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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.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interrelationships among the dimensions of sport event experience, event satisfaction and event behavioral intentions.

The sample was comprised of 186 individuals who actively participated in a mass participation sport event. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the relationships among the latent constructs.

The results indicated that the dimensions of sport event experience predicted 55% of the variance of event satisfaction and 63% of the variance of event behavioral intentions was predicted by sport event experience dimensions and event satisfaction. Specifically, the sensory, affective and relational dimensions of experience sought to have a statistically significant and positive association with event satisfaction, while event satisfaction and the relational dimension of experience were found to have a statistically significant and positive correlation with event behavioral intentions. In addition, event satisfaction was found to mediate the relationships between sensory, affective and relational experiences and event behavioral intentions.

The present study is one of the first that explores the relationships among sport event experience’s dimensions, event satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions in the context of sport event participation.

The user experience during the use of activities and services is a fundamental aspect for sports managers and can provide a competitive advantage. The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions of experiential quality and the relationship of this construct with customer trust and customer satisfaction in achieving behavioral intention.

Using a convenience sampling technique, a total of 322 gym users in Turkey participated. A two-step approach was used to test both the model and the research hypotheses [confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM)].

The interaction quality, physical environmental quality, outcome quality and enjoyment quality were positively related to experiential quality. Similarly, the experimental quality was positively related to customer satisfaction and customer trust. Finally, customer satisfaction was related to behavioral intentions.

This study provides empirical evidence about the importance of experiential quality to gain a competitive advantage in the context of fitness centers.

This study examined the characteristics, motivations and satisfaction of volunteers for the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon Weekend across a 10-year period. The purpose was to enhance our understanding of sport event volunteers, especially in the long term. This information and insight may be useful in light of ongoing challenges with volunteer recruitment and retention, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors developed and implemented an online survey, based primarily on the Special Event Volunteer Motivation Scale (SEVMS) and the Volunteer Motivations Scale for International Sporting Events (VMS-ISE). The sample included a total of 2,038 respondents – 1,086 in 2012 and 952 in 2022. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests; qualitative data provided additional insight.

About two-thirds of 2022 survey respondents were “repeat volunteers.” Volunteer characteristics, motivations and satisfaction remained relatively consistent across the 10-year period. These volunteers were motivated by a set of multiple, interrelated factors which the authors call “community-based altruism” – that is, the desire to help others driven by a sense of community involvement and pride. In both years, more than 90% were satisfied with their volunteer experience. Satisfaction was higher for individuals with certain characteristics such as being a repeat volunteer and volunteering with a group.

This may be the first scholarly article to assess volunteer characteristics, motivations and satisfaction for a major sport event in the same location across multiple years. While it focused on a three-day running event in a midwestern city in the United States, the approach and findings may be applicable to sport event volunteers in other contexts.

This study aims to examine the impact of the gameful experience on behavioural outcomes. Drawing from stimulus–organism–response theory, it proposes and tests a new model that investigates the relationship between the gameful experience, brand loyalty and intention to use gamified branded applications in the sports context. In addition, it explores the mediating role of customer–brand engagement (CBE) and the moderating role of self-image congruity (SIC).

A sample of 436 active users of sport-related branded gamified applications was used to test the model. Data was collected from online sports forums, brands’ Facebook communities and during sporting events.

Results indicate that the gameful experience positively and directly impacts behavioural intentions but does not directly influence brand loyalty. This relationship becomes partially significant when mediated by CBE. In addition, results show that users with high levels of SIC are more likely to continue using the gamified application, whereas users with low levels are more likely to engage with the brand.

This study expands the gamification literature in the sports sector by revealing the importance of the gameful experience in driving loyalty, behavioural intentions and CBE. It proposes a new model that sheds light on the emotional aspect of the interaction between a user and a gamified system and the importance of exploring the effects of moderators, such as SIC, in these relationships.

This study aims to use event system theory and job demands–resources (JD-R) model to examine the double-edged sword effect of event strength of Beijing Winter Olympics (BWO) on volunteers’ in-role performance and proactive behavior as mediated by work overload and meaningfulness.

