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This research addresses how the fit between celebrity athlete endorsers and the endorsed products may influence product attitudes. The findings reveal that participants evaluated an endorsed product more favourably when the fit between the celebrity athlete endorser and the endorsed product was congruent (vs incongruent; Experiment 1). Furthermore, participants in the high concept of congruence condition evaluated the endorsed product more favourably than those in the low concept of congruence condition only when the fit between the celebrity athlete endorser and the endorsed product was incongruent (Experiment 2).

The purpose of this study was to determine body composition, energy balance and tendencies towards eating disorders of female competitive athletes in two countries, USA and Greece. Data were collected using similar methodology in both countries during the non‐competitive (training) and the competitive seasons. Forty‐two athletes and 11 controls in the USA and 35 athletes and ten controls in Greece participated in the study. Comparison of the results between the countries showed that US athletes weighed more than Greek athletes but there was no significant difference in the percentage of body fat between the two groups. No significant differences were found in the energy intakes between athletes in either country. Athletes appeared to be in negative energy balance (‐380 to ‐580 kcals daily) in both seasons, in both countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact that athletics participation in both revenue and non‐revenue intercollegiate sport had on the engagement of students as measured by the National Survey of Student Engagement. In addition, the study reported results to the institution's athletics department for application as a tool for program review.

The study employed a factorial design using self‐reported data from a cooperating institution. The independent variables examined were participation in intercollegiate athletics (athletes vs non‐athletes) and the sport type (revenue sports vs non‐revenue sports). Measures of student engagement were the dependent variables in the study.

Descriptive analysis revealed that athletes were as engaged as their non‐athlete peers and suggested that revenue sport participants were not as engaged as their non‐revenue sport counterparts. Univariate ANCOVA analyses uncovered significant differences between both categories of independent variable – athletes/non‐athletes and revenue/non‐revenue sport participation.

The study was limited by the degree to which all participants answered the questions in the National Survey of Student Engagement honestly and accurately. Since athletics participation is determined by self‐selection, inherent differences among athletes and non‐athletes may exist and were not explored in the study.

Through examination of institutional data, athletics practitioners may gain information to guide policy and practice.

The study illustrates how institutions may capitalize on institutional research data to evaluate, review, and improve specific programs.

Guided by self-presentation theory and social role theory, this study examines the different strategies elite female athletes used in personal branding on social media before and after becoming mothers. Scholars have investigated the authenticity of female athletes’ frontstage versus backstage representation on social media for branding purposes, but this study further expands on existing literature to review how female athletes would present themselves in the same realm once entering motherhood.

Through a content analysis, researchers evaluated whether there was a shift in three elite female athletes’ (Serena Williams, Allyson Felix and Skylar Diggins Smith) Instagram posts and captions one year before their pregnancy and one year after motherhood. A total of 732 posts were examined and were organized into six main categories: athletic, professional, promotional, personal, motherhood and dual identity.

Results revealed there was a difference in the self-presentation strategies used by the three female athletes on their social media pages. Specifically, the researchers confirmed the presence of a combined role of athlete and mother.

The findings support existing literature on the importance and the challenges of “balancing” a third identity of blending being both a mother and elite athlete as one. Yet, the findings challenge the previous notion that women cannot continue to perform at an elite level and manage the expectations that society institutes of being a “good mother.”

Branded merchandise and licensed apparel comprise a substantial portion of revenue for many organizations and public figures that choose to employ such an endeavor. Endorsement deals with apparel manufacturers have historically been utilized for athletes looking to supplement their salaries and establish greater brand awareness. However, as some athletes establish ownership of their logo and become less reliant on companies such as Nike and Adidas for merchandise distribution, assessing the influence of various entity's logos on the athlete brand has become worthy of analysis. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the influence that cobranded merchandise has on consumers when the athlete logo is displayed next to another team or manufacturer logo.

Using an online panel and survey, a final sample of 127 participants completed a questionnaire to examine their attitudes towards various athlete brand elements. ANCOVA's and MANCOVA's were utilized to assess significant findings, holding the variable of identification constant.

The results revealed that only the perceptions of merchandise quality significantly varied between an athlete brand and an apparel manufacturer (i.e. Nike) co-brand. The findings indicate that athletes should look to co-brand with high brand awareness manufacturers, and that there is no significant difference between consumers' perceptions of athlete brands when co-branding with team brands.

This is one of the first studies to evaluate the relationship between the athlete brand and external entities from a consumer perspective.

The purpose of this research is to examine how pre-scandal associations and scandal types interactively influence consumer judgment and negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).

Drawing from cognitive dissonance theory and associative memory network model, the online experiments (Amazon Mechanical Turk; Nexperiment 1 = 146 and Nexperiment 2 = 189) were conducted to examine the effects of positive pre-scandal associations (performance vs pro-social) and scandal types (performance-related vs -unrelated) on consumer blame and eWOM toward scandalized athletes. Data were analyzed by employing t-test (experiment 1), Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) and PROCESS Model 8 (experiment 2) to test the hypotheses.

The findings highlight that positive pre-scandal association demonstrated both protecting and backfiring effects depending on the types of scandals. Specifically, when performance-related scandals emerged, consumers made more negative blame judgment of athletes with salient performance association, relative to pro-social association. Inversely, when performance-unrelated scandals occurred, athletes with salient pro-social association were more likely to be blamed. Regarding eWOM, consumers generate more negative eWOM when athletes with pre-performance associations are involved with performance-related scandals. This pattern of the result was not observed when athletes' pro-social association and performance-unrelated scandals were prominent.

