Despite extensive research on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the effects of message framing within sport CSR remain unexplored. This study bridges this gap by examining how message framing impacts donation behavior through emotions, using advanced biometric facial expression analysis. Results indicate that negatively framed messages, which evoke sadness, lead to higher donation amounts than that of positive emotions. Additionally, perceived CSR motives and team identification moderated these effects. CSR motives perceived as public-serving were more effective, especially when they evoked sadness. In contrast, when CSR motives were perceived as self-serving, a significant positive relationship between negative emotions and donation was found only among individuals with high team identification. By understanding the emotional mechanisms at play and considering factors such as perceived CSR motives and team identification, charitable organizations can design more effective fundraising campaigns that resonate with donors and inspire greater generosity within sport context.

Athlete branding has become an increasingly important topic in sports management and marketing, particularly in the digital era. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of athlete branding research from 2000 to 2024 to map the field's key developments and trends. Using performance analysis and science mapping, this study examined related scholarly publications and identified prolific authors, influential journals, and dominant themes. This study highlights the evolving nature of athlete branding and offers future research directions at the intersection of sports, business, and digital media. Specific research opportunities linked to these themes have been identified in the literature, and this study also suggests location, contextual, and methodological research. This review offers a deeper understanding of actionable research opportunities for both scholars and practitioners in the field.

The current project explored parents’ motivations and constraints of game attendance at professional/collegiate sport. Further, the sample had representation from both mothers and fathers, which has been neglected in the literature. The qualitative design included 14 semi-structured interviews evenly split between mothers and fathers who currently had a child under 18 in their home. The findings identified key thematic areas which included motivations of family leisure activity and socialization, constraints of family-life activities, substantial investment, and health/safety, as well as motivations and constraints of interest, developmental capabilities, and gameday environment. The prevalence of resulting themes existing on an attendance spectrum as both motivations and constraints to attendance behavior of the parent consumer segment is an important theoretical finding. Moreover, the mixture of themes not denoted in the literature is a key takeaway on consumer decision-making to attend a sport contest, and provides a broader parent perspective on spectator decisions.

Participation in sports activities can be driven by consumer motivation, which impacts associated behaviors such as wearing certain sports products brands or buying certain equipment. This work explores how individuals who exercise evaluate their outcome of purchasing sports goods by understanding the relationships among electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM), exploratory acquisition of products (EAP), exploratory information seeking (EIS), and impulsive purchasing behavior regarding sports brand goods. A total of 358 questionnaires were collected from university students in Taiwan. After removal of invalid questionnaires, 299 questionnaires were subjected to analysis. Descriptive analysis was performed using SPSS 23. SmartPLS4 was used to test external validity, reliability analysis was conducted using Cronbach's alpha, and structural equation modeling was used to test the model fit. Results indicated that eWOM had a positive relationship with EAP, but did not have a significant positive relationship with EIS. Both EAP and EIS had positive relationships with sports product impulsive purchase behavior. The relationship between exploratory behaviors and impulsive buying suggests that consumers’ searches for new experiences or information can reduce their resistance to unplanned purchases, especially when they encounter appealing products or persuasive marketing cues. This study found that eWOM can efficiently drive EAP, which is significant for more targeted marketing strategies. Encouraging satisfied consumers to share their positive experiences online can strengthen eWOM, thereby stimulating other consumers’ exploratory acquisition behaviors. This differentiation enhances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying eWOM's effectiveness, and offers a more granular view of consumer decision-making processes in the current technological age.

With the growing presence of advertising in languages other than English, or nonalphabetic scripts, at international sporting events, research is needed specifically focused on language. This study employed a controlled experimental design with a questionnaire. Participants were randomly assigned to watch a video of esports broadcasting with billboard ads in the Roman alphabet or their native language. During the watching process, participants’ eye movements were recorded. Afterward, a questionnaire about recognition and recall of the sponsors featured in the video was completed. Results show significant differences in attention to sponsor signage across three metrics: time to first fixation, fixation duration, and fixation count. This manuscript is the first to use a neuroscience approach to test the language effect on TV sports audiences’ perception on sponsors. Sponsors could maximize sport sponsorship impact by displaying sponsorship signage in both the original and target market languages.

