazon's Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, and Scotiabank's “Hockey for All” campaign, to name a few. Yet, the “corporatization, privatization, and branding” of social justice issues by commercial organizations has become “increasingly complex, messy, and blurred” [( 15 ), p. 523], with regards to corporate intentions and “rising consumer expectations of corporate social responsibility” [( 16 ), p. 132]. As consumers become more discerning of corporate partnerships with sport, brands may be perceived as exploitative, disingenuous, and superfluous ( 17 – 20 ). Additionally, athletes and coaches, given their celebrity status and large followings, can “shape fans' attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors” [( 21 ), p. 36], which can influence how sport marketers communicate with consumers. Crucially, framing sport marketing and consumer research from a position that upholds sport as a distinct social and cultural practice and queries why and how definitions and meanings of sport serve some interests over others [e.g., professional athlete, sport organization, corporate entity, fan/consumer; ( 22 )], begins a long, convoluted journey to problematize and disrupt our assumptions about the association of corporate brands with sport.

Consumer culture theory

Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) “refers to a family of theoretical perspectives that address the dynamic relationship between consumer actions, the culture marketplace, and cultural meanings” [( 23 ), p. 868]. It consists of four salient, interconnected theoretical dimensions consisting of: “(1) consumer identity projects, (2) marketplace cultures, (3) the sociohistoric patterning of consumption, and (4) mass-mediated marketplace ideologies and consumers' interpretive strategies” [( 23 ), p. 871]. According to CCT, supporters can create and attribute meaning to the images, texts, and objectives that are commercially produced and through which consumers make sense of their environment, which can lead to consumers redefining the meaning of a brand based on their collective interpretation thereof ( 14 , 24 ). Thus, supporter groups may dictate the symbolism of brands associated with sport, with positive values (e.g., distinctiveness) benefitting the brand ( 25 ), and resistance occurring if they do not perceive that the team derives value from the connection ( 18 ). Rokka [( 14 ), p. 114] recently commented that “CCT's future looks promising in its commitment and ability to foster critical, contextually sensitive, and reflexive cultural insights into marketing—an important foundation for marketing strategy and practices.” As such, CCT can play a role in exploring the contextual factors that influence how supporters and supporter groups interpret and attribute meaning to a brand.

At present, much sport marketing consumer research is largely informed by cognitive psychological (behavioral) or economic theories. While these studies are important for continued understanding of consumer attitudes toward products/services and purchasing behaviors, there is an opportunity to engage with CCT and social theories (e.g., social constructivism, feminism, critical race theory) to critique “the structural foundations and limitations of the consumers' experiential universe” [( 26 ), p. 386]. CCT is often set within the context of social historical production as well as the prevailing socio-economic conditions, which contextualizes consumer-based practices and perspectives within the structures and systems that transcend lived experience. This allows “CCT researchers [to look] toward understanding market systems and dynamics and [approach] consumer culture not just as a matter of what consumers do but also how the world in which they do it is constituted” [( 27 ), p. 135]. Ultimately, the goal is to give greater consideration to “the context of contexts” [( 26 ), p. 396]. That is, to “pay increased attention to the contexts that condition consumption” [( 26 ), p. 389]. Sport marketing research needs to, in the very least, consider how consumption experiences are embedded within broader social structures, cultural norms, and ideological injustices, including (among others): racism, gender relations, homophobia, and classism. These contexts cannot be ignored as consumers navigate, engage in, and challenge everyday consumer culture. “Looking at the ways that everyday consumption practices reproduce larger cultural and social frameworks is also a matter of asking not only how consumption is influenced by social forms and processes, but how it participates in the constitution of society” [( 26 ), p. 396]. Given this discussion, we offer our first research proposition and four corresponding actionable recommendations.

Proposition 1: Critical engagement with CCT can provide a lens to examine realities beyond the individual sport consumer/fan.

Actionable Recommendations:

• Develop a better understanding of the meanings and values linked with signs, symbols, rituals, and traditions that shape brand community identity creation and development in sport.

• Generate a better understanding of the micro- and macro-level contextual influences (systemic and structural) of market and social systems that guide sport consumption experiences, identities, and communities.

• Seek a better understanding of the important actors (e.g., marketers, sport organization executives, brand executives) that participate in the contexts of sport consumption—actors that have their own social and cultural values.

• Establish a better understanding of ‘sport consumer-brand consumption' relationships as functions of sport, wherein both sport and consumption are recognized as social and cultural practices that can confer identity, values, and beliefs.

