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The Relative Age Effect (RAE) in sport refers to the over-representation of those born earlier in a defined age group. This discriminatory effect leads to market inefficiencies and can have profound impacts upon career pathways, dropout rates and the quality of sport. This research examines how this effect influences the recruitment and performance of a cohort of Australian footballers as they progress from junior competitions to the professional level. While the RAE results from bias influencing the selection process of junior pathways, we demonstrate that those who survive to the final stages of selection and were born later in their age groups actually emerge with an advantage (rather than the expected disadvantage). The selection of these younger players results from recruiters explicitly taking account of the RAE. When the performance of these advantaged players is assessed at the professional level, they perform relatively well, suggesting that the recruiters are expertly considering the consequences of the RAE; although their task would be considerably easier if they were not dealing with a legion of young footballers whose characteristics had already been heavily shaped by the RAE. We consider a range of implications of this effect and suggest policy measures to address it.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the tension in brand management created through the rapid transformation of social media, mapping the maintenance of increasingly complex B2B relationship dynamics with key intermediaries. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews with 17 social media practitioners from leading fashion brands, agencies and platforms in the UK and Australia informed this study. Analysis used grounded theory, and results were interpreted through the lens of network and stakeholder theories. Findings Social media platforms have evolved into critical brand stakeholders, serving as gatekeepers in an increasingly unbalanced system between provider and marketer. The perpetuation of a hierarchical power dynamic affects the development of both practitioner and firm capabilities with negative implications and consequences for organisational control of branded social media communications. Three theoretical propositions are offered relating to the nature of platform hegemony, the notion of social media democratisation and the limiting impact of rapid change on the formation of relational ties. Originality/value This study extends the conceptualisation of communal custody of brands in social media settings to incorporate a growing number of commercial stakeholders, challenging the traditional dyadic consumer-brand relational paradigm. This study sheds new light on the impact of digital transformation on power distributions in social media communities not hitherto addressed.

Purpose Understanding how to predict and manage the spread of negative brand-relevant content is of critical concern to marketers. This paper aims to contribute to this understanding by building on existing anti-branding, brand hate and word-of-mouth literature to explore the factors that lead individuals to engage in the transmission of negative brand-relevant information via social media. Design/methodology/approach A two-phase exploratory design was used. The first stage involved an analysis of negative transmission via comments left on news and brand posts. The second phase of the research involved a series of 13 depth interviews with frequent social media users about their negative brand-relevant transmission behavior to add richness and depth to the findings from the passive observation in the first phase of the research. Findings The first phase of the research demonstrated that negative transmission can be both brand-related (e.g. driven by-product or service failure or corporate irresponsibility) and consumer-related (e.g. driven by self or social motives). The second phase of the research clarified that negative transmission often occurs in the absence of brand hate, particularly when it can be used as a covert method of self-enhancement for the transmitter via downward social comparisons. Originality/value Negative transmission as a form of anti-branding that is more strongly self-related (as opposed to brand) is established, progressing understanding and applications of contemporary media channels. Implications, including how brand-generated controversy and consumer reinforcement can be used to manage negative transmission, are offered.

Purpose Service captivity is described as the experience of constrained choice whereby a consumer has no power and feels unable to exit a service relationship. This study aims to explore how positive service experiences can contribute to service captivity in the alternative financial services (AFS) sector for consumers experiencing financial vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach A total of 31 interviews were undertaken with Australian consumers of payday loans and/or consumer leases. Findings The authors reveal a typology of consumers based on their financial vulnerability and their experience with AFS providers. Then they present three themes relating to how the marketing practices of these providers create a positive service experience, and, in doing so, can contribute to service captivity for consumers experiencing financial vulnerability. Research limitations/implications The benefits derived from positive service experiences, including accessible solutions, self-esteem, and a sense of control over their financial situation, contribute to the service captivity of some consumers, rendering alternative avenues less attractive. Practical implications AFS providers must ensure a socially responsible approach to their marketing practices to minimize potentially harmful outcomes for consumers. However, a systems-level approach is needed to tackle the wider issue of financial precarity. Policymakers need to address the marketplace gaps, regulatory frameworks and social welfare policies that contribute to both vulnerability and captivity. Originality/value This research extends the understanding of service captivity by demonstrating how positive service experiences can perpetuate this situation. Further, specific solutions are proposed at each level of the service system to address service captivity in the AFS sector.

