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Purpose: 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. Design/methodology/approach: 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. Findings: 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. Practical implications: 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. Originality/value: 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.

AbstractThis article probes the relative importance of alignment amongst key stakeholders as one factor in explaining differences in On-The-Field and Off-The-Field performance of professional sporting clubs. Informed by a survey of 130 professional team sporting executives, and evidence from several related sources of evidence on strong and weak alignment, this research highlights the important role of different stakeholders in club performance and assessments of that performance. Evidence of misalignment is presented in an analysis of Coach and GM exits for clubs with very different levels of alignment between fans of clubs and the owners, coaches, and players of those clubs. The results of this article highlight the important role that the Owner takes in both enhancing or destroying the achievement of On-The-Field and Off-The-Field objectives. The crucial role of General Managers in sporting clubs is also showcased in the findings. The General Manager function has been given limited attention in research on sports management and in many sports management programs.

This research examines barriers that urban youth face which limit participation in sport. Conceptually, this work distinguishes between three categories of active (participatory) engagement: 1) those that never participated; 2) those that used to participate; 3) those that do participate; and their level of passive engagement. A set of hypotheses for urban youth sport participation incorporating external and intrinsic factors are tested and guided by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Based on pre-interviews with urban youth (n= 53), a large-sample survey (n= 3,003) of youth in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver was conducted. Results identified four segments of urban youth participation; a multiple regression analysis supported the TPB as an appropriate lens for understanding urban youth sport participation. The development of segments of urban youth based on sport engagement has implications for managers involved in promoting participation. The article contributes theoretically through the extension of the TPB in the context of urban youth participation.

Guided by a dynamic capabilities framework, this research explores the National Basketball Association's (NBA) expansion into esports. Based on the input of thirteen sport industry experts, the paper presents research on simulated professional sports (SPS) with a deep investigation of the NBA 2K League (2KL). NBA 2KL is the first esports league in North America that is owned and operated by a traditional professional sports league. Results identify both league and club level outcomes for: 1) learning dynamic capabilities; 2) integrating/coordinating dynamic capabilities; 3) reconfiguring dynamic capabilities. Practical recommendations to the NBA, extended to other professional leagues, are provided. A framework for future research, including questions to be addressed, is outlined based on the findings.

AbstractThe purpose of this research is to introduce and demonstrate the use of an adaptation of the established focus group research method, referred to as the sequential-funnel-based focus group design. This adaptation is described, developed, explained, and tested with an intention of adding to the rigor of the method's application and, by extension, rebranding focus group as a sound method of inquiry. To illustrate the method, the work used the topic of the value of social media as a relationship marketing medium through a conduct of eight focus groups of a three-phase design over a two-month period. An adaptation with increased rigor is proposed as a sound method of inquiry for sport management scholars. The value and challenges of the design is discussed, and an outline for its future use as a method in sport management is presented.

Purpose: The segmentation of customers into homogeneous groups is well researched, reflecting its importance to marketers. Specific to professional sports, published research on customer segmentation first occurred in the early 2000s, but no studies exist based on internal data from season ticket holders, an attractive and loyal customer group which is the most important customer for professional sports teams. Thus, the purpose of this research was to fill this gap in the literature through a sequential study of season ticket holders of a professional sports club. Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 employed six focus groups (n= 56) to determine the constructs, understand the issues, and sequentially inform the survey instrument for the second study. Study 2 used an online survey (n= 1,007) to collect data on factors including socio-demographics, consumption, media engagement, fan satisfaction, future intentions and sports fan motivation. Findings: The results identified the engagement factors and selection variables which drive season ticket holder purchase and allowed for the segmentation analysis, which identified fourteen unique fan segments for a professional sports club, generalizable to other clubs. Originality/value: The identification of 14 segments of season ticket holders based on a sequential study framed by the sports relationship marketing model is a needed contribution for practice (i.e. a specific direction on how to efficiently allocate resources when marketing to season ticket holders) and advances our conceptual knowledge by applying the model to the context of the most loyal customers in professional sports season ticket holders.

This study explores the role of athletes in influencing the image of an Olympic Games host country via social media, specifically the image of the country of Brazil during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The study employed a content analysis method based on data gathered from Canadian Olympic athletes' (n = 314) social media platforms, namely Twitter, Instagram and Facebook over a period of three months. The study identified eight categories of Brazil's image communicated on the athletes' social media platforms. These include urbanscape, natural environment, country's landmarks, social issues, cultural assets, emotional connection, games operations, and ease of travel. The most often communicated posts were in the urbanscape category (44.0%) followed by natural environment (20.2%) and country landmarks (17.2%). Contributions to the field, managerial implications, and ideas for future research are included.