This study explores the antecedents of fans’ social media engagement with their favorite football team, focusing on sport involvement, team identification, and subjective perceptions of performance through the lens of the Consumers’ Online Brand-Related Activities (COBRAs) framework. Data was collected from 609 football (i.e., soccer) followers of a sport Facebook page. The structural equation model analysis results showed that sport involvement predicts team identification, and that team identification leads to subjective perceptions of performance. Team identification was related to all social media engagement dimensions (i.e., consumption, contribution, and creation), whereas involvement was associated only with consumption and subjective perceptions of performance only with creation. Also, team identification was shown to mediate all the relationships between sport involvement and engagement dimensions, while subjective perceptions of performance mediated the team identification/creation relationship. This research expands on the literature surrounding social media fan engagement, highlighting the key role of sport team identification in shaping online fan behavior.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of kindchenschema and whimsical cuteness sporting event mascots on the consumers’ evaluation of charity and commercial sporting events. In Study 1, web texts were collected and analyzed for sentiment using ROOT-CM 6.0. Study 2 employed an experimental design to examine the effects of kindchenschema (vs. whimsical) cuteness mascots on consumers’ evaluations of charity (vs. commercial) sporting events, bootstrap analysis methods were used to test the mediating effects event-perceived warmth and event-perceived competence. We found that the public holds positive attitudes toward event mascots. We also found that kindchenschema cuteness mascots were more helpful in improving consumers’ evaluations of charity sporting events than whimsical ones. Event-warmth perception played a mediating role in this effect. On the contrary, whimsical cuteness mascots were more helpful in improving consumers’ evaluations of commercial sporting events, with event-perceived competence playing a mediating role.

Popularized and heavily promoted sports betting is new to the North American sports landscape. It is a highly competitive market and as a result, providers aggressively advertise and incentivize. Several vulnerable segments exist, but young adults are most susceptible to irrational decision-making yet receive the most attention from advertisers. Given this, it is important to understand the impact of age as it relates to betting and decision-making. The current study surveyed 514 sports bettors to learn the moderating impact of age between the theoretical relationships of self-efficacy, confirmation bias, and illusion of control. The results indicate cognitive bias varies by age. Younger sports bettors tend to be more impulsive and overconfident in their wagering decisions. Older sports bettors tend to be more rigid. Based on the findings, marketers must look solely beyond revenue when formulating strategy and consider responsible marketing tactics to ensure ethical practices.

The study examined the effectiveness of using college athletes as endorsers in sponsored social media content, through name, image, and likeness partnerships. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed-factorial design was used to investigate the impact of sponsored posts from student athletes on college student consumers, in terms of source similarity (college athlete vs. pro athlete), product relevance (high vs. low), and message authenticity (snapshot photography vs. studio ad). Findings suggested positive effects of using college athletes as endorsers. Source similarity, product relevance, and message authenticity all played significant roles in determining students’ attitude toward the sponsored posts and brands. More favorable responses were reported toward the college athlete, high relevance product, and snapshot photography. Limitations and directions for future research were also discussed.

In this study, the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions was applied to the spectator sport context. We examined the upward spiral process of positive emotions toward human flourishing, defined as long-term positive functioning in both personal and social life. Three-wave (t 1 , t 2 , t 3 ) panel data were collected from 326 baseball fans over two seasons. The results revealed that positive emotions (t 1 ) induced by sport spectatorship were sequentially related to flourishing (t 3 ) first through broadening cognitive (fan learning) and behavioral (fan rituals) repertoires (t 1 ) and then through experiencing social fan well-being (t 2 ) as an enduring social resource. Moreover, the effect of psychological fan well-being (t 2 ), another enduring resource in this study, on flourishing (t 3 ) was contingent on the quality of sport teams (t 3 ). Our theoretical explanations and results provide clarity to guide future research on a bottom-up approach to enhancing future flourishing through spectator sport consumption.