The business of sport has been radically challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, impelling a rapid reassessment of practices to survive the disruption. One stakeholder comprehensively impacted has bee...

Efficient recruitment to Australia’s most popular professional sporting competition, the Australian Football League (AFL), requires evaluators to assess athlete performances in many lower tier leagues that serve as pathways. These competitions and their games are frequent, widespread, and challenging to track. Therefore, independent, and reliable player performance statistics from these leagues are paramount. This data, however, is only meaningful to recruiters from AFL teams if accurate player positions are known, which was not the case for the competitions from which most players were recruited. This paper explains how this problem was recently solved, demonstrating a process of knowledge translation from academia to industry, that bridged an important gap between sports science, coaching and recruiting. Positional information which is only available from the AFL competition was used to benchmark and develop scientific classification methods using only predictor variables that are also measured in lower tier competitions. Specifically, a Multinomial Logistic model was constructed to allocate players into four primary positions, followed by a Binary Logit model for further refinement. This novel technique of using more complete data from top tier competitions to help fill informational deficiencies in lower leagues could be extended to other sports that face similar issues.

Background: Sporting authorities and policy makers have warned of a radical increase in the availability and use of so-called ‘smart’ drugs, which putatively deliver cognitive enhancements in the form of improved focus, concentration, alertness, and rapid decision-making. Although the potential for health risks is well documented when it comes to performance enhancing drugs in sport, the health implications of cognitive enhancing drugs (CEDs) remain unclear. Objectives: This article aims to provide a foundational understanding about CEDs and their application in sport. It considers what little is known about the types, nature, impact, and implications of their use for athletes and sport policy. Method: A narrative literature review was undertaken to ascertain the emerging role of CEDs beyond their clinical use to treat prescribed disorders, including the limited studies in the sporting domain. This review also considered literature pertinent to the impact of CEDs in sport and the challenges for sport policy. Results: Given the prospects of negative health impacts, policy-makers interested in preventing and controlling the use of CEDs, as well as reducing harm to athletes at all levels of performance, need guidance. This article highlights multi-faceted concerns and shines a spotlight on key issues for sporting bodies to consider regarding the critical impact that widespread use and adoption of these substances might entail. Conclusion: While the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is seemingly awake to the threat posed, actions to circumvent the spread of CEDs throughout sport are nascent and require greater understanding and attention.

Background: Given implications associated with the use of performance-enhancing substances (PESs), stakeholders must remain informed about usage precipitants and anticipate conditions signaling athlete vulnerability to hazardous exposures. Objectives: To gain deeper qualitative insight into high-level athlete PES usage; explore the variables leading them to escalate their PES use regimens; reveal PES experiences during their careers and, unlike other studies, not to focus exclusively on "doping" as measured by the use of WADA-banned substances. Methods: A macro life course-based framework from which the data could emerge through a thematic coding analysis was utilized. Sixteen narrative life course histories of recently retired high-performance athletes report on the factors impelling their escalation in PES use, including for some, the first use of banned PES. Results: Informant reports, thematically coded, reveal performance maximization urgency to be a central factor in escalating PES use, driven by four variables: Requirements, Opportunities, Influencers and Outcomes. These variables each comprise two key components that stimulate an urgency ecosystem affecting an athlete's proximity to an escalation threshold. Conclusions/Importance: Such a comprehensive investigation of PES use precipitants has not previously been undertaken. Advances in PES use were instantiated by a substantive, sometimes radical and often sudden increase in urgency to improve performance related to output requirements, specific demands, knowledge and access, timing windows, the competitive landscape, loyalty to coaches, efficiency expectations and likelihood of detection. This study informs incremental models of doping, the use of which is encouraged in order to analyze life course narratives to better understand athlete behaviors.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the manner in which companies mitigate negative sentiment in social media and to map the forces that may lead to pre-emptive strategies. Design/methodology/approach Case studies were drawn from the retail fashion industry using data collected from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with practitioners and a netnographic examination of company artefacts and social media conversations. Findings The findings identify five principal domains of influence upon which the firms based their approach to social media negativity. The authors suggest that these domains can be fundamentally categorised as either relational domains built on human exchanges or transformational domains rooted in less tangible elements of corporate culture and operational practices that can have a significant impact upon a brand’s socially mediated exchanges. Practical implications The research provides guidance based on empirical observation of effective strategies utilised by firms, emphasising robust systems integration, a holistic management ethos, and leveraging of third-party alliances. Originality/value Bringing together disparate cross-disciplinary elements, the research contributes to knowledge by highlighting opportunities for the development of a proactive rather than reactive approach to online brand negativity and deepens the understanding of applied brand management techniques adopted to address negative social media encounters. The authors provide a series of contemporary and empirically grounded recommendations for practitioners that offer substantive insights.

