Examining the behavioral manifestations of fan avidity in sports marketing

Avoiding Degeneracies in Ordinal Unfolding Using Kemeny-Equivalent Dissimilarities for Two-Way Two-Mode Preference Rank Data

In this paper a simple but effective procedure to avoid degeneracies in ordinal Unfolding for preference rank data based on the Kemeny distance is proposed. Considering Unfolding as a particular MDS procedure with missing within-set proximities, unknown proximities are first estimated using correlations related to the Kemeny distance, and then the complete proximity matrix is analyzed in a standard MDS framework. A simulation study shows that our proposal is able to both recover the order of the preferences and reproduce the position of both rankings and objects in a geometrical space. Several applications on real data sets show that our procedure returns non-degenerate Unfolding solutions.

Professional Clubs as Platforms in Multi-Sided Markets in Times of COVID-19: The Role of Spectators and Atmosphere in Live Football

In-stadium spectators affect the emotional value and atmosphere of sport live broadcasts. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Europe, the presence of in-stadium spectators, however, was suspended until further notice. Conceptualizing professional clubs as economic platforms, network effects due to the lack of in-stadium spectators may affect stakeholders’ utility. Thus, the main aims of this study are to examine the influence of missing in-stadium spectators for professional clubs by investigating network effects on (1) TV viewers’ emotional arousal and (2) TV viewers’ attention towards sponsor messages during live football broadcasts. Using a quantitative research design, a controlled lap was conducted, and broadcasts were presented to n = 26 highly involved participants. Heart rate, eye-tracking, and betting odds data served as measurements of arousal, attention, and game outcome uncertainty and were aggregated on a second-by-second basis (k = 140,400). Multilevel regression analysis showed significant differences in viewers’ arousal and attention to sponsors, contingent on the presence of in-stadium spectators and game outcome uncertainty. The presence of in-stadium spectators increased arousal, while attention towards sponsor messages decreased, depending on game outcome uncertainty. Based on the presence of network effects, implications to sustainably adapting professional football clubs’ business models based on stakeholders’ different interests can be given.

Factors Influencing the Tourist’s Future Intentions in Small-Scale Sports Events

Small-scale sports events are a good strategy for communities seeking to attract visitors and are one of the major attractions of sustainable sports tourism. The aim of this study to determine which factors influence the future intentions of the tourist involved in small-scale sports events. The sample was composed of 236 subjects who participated in a half-marathon in Spain. The results of the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) provide support for the applicability of the tourists’ perception questionnaire in the context of sports events. The results of both validity (convergent and discriminant) and reliability (internal consistency) analyses were satisfactory. The results indicated that this scale had 18 items distributed in six factors (communication, staff, electronic wordofmouth, destination image, satisfaction and future intentions). The proposal model revealed that satisfaction is a mediated factor between staff and destination image with future intentions of repeating the event. Electronic word of mouth and satisfaction were influencing factors that predicted the tourists’ future intentions. This finding suggests that this questionnaire can be a useful tool in measuring tourist perception on a small-scale sports events scale, allowing a better understanding of the reasons that lead a tourist to select a certain destination and sports event.