The Extreme Sports Phenomenon

Abstract

This book explores extreme sports—a highly profitable business—as a novel consumption phenomenon. The behaviors of active participants in extreme sports is examined from the perspective of consumer behaviors denoted by a strong managerial relevance—for instance, determinants of intentions to repurchase, perceptions related to marketing communications centered on extreme sports, and the determinants of the intention to revisit extreme sports events. In examining such managerially relevant behaviors, this book develops a novel theoretical background based on established psychological theories about the behavior of extreme individuals (edgework theory, cognitive adaptation theory, sensation-seeking theory) to apply and translate them into the marketing-related contexts that are taken into consideration. The book adopts this perspective in an attempt to account for the impacts of the specific psychological drivers of “extreme” individuals on their consumption behavior. The present chapter delineates the aims and the scope of the book, and describes the setting of extreme sports, tracing their evolution from their origins to their emergence as a consumption phenomenon. Furthermore, the present chapter reviews the major theoretical perspectives in psychology that have addressed the psychological uniqueness of extreme sports participants.