This study aims to obtain an in-depth understanding of the use, opportunities, and challenges related to social media (SM) in achieving relationship marketing (RM) goals in professional sport. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 26 managers of professional sport teams from the four major leagues in North America. Results outline the platforms adopted, the six intended objectives of SM use, the seven opportunities SM provides, and the seven challenges of SM as a RM medium. Theoretical and practical implications as well as suggestions for future research are provided.

With one of the most sophisticated and successful sponsorship programs in sports, the Olympic movement generates billions in revenues. The IOC has therefore mandated host countries and cities to enact new laws (i.e., event-specific legislations) that offer supplementary protection against ambush marketing. Through a qualitative case study, this research explores the perspective of the National Partners of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games on the subject of anti-ambush marketing legislation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted reporting that: 1) event-specific legislation may contribute to sponsors' confusion around ambush marketing; 2) sponsors showed only moderate awareness of the legislation suggestive of a lack of consultation; 3) sponsors recognised both positive and negative impacts of anti-ambush marketing legislation; 4) sponsors perceived a level of powerlessness to stop ambush marketing and a need to focus on activation for true protection and increasing the remedies available through such measures.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically test O’Reilly and Madill’s (2012) process model to assess social marketing elements of a multi-year partnership between Coca-Cola Canada and a physical activity microgrant program, known as Teen Challenge, managed by ParticipACTION, a Canadian not-for-profit organization that champions sport and physical activity participation. ParticipACTION’s Teen Challenge is a multi-year initiative that was developed in 2008 and involves over 5,800 community organizations (COs) and over 500,000 Canadian teens across the nation (ParticipACTION, 2016). Design/methodology/approach: A series of ten hypotheses related to the evaluation are tested using longitudinal data from event participants over a five-year period from 2009 to 2013. Findings: The study revealed that sponsor and sponsee shared objectives around sport participation, including the three found in this study. Practically, this is a positive result for sport participation properties who might now consider this as part of a sponsorship sales strategy. The research found that both Coca-Cola Canada and ParticipACTION have the following shared objectives in this particular sponsorship: motivate and support youth to get active and live a healthy life; remove barriers that youth face in getting physically active; and encourage more COs to be involved in the program. Conceptually, this finding extends the discussion of shared social marketing objectives in sponsorship proposed by Madill and O’Reilly (2010). Research limitations/implications: The findings support the sponsorship literature, in suggesting that shared objectives among sponsorship partners are important for the sponsorship to achieve successful outcomes (Cornwell et al., 2001). Shared sponsorship objectives can be utilized as a strategic tool for the sponsee to demonstrate the effectiveness of the program and to build a long-term relationship. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that COs which viewed partners’ collaboration as positive agreed that the Teen Challenge program made physical activity more accessible and affordable for youth. Practical implications: This study provides several important implications for non-profit organizations that aim to establish an effective social marketing campaign. One way for non-profit organizations to build a strong relationship with sponsors was through positive collaboration where the two partners work together (e.g. activation) to maximize the sponsorship’s effectiveness. First, it increased youth participation in the Teen Challenge program and made it affordable for teens to participate in other physical activity programs. Second, it enhanced Coca-Cola’s image as supporters of active lifestyle in the eyes of COs. Finally, it affected the likelihood that COs would recommend the program. Social implications: Results of the survey of COs that are registered with the program provides us with another important finding that positive partner collaboration is only one component of overall effectiveness. Another component would be to take action to communicate to COs that positive collaboration indeed took place in the sponsorship. One way to achieve this goal is to demonstrate to COs the importance of funding that the sponsor provides as well as the impact of sponsorship partners’ positive collaboration on the overall program. The authors also found that sponsorship partners’ positive collaboration in the delivery of the Teen Challenge program played an important role in whether COs recommend the program to others. Originality/value: The results of this research contribute to the evaluation of the sponsorship of a health-oriented social marketing sponsorship of a sport participation property or sponsee (ParticipACTION) and a major brand as sponsor (Coca-Cola).

The tension between the rigour and the relevance of higher education research remains an important and hotly contested topic among scholars, administrators, practitioners and policymakers. This debate is most evident in professional programmes in which scholars are challenged to pursue new knowledge independent of its immediate relevance to practice while simultaneously contributing actionable knowledge to their profession. This two-part study explores whether the resulting pressure has an impact on the scholarly output and recruitment practices of different professional programmes. The results show that the context of the profession has a significant influence on the level of integration between academia and industry.