Summary Community sport organizations promote beneficial health outcomes such as social connection and physical activity, yet they can also facilitate the consumption of unhealthy food and beverages. To provide a foundation for future research and to inform intervention efforts in this context, this scoping review summarizes existing knowledge of the factors that contribute to unhealthy food and beverage consumption in the community sport setting and explores the interventions to promote healthier choices. Using a qualitative process aligned with the nature of our aims, 228 articles were initially identified and subjected to a systemized appraisal, resulting in 45 articles pertinent to the review. The findings identify that the two key factors contributing to unhealthy food choices are the limited availability of healthy options within the sport setting and the presence of unhealthy food and beverage sponsorship. These factors contribute to the normalization of unhealthy eating in this context and health promotion interventions have had limited success. Barriers to change primarily stem from the revenue implications of removing unhealthy food sponsors, lack of organizational capabilities and resources, and consumer preference for unhealthy options. Public health practitioners seeking to intervene in this setting should consider adopting practices used in other settings outside of the sport environment, including the use of technology, the role of peers and mentors and the co-production of impactful material. Community sport plays a vital role in delivering health benefits but must do more to stem its facilitation of a potentially unhealthy consumptive environment.

It has been generally argued that, despite the emergence and wide adoption of second screen devices (SSD) as ancillary tools, television screens continue to be the medium of choice for watching live sport. In this article, however, we maintain that a transition of SSD to first screen status is already underway. First, we dispute that SSD content and screen size present barriers to use. Second, we suggest that a first screen transition of SSD is a fact in many emerging economies. Finally, we argue that the transformation of screens as payment and tracking devices, to which we intimately relate, has been largely overlooked when assessing the likelihood of SSD becoming first screens, and that the replacement of television by SSD is symptomatic of a broader transition from collective to individual consumption devices.

Online brand communities represent an increasingly important touchpoint for establishing effective consumer–brand relationships. Growing consumer empowerment and an absence of empirical research on the subject, however, have left many firms struggling to balance the often contradictory goals of community propagation for corporate gain with the autonomy demanded by such groups. This exploratory study investigates the management of this tension between control and engagement in a single Facebook brand community to understand how a firm can balance community goals with corporate needs. Our analysis of more than 13,000 Facebook comments and 2988 company posts reveals that online brand community governance can be conceptualised as a continuum. We identify three critical levers that the case study firm manipulated to establish equilibrium between commercial and community imperatives. The levers represent appealing, consulting and affiliating actions and are manifest in a range of social media marketing tactics exhibited by the company which we examine in the context of engagement theory.

