Influence of green practices on user loyalty in sport clubs

Abstract

The sports industry contributes significantly to environmental degradation through its economic practices. As a result, there has been interest in reducing the impact through various initiatives in sectors such as sporting events, facility management, etc. However, these initiatives have not been studied in the sport sector, eluding the beneficial effects it could have on market positioning and user retention. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effect of green practices implemented by sports clubs on their users’ perceptions and loyalty. The GPSport and EPOD2 questionnaires were used on a total of 1732 users of 27 Spanish sports clubs, of whom 70% were men. In data processing, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis were used for psychometric properties; Cronbach’s alpha, AVE, and CR were used for correlations between factors, and CMIN, DF, and CFI were used to test the invariance of the factor structure across user groups. Perceptions of the service were predominantly positive. The construct with the highest value was satisfaction (4.36 ± 0.73), followed by loyalty (4.19 ± 0.79), with green practices scoring the lowest (3.01 ± 0.94). Perceived quality was a significant and direct antecedent of satisfaction, while satisfaction was a significant and direct antecedent of loyalty, with the former relationship being the strongest. Green practices were directly and significantly related to perceived quality, predominantly indirectly related to satisfaction, and mostly directly related to loyalty. For female users, the relevance of green practices as an antecedent of perceived quality and satisfaction was significantly higher. The results obtained suggest that green practices are an added value that improves users’ perceptions, especially among females, justifying the use of marketing strategies based on the adoption of green practices.