The current work adds consumers' negative eWOM toward scandalized athletes to the literature as a predictor of how athletes' pre-scandal association with consumers and scandal types are related. The findings indicate that consumers feel greater dissonance and generate more negative eWOM when athletes' pre-scandal associations and scandal types are closely related.

This study aims to examine diversity and inclusivity in sports from a sexual orientation perspective. A literature review summarizes known findings on attitudes and perceptions of and towards nonbinary individuals in sports. Adopting Herek’s (2007) Sexual Stigma perspective, an experiment is conducted exploring the differences in fan attitudes and behavioral intentions towards nonbinary athletes in both women’s and men’s sports.

A systematic review of extant literature identified 24 peer-reviewed primary studies examining nonbinary individuals in sports. A 2 (Sport: Women’s vs. Men’s Basketball) × 2 (Nonbinary Indicator: Indicator vs. No-Indicator) experimental study was then designed to further explore fan attitudes towards nonbinary athletes.

The study revealed that, among sports fans, there was no perceived performance difference in women’s or men’s basketball linked to athletes’ nonbinary status (as measured by athletic ability, future performance, sportsmanship, talent and quickness). However, measures of fan support (sport engagement, intention to buy team merchandise and team fanship) were lower when the athlete was perceived as nonbinary. For women’s basketball, team fanship and intention to buy team merchandise were significantly lower, while the difference was not significant in men’s basketball.

Along with an inclusive review of prior literature, this is the first empirical study to examine the differences in fans’ attitudes towards nonbinary athletes in both women’s and men’s sports at the same time via an experimental design.

Adequate nutrition knowledge forms the foundation for optimal physical health and performance. In Lebanon, there are limited studies on the effect of nutrition knowledge on the athletes’ performance. This study aims to evaluate university athletes’ nutrition knowledge status and to identify the factors predicting athletes’ performance.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 384 university student-athletes, using a validated tool with modifications (Furber et al., 2017) to assess nutrition knowledge. The modified questionnaire includes seven subsections (vitamins and minerals, general nutrition, fluid, fat, carbohydrate, protein and sporting performance). Further, anthropometric measurements were taken; body composition was determined by the bioelectrical impedance analysis method. Handgrip strength, as an indirect measure of athlete performance, was assessed with the hand dynamometer. To measure the existence and degree of significance among different variables, Pearson correlation coefficients, χ² and linear regression were used.

The health group had a higher level of nutritional knowledge, compared with the non-health group. The overall mean sports nutrition knowledge score for the student-athletes was 63.54%, which was considered inadequate sports nutrition knowledge (mean < 75%). Further, athletes’ performance was significantly predicted by the resting metabolic rate, lean muscle mass and weight.

The findings may help the university administration to implement a nutrition education program for athletes enrolled in non-health majors. Information gained serve to help dietetics professionals in Lebanon refine education strategies and sports clubs in universities to start to budget for hiring dietitians.

To measure the relationships between varieties of patriotism and fan reactions to anthem-linked athlete activism and to test the effects of teammate allyship.

In this study of US sport fans (n = 519), the authors examine whether two varieties of patriotism—the affective “symbolic patriotism” and the cognitive “uncritical patriotism”—might explain fans' reactions (support v. opposition) to anthem-linked athlete activism. The authors also consider whether fans' acceptance of nonactivist teammate allyship moderates patriotism influences on those reactions.

Using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the authors posit and show that fans' reactions to athlete activism are driven more strongly by uncritical patriotism than by symbolic patriotism. The authors also show that fans' acceptance of nonactivist teammate allyship significantly moderate the strength and direction of fans' reactions to athlete activism.

The authors contribute substantive, new knowledge into the sways of athlete activism, teammate allyship and fan patriotism within the sport world. By way of novel heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations, the authors show evidence of discriminant validities of symbolic patriotism and uncritical patriotism. Using PLS-SEM moderation tests, the authors also show that fans' acceptance of teammate allyship moderates the influences of these patriotism types differently.

Few empirical studies to date have investigated sport fans' reactions to athletes' displays of social activism (e.g. taking a knee to protest racism).

This paper aims to examine the antecedents of brand passion and brand community commitment, namely, self-congruity and athlete attraction, as well as their effects on online brand advocacy in online brand communities.

The sample comprises members of a Facebook football fan club brand community. An online survey measuring athlete-level factors, team-level factors and online brand advocacy provides data to test the conceptual framework using structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM).

The findings of this paper support the positive spillover effect from athlete subbrand to team brand advocacy, as self-congruity exerted positive effects on brand passion and brand community commitment, while athlete attraction influenced brand community commitment, leading to online brand advocacy.

The findings validate the dimensions of online brand advocacy and advance research on sports brand hierarchy in brand architecture by establishing the transference effect from athlete to the team brand.

To effectively manage their brands online, brand managers need to pay attention to the powerful and multifaceted tool of online brand advocacy. Brand managers can capitalize on their active advocates by working closely with them to co-create uplifting and authentic brand stories that are worthwhile for sharing, especially in times of crisis.

Building on the developmental trajectory of brand love and vicarious brand experience, the findings verify the directionality of the spillover effect and offer insights into the development of brand advocacy across different brand levels.