We explore the role of the extended family on family decision-making in the context of a high-involvement purchase decision in an emerging economy. Adopting a grounded theory approach, we conducted 33 in-depth interviews with 11 families across Vietnam, including both nuclear and extended family members. Our findings demonstrate that parents retain a significant, albeit evolving, role in the consumption decision-making of their adult children, acting as a facilitator, cultural mentor and/or patriarch. However, these roles, coupled with the broader macro-environmental transformation, have contributed to two key tensions with tradition for the younger generation: respecting and deferring to their parents versus fulfilling their own aspirations fuelled by socio-economic change; and, for women in particular, achieving a greater voice in decision-making versus adhering to the culturally entrenched norms of a patriarchal society.

Purpose The purpose of this research was to create a brief scale to measure perceived social benefit that would be appropriate for use in future research aiming to explore the role of this variable in determining word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviour. There is evidence that perceived social risk negatively impacts the willingness to share, but the role of perceived social benefit has not yet been explored. Understanding how perceived social risk and benefit interact to determine WOM will inform social marketing campaign design. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines two studies: Study 1 was concerned with the development of the perceived social benefit of sharing scale (PSBSS), including the construction of preliminary items and the reliability and discriminant validity of the final scale. Study 2 involved an investigation of the concurrent validity of the PSBSS in relation to the likelihood to share. Findings Study 1 demonstrated that the perceived social benefit associated with WOM was related to social approval, impression management and social bonding. The results of Study 2 established that scores on the PSBSS predicted self-reported likelihood to engage in both face-to-face WOM and electronic WOM. Originality/value The PSBSS can be used to examine the role of perceived social benefit, including how the interaction between perceived social risk and benefit determines where, when and with whom people will share WOM.

The future of sport broadcasting is uniquely positioned between the analogue paradigm of long-standing television broadcast networks and the digital prototype of agile new entrants. Juxtaposed between the two, sport consumers are being marshalled into digital enclosures for efficient commodification. In this article, we map the collision and the disorderly consequences of this juxtaposition between the analogue and the digital markets. We consider the current development of digital media rights through a series of brief illustrative examples in key sports and markets and then look ahead to explore what the future of sport broadcasting might become and posit the impact of digital technologies on the business models of broadcasters, sport content owners, and consumers.

Introduction and Aims To examine how alcohol brands use sport in their communication activities on social media. Despite extensive research exploring alcohol advertising and sponsorship through sport, minimal attention has been given to digital platforms. Design and Methods This study undertakes a qualitative content analysis to examine the social media activity of alcohol brands sponsoring the three largest spectator sports in Australia: Australian rules football, rugby league and cricket. Results Four sport-related social media strategies are identified through which alcohol brands solicit interaction with consumers, often involving co-creation of content and social activation. These strategies act as ‘calls to action’ and through the association of sport and alcohol encourage consumers to engage in competition, collaboration, celebration and consumption. These strategies are further strengthened by communications which draw upon themes of identity and camaraderie to resonate with the consumer. Discussion and Conclusions Sport-linked social media strategies utilised by alcohol brands extend beyond just promoting their product. They seek higher levels of engagement with the consumer to amplify and augment the connection between alcohol and the sport spectator experience. The discussion highlights the powerful combination of sport and social media as a mechanism by which these brands seek to interact with consumers and encourage them to both create and promote content to their social networks. These strategies allow alcohol brands to extend their marketing efforts in a manner which can elude alcohol codes and prove difficult for regulators to identify and control. [Westberg K, Stavros C, Smith ACT, Munro G, Argus K. An examination of how alcohol brands use sport to engage consumers on social media. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;00:000-000]

In 1949 the Australian Football League (AFL) introduced a distinctive father–son rule, which allows its member teams to prioritize the recruitment of the sons of former players who had played in a minimum number of games with that team. This paper reveals that some teams have been able to access a statistically significant advantage via this rule, confirming and quantifying that this unique exception compromised the AFL’s reverseorder player draft. In more recent times, through complex reforms, this advantage has been significantly dissipated. Discussion presents this rule as a conundrum for managers as despite potentially compromising the draft, it provides opportunities for off-field marketing communications strategies.