The circuit of culture

Previous research on sport-related advertising and the communication of corporate brand partnerships in sport have adopted the circuit of culture as a framework to critically analyze sport-related promotion and advertising ( 28 , 29 ). Accordingly, the circuit of culture, which traces the “lifecycle” of a commodity in contemporary society ( 30 ), has become an important component of research related to the growth of advertising, consumption, and commercialization within society ( 31 ). It consists of five interrelated cultural processes: production, representation, consumption, and identity, the components necessary to adequately examine commodities ( 30 ). As a circuit, the starting point is irrelevant, since the journey of explaining the meaning of an artifact involves analysis at each moment; cognizant that the processes are not distinct, rather each element converses with and blends into the next ( 30 ), overlapping one another and, hence, mutually defining and jointly dependent ( 32 ). It is the combined articulation or linkages of these processes that begin to explain the meaning cultural artifacts possess and the identities that they construct and/or embody ( 30 ). According to du Gay et al. [( 30 ), p. 3], the five interlinked spheres facilitate the exploration of cultural artifacts in terms of “how it is represented, what social identities are associated with it, how it is produced and consumed, and what mechanisms regulate its distribution.”

In sport contexts, research often focuses more on the representation and identity components, and fails to examine consumption and regulation ( 31 ). Thus, this research captures more of the critical perspective that misappropriation and inaccurate representation can have on groups of people ( 28 ), while analyzing the individuals that are responsible for generating the advertisements ( 33 ). Conversely, sport marketing research often does not consider the content or sociocultural implications of advertisements (particularly on marginalized groups), nor that of the activations undertaken by brands involved with sport, instead focusing on the consumption of products (e.g., purchase intention), attitudinal outcomes (e.g., sponsor image), and other sponsorship constructs, including supporter identification, fit, and awareness ( 34 , 35 ).

In critical social science research, sport-related advertisements are critically analyzed using the circuit of culture framework to examine the content, how the advertisement was produced, how the cultural intermediaries responsible for creating the advertisement chose to represent the sexuality, gender, and race of the people that appeared in the advertisement, and how the advertisement was consumed and interpreted by viewers ( 28 ). However, the focus of this research adopts the critical perspective without considering the marketing-related outcomes for the advertised brand (e.g., awareness, attitudes) after the advertisement has been processed and interpreted. Therefore, marketing research evaluating corporate brand partnerships in sport should incorporate critical analysis of the production, identity, and consumption contained within the circuit of culture to move beyond the individual consumer into the broader societal and cultural context surrounding the positioning of the advertised brand. Given this discussion, we offer our second research proposition and four corresponding actionable recommendations.

Proposition 2: The circuit of culture offers a framework to explore how consumers react to and interpret the content of marketing campaigns that activate and promote corporate partnerships in sport.

• Examine how advertising content and messaging influences consumers' subsequent attitudinal and behavioral responses to the advertisements.

• Explore the power relations between cultural intermediaries and marginalized populations and any resulting social injustices.

• Investigate how marketers' idealized and/or stereotypical representations of particular groups (e.g., men/women, racial, Indigenous, LGBTIQ2S+, etc.) can impact a group's identity and consumption behaviors.

• Analyze the manner in which a product's intended meaning is altered through consumption experiences and identity regulation.

In this commentary, we propose two research propositions that connect sport marketing and critical social science research. These are unorthodox but imperative proposals that require radical reconsideration of two research fundamentals. First, these propositions challenge traditional ontological marketing worldviews that embrace a (post)positivist paradigm ( 3 ), and instead advocate for ontological claims that “reality is created through [macro and] microsocial interactions” (interpretivist paradigm) and/or “reality is rooted in the tensions surrounding historically entrenched power relations” (critical realist paradigm; [( 7 ), pp. 2–3]. Second, these propositions prompt the need for new research designs (e.g., ethnography) that necessitate the integration of qualitative or multi/mixed methods, which diverts from the “normal research” [( 4 ), p. 163] that is generally conducted in sport marketing. Taken together, we uphold that these propositions open up possibilities for sport marketing research to be innovative and impactful, to disrupt repeated and institutionalized lines of reasoning/inquiry, and to create new expectations for what is worthwhile knowledge in the field.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Author contributions

ZE was responsible for conceptualizing and writing the manuscript. SG and TE offered guidance on the conceptualization and writing of the manuscript, in addition to edits, revisions, and helping to re-write some parts of the final manuscript. All authors have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to this manuscript and approved the manuscript in the form in which it was submitted.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: consumer research, commercialization, circuit of culture, consumer culture theory, corporate partnerships

Citation: Evans ZCT, Gee S and Eddy T (2022) Building bridges: Connecting sport marketing and critical social science research. Front. Sports Act. Living 4:970445. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2022.970445

Received: 15 June 2022; Accepted: 29 August 2022; Published: 16 September 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Evans, Gee and Eddy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Zachary Charles Taylor Evans, evans11o@uwindsor.ca

