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This study explores the motives and objectives of sports sponsorship in China, taking into account the sports, social and cultural contexts. It also adopts a comparative approach to examine the sponsorship of elite and grassroots sports events in China.

This study adopts a qualitative approach, employing semi-structured interviews with representatives of nine companies sponsoring elite and/or grassroots sports events in Western China. The data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis.

In China, sponsors are frequently driven to sponsor elite sport events by a sense of obligation and responsibility to the country, whereas their motives to sponsor grassroots sport events is primarily influenced by sincerity and goodwill. Chinese companies consider brand awareness, exposure and the relationship with the government and authorities as key factors for sponsorship, and use sponsorship to achieve market-related objectives.

Companies’ sponsorship motives and objectives have received significant attention in the literature, but mainly in Western countries. In the context of China, this study identifies how sponsors utilize social networks to shape their motives and objectives. It also reveals certain patterns common with the current literature, as well as specificities such as how the roles of the government and authorities are linked to the contingent economic and social context of the country. Furthermore, the differences between elite and grassroots sports events sponsorship are explained.

Based on the “S-O-R” and attachment theories, this paper constructs a research model of the platform attribute factors of sports short video live e-commerce on consumers' psychological conditions, and explores how platform attributes affect consumer behavior through consumer attachment.

The study carried out questionnaire survey through the “snowball” method, and a total of 422 valid questionnaires were collected. The paper uses SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 26.0 to adapt the data and model, and adopts the method of structural equation modeling for analysis.

The research results show that the interactivity, identity, personalization and entertainment of live sports e-commerce platforms can actively stimulate consumer attachment, and directly drive their consumption behavior through their attachment.

Examining the platform attributes and system functions of short video live broadcast e-commerce from the perspective of consumer attachment can help sports e-commerce understand consumers' needs and satisfaction with the functions provided by the platform. Through timely optimization and improvement of system functions, the platform will make the connection between consumers and e-commerce closer, thereby increasing consumer stickiness and promoting the vigorous development of sports e-commerce.

This study identified and defined the platform attributes contained in the sports live broadcast e-commerce platform, combined the S-O-R model with the attachment theory, expanded the analytical framework of the S-O-R theory and made contributions to the extension of the attachment theory.

The study advances an enhanced model encompassing psychological involvement, denoted as the psychological continuum model (PCM) and perceived customer service quality as intermediaries in the association between subjective customer knowledge (SCK) and behavioral loyalty. The purpose of this study is to assess the mediating role of psychological engagement and consumers' perceived service quality in the relationship between SCK and behavioral loyalty among members of nonprofit sports service organizations. Additionally, the study aims to examine the impact of membership duration on the relationship between consumer knowledge and behavioral loyalty.

The study used a quantitative research design, and primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 527 members of nonprofit Chinese sports clubs who were selected using a simple random sampling technique. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was developed to measure all constructs in the intended research model. The suitability of the measurement model was analyzed by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data using AMOS-24.

The results of the overall direct effect indicate a significant influence of subjective knowledge on perceived service quality, perceived service quality significantly and positively influences psychological engagement; psychological engagement was found to be an important predictor of consumer behavioral loyalty.

The results offer information for nonprofit sports club (NPSC) managers who seek to increase the attractiveness and retention of their clubs' members by establishing the importance of subjective consumer knowledge.

This chapter examines how and why Asian bookmakers have surpassed the rest of the sports gambling market in betting volume. It critically unpacks the size, structure and operations of this market, before examining the globalisation of match-fixing that accompanies this, largely, unregulated market. While there has been some excellent research on the structure of the Black/Red Mafia controlled gambling in Communist China or match-fixing in national markets like South Korea and Taiwan, this chapter is one of the first comprehensive examinations of the globalised Asian gambling market and its contribution to sports corruption.

This study investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the sustainability of sports business models by means of a specific case analysis, conducted on M-I Stadio S.r.l., the service management firm that provides all types of backstage activities related to football matches performed at San Siro Stadium in Italy.

Building on interviews on its management team's direct experience and on archival data, the authors depict the consequences of the pandemic in terms of corporate governance, accounting choices and overall strategic business development through information triangulation from a forward-looking perspective.

Complying with restrictions, M-I Stadio S.r.l. preserved its financial position by embracing digitalization, increasing information flows with partners and adopting a risk aversion behaviour. Overall, results indicate that the pandemic played a catalyst role in the transformation process of the football industry. Moreover, apart from the physical and virtual merge acceleration, well-being for athletes, society and the planet, transcending the gaming part of sports activities has also been taking place. The study also illustrates the foreseeable developments of sustainable sport management practices from a critical perspective.