Purpose – The ubiquity of social media provides sport organizations with opportunities to communicate with fans and as a result, potentially strengthen team identification. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to emerging research on the nature of social media use by sport organizations by examining the platforms adopted over a three-year period by National Basketball Association (NBA) teams and the way in which social media is used to communicate and engage with fans. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis was used to examine online comments posted by all 30 teams in the NBA on Facebook and Twitter during the off-season. Findings – The results demonstrate that NBA teams have embraced social media, primarily using four different types of communication to engage fans: Informing, Marketing, Personalizing and Activating. Practical implications – The authors establish that social media is an effective vehicle for sport organizations to engage with fans and to enhance team identification. The data suggests that teams should make a concerted effort in their communications, where possible, to personalize communications, genuinely inform and involve fans and provide relevant marketing communications, all of which can be effectively implemented within existing marketing efforts. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the direct use of social media by sport organizations and its potential for enhancing team identification.

Social media provide fans with an additional means to engage with their team and are a valuable forum for sport organizations to better understand fan motivations and strengthen fan relationships. This study contributes to emerging research on the nature of social media use by revealing the motivations underpinning the desire of fans to communicate on the Facebook sites of several National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. Our findings indicate that fans exercise four key motives as they draw value from the social media enabled connection to the team: passion, hope, esteem and camaraderie. Further, and in light of our understanding of these motives, we identify how this platform can be used to facilitate interaction, a key construct in relationship marketing. A content analysis, using a netnographic methodology, was undertaken to explore online comments by fans of eight purposefully selected NBA teams over a two-week period during the off-season. This period represents strong potential for isolating highly identified fans who are motivated to seek engagement and interaction. Implications for sport managers to further relational goals are identified.

This chapter delivers the first lesson—that consumer attachment, passion, commitment, and loyalty are synergistic with interaction, engagement, connectivity, and collaboration. The chapter focuses on how great sport brands construct dynamic, agile offerings that have the effect of transforming consumers into lifelong fans. It explains that this impact emerges from a commitment to interactivity, where fans and brands co-create consumption experiences. Value co-creation occurs because consumers feel sufficiently connected with their team or sport that they strive to interact with the brand as well as with like-minded fans. Attachment and passion grows commensurate with the contributions made. As a result, consumers convert themselves volitionally from sideline supporters to engaged co-creators of the brand’s identity and, therefore, its offerings.

This chapter delivers the sixth lesson, where sporting brands have relentlessly augmented consumers’ experiences by treating its products as a whole entity in a process of social “curation”, a trail of brand fans follows. The chapter delves deeper into the potential for augmenting consumers’ experiences in order to create more meaningful connections. A central lesson revolves around modularised branding, which employs the fluid mobility digital delivery affords, in order to meet the specialised nuances of consumer preferences. Mobile channels also bolster consumers’ experiences through personalised content. The chapter emphasises that a brand must manage its social hub, as a whole entity, in a process of social “curation”, keeping in mind the consumer “conscience”.

This chapter delivers the fifth lesson that brand power accumulates when it is given away, with consumer-generated content as a central mediator of brand intensity, carefully mediated through data analytics designed to craft bespoke consumer experiences. The chapter ventures into the vast world of dynamic data, and its potential for enhancing the consumer experience. Through the use of “superdata”, sport brands address their consumers’ preferences with an unprecedented degree of surgical precision. In removing the data noise, sport enterprises have discovered an ability to make real-time branding decisions, often including those enabling consumers to fluidly control their own content. Sport recognises that the best brands incorporate digital destinations as part of their value propositions.

This chapter delivers the fourth lesson that at the intersection of brands and consumption, and between social acceptance and exclusivity, sport brands create consumption experiences with brand fans that linger as immortal moments of immense value. The chapter examines how sport brands have nurtured new levels of consumer loyalty. It exposes sport’s unique methods for crafting a lifelong link between product and consumption. At the intersection, we find an unprecedented intensity of passion that extends further than conventional product loyalty, holds resilient in the face of product failure, and engenders uncompromising personal commitment. Somewhere between social acceptance and exclusivity, sport brands create consumption experiences with brand fans that linger as immortal moments.

