Sports management, marketing
Mosab Khosravi; Sardar Mohammadi
Abstract
This study examines the impact of different marketing strategies (Click and Brick, Pure Brick, and Pure Click) on customer satisfaction, trust, and word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing in sports clubs. In the digital era, sports clubs face challenges in selecting the optimal strategy for customer engagement. ...
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This study examines the impact of different marketing strategies (Click and Brick, Pure Brick, and Pure Click) on customer satisfaction, trust, and word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing in sports clubs. In the digital era, sports clubs face challenges in selecting the optimal strategy for customer engagement. Using a causal-comparative method, this research sampled 360 customers from the Warzin Sports Club. Data were collected through standardized questionnaires measuring satisfaction, trust, and WOM, and analyzed using MANOVA tests. The findings reveal that the Click and Brick strategy significantly increases customer satisfaction, trust, and WOM tendencies across all three stages: pre-purchase, during purchase, and post-purchase. The results demonstrate the superiority of multi-channel strategies over single-channel approaches in the sports club industry. Sports clubs implementing the Click and Brick strategy, by offering services through various channels and maintaining continuous communication with customers in both physical and online environments, can generate higher satisfaction, greater trust, and more effective word-of-mouth marketing among their customers.
Sports management, marketing
Abbas Naghizadeh-Baghi; Fatemeh Isazadeh Dabanlou; hossein kordloo; Mehdi Naghizadeh-Baghi
Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine the Impact between satisfaction and the intention to purchase electronics of sports store customers with the mediation of customer loyalty. The intended statistical population included all customers using electronic sports goods across the country. ...
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Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine the Impact between satisfaction and the intention to purchase electronics of sports store customers with the mediation of customer loyalty. The intended statistical population included all customers using electronic sports goods across the country. G-power software was used to estimate the statistical sample. For this purpose, the statistical sample used was 479 people. The tool of the present research was the usage questionnaire. For this purpose, 3 standard questionnaires including Darzi and Bhatt's customer satisfaction questionnaire (2018), Zuhir et al.'s customer loyalty questionnaire (2011) and Chatura and et al.'s (2008) electronic purchase intention questionnaire were used. The method of conducting this research was causal relationship, which is a type of applied research. In this research, descriptive statistics methods including central tendency indices and dispersion indices and inferential statistics methods including Pearson correlation and structural equations were used at the alpha level of 0.05. SPSS26 software was used for data analysis and PLS3 software was used for modeling structural equations. The results indicate that customer satisfaction has a significant causal relationship with customers' purchase intentions. Also, loyalty as a mediator has a more effective role on customers' purchase intention. Finally, the communication model of customer satisfaction, customer purchase intention, and customer loyalty has a good fit. Paying attention to the findings of the research, managers of sports stores that provide services electronically can first look for customer satisfaction in order to become loyal customers so that the purchase intention among customers increases.
Sports management, marketing
Sajjad Pashaie; Hamed Golmohammadi
Abstract
AbstractRecently, the global economy has been affected by artificial intelligence and the advancement of information technology, as well as infectious diseases such as Covid-19 (Bhatia, 2021). The convergence of the corona virus globally has had various effects on societies and their activities (Heydari ...
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AbstractRecently, the global economy has been affected by artificial intelligence and the advancement of information technology, as well as infectious diseases such as Covid-19 (Bhatia, 2021). The convergence of the corona virus globally has had various effects on societies and their activities (Heydari & Asadollahi, 2021; Heydari et al., 2021). The challenge of managing this crisis, especially with the specific conditions of Iran and the unknown nature of the disease and the lack of sufficient experience, provided an arena for creativity and innovation (Heydari, 2019). Therefore, it is necessary for organizations and service units to survive and succeed In the chaotic market environment of the digital era and to deal with these crises, accept innovative solutions (Lee & Trimi, 2021). Successful organizations create an environment where elements of creativity and innovation occur continuously across all levels and organizational functions (Vicenzi, 2000). Innovation in business management can save time and money, strengthen competitive advantage, and encourage business growth (Chi, 2021). Hence, the sports industry needs to leverage technology to address current challenges (Pashaie & Perić, 2023). Therefore, the sports industry has turned innovation into a new field for research by many researchers (Ferreira et al., 2020) and considers it a vital factor for achieving competitive advantage (Rajapathirana & Hui, 2018). The findings indicate that customer and market knowledge, customer attraction, customer retention and customer development are the consequences of implementing customer relationship management technology in sports venues (Pashaie et al., 2020). It is concluded from the presented research that sports venues have expanded their investment in the field of customer