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This study analyzes the impact of sports social media on a country regarding three international events connected to the brand Spain. It examines (1) the use and importance of various social media platforms in sports events and (2) identifies the countries generating the most social media content.

A total of 1,711,084 posts were collected for analysis, focusing on FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, XLI Marathon Valencia Trinidad Alfonso 2022 and Davis Cup 2022, with a particular emphasis on the Spain brand. Through Atribus, diverse social media data were recovered and analyzed. Later, we recommended employing various metrics and ANOVAs to address the research questions. Additionally, we conducted a sentiment analysis.

The results show differences between (1) the use and relevance of social network platforms and events and (2) the content generated by different countries. The practical implications offer valuable insights for sports event organizers, destination managers and other stakeholders. The research implications suggest potential avenues for future research based on the observed patterns and behaviors in social media posts related to sports events and Brand Spain.

(1) Some papers have studied the role of sports events’ social media, ignoring the comparison among different social media platforms; (2) usually, previous literature has focused on a single event or sport and (3) although there is considerable research related to the strategic and operational Inés Küster Boluda Inés Küster Boluda role of social media, there is less systematic analysis related to the extent sports events use social media in general and in specific social media platforms and virtually nonexistent studies that employ index measurements.

本研究擬分析就三個與西班牙品牌有關的國際體育賽事而言，體育社交媒體對一個國家的影響。俱體而言，本研究擬探討： (一) 、各體育賽事社交媒體平台的使用和其重要性，以及 (二) 、是哪些國家生成最多的社交媒體內容。

研究人員收集共計1,711,084帖子以便進行分析;其焦點放在2022年卡塔爾世界盃 (即2022年國際足聯世界盃) ，2022年特尼利尼達阿方索馬拉松賽－瓦倫西亞 (XLI Marathon Valencia Trinidad Alfonso 2022) 和2022年台維斯盃;研究人員特別把重點放在西班牙品牌上。研究人員透過 Atribus 重新取得多種多樣的社交媒體數據，然後進行分析。之後，研究人員建議使用不同的度量和方差分析去處理各研究問題，以及進行了情感分析。

研究結果顯示了以下兩者之差異：(一) 、社交網絡平台和比賽項目的使用和關聯，以及 (二) 、不同國家生成的內容。從這個研究發現，體育賽事的籌辦者、目的地管理人員和其它利益相關者，均會獲得寶貴的實務啟示;至於就未來學術研究的路向而言，學者和研究人員或許可觀察關於體育賽事和西班牙品牌的社交媒體帖子裡顯示的模式和行為，從而找到合適的研究路徑。

本研究有以下的貢獻：(一) 、從前的研究多只探討關於體育賽事的社交媒體所扮演的角色，而忽略了要比較不同社交媒體平台的需要;(二) 、過去的文獻通常聚焦於單一的賽事或運動上;以及 (三) 、雖然探討關於社交媒體在戰略上和在操作上所扮演的角色的研究為數不少，但甚少研究、就體育賽事大體使用社交媒體的程度，或使用特定的社交媒體平台的程度進行分析和探討。再者，幾乎沒有學者或研究人員在有關的研究上使用指標測量法;就此三點而言，本研究可說填補了有關的研究空白。

The study aims to identify critical factors that influence football fans’ support of their favorite team by examining the impact of social responsibility, brand credibility and team brand equity on patronage intentions of professional football teams.

An online survey collected data from 331 football fans of the Persian Gulf Premier League (PGPL) in Iran. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings revealed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is able to influence brand equity, brand credibility and patronage intentions. Also, brand equity and brand credibility were found to be positively related to patronage intentions. In addition to that, the findings show that brand equity and team credibility partially mediate the relationship between CSR and patronage intentions.

The findings provide valuable insights to sports teams/club managers aiming to attract new fans and retain current ones by investing in CSR and enhancing brand credibility and equity. Strategies to integrate CSR into relationship marketing and brand management are outlined.

This study empirically highlights the critical role of adhering to CSR and the effects of brand credibility and equity in enhancing patronage intentions among football team fans.

The aim of this research is to measure the impact of eWOM (electronic word of mouth) and brand celebrity use on the purchasing behavior of sports consumers.

To test the model hypotheses, sports consumers who use social media and have purchased at least one online sports product were selected as the research group. Online survey method was used, and 836 participants were reached. The model was tested with structural equation modeling (SEM) through smart PLS software.

As a result, the quality, credibility and usefulness of the information consumers encounter on online platforms cause them to adopt information about products or services, and then exhibit online purchase behavior. While the attractiveness and trustworthiness of celebrities are seen as important factors affecting consumers' online purchase of sports products, the effect of celebrity expertise was found to be ineffective in this study.

Marketers can develop more effective eWOM strategies by considering consumers' expectations. Businesses that want to implement an effective marketing strategy may prefer celebrities in product promotions or advertisements of their brands.

This research revealed the effect of eWOM and celebrity endorsement on the online purchase behavior of sports consumers in terms of the sports industry. Unlike previous studies, this study examined these variables together on sports consumers and contributed to the development of models.

The purpose of this study was to gather insights from sport marketing professionals and identify key opportunities, challenges and knowledge that sport marketing educators and researchers could utilize in developing curriculum and research agendas.

A qualitative approach was used, and data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 sport marketing professionals. Participants were asked questions related to the knowledge, skills and experiences that they believe are important for students to have to be successful in the industry, as well as the types of research that would be most useful in their day-to-day work.

Industry professionals noted collaboration, transformation in digital marketing, data and analytics and experiential marketing as key trends facing the industry today. The findings suggest that sport marketing curriculum should focus on soft skill development such as communication, relationship building and empathy alongside hard skill development such as data analysis and storytelling. As well, findings show research areas where scholars can aid practitioners with a focus on consumer insights, technology, measuring ROI and experiential marketing.

