TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between attractiveness of athlete endorsers, match‐up, and consumers' purchase intention embedded in the China context.Design/methodology/approach– The authors used a 3×2×2 between‐subject experimental design. Specifically, in this 12‐scenario study depicting a purchase experience they manipulated endorser attractiveness levels (high/middle/low), endorser‐product match‐up (high/low), and product type (to prevent single product bias).Findings– The results showed that no matter whether the attractiveness is high, middle, or low, the high endorser‐product match‐up could produce higher purchase intention than the low endorser‐product match‐up could. Moreover, the purchase intention generated by the high‐attractive endorser with low match‐up would be higher than that generated by low‐attractive endorser with high match‐up.Originality/value– This research demonstrates that endorsers' attractiveness, even compared to match‐up factor, and could affect consumers' purchase intention more significantly in China sport market. Practically speaking, the result suggests the companies which are related to sports should try their best to choose a highly attractive athlete endorser with outstanding performance and good morality in order to increase consumers' purchase intention. VL - 24 IS - 6 SN - 0736-3761 DO - 10.1108/07363760710822945 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760710822945 AU - Tingchi Liu Matthew AU - Huang Yu‐Ying AU - Minghua Jiang PY - 2007 Y1 - 2007/01/01 TI - Relations among attractiveness of endorsers, match‐up, and purchase intention in sport marketing in China T2 - Journal of Consumer Marketing PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 358 EP - 365 Y2 - 2024/04/23 ER -