Hossein Abdolmaleki; Roohollah Kiani; Seyed Nemat Khalifeh; Seyed Bahador Zakizadeh
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of marketing mix on loyalty of fans of Nassaji Mazandaran Club brand with emphasis on mediating role of word of mouth advertising. The research method was descriptive and survey type. The statistical population of the study consisted of all ...
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of marketing mix on loyalty of fans of Nassaji Mazandaran Club brand with emphasis on mediating role of word of mouth advertising. The research method was descriptive and survey type. The statistical population of the study consisted of all fans of Nassaji Mazandaran Club in the Iranian Football Premier League season 2018-2019. The sample size was 384 according to Morgan table. Standard questionnaires were used for data collection. Lisrel statistical software was used to analyze the data. Based on the relationship and model fit indicators, it was found that the mediating role of word-of-mouth advertising was confirmed,, also the direct effect of marketing mix on brand loyalty was confirmed. According to the research results, textile club managers are recommended to focus more on positive word-of-mouth advertising strategies; also because of poor fans' evaluation of some of the club's marketing mix components (product, price, Promotion and physical evidence) Managers are advised to upgrade these 4 components, especially the pricing component.
Sports management, marketing
Amir Derakhshan; Mehdi Kohandel; Hossein Abdolmaleki; Seyed Nemat Khalifeh
Abstract
Excellence in the highly competitive sports industry requires appropriate marketing strategies. Marketing researchers have long identified brand authenticity as one of the key pillars of marketing and consider it critically important for consumers. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of open ...
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Excellence in the highly competitive sports industry requires appropriate marketing strategies. Marketing researchers have long identified brand authenticity as one of the key pillars of marketing and consider it critically important for consumers. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of open innovation and social media marketing on football clubs' brand authenticity, with value creation and brand mental image as mediating variables. In terms of objective, this research is applied, and in terms of strategy, it is descriptive-correlational, conducted using structural equation modeling. The statistical population consisted of fans of football clubs in the active leagues of the country. A total of 450 questionnaires were distributed, and 428 questionnaires were analyzed. To collect the required data, the following instruments were used: the Open Innovation questionnaire by Peter et al. (2016), the Social Media Marketing questionnaire by Kim et al. (2017), the Brand Authenticity questionnaire by Kadirov (2010), the Value Creation questionnaire by Zeinoddin et al. (2012), and the Brand Mental Image questionnaire by Ulrich (2009). The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by 13 sports management professors, and the reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.88, 0.77, 0.89, 0.89, and 0.70, respectively. SPSS and SmartPLS statistical software were used for data analysis. The findings showed that open innovation and social media marketing have a positive and significant effect on brand authenticity, value creation, and brand mental image of football clubs. Furthermore, brand value creation and brand mental image have a positive and significant effect on brand authenticity. Therefore, it can be concluded that attention to factors such as innovation and social media marketing can strengthen a club's brand in terms of value creation, mental image, and authenticity.
Sports management, marketing
Hossein Abdolmaleki; Bahareh Khalili; Fatemeh Zarsineh; Maryam Sadeghi; Zahra Fathi
Abstract
Abstract
A special type of advertising and customer communication is called endorsement, which is done by using famous people. In this advertising method, famous people often introduce the company's products and services to customers by appearing in the company's advertisements and allowing them to ...
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Abstract
A special type of advertising and customer communication is called endorsement, which is done by using famous people. In this advertising method, famous people often introduce the company's products and services to customers by appearing in the company's advertisements and allowing them to use their name and image (Fink et al., 2004). In recent years, the use of famous athletes in advertisements has become more common; Because, due to the popularity of athletes and the media's attention to them, their influence on consumer behavior is very high (Gupta et al., 2022). Famous athletes are able to give special meaning and concept to products and services and associate them with their success and sports performance. Therefore, the use of athletes in advertisements is an effective marketing strategy for companies that are trying to increase the reputation and popularity of their brand and strengthen their sales (Farahani et al., 2020). But the presence of men in advertising and endorsements has been more prominent and the opportunities for the presence of female athletes in such issues have been less (Fink, 2008). Fink et al (2004) noted that female athletes likely earn less through endorsements because they are less likely to be selected as endorsers than their male counterparts. In fact, sport is known as a male domain that reinforces traditional gender norms (Larkin et al., 2021). Although in Iran some male athletes, especially in the field of football, are used to a certain extent for approval, but prominent female athletes are not used publicly and apparently there is no clear mechanism for the presence of women in this area; This is while in developed countries, companies use female sports stars like men for endorsement according to the type of their product. Therefore, the main problem of this research is, what are the most important obstacles to the presence of Iranian women athletes in sports advertisements as endorsers? The current research is a description of the survey type and the mixed research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative parts. In the qualitative section, semi-structured qualitative interviews were used. The implementation steps of this research can be described in the form of 2 general studies. In the first study, based on the fuzzy Delphi method, the most important obstacles to the presence of Iranian female athletes in sports advertisements as validators were identified from the experts' point of view. In the second study, the factors obtained from the first study were distributed among the members of the statistical sample in the form of a questionnaire suitable for the fuzzy hierarchical analysis process, in order to rank the obtained factors using appropriate statistical methods. . The statistical population of this research included female athletes with the following conditions: 1- history of being a member of the national team for at least 5 years; 2- History of winning medals in international competitions; 3- At least a bachelor's degree in the field of sports science or fields related to the subject of research (management, social sciences, law and media). With the follow-up and contact with the athletes who had the conditions to enter the research, 24 people formed the members of the society's Delphi panel. 