Search results

The purposes of this paper is to segment spectators of collegiate football game using a cluster analysis and to determine differences between spectator clusters based on motivations, satisfaction, and demographic characteristics.

A survey instrument was utilized, and a total of 407 usable data were gathered through a convenience sampling method at a main campus in the Southern USA. A discriminant analysis was employed to create cluster profiles including demographic variables not previously included in the clustering procedure. Cluster analysis is a procedure used to determine best group segmentation.

Through a factor-cluster analysis, two distinct groups are identified as attendees of collegiate football games: far-away fans and seasoned sideliners. Knowing the different spectators in event attendance allows marketers of collegiate sport events to effectively target segments and attract larger numbers of visitors to each event. Although the results indicated lower satisfaction with the far-away fans cluster, they are nonetheless spending their money at these events. A concerted effort to better welcome tourists that are supporting the visiting team may help boost their image of the local community and thus increase their spending level.

The current study adds to the literature on sport event research, while providing great insight for researchers and practitioners how to segment their target market. Therefore, it is believed that the results of the present study will help future researchers and industry practitioners make use of the implications and findings to broaden their knowledge about sport marketing.

There are different streams of research in the service marketing literature concerning value co-creation. Most of the research focuses on value co-creation for the benefit of the customer. However, value is also co-created for the benefit of the provider, especially in a business-to-business context. The purpose of this research is to understand (1) how value is co-created in a sport business-to-business context (i.e. sailing) and (2) how the prevailing value co-creation approaches explain value co-creation processes differently in a sport business-to-business context.

The research was contextualised within the Auckland sailing cluster. Primary data were collected via 27 interviews, as well as observations at events. Secondary data include 13 documents of organisational information and archival data. Data were analysed deductively and interpreted using two different theoretical lenses: service-dominant logic (SDL) and service logic (SL).

The value co-creation analysis of the sailing cluster permitted theorising about relationships in sport management at different levels of aggregation and abstraction. Every actor is embedded in a wider sport eco-system triggered by sport activities and always has a dual role as provider and beneficiary. Actors that are in control of specific sport activities are pivotal actors and provide a value network for others.

This research suggests that SDL and SL approaches to value co-creation are complementary and that further research is necessary to integrate and operationalise these approaches.

It helps practitioners to better understand how value is co-created in sport business-to-business contexts.

This research shows the complementarity of two differing theoretical approaches to explain value co-creation in sport business-to-business settings.

The market for sport tourists is very diverse and motivations of sport tourists are manifold. This also applies to the field of water sport tourism, which has not yet intensely been analysed by researchers. In order to analyse motivations and to reach target groups such as water sport tourists adequately, market segmentation is necessary. The purpose of this paper is to investigate sport motivations of tourists during their holidays as well as the tourist's participation in water sport activities, using the example of the German North Sea island Sylt. Thereby, consumer profiles will be established.

A quantitative research paradigm was chosen. A survey was conducted using a standardised self‐administered questionnaire. The sample comprised n=263 participants. Two indices, one for sport motivation and one for travel motivation were constructed. Factor, as well as cluster, analysis was applied to segment the sample. Furthermore, discriminant analysis was used to identify differences between the two clusters. Finally, cross tabulations underlined the differences between the clusters.

Overall, 47.1 per cent of the sample takes part in water sports. The cluster analysis based on motivational factors revealed two groups, the casuals and the committed. Significant differences were detected between the groups with regard to sport and holiday consumption patterns and sport expenditures. However, there were no significant socio‐demographic differences between the clusters.

It is shown that segmentation of travellers is useful to reach the different target groups and offer unique products and services, depending on, e.g. age and sport preferences.

The results of this research indicate the diverse nature of water sport tourists and their underlying motivations. It is shown that holiday sport motivation depends on the actual sports practiced by the travellers, implying that prior sport motivation and involvement influence travellers' sport motivation. Overall, this research highlights the importance of segmenting sport tourists.

The environmental characteristics of international football can vary significantly from one country to another. As a result, the economic and market possibilities and the objectives of each national league are very heterogeneous. This article aims to examine the differences in revenue structures amongst European national football leagues (n = 50) and cluster them based on these structures. It also investigates which revenue structure would be more effective for similar leagues, considering the previously mentioned varying environmental characteristics of international football.

The study utilises a theoretical framework of business modelling, applied in a unique way to league organisers of national championships. Data on sports and business aspects were collected from sources such as the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Financial Benchmarking Reports, transfermarkt.de and related sources for the period 2015 to 2018. K-means cluster analysis, using the Euclidean distance approach, was employed to develop clusters based on revenue sources over a four-year average.

The paper presents the characteristics and year-to-year changes of nine developed clusters. Throughout the analysis, variables such as average overpayment and inequality between player values amongst leagues were prioritised. The study's practical implications can assist league organisers in enhancing the competitiveness of their leagues, supported by short case studies that provide illustrative examples.

The novelty of the current article lies in introducing innovative variables such as the variance of player value whilst focussing on meso-level analysis, providing a fresh contribution to the existing literature in the field for understanding revenue structures and performance in European national football leagues.