This chapter introduces how Brand Fans addresses the agile and novel methods that the world’s greatest sporting brands have used to cultivate unprecedented brand value. The chapter presents how the best sporting enterprises have co-created staggering economic, social, and symbolic value through intense partnerships with their consumers that go far beyond what brands can develop through traditional approaches to marketing and communication. It specifies how the insights from these brands will be presented through three themes in the forthcoming chapters, the first focussing on the co-creation of value, the second on approaching brands as clubs of exclusive belonging, and the third on the powerful channels through which connections and identification can be canalised.

Purpose This paper aims to extend the literature on wicked problems in consumer research by exploring athlete and consumer vulnerability in sport and the potential role that social marketing can play in addressing this problem. Design/methodology/approach This paper conceptualises the wicked problem of athlete and consumer vulnerability in sport, proposing a multi-theoretical approach to social marketing, incorporating insights from stakeholder theory, systems theory and cocreation to tackle this complex problem. Findings Sport provides a rich context for exploring a social marketing approach to a wicked problem, as it operates in a complex ecosystem with multiple stakeholders with differing, and sometimes conflicting, objectives. It is proposed that consumers, particularly those that are highly identified fans, are key stakeholders that have both facilitated the problematic nature of the sport system and been rendered vulnerable as a result. Further, a form of consumer vulnerability also extends to athletes as the evolution of the sport system has led them to engage in harmful consumption behaviours. Social marketing, with its strategic and multi-faceted focus on facilitating social good, is an apt approach to tackle behavioural change at multiple levels within the sport system. Practical implications Sport managers, public health practitioners and policymakers are given insight into the key drivers of a growing wicked problem as well as the potential for social marketing to mitigate harm. Originality/value This paper is the first to identify and explicate a wicked problem in sport. More generally it extends insight into wicked problems in consumer research by examining a case whereby the consumer is both complicit in, and made vulnerable by, the creation of a wicked problem. This paper is the first to explore the use of social marketing in managing wicked problems in sport.

This chapter delivers the second lesson, that consumers and brands co-create valuable consumption experiences, effectively crowdsourcing brand equity. The chapter begins with a revised perspective of both brand manager and consumer. In respect to the former, brands need “hosts”, not custodians. In respect to the latter, the new consumer is empowered, defined not just by his or her transaction, but also by a market effect. Brand fans seek interaction, involvement, and engagement with the brand, its products, and other fans. This chapter reveals how sport has managed the tensions between control and collaboration, in the process, providing a template for value co-creation in a world where user content shapes brand composition. It shows how sport brands became the first to successfully crowdsource brand equity.

This chapter concludes that in the presence of an imminent and exponential technological convergence, passive consumption will become dynamic engagement, and brands will face the prospect that there will be no single way of structuring value. With the arrival of the “postmobile consumer”, every ‘thing’ has a sensor connection, and everything is online. One outcome is the emergence of a new category of consumer, the “brand epicurean”, characterised by neither functional requirements nor the need for identity. Brands will face the prospect that there will be no single way of structuring value as it will shift sinuously, matching an individual’s temporal and contextual needs. As consumers become further overburdened with options, marketers will have to invent new ways to become central to consumers’ purchasing habits.

Sponsorship B2B relationships generally are entered into by sponsors seeking brand-related benefits through association with a sport entity brand. Negative incidents involving athletes representing the sport entity may threaten the brands of both the sport and sponsor and can weaken or even dissolve the partnership. The management of these episodes is critical in protecting the sport entity's brand equity, as well as the sponsor's brand, and ultimately the relationship. This study explores multiple stakeholders' perspectives on these degenerative episodes and the potential relational outcomes using a series of depth interviews with major sponsors and sport entities. We identify key constructs such as attribution of blame, societal norms, zone of tolerance and perceived severity which influence whether this behavior acts as a degenerative episode in the relationship. Factors such as existing relationship quality and episode management can affect the impact on the relationship as well as the extent of relational change.