The sample included 193 volunteer–leader dyads working at one BWO venue. The authors conducted a multitime and multisource study using Mplus 8 to examine the hypotheses.

Volunteers’ perceived BWO event strength was positively related to work overload, which reduced in-role performance and proactive behavior. Volunteers’ perceived BWO event strength was also positively related to work meaningfulness, which promoted in-role performance and proactive behavior. Perceived organizational support served as a moderator by mitigating the positive relationship between perceived BWO event strength and work overload; however, it did not strengthen the positive relationship between perceived BWO event strength and work meaningfulness.

This study developed a comprehensive model of how BWO event strength affected volunteers’ performance from the perspective of event system theory and the JD-R model, which enriches theoretical application and research in the context of mega sport events.

本研究运用事件系统理论和工作需求-资源(JD-R)模型, 探讨了2022年北京冬奥会（BWO）事件强度通过工作负荷和工作意义感知进而对志愿者角色内绩效和主动性行为的双刃剑效应。

我们在冬奥会场所之一实施了多时点、多来源的收集数据的方式, 最终样本包括193份志愿者-领导配对数据, 并使用Mplus 8来检验我们的假设。

志愿者感知的BWO事件强度与工作负荷呈正相关, 进而会降低他们的角色内绩效和主动性行为。志愿者感知的BWO事件强度与工作意义感也呈正相关, 进而会促进他们的角色内绩效和主动性行为。感知的组织支持通过弱化BWO事件强度与工作负荷之间的正相关关系, 进而调节了志愿者的角色内绩效和主动性行为; 然而, 感知的组织支持并没有强化BWO事件强度与工作意义感之间的正相关关系。

本研究结合事件系统理论和JD-R模型, 发展了一个BWO事件强度对志愿者绩效表现影响的综合模型, 丰富了有关大型体育赛事志愿者的理论应用和研究。

Este estudio utiliza la teoría del sistema de eventos y el modelo de demandas de trabajo-recursos (JD-R) para examinar el efecto de doble filo de la fuerza del evento de los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno de Pekín (BWO) sobre el rendimiento en el rol y el comportamiento proactivo de los voluntarios, mediado por la sobrecarga laboral y la significatividad del trabajo.

Nuestra muestra incluyó 193 díadas de voluntarios-líderes que trabajaban en una sede de BWO. Realizamos un estudio multitemporal y multifuente utilizando Mplus 8 para examinar nuestras hipótesis.

La intensidad percibida por los voluntarios en los eventos de BWO también se relacionó positivamente con la significación del trabajo, que promovió el rendimiento en el rol y el comportamiento proactivo. Además, el apoyo organizativo percibido sirvió como moderador al mitigar la relación positiva entre la intensidad percibida del evento BWO y la sobrecarga de trabajo; sin embargo, no reforzó la relación positiva entre la intensidad percibida del evento BWO y la significatividad del trabajo.

Este estudio desarrolló un modelo integral de cómo la fuerza del evento BWO afectaba al rendimiento de los voluntarios desde la perspectiva de la teoría del sistema de eventos y el modelo JD-R, lo que enriquece la aplicación teórica y la investigación en el contexto de los megaeventos deportivos.

Framed by nostalgia marketing, this research draws upon lessons from ParticipACTION, a Canadian non-profit health promotion organization, to examine one of their most well-known campaigns, Body Break with ParticipACTION, in order to assess the potential role for nostalgia-based marketing campaigns in sport participation across generational cohorts.

Exploratory sequential mixed methods involving two studies were completed on behalf of ParticipACTION, with the authors developing the research instruments and the collection of the data undertaken by research agencies. Study 1 was the secondary analysis of qualitative data from five focus groups with different demographic compositions that followed a common question guide. Study 2 was a secondary data analysis of a pan-Canadian online survey with a sample (n = 1,475) representative of the overall adult population that assessed awareness of, and attitudes toward, ParticipACTION, Body Break, physical activity and sport participation. Path analysis tested a proposed model that was based on previous research on attitudes, brand and loyalty. Further, multi-group path analyses were conducted to compare younger generations with older ones.