This article is part of the Research Topic

Insights in Sports Social Science

Increased Exposure to Women in Sport Increases Familiarity and Liking

Authors: Beth Dietz

Department of Psychology, Miami University, Middletown, Ohio, US

Corresponding Author:

Beth Dietz Department of Psychology, Miami University Middletown, OH 45044 [email protected]

Dr. Beth Dietz is a professor of psychology at Miami University. Her research interests include social identity, sport fans and spectators, women in sport, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Purpose: The quantity of media coverage of sports played by females has not achieved parity with coverage of sports played by males. Additionally, coverage of sport played by females is often regarded as boring, uninteresting, and bland. The current study tests the hypothesis that as exposure to sport and gender increases, so will liking. Methods: Participants completed measures of familiarity, liking, and knowledge before and after a course on Sport and Gender. Results: The results showed increases over time in liking-to-watch, frequency-of-watching, knowledge of and familiarity with sport played by women (results also showed increases for neutral sports and sports played by males). Conclusions: These results suggest that repeated exposure to sports played by females leads to greater liking and interest. Applications: Increasing exposure to sports played by females in the media and in classrooms will lead to increased liking of, and likely demand, for sports played by females.

Branding in women’s sports: A literature review

Authors: Isabell Mills

Corresponding Author: Isabell Mills, PhD 1400 E Hanna Ave Indianapolis, IN 46227 [email protected] 219-805-3791

Isabell Mills is an assistant professor of sport management at the University of Indianapolis. Her research areas are sport and fitness branding.

The purpose of this study was to explore the gaps in the branding literature as it pertains to women’s sports. The review included 11 articles from sport management and business journals, investigating personal branding, team branding, and media coverage. Additionally, the review explored the practical implications as well as avenues of future research (i.e., conceptual model).

(more…)

The Migration of Business Strategies from the Hospitality Industry to Athletics Marketing

Authors: Mark Mitchell, Nicholas Clark, and Taylor Damonte

Corresponding Author: Mark Mitchell, DBA Professor of Marketing Associate Dean, Wall College of Business NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) Coastal Carolina University P. O. Box 261954 Conway, SC 29528 [email protected] (843) 349-2392

Mark Mitchell, DBA is Professor of Marketing at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

Nicholas Clark is a Master’s Student in Sport Administration at Georgia State University. He is currently a member of the NCAA Division I Council. Nicholas is a former student-athlete at Coastal Carolina University.

Taylor Damonte, PhD is Professor of Hospitality & Resort Tourism Management at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

ABSTRACT Many strategies of the hospitality industry, including dynamic pricing, customer relationship management programs, and others have been successfully adopted by athletics marketers. The purpose of this manuscript is to examine a variety of practices in the hospitality industry that have been successfully adopted by athletics marketers. There are four broad categories that provide practices most fruitful for adoption: (1) Fan Experience; (2) Ticketing; (3) In-Stadium Food and Beverage; and (4) Tailgating. In some cases, a small number of teams (and venues) have implemented such practices. In others, these practices are intuitively a good strategic fit but no organization has been identified as yet to implement the strategy. This presentation may prompt other organizations to consider such practices for implementation. (more…)

Service Quality Perceptions’ Impact on Membership Renewal of Junior Executive Golf Memberships

Authors: Dr. Lorenda Prier

Corresponding Author: Dr. Lorenda Prier Consultant/Researcher, Prier Consulting Online Sports Management Instructor, State University of New York at Canton 459 Juno Dunes Way Juno Beach, FL 33408 [email protected]

Dr. Lorenda Prier is a research consultant with sport industry, academic, and small business experience. Dr. Prier has conducted comprehensive research on age based marketing incentives and on the junior executive golf member segment.

Co-Author: Dr. Fred J. Cromartie

Fred J. Cromartie, Ed. D. Director of Doctoral Studies United States Sports Academy One Academy Drive Daphne, AL 36527 [email protected]

Dr. Fred J. Cromartie, is the Director of Doctoral Studies at the United States Sports Academy.

Co-Author: Dr. Stephen L. Butler

Stephen L. Butler, Ed. D. Dean of Academic Affairs United States Sports Academy One Academy Drive Daphne, AL 36527 [email protected]

Dr. Stephen L. Butler, is the Dean of Academic Affairs at the United States Sports Academy.