With these findings, educators and scholars can better prepare students for successful careers in industry and contribute to the ongoing advancement of the scholarly field. This study serves as a starting point for further research in this area, and it is hoped that it will spark continued collaboration between academia and industry.

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.

In a dynamic, continuously evolving sports landscape, social media have become an indispensable tool for sports organizations to cultivate meaningful connections with fans. The rapid pace of technological advancements has elevated these digital platforms from a supplementary role to a pivotal position within strategic management frameworks. The existing literature explores how football clubs can utilize social media, but analyzing social media strategies within the context of football leagues is lacking. The absence of comparative studies benchmarking clubs across different geographical regions while simultaneously analyzing multiple social media platforms is especially noteworthy. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of social media engagement is undertaken within esteemed football leagues spanning Europe, South America and North America.

Drawing on relationship marketing and employing content analysis as a methodological tool, the study examined 10,772 posts from the official accounts of eight football leagues on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Across the leagues, the findings reveal that content quality drives engagement more than frequency. In addition, several format combinations were identified that facilitate engagement and Instagram emerged as the top social media platform for generating fan engagement.

This is one of the first empirical studies focusing on optimizing the use of social media to amplify fan engagement across various geographies and social media accounts and formats simultaneously.

The purpose of this study is to understand the factors responsible for social media fan engagement and experience. The research study also attempts to analyze the significance of adopting digital strategies with a fan-centric approach for sports organizations.

The authors conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with managers in different sports organizations and fans of various popular sports leagues and clubs in India. The authors used a qualitative exploratory approach by applying coding and thematic analysis to arrive at findings and conclusions.

The responses led to the emergence of three major themes comprising effective planning, harnessing fan participation and boosting the quality of experience. Building on these themes, the authors recommended the “PRIME” model for sports organizations.

As this study explores the growing importance of fan engagement from the top three sports leagues in India, future researchers can focus on obtaining data from multiple countries and multiple leagues to enhance fan engagement's generalizability. Also with the growing popularity of eSports, the scope of the present study may be expanded based on eSports.

The authors' study acts as an eye-opener for managers revealing that to get active participation from fans, sports organizations will have to be active in social media initiatives. In addition to this, the authors also propose the PRIME model, which elaborates on the aspects of Planning social media programs, Regularization of content creation, increased Interaction with the fan base, Motivation through rewards and Enriching fan experience for effectively harnessing fan engagement and experience.

In the pandemic era, engaging with fans on social media can enable sports organizations to thrive. The authors suggest a “PRIME” model which can aid sports managers in effectively harnessing fan engagement and experience for the managers of sports organizations. The model can also be applied beyond the sports context in anchoring customer engagement and experience through the social media of other business organizations.

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.

This study aims to identify the determining factors of perceived altruism and attitude toward an inclusive sponsorship activation, as well as the impact of these variables on the attitude toward the sponsor.

Online survey data were obtained from 1,228 respondents from France, the UK and South Africa. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results show that the cause-brand fit has a strong positive impact on the perceived altruism toward the motivations underlying inclusive activation, while skepticism toward advertising has a very weak negative impact. In return, perceived altruism positively influences the attitude toward inclusive activation and sponsor attitude. Furthermore, this attitude toward inclusive activation is positively influenced by involvement in women’s soccer and France men’s national football team identification. The attitude toward inclusive activation also positively influences the attitude toward sponsor attitude. However, contrary to what had been advanced, identification with the France women’s national football team and the nationality of the respondents (French, British or South African) had no impact on the attitude toward inclusive activation, while the perceived importance of the cause had very weak impact on attitudes toward inclusive activation.

This study highlights the potential benefits of investing in inclusive sponsorship activations, particularly with respect to their positive impact on consumer attitude toward sponsor attitude. It also highlights the importance of establishing, in advance, a strong association between the brand image and the cause supported, so that the motivations underlying the inclusive activations are perceived as more altruistic.

Despite the fact this is already known over how sports spectators interpret sponsorship content, less is known about participants’ sentiments toward sponsors, which are sometimes crucial to the survival of participation sporting events. Various researchers have examined at how spectators recognize or recall sponsors, but very few have explored it from the viewpoint of sport participants. This research portrays a shift in focus from spectator-based to participant-based marketing by studying the differences over how participants and spectators perceive sport sponsorship, recognizing the current knowledge gap regarding the process of sponsorship in participant-based sports. Sponsorship previous research has focused on the effectiveness of sport sponsorships utilizing variables such sponsor recognition, desire to sponsors’ products and anticipated sponsorship advantages (Koronios and Dimitropoulos, 2020). The examination of sport sponsorship from the standpoint of the sport spectator is something that many of the past studies have in common. The application of past research analysing sport sponsorship from a distinct perspective: that of the sport participant, distinguishes the present study. In addition, the present study explores the distinctions in sponsorship effectiveness between spectators and participants, a topic which hasn't been addressed at before in sponsorship literature.

This study depicts a move away from spectator-based to participant-based marketing, utilizing contemporary implicit physiological variables to measure participants’ and spectators’ awareness of and attitude toward sponsors, and it proposes a model of their purchase intentions toward real sponsors of a martial event. A total of 1,332 questionnaires were collected and analysed.

Factors such as sport involvement, social media use, sincerity and beliefs of sponsorship were found to have a significant effect on purchase intention of spectators and participants. And crucial differences in the significance of various antecedent factors between spectators and participants were detected in the formation of positive purchase and word-of-mouth intentions.

This paper gives prominence to contemporary methodological advances in the field of implicit social cognition and their relevance to sponsorship. This is the first sponsorship research which examines the effectiveness of sponsorship variables under the implicit–explicit variables dichotomy.