Stephanie Kiefer and Katrin Scharfenkamp

Discussions about the impact of physical attractiveness on the popularity of competitive athletes have received much attention from scholars and the worldwide media. We provide new insights into this debate, and draw managerial implications by estimating OLS and Tobit regressions to test whether and to what extent the physical attractiveness of professional female tennis players affects (changes in) their popularity in online media. Based on a sample of the top 100 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) single ranking of one selected calendar week in 2011 and 2012, we find that physical...Read more

Stephanie Kiefer

High popularity and a high market value are important for a footballer’s regular wage as well as advertising and sponsor contracts. Yet how can a football player improve his popularity and market value? The aim of this study is to examine whether a good performance during the 2012 European Football Championship has an impact on the changes in online media popularity (Facebook, Google and uefa.com). Moreover, it will investigate whether good performance and non-performance-related popularity affect changes in market values. This study finds out that different Euro 2012 performance variables...Read more