Since the San Siro Stadium management company might represent one of the forefront companies, within the sports industry, this study results should be conveniently taken into consideration by sporting authorities and international bodies, emphasizing the relevance of sustainability (i.e. environmental and social practices within the sports industry) and digitalization so as to better prepare sports organizations and to provide the overall industry with the tools deemed necessary to navigate this important transition in a smoother way.

Insights into how fan experience can be used to cultivate football (soccer) fan loyalty are limited. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) paradigm, this study develops and tests a theoretical model investigating the effects of football-game socialisation, team interest, football interest and transaction satisfaction (stimuli) on fanship and cumulative satisfaction (organism), and subsequently, attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty (response). National culture was a moderator.

A self-administered online survey collected data from a convenience sample of 762 football fans from Brazil, China and Germany.

The PLS-SEM results support the S-O-R based model, indicating that football fan-loyalty behaviours are determined by fanship and cumulative satisfaction with the team. Fan experiences, in turn, are also found to be influenced by fan perceptions relating to socialisation, team interest, football interest and transaction satisfaction—elements over which the football team's management may exert some degree of control. Some national cultural differences were found, with three of the model's 12 structural paths significantly different for Germany vis-à-vis Brazil.

This study advances the authors’ understanding of the significance of socialisation and fan-interest factors for football, providing evidence supporting the role of the fan experience and service-consumption stimuli related to those game experiences as significant drivers (stimuli) of the fan's affective (fanship) and cognitive states (cumulative satisfaction). This study enriches the limited body of evidence on fanship's role as a driver of attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Finally, the multi-country study partially supports the moderation effect of national culture.

Sustainability is a major global concern, and research has suggested a bidirectional relationship between participatory sport events and the natural environment. Against this background, we examined the influence of runners’ environmental consciousness on their perceptions of the quality of green initiatives and their supportive intention at a running event.

We collected questionnaire responses from 496 runners at an event held in Taiwan, and we used partial least squares structural equation modeling for our measurement and structural models.

Our findings revealed that environmental consciousness had a positive relationship with green perceived quality, and that green perceived quality, in turn, positively affected supportive intention. Green perceived quality also mediated the relationship between environmental consciousness and supportive intention, and running frequency moderated the relationship between environmental consciousness and supportive intention.

Stakeholders should promote the environmental consciousness of event participants and implement sustainable initiatives to enhance participants’ supportive intention towards participatory sport events.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the role of environmental consciousness, green perceived quality and supportive intention in the context of a running event. The findings highlight the importance of environmental sustainability in participatory sport events and provide valuable insights for event organizers and stakeholders in designing and implementing sustainable initiatives.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, investors have more frequently invested into professional football clubs, thereby radically changing the industry landscape. This review's purpose is to analyze and synthesize the state of research to understand motives, roles and implications of football club investors, and to provide recommendations for further research.

The paper presents an integrative literature review by identifying relevant English articles based on the search terms investor, owner, investment, ownership, shareholder and stakeholder in combination with soccer or football. Around 2,431 articles were reviewed. A total of 129 relevant articles was analyzed and synthesized within eight subject areas.

Investors in professional club football is a young research stream with a clear European focus. Investor motives and roles are diverse and implications are multidimensional. Investors mostly aim for indirect returns rather than pure profit- or win-maximization.

Football clubs comprise an own investment class for which the identified, unique specifics must be considered to develop a financially successful investment model. Thorough academic research of investors' inherent characteristics, investor-club pairings and the pillars of long-term strategies for successful investor-club liaisons are avenues of future research. Furthermore, the results illustrate the need for research outside of Europe.

The paper is the first systematic, integrative review of existing literature in the domain of equity investments into professional club football. The findings genuinely show that, depending on the investor type and ownership structure, investors have a wide impact in professional club football.

It is not possible for every fan of a sport to watch matches at stadiums because of the capacity and location constraints. Furthermore, although sport fans could not physically attend sporting events during the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations still showed interest in sponsoring such events. To better understand this phenomenon, this study examined the effects of fans' event involvement on event reputation, event commercialization, corporate brand credibility, corporate brand image and purchase intentions of the corporate sponsor brand.

A total of 646 responses were collected from fans of Indian Premier League teams. Confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based structural equation modelling analyses were conducted on the collected data.

Results showed that fans' involvement in televised sporting events had a positive influence on the events' reputation, which, in turn, had a significant impact on their corporate brand credibility and image. Furthermore, the corporate brand credibility and image had a positive impact on the fans' purchasing decisions.

This study provides valuable implications for marketing managers aiming to enhance their understanding of the impact of event sponsorship on corporate brands. In addition, the findings provide insight into how to support the development of effective sponsorship strategies in the future. The results suggest that sponsoring companies should consider maintaining the credibility and image of their brands to achieve the desired outcomes from sponsoring such sporting events.