17 of them cooperated with the researcher as a research sample. according to Delphi panel, Inequality in the media coverage of women's sports, inadequacy with some products, traditional attitudes towards women, the male-dominated cultural structure of the country's sports, the lack of awareness of one's own abilities in female athletes, religious prejudices, the limitation of women's coverage in advertisements and the greater popularity of male athletes. Obstacles to the presence of Iranian female athletes in sports advertisements were identified for validation. In order to rank the obtained factors, the fuzzy AHP method was used; According to this method, religious prejudices are the most important obstacle to the presence of Iranian sportswomen in sports advertisements as endorsers, and after that, according to the male-dominated cultural structure of the country's sports, the traditional attitude towards women and inequality in the media coverage of women's sports are ranked second to fourth. Hallmann et al (2022) stated that, based on social gender stereotypes, sport is considered masculine; This perception makes women less visible, less welcome, and less supported in male-dominated sports advertising. According to this finding, it is suggested to the authorities of the country's radio and television to improve the television coverage of women's sports and broadcast more matches live so that female athletes are recognized in the society as well as men. This is despite the fact that the physical and gender difference and ignoring women compared to men in the field of sports is more of a social and cultural issue than it is related to their nature. This issue is more acute in developing countries such as Iran, as Farahani et al (2020) stated, in Iran, women's sports in some disciplines or their presence in sports fields are opposed, which is a form of gender discrimination in Iran. The importance of female athletes is also very evident. In recent years, Iranian female athletes have shown potential in some sports fields, and if space is provided for their presence, they can become champions in the world arena. Therefore, based on the results of this research, the view of women should be changed and some of the religious prejudices and negative attitudes towards them should be changed. If society wants young girls to develop well and fulfill their potential, good role models are essential, and as role models, female athletes have many positive qualities. As Statz et al (2022) reported regarding the use of female celebrities as endorsers in magazines for teenage girls, the use of female athletes has a great impact on young girls' sports tendencies, which confirms the results of the present research. But at the same time, in Iran, women are used much less in advertisements and there is more of a gender perspective on this issue. Regarding religious prejudices, Hussain & Cunningham (2021) reported that although participation in sports seems to be an individual choice, culture and religion are also reasons for inequality between men and women in sports; At the same time, many Muslim countries have provided the way for the progress and advancement of women to become champions and winners. According to this finding, families are advised to reconsider the type of bias towards girls in raising their children, so that girls can freely participate in the society and reduce the bias towards them.
shayan pooladi; Hossein Abdolmaleki; Mehdi Kohandel
Abstract
Given the growing importance of service experience and enhancing the experience of sports fans in the sports environment, the study of variables and factors that can provide a better experience for fans, has created a new and attractive field for researchers and sports marketers. Sports is one of the ...
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Given the growing importance of service experience and enhancing the experience of sports fans in the sports environment, the study of variables and factors that can provide a better experience for fans, has created a new and attractive field for researchers and sports marketers. Sports is one of the most important categories of today's societies, especially modern and industrial societies, which a large part of the population of every country deal with in various ways. The unique features of sports have made it a part of today's society, so that its importance is increasing day by day (Abdolmaleki, Heidari, Zakizadeh, & De Bosscher, 2019). In the meantime, football has been able to find a special place among different strata of people and present itself as a super sport. The unique characteristics of football and having high attraction and excitement have turned it into an industry with its own components and complexities (Ramezaninezhad et al., 2020). Meanwhile, the most important and influential factor in the football industry are the spectators or fans. In fact, the spectators are considered a part of the sports product, who give excitement to the sports competition with their participation and fandom of their favorite players and teams (Drayer & Shapiro, 2011). On the other hand, attracting spectators to sports events are the basic strategies of sports teams to increase their income and distinguish themselves from other teams. That is, the more the teams attract more spectators, the more income they will earn (directly and indirectly) (Gholizadeh, Talebpour, Kashtidar, & Abdolmaleki, 2018). The economic benefits along with the presence of spectators have prompted sports marketers to look for ways to attract and develop them. Football spectators are not only useful for increasing the capital of the club, but their social role is also considered important. Spectators are a complementary part of the main nature of sports. Because they provide a direct and live social environment for the player. With the absence of spectators, the athlete cannot perform well and shows a low level of performance (Nazemi, 2013). Studies conducted in the field of general tourism also show that past experiences are an important indicator that tourists refer to when choosing a new experience (Kerstetter & Cho, 2004). Abdolmaleki (2020) showed that the positive experience of the services provided can lead to frequent visits by heritage tourists in the future (Abdolmaleki, 2020). Lemon and Verhoef (2016) also believe that it is the service experience that can lead to customer satisfaction, and the quality of service comes next (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Therefore, as it was said, it can be argued that in the case of spectators, the service experience can be an important factor in post-experience behaviors. Because the advancement of technology has led to the personalization of experience, and people with different personalities are looking for different experiences (Hwang & Lee, 2018). