Abstract Advertising message involvement (AMI) has been identified as an important individual/situational factor influencing advertising processing. In order to isolate and examine various theoretical relationships, researchers often experimentally manipulate AMI. In this study, several manipulations of the construct were tested for their ability to place individuals into high- and low-involvement groups. The results of the analyses indicated that modifications in manipulation instructions may alter the pattern of results obtained on manipulation-and confounding-check measures. The findings also suggest that relationships between theoretical constructs may be dependent upon the involvement manipulation utilized. The study is intended to demonstrate the delicate balance/relationship between methodological rigor and theoretical development/advancement.

The relationship between experimental manipulations and tests of theory in an advertising message

Some might argue that sports marketing is a mere subfield of marketing, meaning that there are theoretical and practical dimensions that apply only to sports marketing and are only of interest to those involved in sports. In Team Sports Marketing, author Kirk Wakefield dispels this argument by demonstrating that effective sports marketing epitomizes the science and art of marketing across any context. At the core of sports marketing is the creation and enhancement of fan identification, where consumers are not just loyal customers, but have become brand fanatics.Team Sports Marketing shows that while many aspects of sports marketing are thought to be unique to the field, other product and service sectors would do well to learn from teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL that have transformed customers into fans. Moving beyond principles of marketing, Team Sports Marketing is packed with examples of best practices and covering subjects as diverse as sponsorships, season ticket sales, venue management and all topics in between. Team Sports Marketing is a must read text for students and managers in professional and collegiate sports. Support materials for professors and students are available at www.teamsportsmarketing.com.

Team Sports Marketing

This study investigates the online spectating behavior of sports fans. Due to the great mobility and low opportunity/switching costs, webcast sports fans’ spectating behaviors are distinct from those associated with traditional spectating channels such as stadium attendance or TV viewership. We explore the unique characteristics of online webcast demand in professional sports leagues by rigorously modeling all three spectating choices of sports fans. To consider the substitute relationship of the three spectating choices simultaneously, we employ a BLP (Berry–Levinsohn–Pakes)-style random coefficient model. For the analysis, we collect a comprehensive game-level dataset from the Korean Professional Baseball Organization (KBO) League fan samples from three different channels: online webcast viewership, stadium attendance, and TV viewership. We find that the demand for online webcasts is distinctive compared to that of traditional spectating channels. Notably, we find that the impact of team performance is three times stronger than that of TV viewership demand and that the impact of game quality is four times stronger than that of attendance demand. In contrast, a nonperformance variable is relatively less effective in attracting sports fans to online broadcasting. Furthermore, we find evidence of a strong retention effect of online webcast viewers. Our findings indicate that the previous spectating experience of online webcasts increases the next-time choice of sports fans for the webcast because the genuine spectating experience with distinctive webcast services (such as real-time interactive communication or various supplementary programs) can induce consumers to revisit the channel.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/23/9906/pdf

Online Webcast Demand vs. Offline Spectating Channel Demand (Stadium and TV) in the Professional Sports League

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.,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.,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.,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.

The external effect of a migrated star player on domestic sports league: an empirical analysis of three Asian leagues – Japan, Korea and Taiwan[1]

This is a review and reflection on some of the themes published within the Journal of Brand Management during 2020, plus extrapolation of future research avenues. Themes discussed include (1) co-creation, (2) brand naming, (3) brand support and leadership, (4) digital branding, (5) luxury branding, (6) corporate branding.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/s41262-020-00209-3.pdf

Journal of Brand Management: year end review 2020

In this study, we empirically examine the dynamic development mechanism of team brand equity by proposing a set of team brand equity development model and team brand demand models using comprehensive Major League Baseball data set. Taking advantage of the richness of the game-level data, we provide an alternative estimation approach to accurately measure team brand equity and identify its dynamic evolution process. We find various patterns to the brand equity development across teams over time. More importantly, we find a strong carry-over effect: team brand equity is 3.5–4.5 times larger when we consider dynamic impact, which implied serious underestimation in a static case. Also, we find that postseason performance is a vital element to construct strong team brand equity while seasonal performance has tenuous impact on the brand equity development. Furthermore, we find that a team’s brand community plays a critical role in developing its brand equity. A team that maintains 2–3 times larger brand community benefits from developing team brand equity as much as it achieves successful postseason performances (e.g., winning World Series). However, we find insignificant evidence of a star player to develop team brand equity. Also, we conduct several simulation analyses to provide meaningful managerial implications.

Dynamic brand evolution mechanism of professional sports teams: empirical analysis using comprehensive major league baseball data

This study investigated a new role of tourism as a brand management tool for multinational firms (MNFs) whose country of origin is a tourist destination. Through an increased understanding of the external effect of international tourism at the firm level, important implications for MNF managers can be derived. To this end, we collected secondary historical data from various reliable sources, such as Interbrand, AdAge.com, World Bank, and Bloomberg. We proposed brand equity models for MNFs and employed an Arellano-Bond dynamic panel analysis for the estimation. We found that increased numbers of international tourists in an MNF’s country of origin significantly elevated the brand equity of the firm. This finding is interesting because it indicates a significant effect of international tourism on MNFs’ brand equity, even after other key brand drivers such as advertising, R&D, and the dynamic propensity of brand equity are controlled. The results also showed that international tourism is a highly effective tool for improving firms’ brand equity and that it is 2.5 times more effective than advertising. Furthermore, we found that international tourism can only influence firms’ financial performance (revenue and net income) through brand equity development.

Yeujun Yoon

Papers

Dynamic brand evolution mechanism of professional sports teams: empirical analysis using comprehensive major league baseball data

The external effect of international tourism on brand equity development process of multinational firms (MNFs)