relationship management (Pashaie et al., 2020). In general, this research provides the possibility of enhancing creativity and innovation in the sports industry. By offering detailed analyses of the role of electronic customer relationship management components in improving long-term relationships and developing innovation capabilities, especially in the face of widespread challenges such as coronavirus, this research holds significant importance. This study investigates the positive impact of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) on the long-term relationships and innovation capabilities of sports venues, with a focus on the moderating role of COVID-19. Classified as applied and descriptive research of the correlation type, the study employed a questionnaire for data collection.To ensure the reliability of the questionnaires, various validation measures such as divergent validity, Cronbach's alpha indices, factor loading, and composite reliability were utilized. The research population consisted of sports venue customers in Tabriz, with 260 participants selected through convenience sampling. Data analysis was conducted using IBM® IBM® SPSS® AmosTM 26, and the results were utilized for model testing and hypothesis examination. The outcomes suggest that e-CRM, encompassing aspects like knowledge management, customer orientation, and customer relationship management technology, significantly and positively influences long-term relationships and innovation capabilities. The moderating impact of COVID-19 is notable, though its effect is moderate. Despite the widespread impact of the pandemic on customers, e-CRM has proven to be a robust tool for strengthening long-term relationships and retaining customers in the face of increased COVID-19 cases.In general, this research highlights the significance of implementing electronic customer relationship management systems in sports venues to gain a competitive advantage, improve customer retention, understand customer concerns, and enhance innovation capabilities. On the one hand, it provides valuable insights for managers and marketers of sports venues in addressing challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and improving their overall performance. The implications of this study go beyond academic contributions, offering practical recommendations for managers and marketers, encouraging them to prioritize the implementation of electronic customer relationship management for advancing innovation and ensuring a competitive advantage amid current uncertainties. This is crucial because technological advancements are rapid. Electronic customer relationship management systems and customer expectations may evolve, requiring continuous reassessment and alignment with innovation capabilities. From a creativity and innovation perspective, the present research can potentially lead to several outcomes. By implementing the findings of this study, sports venues can enhance their innovation capabilities, leading to the development of new and improved services, products, and experiences for customers. Real-time monitoring and interaction with customers facilitated by electronic customer relationship management systems can enable sports venues to better understand customer concerns related to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. This understanding can guide innovative safety measures and customer service initiatives, creating a safer and more satisfying experience for customers.Ultimately, there is room to challenge and expand existing theoretical models to incorporate new variables that may impact the dynamics between electronic customer relationship management and innovation. Considering technical and technological limitations, financial constraints, reduced customer interaction capabilities in virtual environments, and legal and security barriers, communicating the findings to the study community, sports clubs, and sports authorities is essential. Firstly, sports managers are advised to prioritize the adoption of electronic customer relationship management systems for gaining a competitive advantage and improving customer retention. This includes investing in technology and knowledge management to enhance customer-centricity and customer relationship management capabilities. Additionally, given the moderating role of COVID-19, sports managers should focus on using electronic customer relationship management as a powerful tool to enhance long-term relationships and customer retention, especially during pandemics. Understanding customer concerns and adapting electronic customer relationship management strategies to address these challenges can significantly contribute to the overall performance improvement of sports venues.Furthermore, this research emphasizes the importance of continuous innovation in the products and services of sports venues and underscores the need for sports managers to integrate innovation capabilities into their electronic customer relationship management strategies. This may involve fostering a culture of creativity and innovation within the organization and utilizing electronic customer relationship management for gathering insights and customer feedback to develop innovative proposals. In addition, qualitative research methods such as interviews or focus groups can be employed to gain deeper insights into specific mechanisms through which electronic customer relationship management affects innovation capabilities and long-term relationships in sports venues. The aim of these recommendations is to strengthen the practical aspect of the research and provide practical insights for sports managers and marketers to address challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and enhance overall performance.
Ali Moattar; Sedigheh Eslami; Hamid Ghasemi
Abstract
In recent years, with the intensification of competition in the field of sports, serious attention has been paid to sports marketing. Sports clubs serve customers with the aim of returning customers. Studies have shown that the desire to return a customer is related to their level of satisfaction. On ...