Niche sports such as women's professional sport leagues face many challenges to developing and expanding their fan base. Understanding sport fans, segmenting consumer bases and targeting them effectively can assist in both developing the fan base and competing for investments like sponsorships and media rights. The purpose of this study was to explore consumer segments of the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF), a niche softball league, by identifying demographic and psychographic characteristics of the segments and developing a persona for each segment.

Data were collected from 3,463 NPF consumers with the assistance of NPF league officials using their social media outlets. A two-step cluster analysis was performed employing both categorical and continuous variables to inform the segmentation, which was followed with chi-squared statistics and two MANOVAs to compare the segments' demographic characteristics, points of attachment (POAs) levels and attendance and viewership of NPF games.

Three distinct consumer segments with unique demographic, POA and softball participation characteristics were identified. Differences among these segments' consumption of NPF games validated the existence of three distinct consumer segments.

This research is the first to examine consumer behavior in women's softball, and it expands the sport marketing literature through the identification of consumer segments of a niche sport league with a novel cluster analysis. Blending theory and practice by incorporating both demographic and psychographic variables into market segmentation, the research uniquely serves this niche sport and thereby informs improved marketing practice.

The purpose of this empirical research is to identify the key success factors engrained in the new product development (NPD) practices of companies that belong to the Italian sport shoe cluster of Montebelluna.

Statistical analyses were undertaken on data collected through a questionnaire submitted to a conveniently selected group of the population of firms localized in Montebelluna. A series of one‐way ANOVAs was run on the NPD performance metric. We then measured the Pearson correlation between the degree of new product success and the factors that were found to be statistically significant. We converted the response variable into a dummy and then we tested the hypotheses with the normalized Cramer's V‐square to discriminate between the best performers and the rest. Finally, we performed a regression analysis to build a model that explains a large part of the variation in new product success.

Three macro factors have a positive influence on new product success: extended team approach (also cross‐company); customer orientation; and the use of advanced ICTs for new product development.

Further investigation is needed on the role of networking with suppliers in new product development.

Sport shoe manufacturers should: proactively develop close relationships with their customers aimed at NPD; integrate lead users in the NPD process; and implement strategies to overcome their inhibition from investing in advanced ICTs for NPD.

Some factors that have been found as being important drivers of new product success in other researches do not seem to play a relevant role in the companies we analyzed. The study highlights the strategic role of lead users in contributing to the enhanced performance of successful companies.

To compare France and Germany, we will take a new approach to the discussion on lifestyles and social stratification. Instead of anchoring our definition of social stratification in predefined concepts, such as social class and status, we will empirically explore the latent patterns of social stratification and lifestyles. Our strategy allows us to investigate whether social stratification is best measured by one, two, or more dimensions; and then to map the associated patterns of lifestyles onto this/these dimension(s).

As indicators of social stratification, we use education, household income, and occupational status; and to measure lifestyles, we use data from two surveys on lifestyles and cultural consumption (Media og kulturforbruksundersøkelsen 2004, Norway; and module Pratiques culturelles et sportives, Enquête Permanente sur les Conditions de Vie 2003, France). We limit our analysis to occupationally active respondents, 20–64 years of age.

We would expect our findings to differ somewhat between the two countries; but given that social stratification is a pervasive element of all modern societies, we would also expect to find common empirical patterns that may be of relevance to the way we conceptualize lifestyles and social stratification.

This paper seeks to provide a tangible example of the use of text‐mining techniques in a real world setting, i.e. using real, as opposed to test, data.

News stories are modeled using the vector space model, with the similarity between documents quantified using the cosine measure. For data analysis, three clustering algorithms are used, and the results from the best‐performing algorithm retained.

Agglomerative clustering performed poorly, while direct k‐way clustering and k‐way clustering through repeated bisections yielded similar results, with the former performing marginally better in terms of external isolation and internal cohesion of the clusters produced. A number of themes that dominated news coverage during the period under consideration were identified, some of which were noticeably only topical during certain parts of the year.

Text mining holds much promise for businesses, particularly if integrated into a well‐orchestrated competitive intelligence function. However, more publicly accessible studies need to be undertaken if businesses are to derive maximum value from it.

There is a growing body of literature devoted to both data and text mining. However, much of this literature focuses on the development of new algorithms, with scant attention paid to the practical application of these techniques in business settings, possibly because of the strategic sensitivity of project findings. This study helps fill this yawning void.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical basis of the claim that social cohesion is served better by processes within civil society than by government policies. This paper also aims to provide an empirical test using recent UK data. This paper combines literatures from sociology, political science and social psychology in an innovative way.

The approach used was analysis of a range of relevant literatures. Statistical analysis of the DCLG Citizenship Survey to examine aspects of cohesion was also undertaken.

The civil society argument has both strengths and weaknesses. Group processes and group interests in civil society may lead towards exclusion rather than inclusion. In the UK context, the civil society route to social cohesion is uncertain: the groupings that develop do not necessary promote commitments broadly across society and particularly between advantaged and disadvantaged citizens.

This article shows the value of social psychological as well as sociological and political science material. It identifies severe limitations as well as strengths in the kind of civil society approaches that have been promoted in recent discussion of the “Big Society”.

The civil society route to social cohesion is no substitute for the welfare state.

Moves to re‐centre social cohesion on civil society processes are unlikely to be successful.

The paper uses a combination of theoretical literatures from different disciplines, including social psychology. The paper uses an empirical test of the civil society thesis using up to date material.