The results provide direction and understanding of the importance of nostalgia in marketing sport participation programs across generational cohorts. For instance, in the four parent-adult focus groups, unaided references as well as frequent and detailed comments regarding Body Break were observed. Similarly, Millennials reported that Body Break was memorable, Canadian and nostalgic, with a mix of positive and negative comments. The importance of nostalgia was supported sequentially via results from the national survey. For example, while 54.1% of the 40–54 age-group associated ParticipACTION positively with Body Break, so did 49.8% of the 25–39-year age group, most of whom were not born when the promotion ran. Further, brand resonance was found to explain 4% more variance in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), the proxy for sport participation, for younger people compared to older people.

Results provide direction to brands, properties and agencies around the use of nostalgia in sport marketing campaigns and sponsorship efforts. For brands seeking to sponsor sport properties to alter their image with potential consumers in a new market, associating with a sport property that many view as nostalgic could improve the impact of the campaign. On the sport property side, event managers and marketers should both identify existing assets that members or fans are nostalgic about, as well as consider building nostalgia into current and new properties they develop.

This research is valuable to the sport marketing and sponsorship literature through several contributions. First, the use of nostalgia marketing, and nostalgia in general, is novel in the sport marketing and sponsorship literature, with future research in nostalgia and sponsorship recommended. Second, the potential to adopt or adapt Body Break to other sport participation and physical activity properties is empirically supported. Finally, the finding that very effective promotions can have a long-lasting effect, both on those who experienced the campaigns as well as younger populations who only heard about it, is notable.

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.

Drawing upon social judgment theory, the research examines whether changes in psychological involvement with a sport human brand owing to their sporting success can generate spillover effects on people's national pride, a proxy for the collective level of well-being and whether the individual's behavioral engagement in sport spectating will moderate this relationship.

Leveraging a quasi-natural experiment grounded in the 2021 Indian Premier League championship, the authors solicit responses from 296 representative individuals residing in India twice using a two-wave panel design. The authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis, repeated measures T-test, latent change score analysis, and structural regression analysis to examine the relationship between psychological involvement with sport human brand and national pride.

The results demonstrate a positive association between psychological involvement with sport human brand and national pride. Further, the findings indicate that an increase in psychological involvement with sport human brand was associated with an increase in national pride due to the successful athletic endeavor involving the sport human brand. However, the relationship between psychological involvement with sport human brand and national pride was invariant irrespective of patrons' spectatorship behavior.

This research demonstrates that sport human brands possess transformative soft power that extends their prerogative cultural identity personified by their athletic ability and success, allowing them to shape public sentiments of national pride via their profound influence through and beyond the complex network of brand ecosystems.

This study aims to investigate if engineered compression variations using moisture-responsive knitted fabric design can improve breast support in seamless knitted sports bras.

An experimental approach was used to integrate a novel moisture-responsive fabric panel into a seamless knitted bra, and the resulting compression variability in dry versus wet conditions were compared with those of a control bra. Air permeability and elongation testing of between breasts fabric panels was conducted in dry and wet conditions, followed by three-dimensional body scanning of eight human participants wearing the two bras in similar conditions. Questionnaires were used to evaluate perceived comfort and breast support of both bras in both conditions.

Air permeability test results showed that the novel panel had the highest variance between dry and wet conditions, confirming its moisture-responsive design, and increased its elongation coefficient in both wale and course directions in wet condition. There were significant main effects of bra type and body location on breast compression measurements. Breast circumferences in the novel bra were significantly larger than in the control bra condition. The significant two-way interaction between bra type and moisture condition showed that the control bra lost compressive power in wet condition, whereas the novel bra became more compressive when wet. Changes in compression were confirmed by participants’ perception of tighter straps and drier breast comfort.

These findings add to the limited scientific knowledge of moisture adaptive bra design using engineered knitted fabrics via advanced manufacturing technologies, with possible applications beyond sports bras, such as bras for breast surgery recovering patients.