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The paper aims to examine the relationships among marathon spectator motivation, satisfaction and behavioral intention in China.

Date were collected from three Chinese marathon races. The paper presents the conceptual model of the study and adopted a mixed method to identify the motivations of marathon spectators; structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the measurement and substantive models; regression analysis was used to detect the specific effects of the various spectator motivations on spectator satisfaction and behavioral intention.

The paper provides empirical evidences about how marathon spectator motivation affects the behavioral intention. The research results from a path analysis of the spectator motivation–satisfaction–behavioral intention model show that: spectator motivation has significant positive effects on behavioral intention, the indirect path dominates the total effect of motivation on behavioral intention via satisfaction as a mediating variable; satisfaction is positively associated with behavioral intention, and it plays mediate role between spectator motivation and behavioral intention. The result of regression analysis indicates that various spectator motivations have different influences on the satisfaction and behavioral intention, motives of excitement and diversion have significant effect on satisfaction and behavioral intention, but socialization motive is not significantly associated with the satisfaction and behavioral intention.

This paper first fulfills an identified need to explore mass sports event spectator motivations and its influential mechanism on behavioral intention among Chinese marathon races by survey. It contributes greatly to the literature of mass sports spectator motivation and consumption theory, provides important managerial implications for Chinese sports organizations as to how to improve spectator orientation degree.

This article aims to perform a meta-analysis through a systematic review that will identify the main antecedents and consequents of the satisfaction of sports spectators.

This study used a total of 927 papers that studied satisfaction in the context of sports and directly analyzed 51 papers that presented quantitative data. This review of the existing literature resulted in 18 antecedent constructs and identified four constructs consequent to the satisfaction of sports spectators.

The results showed 21 positive relations and 1 negative relation with the satisfaction of sports spectators. A significant moderating effect of some cultural orientations and levels of human development are identified. The results demonstrate that the effect between interaction quality and satisfaction on the one hand, and satisfaction and behavioral intention on the other, is stronger for Eastern countries and those with a higher level of economic development.

This meta-analytic study advances the understanding of biases present in primary studies with various limitations. Using the proposed approach, it is possible to generate accurate estimates of the effect size in each analyzed relationship, as the meta-analytic method jointly evaluates the results produced by a great variety of studies performed in different contexts, making it possible to draw more accurate conclusions.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and examine an integrated model of spectator satisfaction in mass participant sport events.

The Wuhan marathon, held in the middle of China, was selected serve for the study to examine the antecedents and consequences of spectator satisfaction at mass participant sport events. Data were collected from 956 spectators of the event on the day of the race. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the research model proposed by this study.

Structural equation modeling results indicate the following. First, the event image and perceived social impact of the event are important predictive factors of spectator satisfaction. Second, spectator satisfaction is positively associated with behavioral intentions toward the event and the sponsors' product. Third, spectator satisfaction plays a significant mediating role between the antecedents and consequences; specifically, compared to perceived social impacts of the event, event image has greater indirect effects on both event-related behavioral intentions and event sponsors' products.

Until now, there has not been an integrated research study on the sport spectator satisfaction model in the context of mass participant sport events. This paper thus extends the understanding of the spectator satisfaction in the context of mass participant sport events, and the findings provide valuable implications for holding cities and event organizers of mass participant sport events in emerging countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between spectators’ event quality perceptions and revisit intention in both men's and women's basketball events by focusing on gender influence.

The study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) on data collected by questionnaire survey from a total of 623 spectators of two college men's basketball events (n=292) and two college women's basketball events (n=331).

The results indicate that for men's basketball events, game performance and staff quality had a significant influence on the revisit intention of spectators, regardless of the spectator's gender. For women's basketball events, game performance and in‐game entertainment were significant determinants of spectator revisit intentions, again regardless of gender.

The current research collected data from division I‐A men's and women's basketball events in only one higher education institution. Further the current research adopted only four salient event quality factors (i.e., game performance, in‐game entertainment, staff quality, and physical surrounding). Finally, current research measured only revisit intention as a dependent variable.

The findings suggest that game performance was found to be the most significant event quality factor regardless of gender in both men’s and women’s sporting events. Furthermore, in‐game entertainment was another critical event quality factor for the revisit intention for women’s basketball events. In addition, females have more sensitive event quality perceptions in both men’s and women’s basketball events.

This study investigated the moderating role of gender in the relationship between specific event quality factors (i.e., game performance, in‐game entertainment, staff quality, and physical surrounding) and revisit intention for both men's and women's college basketball events. The study's findings yield insight into service research and offers meaningful implications to managers for future improvements of their services and development of marketing strategies in this context.

This study seeks to examine the moderating role of team identification regarding the relationship between service quality and repurchase intentions among spectators of professional sports.

Quantitative data are collected from a questionnaire survey of 257 spectators attending a professional soccer game in Greece. Multiple regression analyses are used to assess the relationships among the constructs of service quality, repurchase intentions, and team identification.

Team identification is shown to moderate the relationship between service quality and repurchase intentions among spectators at this professional sports event. Both overall service quality and two specific service‐quality dimensions (“responsiveness” and “reliability”) are found to be positively associated with repurchase intentions only among respondents with low and medium team identification. No relationship is found between service quality and repurchase intentions among those with high team identification.

Managers of professional sports events who wish to increase attendances by improvements in service quality should first segment their customers according to degree of team affiliation. They should then design their service offerings specifically to meet the service‐quality expectations of sports fans with medium or low team identification.