Service Quality Perceptions’ Impact on Membership Renewal of Junior Executive Golf Memberships

ABSTRACT This research addresses age based price incentives in private golf courses in South Florida. These membership options are often termed junior executive memberships and provide initiation and annual membership dues discounting for members under a set age, often 45. The evaluation is a comparison of family and nonfamily subgroups within junior executive membership categories. Due to the newness of this marketing strategy, insight into member perceptions is desired for retention efforts. A survey instrument developed by Prier (2016) was distributed to 25 golf courses with age based price incentives in the South Florida region. The components relating to service quality and behavior intentions are addressed in this research. The service quality components of the survey instrument were selected from the SERVQUAL scale for measuring customer perceptions of service quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988).

Survey respondents provided expectation levels and club evaluation levels on a 5 point Likert scale and a resultant gap was also utilized in analysis. Family respondents, those indicating a membership size of three or more, had higher expectations of service quality, lower club evaluations of service quality, and thus higher negative service quality gaps than nonfamily respondents (membership size of one or two).

Additionally, family respondents had a significantly lower proportion of likeliness to continue membership to the next membership tier, willingness to recommend, and intention to renew next year. The combination of more negative service quality evaluation and less favorable renewal intentions by family memberships provides an alert that managerial efforts to alleviate these perceptions is necessary. The significant differences between family and nonfamily membership perceptions supports the need for recognition of subgroups within the junior executive membership category. Service quality enhancement, specifically in employee behavior, provides an actionable strategy to enhance junior executive membership renewal.

Differences in Official Athletic Website Coverage and Social Media use Between Men’s and Women’s Basketball Teams

Authors: Steve Shih-Chia Chen, Terran Duncan, Eric Street*, and Brooklyn Hesterberg

*Corresponding Author: Eric Street, MS 1048 Lemon Rue Way Lexington, KY 40515 [email protected] 859-797-1479

Steve Chen, D.S.M., is an associate professor at the Department of Management and Marketing in Morehead State University, Morehead, KY. He received his doctorate in Sport Management from United States Sports Academy in Daphne, AL. He currently serves as the chief editor of the KAHPERD (Kentucky Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance) Journal. ([email protected])

Terran Duncan, M.A., is an assistant coach of Lindsey Wilson College’s Women’s Basketball. She received her Master’s degree in Sport Management from Morehead State University, KY. ([email protected])

Brooklyn Hesterberg is an undergraduate Sport Management student of Morehead State University. She is an assistant softball coach at Rowan County High School, KY. ([email protected])

Eric Street, M.S. is a doctorate student at the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, AL. He received a BA and MS in Sports Management from the University of Kentucky. He currently works as Director of Fitness and Training for LA Fitness in Lexington, KY. ([email protected])

ABSTRACT Since the implementation of Title IX, there have been significant gains in the area of equity between men’s and women’s sports. Instituted in 1972, Title IX has leveled the playing field by offering the same amount of opportunity for women as men. Deficient media coverage in female sports is a less examined and recognized issue among various types of Title IX violations in collegiate sports. The study examined if there was equal coverage between men’s and women’s basketball programs on the athletic department’s webpages and social media websites. The collected data included traffics for the athletic website, Facebook, and Twitter pages of Southeastern Conference institutions. The findings indicated that there was slightly more men’s coverage than women’s (53% vs 47%). Among those 14 schools, eight schools had more content coverage for their men’s team. Only six women’s programs received more official website coverage than their male counterparts. The exact tendency also occurred regarding the number of total Twitter posts. The analysis of Facebook posts displayed an unexpected result, as 13 schools had more posts related to women’s teams than men’s teams. The results tended to support the vital promotional role that social media may play to increase the awareness and popularity of women’s sports. In general, the schools’ official website still maintained an accepted coverage proportion toward both genders without heavily gravitated toward men’s teams. Practical implications are addressed for better utilizing social media to promote women’s sports and maintain gender equity in media coverage.

Keywords : Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Title IX

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After 40 Years, How Representative Are Labor Market Outcomes in the NLSY79?

In 1979, the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) began following a group of US residents born between 1957 and 1964. It has continued to re-interview these same individuals for more than four decades. Despite this long sampling period, attrition remains modest. This paper shows that after 40 years of data collection, the remaining NLYS79 sample continues to be broadly representative of their national cohorts with regard to key labor market outcomes. For NLSY79 age cohorts, life-cycle profiles of employment, hours worked, and earnings are comparable to those in the Current Population Survey. Moreover, average lifetime earnings over the age range 25 to 55 closely align with the same measure in Social Security Administration data. Our results suggest that the NLSY79 can continue to provide useful data for economists and other social scientists studying life-cycle and lifetime labor market outcomes, including earnings inequality.

We thank Kevin Bloodworth II, Elizabeth Harding, and Siyu Shi for research assistance. The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Federal Reserve System, or of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Richard Rogerson acknowledges financial support in excess of $10,000 over the last three years from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the World Bank.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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