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Purpose: This study aims to examine the "external effect" of a migrated star player on their domestic sport industries. By exploring the new aspect of star power, this study provides important insight and critical implication to many relevant stakeholders in the professional sports league. Particularly, this is critical under the recent circumstance where the globalization of sports products becomes the central strategic issue of the world-class leagues. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the external effect of star players migrated from three Asian leagues (Japan, Korea and Taiwan) to Major League Baseball in the USA, the world-class baseball league, on their domestic league attendance demand was empirically investigated. For the analysis, comprehensive historical data from various reliable sources from each league were collected. Findings: The findings of the paper strongly support the external effect of migrated stars significantly existing in all the three leagues. The effect is consistent across various measurements of migrated star players. More interestingly, the effect was found to be mixed across different leagues; for example, migrated star players increases in domestic league attendance in Japan, while it decreases in Korea and Taiwan. This indicates that the external effect of migrated star players depends on the characteristics of the domestic leagues. In addition, it was found that the external effect was substantial enough to compare to the effect of major demand drivers such as team winning, competitive balance and star power. For managerial implications, this study also provides revenue projections induced by the impact of migrated star players. Originality/value: This study opens a new chapter related to star power topic and immediately calls for future studies regarding this external effect, particularly, theoretical and behavioral approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The addition of products to the core of matches by professional sports teams (PSTs) has received much coverage. However, there has been limited work as to how their stadiums are used to stage non-sporting events. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how clubs in the English Football League (EFL) use their venues to diversify into other markets. Design/methodology/approach: Secondary sources were used to categorise the teams who played in the EFL by: average division turnover, stadium capacity and stadium age. Semi-structured interviews were held with a member of the commercial teams of 21 clubs. Findings: Clubs use their stadiums to supply a range of products and working with partners is commonplace. These products are targeted at a range of stakeholders, such as supporters, the local community and regionally based organisations. In addition to their own efforts, increased geographical coverage for clubs usually develops in three ways: via internal marketing by local organisations who use the facilities, agents who market the stadium for the club and the EFL who market the league/clubs holistically. Research limitations/implications: The use of a stadium allows PSTs to diversify by providing new products for new markets. In this instance it has led to the development of capabilities in areas such as conferencing, funerals and weddings. Originality/value: This is one of the first papers to examine the capabilities developed by PSTs that lie outside the staging of matches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Professional sports organizations have a long tradition of utilizing stories as part of their marketing efforts. However, as the media landscape has undergone considerable change as a result of information and communication technologies, most notably through social media, the conditions under which storytelling evolve have altered significantly. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explain how storytelling in the sports sector becomes integrated in social media. Design/methodology/approach - A conceptual review in three sequential steps is carried out. First, extant literature on the role and effects of storytelling is reviewed. This is followed by a review of the interplay between storytelling and the contemporary media landscape, with a particular focus on social media. Third, the authors link both literatures and, by doing so, illustrate the dynamic interplay of storytelling and social media in the sports sector. Findings - The conceptual review shows that storytelling can enact four sequential roles that are characterized by varying degrees of co-creation which, in relation to extant literature, has strong implications for the manageability of storytelling from the perspective of professional sports organizations. Originality/value - Based on the identified sequential roles that storytelling can enact in social media, this paper contributes to the field of sports marketing by depicting how the dynamics between storytelling and the social media landscape exhibit a shifting degree of manageability with regards to storytelling from the perspective of professional sports organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - In the highly saturated sports industry where sport teams represent a complex offering loaded with intangible and tangible attributes, it is important to implement appropriate marketing strategies that will ultimately contribute to the development of strong brand equity. In this paper, the authors focused on the relationship between brand variables and marketing activities on the development of brand equity. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to study the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of marketing promotional activities and the impact on the brand equity. Design/methodology/approach - Respondents (2,400) were recruited through an online survey and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings - The survey revealed that the congruence between the brand personality and the promotional activities has a positive impact on its evaluation and on brand equity. In addition, the results showed that consumers who consider the financial strength of the team as an important factor evaluate more positively the value of congruent and incongruent promotional activities. Practical implications - Brand managers should maintain consistency between their brand personality and their promotional activities in order to maintain and increase their brand equity. Originality/value - The results contribute to the literature by investigating the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of promotional activities. Also, it examines an important factor (financial consciousness) that could influence how fans react in front of an incongruent promotional activity. This research brings a better understanding of the impact of brand personality on marketing strategies and brand equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of perceived environmental quality of the stadium