The study provides valuable empirical evidence of the moderating role of team identification with regard to the relationship between service quality and repurchase intentions among consumers of professional sports events.

This study aims to address customer focus as an important component of total quality management (TQM) and explore the key drivers of member satisfaction in tennis clubs via a novel theory-based member satisfaction index (MSI) model with high explanatory and predictive power. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate the relationship between satisfaction and behavioral intentions (willingness to stay; WTS) with consideration of the mediating effect of identification with the club.

This study uses variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate the MSI model, which was tested in a leading tennis club in Germany (n = 185).

The results reveal that club atmosphere, club facilities and the price/quality ratio of the membership fee are the most important drivers of member satisfaction in tennis clubs. Member satisfaction has a large influence on the WTS of tennis club members. Identification with the club, when included as a mediator in the model, increases the variance explained in WTS considerably.

The small sample limits the generalizability of findings, and further research is recommended.

The MSI model is a useful benchmark tool for club managers who want to quantify the satisfaction and WTS of their club members. In addition, because of the integrated formative measurement models, the PLS-SEM results show which indicators can be used to positively impact satisfaction with each of the service quality dimensions, overall member satisfaction and WTS. The most important of these results are discussed in an importance-performance map analysis.

The MSI model is a multi-attribute index model through which members' evaluations of various dimensions of service and value are derived through multivariable linear function with each dimension weighted according to its importance in one holistic model. The model shows the strong impact of satisfaction on WTS of sports club members and reveals that findings of previous research on the relationship between fan and spectator identification and loyalty are transferable to sports club members. The MSI represents a new contribution to the literature; it was applied here to tennis clubs but is also suitable for application to other sports clubs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of peripheral service quality on football match spectators’ emotions and behavioural intention.

Data were obtained from a survey of 342 spectators of professional league football in Malaysia and analysed using the partial least squares technique.

The results illustrated the significant role of both pleasant and unpleasant emotions in forming spectators’ behavioural intentions. Furthermore, they demonstrated that the drivers of pleasant and unpleasant emotions are different. While entertainment, electronic devices and stadium announcers have positive effects on pleasant emotion, facilities and electronic devices have negative effects on unpleasant emotion. Entertainment, electronic devices and stadium announcers have indirect effects on behavioural intentions through pleasant emotions. Unpleasant emotions mediated the effects of facilities and electronic devices on behavioural intentions.

The findings of this study suggest that football marketers must understand the crucial role of peripheral service quality and spectators’ emotions. Through stimulating pleasant emotions in spectators and preventing unpleasant emotions from arising, football marketers can ensure that these spectators will attend football stadiums.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the stadium occupancy rate on television viewers’ game quality perception and stadium visit intention (VI).

An experiment was conducted in which two groups were asked to watch video clips of professional soccer games with low- and high-stadium occupancy rates.

The results indicate that the higher the stadium occupancy, the higher is perceived game quality and the greater is stadium VI.

The paper provides useful information on the effect of the stadium occupancy rate on perceived game quality and VI.

The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships among three primary variables: sports spectatorship of intercollegiate football, university brand equity and student satisfaction. The primary purpose is to understand the extent to which athletic programs influence campus culture, sense of community and the satisfaction of undergraduate students. A secondary purpose is to probe the factor structure, reliability and validity of a recently developed sports spectatorship scale.

The authors collected data through an online survey of 419 undergraduate students enrolled at three separate Midwestern universities, using previously developed and validated survey scales.

Relationships between brand equity and student satisfaction suggest that athletic programs provide a benefit to universities by improving students’ psychological sense of community and emotional connection to the institution. Furthermore, correlations between sports spectatorship and brand equity measures suggest an internal advertising effect.

The results contribute to the understanding of the role of intercollegiate athletic programs, in this case from the perspective of enrolled undergraduate students. Additionally, the findings recommend ways that universities might maximize some of the benefits by emphasizing the emotional connection of the student body to the teams. The paper also contributes to the validation of the sports spectatorship scale as a tool for further research.

Social television (Social TV) viewing of live sports events is an emerging trend. The realm of transformative service research (TSR) envisions that every service consumption experience must lead to consumer well-being. Currently, a full appreciation of the well-being factors obtained through Social TV viewing is lacking. This study aims to gain a holistic understanding of the concept of digital sports well-being obtained through live Social TV viewing of sports events.

Focus group interviews were used to collect data from the 40 regular sports viewers, and the qualitative data obtained is analyzed thematically using NVivo 12. A post hoc verification of the identified themes is done to narrow down the most critical themes.

The exploration helped understand the concept of digital sports well-being (DSW) obtained through live Social TV sports spectating and identified five critical themes that constitute its formation. The themes that emerged were virtual connectedness, vividness, uncertainty reduction, online disinhibition and perceived autonomy. This study defines the concept and develops a conceptual model for DSW.

This study adds to the body of knowledge in TSR, transformative sport service research, digital customer engagement, value co-creation in digital platforms, self-determination theory and flow theory. The qualitative study is exploratory, with participants’ views based on a single match in one particular sport, and as such, its findings are restrained by the small sample size and the specific sport. To extend this study’s implications, empirical research involving a larger and more diversified sample involving multiple sports Social TV viewing experiences would help better understand the DSW concept.

The research provides insights to Social TV live streamers of sporting events and digital media marketers about the DSW construct and identifies the valued DSW dimensions that could provide a competitive advantage.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the exploration is the first attempt to describe the concept of DSW and identify associated themes.