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In recent years, with the intensification of competition in the field of sports, serious attention has been paid to sports marketing. Sports clubs serve customers with the aim of returning customers. Studies have shown that the desire to return a customer is related to their level of satisfaction. On the other hand, the level of custemers satisfaction is determined by the quality of the services provided. In fact, nowadays, quality is defined by the custemer’s demand, and the customer’s perceptions and expections are considered the main determinants of quality. The purpose of this study was to determine the moderating role of social media in relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customers' behavioral intention in swimming clubs.This research is applied, descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of this research was the customers of swimming clubs in Tehran. Sample size was determined by Cochran formula. Cluster and random sampling was performed to select 384 persons. The service quality questionaire (Liu, 2008), (Liu investigated the validity and reliability of the questionnaire with exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Also, Mahmoudi et al. (2014) using the KMO index and Bartlett's test obtained the validity of the questionnaire at 0.872 and 0.001, respectively, and obtained the reliability of the questionnaire at 0.91 using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.), customer satisfaction questionaire (Chen, 2005), (This questionnaire is standard and Chen considered it valid and reliable. Also, Fasnaqari et al. (2016) evaluated its reliability with Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.87.), customers' behavioral intention questionaire (Parasuman, 1991), (This questionnaire is standard and has been used in many researches and its validity and reliability have been confirmed. Kurdlo et al. (2015) reported the reliability of the questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.92.) And researcher-made social media role questionnaire were used for data collection. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed again by the supervisor and a number of experts in the field of research. The reliability of the questionnaires was evaluated again by factor loadings, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and mean extracted variance. In this research, the data obtained from the research questionnaire was used to evaluate the research measurement model, including the factor loading and t-statistic value for the questionnaire questions, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability and mean variance extracted from SmartPLS software. Also, in order to evaluate the structural model of the research, including the causal and moderating relationships between the research variables, the structural equations method was used using SmartPLS software, as well as the correlation test with SPSS software. The results of Spearman correlation test showed that the quality of service has a significant direct relationship with customer satisfaction and customers' behavioral intention. Customer satisfaction also had a significant direct relationship with customers' behavioral intention. The results of the structural equation method showed that social media moderates the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. Social media also moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and customers' behavioral intention. It seems that the quality of swimming club services, including health and welfare facilities, safety, responsible behavior of employees, as well as responsiveness, commitment and empathy of employees regarding swimming club services, improves customer satisfaction. On the other hand, the quality of swimming club services can affect customer loyalty.The quality of service with all its dimensions, which includes facilities, appropriate services and appropriate behavior of employees, is effective on the loyalty of customers and their decision to attend again; For example, it is important for customers to see that swimming instructors act responsibly towards proper swimming training and that their training is accompanied by the empathy of customers. This case is especially effective in relation to customers' decisions regarding the desire to attend swimming lessons with their children. On the other hand, whenever customers are satisfied with the swimming club, its facilities, services, and the behavior of the staff, they have a better perception of the club and this issue is effective in deciding to attend again. In fact, customers should be sure that the equipment is sufficient to continue their presence in the club. This confidence is formed by comparing different clubs and also the mental prerequisites of people regarding the necessary equipment. It is also necessary for people to feel comfortable in the club; This feeling of comfort is related to the design of the structure and components of the club, the process of training and swimming in the club, the training process, the feeling of comfort with the staff and trainers, and these parameters are effective in the decision of customers to attend the club again. On the other hand, social networks have helped to understand what customers expect from services, and customers of organizations that use social networks have a better understanding of the services provided. There is a significant difference between the perceived value in the two positions of buyer and seller; Social media facilitates the communication and interaction between the buyer and the seller, and in this way, better understanding of the quality of service expected by the customers from the buyer's position and vice versa. As a result, the seller can provide his services with the quality expected by the customers and in this way increase the satisfaction of the customers. In fact, by helping the effective communication and interaction of the users and the seller, the social media helps to bring closer their perception of the quality and quantity of the service and as a result to improve the quality of the service and in this way it moderates the effect of the quality of the service on the satisfaction of the customers. Also, by improving the image of the club as one of the components of satisfaction, social networks can adjust the relationship between customer satisfaction and the desire of customers to attend swimming clubs. Tuse social media cause more, better and faster interaction between the club and customers. It is suggested that the clubs conduct surevys and receive users’ opinions related to the services, so that clubs can provide the services desired services to the customers.
Mohammadsaeid Kiani; leila nazari; Leila Shahbazpour
Abstract
Introduction: Today, organizations should develop their activities by keeping service recipients satisfied so that they can maintain their advantages in competitive environments and not lag behind other competitors. In recent years, paying attention to the needs of customers and responding to them, both ...