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Sportscape on spectator service experience in Iranian football stadiums. The present study is a descriptive-correlational study which was conducted in the field. The statistical population of the study included all the spectators present at Azadi Stadium who had purchased tickets and gone to the stadium in the 2019-2020 season. The sampling method was non-random using the convenience sampling strategy (electronically) in which 165 questionable questionnaires were passed to the research analysis stage. The research tool was a questionnaire based on previous researches that included three sections of demographic information, stadium characteristics (23 items) and service experience (18 items). The face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by 8 professors and experts and its reliability and construct validity were accepted using confirmatory factor analysis. Research data analysis included confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling which was performed using SmartPLS software. Descriptive analysis of the demographic information of the sample showed that people aged 46 to 55 years, with 33.30%, formed the largest volume of the research sample. Examining the demographic characteristics of the participants in this study in terms of their marital status shows that more than 75% of the sample size of the present study are married people. According to the collected data, among the participants in this study, people with bachelor's degree have the highest frequency. Descriptive analysis of the demographic information of the sample shows that the research sample is at a low level in terms of attendance at the stadium. So that more than 63 percent of the participants attend the stadium only one to five times a year, and in total, about 16 percent of the sample consists of people who attend more than 10 times a year. They attend the stadium. The results showed that among the characteristics of the stadium, the comfort of the seats, stadium Aesthetics, the cleanliness of the stadium and the design of the stadium have a positive and significant effect on the spectator service experience. However, the effect of stadium parking, stadium access and stadium food services on the spectator service experience was not significant. According to the results of this research, among the physical features of the stadium, the comfort of the seats has the greatest effect on the audience's service experience; This can be related to the fact that the Azadi football stadium had a platform instead of seats for a long time and Iran is one of the last countries that tried to install seats in stadiums. In almost all researches, the comfort of the seats is considered as one of the most important factors of the stadium (Dhurup et al., 2010; Gencer, 2011; Lee et al., 2004; Wakefield & Sloan, 1995) and is a factor which, together with the design of the stadium, have a direct effect on perceived crowding. Crowding perceived by the audience is one of the variables that has been identified in past researches that has a negative effect on the enjoyment and satisfaction of the audience from the place where the service is provided. As long as the spectators to enter and exit the stadium to go to its different parts, such as the spectators' stands, toilets, canteens, etc., face less problems and crowds and do not have to wait in long queues, they will have a better experience. And they will show more willingness to return to this environment. Therefore, it is suggested that new stadiums be designed in a way to facilitate the movement of spectators in the stadium. Things like wide corridors, a greater number of toilets, optimal design of seats and seats in such a way that there is enough space between the rows for movement, should be considered in this context. Also, in the current stadiums, it is possible to improve the allocation of stadium space for spectators with small changes. For example, increasing the number of ticket counters prevents long queues of spectators and prevents the spectators from feeling crowded and having an unpleasant experience.
Naghmeh Saeidi Majd; Hossein Abdolmaleki; Abbas Khodatari
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the security of Iranian sports complexes. The mixed research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The statistical population of this study consists of two parts: qualitative and quantitative. In ...
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The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the security of Iranian sports complexes. The mixed research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The statistical population of this study consists of two parts: qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative section, sports management experts have comprised 11 Delphi panel members. In the quantitative section, the statistical population of this study is managers and staff of Karaj sports complexes (N = 785). In the qualitative section, all 11 Delphi Panel Experts have been selected as the sample. In the quantitative section 121 questionnaires have been returned to the researcher. The process of performing this research can be described in two general studies. In the first study, based on the fuzzy Delphi method, experts have identified the most important factors affecting the security of sports complexes: Environmental Control, Entrance Control, Qualification and Accreditation, Physical Protection Systems, Risk Management, Emergency Management, Communications, Security Personnel, Training (Modeling and Simulation), Protection against Toxic Substances, Sports Location Structure and Cultural Activities. In the second study, the factors obtained from the previous study have been distributed among the members of the sample through a questionnaire and the factors have been prioritized using multi- Attribute decision-making methods. The results of this study show that physical protection systems are the most important factor in securing sports complexes, followed by security personnel, sports facility structure, qualification and accreditation, entrance control, emergency management, environmental control, Education, risk management, communication, protection against toxic substances and cultural practices.