on fans' future intentions to attend a game by highlighting the moderating effect of team loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: Using latent moderated structural equations modeling, this study tested the direct impacts of stadium factors on consumers' desire to stay and revisit intentions and the moderation effects of team loyalty based on Mehrabian and Russell's environmental psychology behavioral model. Findings: The results showed significant direct effects of team loyalty and desire to stay on revisit intentions. The stadium environment influenced desire to stay and revisit intentions only by the interactions with team loyalty. More specifically, higher loyalty led to higher desire to stay and revisit intentions, whereas fans' positive experience of stadium environment intensified the effect. Originality/value: The authors highlight the significant role of desire to stay on revisit intentions by incorporating the cognitive-affective system of human behavior. In addition, this study provides essential information for identifying the interaction effects of environmental factors and team loyalty on consumer behavior in sport settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting on the websites of football clubs based in five European countries with different levels of football corporatisation. Design/methodology/approach: The study examines CSR reporting on the internet by football clubs based in five European countries. Multiple regression analysis is used to analyse some factors which influence reporting and test a set of hypotheses. Findings: The findings suggest that clubs from countries in which the level of corporatisation is higher disclose more CSR information. Also, clubs with higher public visibility disclose a higher variety of CSR information. Originality/value: This study adds to the scarce research on CSR reporting in professional sports leagues by providing new empirical data and by extending prior research comparing such practices within different international frameworks of CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine factors influencing the audience demand for televised post-season games of the Korean professional baseball league. Design/methodology/approach -- The data were collected from a total of 129 games -- the entire postseason games from 2008 to 2016. Two dependent variables representing audience demand for televised baseball matches, obtained from the third-party television audit company AGB Nielsen, were regressed on a series of match-related and unrelated antecedent factors associated with each match. Pooled OLS regression with wild bootstrap standard errors with 100,000 replications was applied in the analysis. Findings -- Regarding match-related factors, higher television ratings and the greater numbers of television viewers were associated with matches with greater significance, outcome uncertainty and score sum. In terms of the match-unrelated factors, the broadcast platform appeared to be the most powerful predictor of both television ratings and the numbers of viewers. Other than the broadcast platform, night matches, matches with full stadium occupancy and team values showed positive impacts on both the television ratings and the numbers of viewers. Practical implications -- The sales of media rights and sponsorships are the major sources of revenues for professional sports leagues, and the size of these two streams of revenues is in proportion to the size of the audience demand for television and other media. This study provides valuable insights to the sports marketers of professional sports clubs and leagues by establishing proper understanding of the determinants of the audience demand for televised sports. Originality/value -- The characteristics specific to each professional league and country play unique roles in determining the antecedent factors of audience demand for televised sports; this study is one of the few attempts to examine Koran professional baseball league. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cricket Indian Premier League (IPL) was set up in late 2007 and played for the first time in 2008. The IPL is probably the first time in the history of professional team sport that an Asian league has become stronger than a European one. This paper examines the IPL's first year of operation, comparing its organisation with Major League Baseball and the English Football League. The paper concludes that the IPL has more in common with Major League Baseball, although it has, in some respects, proved more flexible than both in its mode of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies five types of insolvency in English football: clubs that have failed to cope with relegation; failed to pay monies due to the UK government; seen 'soft debts' become 'hard debts'; lost the ownership of their stadium; or have been 'repeat offenders'. As the second of a three-phase research project, the paper concludes with an indication of the final phase research and implications of the findings so far for other professional sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Experiences of high quality games between top-class sports teams could influence sports fans' decision to attend the domestic sports games. For example, soccer fans who watched the World Cup games between the best national teams are likely to be disappointed with the performance of their domestic league teams after the World Cup event, while more people might be attracted to watch a soccer game because of their increased interest in soccer games. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the international sports event (i.e. the World Cup) influences the demand of the domestic sports league games in the non-hosting country. Design/methodology/approach - To test these antithetical hypotheses, the authors collect the Chinese Super League game-level data from 2004 to 2011. For analysis, the authors propose two empirical models rigorously developed based on previous sports marketing theories. Findings - The findings are surprising compared to previous studies for the hosting countries or countries that performed spectacularly during the World Cup tournaments. The authors find that the international event negatively influences the attendance of domestic games. Specifically, it gives salience to the competitive quality of a match and helps enhance the impact of star players. Furthermore, the authors find evidence of dynamic effects of the international event. Originality/value - The study contributes to the previous sports literatures by expanding our understanding of the effect of international sports events. Particularly, the results shed light on international events' impact on the domestic sports league demand in more general conditions based on its influence on people's behavior, rather than focusing on the effect caused by facility development or dramatic performance during the international event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to encourage scholarly inquiries