ABSTRACTSocial marketing organizations are embracing sponsorship as part of their external communications strategy. Like commercial sponsorships, these relationships may terminate early. We develop a case study of drink driving transgressions by professional footballers that underpinned the termination of their team's sponsorship with a road safety organization. The ensuing model links corporate credibility, reputational interdependence, and exchange theory to sponsorship. Accordingly, we assert these social marketing sponsorships are susceptible to player behaviors that contradict the key messages of the social marketing organization. Through an explicit analogy development and mapping process, we show this process is analogous to at least one form of ambush marketing. The validity of the model and ambush marketing analogy is confirmed by an international sample of practitioners and academics.

The impact of large-scale, ‘mass’ community-based sport, and physical activity (PA) events on population PA has yet to be established. The enhancement of organizational capacity to support health promotion initiatives is one mechanism through which such events may be helpful. Sports Day in Canada (SDIC) is an annual, nation-wide event celebrating the role of sport within communities and promoting sport participation. Beginning in 2010, thousands of Canadian sport and PA organizations have created SDIC events each year. The objective of this study was to examine the types of organizations who participate in SDIC and to determine if and how these organizations benefit from hosting an event. Online surveys of event organizers (2010 to 2013 SDIC) were conducted. Descriptive analyses identified organization and event characteristics, and one-way ANOVAs across time assessed event organizers’ perceptions related to their overall satisfaction, benefits obtained, and challenges faced while participating in SDIC. Findings showed that organizations were mainly from the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, worked with children and youth, and registered an event that was a tournament or school based. There was a significant increase in overall satisfaction [F(3, 996) = 27.26, p < .001] and benefits obtained [F(3, 1000) = 18.36, p < .001] across all four years of SDIC. One main benefit reported by organizations was an increased awareness and interest among community members in sport program(s) offered by their organization. Mass events like SDIC may help enhance organizational capacity to deliver health promotion initiatives including sport and PA programming.

Scholars, policymakers, accreditation bodies and industry leaders have called for an increased focus on scholarship that is both relevant and actionable for industry. In pursuance of this goal, many institutional solutions have been proposed. These solutions, however, have largely failed because they do not fully consider the individual and his or her background as significant factors in the choices an academic makes. To address the lack of research on individual academics, the authors conducted a two-part study that identified key issues and tested various hypotheses as to why some scholars choose to pursue actionable scholarship. Their findings show that five scholar-level factors (career stage, tenure, professional qualifications, active industry engagement and alumni affiliation) and one institutional-level factor (business school mission) influence whether or not they are likely to pursue research that is both relevant and actionable for industry.

Sports Day in Canada (SDIC) is an annual event celebrating the role of sport within communities and promoting sport participation across Canada. SDIC ends a week of thousands of local sporting events and activities with a day-long national television broadcast. The objectives of this study were to evaluate whether awareness of SDIC has increased over time among Canadians (2010–2013), identify correlates of awareness, and assess changes in individuals' intentions to engage in sport. Online surveys were administered (2010: N = 863; 2011: N = 674; 2012: N = 861; 2013: N = 1447) to assess demographics, levels of physical activity and sport participation, awareness of SDIC, and intentions to participate in sport and physical activity as a result of SDIC. Analyses were conducted using independent t-tests, one-way ANOVAs, and a series of binary logistic regressions. Awareness of SDIC increased significantly from 26.9% in 2010 to 41.2% in 2013. Current sport participation (OR 1.21; 95% CI [1.11, 1.32]; OR 1.32; 95% CI [1.19, 1.47]; OR 1.26; 95% CI [1.16, 1.37]; OR 1.30; 95% CI [1.22, 1.38]) was the only significant correlate of awareness in years 2010–2013, respectively. Among people aware of SDIC, intentions to participate in sport as a result of SDIC have significantly increased over time, F(3, 1662) = 8.88, p < .001. Special events such as SDIC appear to have a role to play as part of a broader strategy to encourage sport participation among Canadians. A challenge for such events remains in reaching inactive people.

This is an empirical, descriptive study of tourists at sport mega-events. Its purpose is to describe tourists who attend sport mega-events. As an empirical study, it surveys tourists at two major sport mega-events in two different countries: the 2008 Olympic Games in China and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Building on a growing body of literature related to the marketing of sport mega-events, results support that both the place (China versus South Africa) and the attraction (Olympic Games versus FIFA World Cup) influence - across a number of place image variables - the nature and composition of the tourists who are attracted to the sport mega-event. The findings suggest that the sport mega-event can be used by the host country to target potential tourists who have limited interest in the event. Further, this research finds that the tourist view of the sport mega-event is influenced by the host country and the nature of the event. The research responds to a key need in both the literature and in practice, where understanding of tourists in the SME context is needed for countries, regions and communities.

The article discusses the report of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD) on the public and private partnerships in college sports in the U.S. to increase sponsorship, corporate philanthropya and fundraising and suggests to avoid competition within institutions.