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Introduction: Today, organizations should develop their activities by keeping service recipients satisfied so that they can maintain their advantages in competitive environments and not lag behind other competitors. In recent years, paying attention to the needs of customers and responding to them, both in the production sector and in the service sector, is one of the most important and necessary tasks or goals of organizations (Omar and Simon, 2018). In recent years, modern designs and digital techniques that are consciously used in architecture have contributed to the positive effects of the aesthetic aspects of architecture and have brought passion and heartwarming feeling to the exterior. And the indoor spaces have given places and sports spaces (Majidi et al, 2018). The beauty of an environment, like improving the service quality of sports venues, increases the tendency of people to that place to continue their activity and customer loyalty (Morten, 2018). Improving the beauty of the environment makes it possible to use it as a competitive tool. The beauty of an environment increases the tendency of people to that place for physical activity and exercise, attracting people to exercise and physical activity in outdoor environments and open spaces is a clear and obvious thing (Sallis, 2019).During their studies, (Cleland et al, 2018) reached the conclusion that the aesthetics and attractiveness of the environment can affect people's health behavior and there is a positive relationship between people's tendency towards sports activities in their free time and environmental variables such as aesthetics. Studies show that in the last two decades, interest in the quality of service has also been drawn to the sports industry, so that today, the quality of service is considered one of the main criteria for measuring competition in the organization. Therefore, sports organizations know that providing quality services to customers is necessary for success and is the key to survival in today's competitive environment (Ko and Pastor, 2017). On the other hand, it should be noted that only the existence of facilities for exercising is not enough; In the design of sports facilities, in addition to technical aspects, aesthetic aspects should also be considered, there is an urgent need to create new design methods to make sports centers more effective and attractive due to changing attitudes, desires and desires. Customers have become more important. Methodology: Considering that the effect of aesthetic factors and service quality on the perceived value of customer loyalty and satisfaction was studied in the present study, therefore, the present study was descriptive of the correlation type. The collection of sources is by library method and in terms of information collection, it is a field questionnaire. The statistical population of this research was the customers of 28 private and public swimming pools in the province. The sampling method used to select random customers was simple. In this research, the number of samples was estimated between 136-680 according to the number of questions in the questionnaires (68), with an estimate of at least 2 times and at most 10 times the number of questions; After distributing the questionnaires, 274 questionnaires were returned. In order to investigate the aesthetic dimensions of sports pools, Soleimani's questionnaire (2013) was used. In this research, the standard questionnaire for measuring the service quality of sports centers of Liu (2008) was used after adjusting and adapting it to the pool environment and cultural conditions of the country to collect information. In order to check the level of customer loyalty to sports pools, Lim's (2006) loyalty questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale was used. In order to check the perceived value of customers to sports pools, Kim et al.'s (2009) questionnaire was used with a five-point Likert scale. Victor's questionnaire (2002) was used to check the level of customer satisfaction with sports pools. The face and content validity was confirmed by asking the opinion of 8 people from the relevant satid. In order to analyze the data, structural equation technique was used using Amos statistical software and Spss statistical software. Findings: The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between all research variables; The highest correlation is related to service quality variables and customer satisfaction, and the lowest correlation is related to aesthetic variables and customer loyalty, which is significant at the 0.05 level. The aesthetic variable has a significant effect on perceived value and customer loyalty, and a weak indirect effect was observed between aesthetics and service quality with customer loyalty. Also, the direct effect of service quality on loyalty, service quality on perceived value, perceived value on customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction on loyalty were positive and significant, but no indirect effect was observed between these variables. It should be noted that according to the research model, 33 % of customer loyalty variances by aesthetic variables, quality of service, customer satisfaction and perceived value, 42 % of customer satisfaction variance by perceived value and 17 % of perceived value by quality Services and cognitive aesthetics can be explained. Discussion and conclusion: The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of aesthetic factors and service quality on the perceived value of loyalty and customer satisfaction of swimming pools in Kermanshah province. In the current study, the total effect is equal to the direct effect of most variables, because no significant indirect effect was observed between the variables. In examining the hypotheses, the research results showed that service quality has a direct and significant effect on customer loyalty. As a result, as the quality of the perceived service increases, the level of customer loyalty also increases. The results of the research showed that aesthetic factors have a direct and significant effect on customer loyalty. The results of the research showed that perceived value has a direct and significant effect on customer loyalty. That is, the more customers receive and feel more value, the more their loyalty increases. The results of the research showed that service quality has a direct and significant effect on the perceived value of customers. The customer feels that he has received a good service that is valuable for him. The results of the research showed that perceived value has a direct and significant effect on customer satisfaction. In other words, higher perceived value can lead to greater customer satisfaction. Also, the results showed that satisfaction has a direct and significant effect on customer loyalty. The results showed that aesthetic factors have a direct and significant effect on the perceived value of customers. Therefore, paying attention to factors such as the environment around water sports complexes, using works of art in the outdoor space, the beauty of the indoor space of the sports pool and inspiration from natural attractions, the external shape of the pool inspired by geometric shapes and a large and wide space. Instead of a limited space, the sports pool is one of the criteria of the customers of these complexes, which has increased the perceived value level of the customers. Due to the changing attitude of customers regarding the use of luxurious and well-equipped sports spaces with new architectural style, as well as the creation of complementary spaces for swimming pools such as: massage room, Solardome (artificial sun), gym, coffee shop, etc. Providing quality services to customers, respecting customers and asking them for their opinions about the services provided, should be scientifically investigated in order to make customers return and create loyalty in them. These factors should be evaluated at least monthly, and if customers There is a need to provide better and newer services, according to the available facilities and the available space for their opinions to be provided so that their loyalty is maintained and improved and the customers act as pool advertisers and attract new customers unconsciously.
