To partner or not? A study of co-branding partnership and consumers' perceptions of symbolism and functionality toward co-branded sport products

PurposeThis study was conducted to examine the effect of co-branding, a brand partnership tactic involving two or more brands, on consumer behavior within the sport industry. As such, the primary aim was to examine differences regarding consumers' perceptions of self-image congruence and perceived product quality when considering solo-branding and co-branding conditions. Further, under the co-branding condition, relationships among consumers' self-image congruence, perceived product quality, image fit, product evaluation and purchase intention were investigated.Design/methodology/approachA scenario-based quasi-experiment consisting of hypothetical co-branding initiatives between existing brands was conducted.FindingsResults from a repeated multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that consumers' symbolic and functional perceptions of co-branding as well as evaluations were statistically higher than in the solo-branding condition. Additionally, structural equation modeling indicated positive relationships between consumers' symbolic and functional perceptions, image fit, evaluation and behavior intention.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first papers to investigate the impact of co-branding on consumers within the sport industry and provides evidence of the positive impact of co-branding strategies on consumer behavior within the sport industry.

How Sport Tourism Event Image Fit Enhances Residents’ Perceptions of Place Image and Their Quality of Life

This study developed an exploration model for sport event image fit to predict and explain the place image and quality of life in order to achieve sustainable development goals in rural communities. To validate the model, 294 valid resident responses from a rural community that hosted a sporting event in Taiwan were analyzed with partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM). The results showed that image fit contributes to the social environment, entertainment services, and quality of life; four place image dimensions had a significantly positive effect on quality of life. The exploration model was validated, contributing to the knowledge related to Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 11.

Determinants of Image and Image Fit: A Study of Four Sports and Their Domestic and International Governing Organizations

This study examined the determinants of image and image fit between a sport and its domestic and international governing bodies. Data were collected using eight online surveys ( n = 1,862). Each of the eight surveys focused on a single sport and either its national or international governing organization (e.g., athletics and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) or athletics and the German Athletics Federation). Regression analyses revealed that sport interest, trust, age, and gender significantly influenced the overall image fit of the sport with the organization. Trust was significantly associated with both sport image and organization image. Sport organizations should become more adept at leveraging their association with their (positively viewed) athletes and their sport. To leverage the link with their sport, sport organizations should associate themselves with “feel good” dimensions of their sport. This study is the first to examine image fit between a sport and its domestic and international governing organization.

Influence of Event and Place Image on Residents’ Attitudes Toward and Support for Events

Analyzing residents’ support for events has become popular in sports tourism research. Based on the social exchange theory and the theory of reasoned action, this study tests a model of support for the 2018 UCI Road World Championships (N = 2,265). The findings show that the perceived image fit between an event and a place significantly influences residents’ overall attitude and event support. Furthermore, overall attitude mediates the relationship between the perceived fit and event support. This study supplements the literature (a) by testing the fit between event image and place image and its influence on residents’ attitude and support, (b) by analyzing the image fit of a summer sports event held in a well-known designated winter sports region, and (c) by providing recommendations for policy makers to achieve higher support from residents when bidding for and hosting sports events.

Cause-Related Marketing Influence on Consumer Loyalty in a Medium-Sized City

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of the performance of a cause-related marketing action on consumer loyalty by a company. In addition, the study explores the moderating effect of the publicizing medium. The proposed theoretical model was tested based on data gathered from a face-to-face questionnaire completed by 421 respondents living in a medium-sized city. The results validated the proposed model and showed that the functional and image fit between social actions and companies are key antecedents of perceived corporate ability (CA) and company credibility. It was shown that CA directly influences customer satisfaction, that credibility indirectly influences customer satisfaction through perceived corporate social responsibility, and that satisfaction directly and positively impacts customer loyalty. Moreover, the influence of functional and image fit in the model were shown to be moderated by the type of publicizing medium. Specifically, the effect of functional fit on corporate ability is greater for traditional media (TM) than for social media (SM). On the other hand, the effect of image fit on corporate ability is greater for SM than for TM. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Risk is my business. Determinants of revisit intentions among participants in extreme sporting events

Multi-billion-dollar revenues and thousands of people involved, qualify extreme sports as a growing marketing phenomenon. This study addresses the determinants of consumer-athletes intention to revisit extreme sport events. We propose a model investigating the role sensation-seeking tendency, event satisfaction, and event image fit in determining revisit intention of active participants, basing on sensationseeking theory. The model is empirically tested with the SPSS PROCESS macro on 240 active participants in extreme sport events. The findings suggest that sensationseeking leads to revisit intention only through satisfaction, especially when event image fit is strong.

Epilogue

“Grandpa went back to Africa with Garvey,” my grandmother recalled. I carried this precious refrain into the archives with me. In Garvey’s place, I found Chief Sam, in the black and Indian borderlands of Oklahoma. While the Great Migration had largely displaced the preceding history of black rural emigration at the nadir, so had Garveyism displaced descendants’ memories of the Chief Sam movement. Meanwhile, scholars portrayed the movement as the product of a single charismatic charlatan and his nameless, faceless followers. Relying almost exclusively on U.S. sources and the memories of those “left behind” in an economically depressed and politically repressed Jim Crow Oklahoma, the only book-length study of the movement, written in the 1950s, argued that the Chief Sam movement illustrated “the desperate hopes of an utterly desperate group of people.” The image fit easily with twentieth-century American tropes of black victimhood and criminality....