to critically examine broad perspectives of marketing and business operations in the sport industry of growing economies. Design/methodology/approach -- A comprehensive review of literature was the primary research method to introduce the following critical questions, "what are the major challenges in the sport industry of developing economies in a globalized market environment and what to do?". Findings -- Seven articles are selected based on their theoretical and practical contributions. Originality/value -- This special issue is committed to trigger more investigations into sport businesses in developing countries and ultimately advancing theories and seeking solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the author examines how the destination brand Mexico is using international sporting events as part of its branding strategy to deal with the challenges faced by destinations and to overcome some of its weaknesses. Second, the author assesses the positive and negative consequences of such strategy. The investigation tries to fill a gap in terms of understanding and assessing opportunities and challenges experienced by the sport industry in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach -- The author used a case study research strategy, relying on documentation, archival records, and personal interviews with experts as sources of evidence. Given that most research efforts have focused on developed countries, this research approach was exploratory and descriptive. Findings -- The thematic analysis revealed the presence of five major themes related to the process of hosting and using Formula One (F1), National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Basketball Association (NBA) games as part of a brand strategy. These five major themes were labeled: brand strategy challenges and opportunities, balancing short- and long-term goals and benefits, tension between stakeholders from different destinations, social issues, and areas of improvement. Originality/value -- The findings shed light on the challenges and opportunities that hosting international sport events bring to a destination brand with an emerging economy such as Mexico. The opportunity to host these types of events comes from the expansion strategies of well-known sport brands such as F1, NFL, MLB, and NBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors that affect the formulation of regional strategies for developing and advancing the sport industry in China. Design/methodology/approach -- Guided by the comparative advantage theory, qualitative and quantitative research procedures were carried out to analyze the variables that were deemed necessary for the development of regional advantages. Findings -- The findings of this study indicated the importance and relevance of understanding these comparative advantage factors when developing regional strategies for sport development in China or other countries with a developing economy. Research limitations/implications -- This study was largely exploratory in nature, meaning that future confirmatory studies are necessary in order to solidify the results and to encompass the wide-ranging diversity of the total sport industry. Practical implications -- The study provided practical implications for other countries to address the needs to discern among varying sectors of the sport industry and prioritize factors that are specific to regions, communities, and local environments in the strategic planning process. Originality/value -- The findings of this study highlighted the importance and relevance of four comparative advantage factors and the varying sectors of the sport industry variables in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine the systematic influence of core product features, event operation quality, sport fan identification, and image of host city as a tourism destination on behavioral intentions of international spectator at a Formula One (F1) event held in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach -- A survey form assessing the specified concepts was designed and employed to examine the structural relationships. The research participants were international spectators (n=512) attending the event. Data were randomly split into two halves, one for EFA (n=256) and the other for CFA and SEM (n=256). Findings -- Findings revealed that core product feature and sport fan identification factors were significantly (p<0.05) related to both of international spectators' desire to stay at the event, attend the event in the future, and revisit the country; whereas, event operation quality was only found to be significantly influential of the re-patronage, and destination image was only significantly influential of the desire to stay. The findings highlight the importance and relevance of these concepts in attracting, serving, and retaining international visitors to the event. Originality/value -- Unlike other studies that are centered merely on game and event factors, this study expanded on a bigger ecological spectrum surrounding a F1 event and systematically evaluated the critical concepts and factors affecting international tourist to the event that can be considerable sources of economic growth. The findings provide empirical evidence for event and tourism management and marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to reveal the conditions that facilitate or hinder a favorable reaction of fans to the resurrection of sport club brands. Design/methodology/approach -- The proposed model was empirically tested by applying partial least squares-SEM to a sample of 462 fans of five Romanian football and handball clubs that were resurrected in the last five years. Findings -- The study showed that a positive relationship between the new and the old club owners, the keeping of the brand name, and the involvement of the club's historic figures are favorable conditions for a successful resurrection. The faded brands that enjoy salient heritage and numerous loyal fans are more likely to be successfully resurrected. Moreover, when the resurrection is undertaken immediately after the old club's bankruptcy, fans tend to alienate from the brand, as they consider the new club to be trying to counterfeit the meaning of the faded brand. Research limitations/implications -- The cross-sectional nature of the study and the narrow scope of the empirical data are the major limitations of the study. Practical implications -- Based on the empirical findings, the authors made recommendations to sport entrepreneurs who consider reviving faded clubs, and highlighted the difficulties of the resurrection process. Originality/value -- To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study of brand resurrection in the sports industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the effect of entering a sponsorship contract and reactions to good or bad news during the contract period are investigated. Doping scandals are used as examples of bad news and race wins as examples of good news. Design/methodology/approach - The well-known event-study methodology of analyzing stock prices is used. In order to avoid unnecessary noise, the main emphasis is on short-term stock market effects. Findings - The main original finding is a significant negative reaction to doping scandals within the sponsored team, indicating that the outcome of sponsoring agreements is important for investors. There are no significant stock market reactions to the announcement of sponsorships, hence sponsoring cycling teams in general are perceived as value neutral to the sponsor. Originality/value - The paper encourages sponsors and cycling teams to focus on anti-doping measures as doping scandals are perceived as value destructive. This contradicts previous studies with smaller data samples. The negative impact of doping scandals outweighs the potential positive effects of winning cycling races. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many sports properties have had great success entering into sponsorship deals with secondary ticketing companies. However, additional benefits are possible with a reshaping of the structure of primary and secondary ticketing markets. Specifically, fully integrating both primary and secondary markets can help sports properties reduce ticket fraud, monitor fan behaviour, significantly increase revenue in both markets and improve the overall fan experience. This paper details each of these benefits and provides suggestions for programme development and administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of competitive balance among teams in a league in predicting attendance at spectator sporting events. It also controls for the demographic and economic characteristics of the league's markets, and changes in the number of teams in the league. The research relies on a sample that includes 707 non-major professional team seasonal win-loss records (12,956 games) from five sports, aggregated into 75 seasons to develop a model consistent with extant literature. The authors find that competitive balance and average income in the league's markets are significant predictors of league-wide attendance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports leagues and media providers are constantly seeking new ways of improving the consumption experience of viewers. Several new technologies have arrived in the industry, but many have not proved financially viable. Among these new technologies is tracking technology, used to augment television coverage and for coaching enhancement. This has had mixed results. In this paper I argue that the emergence of Moneyball management practices in sport have created the supervening necessity (Winston, 1998) required to drive demand for player tracking technology in ice hockey. This technology is able to collect the data necessary to implement statistical analyses comparable to those used in professional baseball to cover media enhancement, coaching enhancement and Moneyball management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at how two sports teams, hockey club the Toronto Maple Leafs and Football Club Barcelona, have each built and leveraged their brand equity. The main differences between the two clubs lie in how they position their brands. For TML, the affective and experiential sides of the product are emphasised to make the brand grow; for Barcelona, the cognitive and affective dimensions of the product are prioritised to nurture the brand. Differences between hockey and soccer also contribute to branding discrepancies in terms of exposure and global influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies factors that support and hinder image transfer in sports sponsorships. It develops a framework of drivers of image transfer and tests the proposed hypotheses empirically at a large sporting event with a number of different sponsors. The results suggest that event-sponsor fit has a positive impact and is the main driver of the strength of image transfer. Event involvement also positively affects image transfer, but the magnitude of this effect is lower. Sponsorship exposure does not have a significant influence. However, there is an interaction between event-sponsor fit and sponsorship exposure, indicating that higher exposure leads to an increased image transfer if the fit between event and sponsor is high. Implications of results for the choice and design of sport sponsorships are discussed and further areas of research identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post modern era, a product or service has four potential representations: experiential; social; democratic; and an element of an organisation, a network or a universe. This paper looks at post modern product representations in the sports industry that are supported by marketing decisions. These decisions could provide guidelines to sports managers who want to strengthen the emotional connection between the team and the fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public relations practice in sport is not always evident, yet to the contemporary sports business, it has much to offer. This paper explores the value of public relations to professional sports organisations. Cricket was chosen in particular because although it does not enjoy the same popularity as soccer in the UK, it has an extremely loyal fan base and widespread support at grass roots level. A critical finding from this research is that the communications strategies recommended for use in cricket are equally applicable to other sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the quality of special programmes and services for season ticket holders and their predictability to game consumption. Participants were season ticket holders of an NBA team, who responded to a questionnaire that included six demographic variables, eight consumption variables and 15 special programme and service variables in two versions: importance and perception. The findings further emphasise the importance of providing quality programmes and services to season ticket holders, and point out specific programme and service areas for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines the developments in the publication of the "International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship" and offers an update in relation to the practice of sports marketing and sponsorship globally. According to the author, the journal has grown in size as it now publishes four scientific papers, while its recent Football Special Edition carried a total of seven papers. The author also believes that there will be a profusion of studies that will deal with sports branding issues.

The article presents abstracts of papers related to sports marketing and sponsorship globally. They include "Investigating Motivation, Attitudinal Loyalty and Attendance Behavior with Fans of Australian Football," "The Use of Celebrity Athletes as Endorsers: Views of the New Zealand General Public" and "An Empirical Analysis of Gender Differences in Sports Attendance Motives."