Articles in this issue:

• Comparison Between Various Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Based on Spectators’ Attitudes and Attendance Intention for a Professional Baseball Franchise

  Chen-Yueh Chen and Yi-Hsiu Lin

  The effects of different corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives-child and family, community relations, health and wellness, and environment protection-were compared in this study based on spectators’ attitudes toward a sports franchise and event attendance intention. A total of 354 spectators were recruited from the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. A quasi-experimental design was used as the research design, and a one-way multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted for data analysis. The results of this study indicate that spectators perceive the...Read more

• An Integrated Model for Stadium Atmosphere and Stadium Attachment: An Empirical Test in Two Baseball Stadium Contexts

  Masayuki Yoshida

  Brian S. Gordon

  Makoto Nakazawa

  and Naoko Yoshioka

  Synthesizing several streams of theoretical reasoning such as attribution theory, cue-utilization theory, and place attachment, the purposes of this study were to (1) develop a new theoretical model integrating key atmospheric stimuli and the two dimensions of stadium attachment (stadium identity and stadium dependence) into stadium atmosphere research and (2) examine the hypothesized relationships. Data were collected from spectators attending professional baseball games at theme park-like (n = 242) and traditional (n = 300) stadiums. Based on the results, the dimensions of game-,...Read more

• Niche Sport Sponsorship: Providing the Target Market Sponsors Want?

  Greg Greenhalgh

  Tiesha Martin

  and Allison Smith

  Professional niche sports are tremendously reliant on the resources received via corporate sponsorship as they are unlikely to attract substantial revenue via media contracts, ticket sales, or merchandise sales, especially when compared to mainstream sports. Furthermore, niche sports are vying for the same corporate support as their more established mainstream counterparts. However, niche sports have been found to have the ability to provide sponsors with a more specific demographic of fans compared to mainstream sports. If that demographic aligns with a corporation’s target market, the...Read more

• Declining Student Attendance at College Sporting Events: Testing the Relative Influence of Constraints

  Jason Simmons

  Nels Popp

  and T. Christopher Greenwell

  College students represent an important target market for intercollegiate athletic marketers; however, re-cent years have seen a nationwide trend of declining student attendance at high-profile sporting events (Cohen, 2014; Rowland, 2019). The current study examined this issue by studying the influence of constraints on student attendance. Data were collected in partnership with the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA). In total, more than 23,000 respondents from 60 NCAA Di-vision I institutions participated in the study. Conjoint analysis was utilized to...Read more

• An Examination of Relationship Selling Effectiveness in NCAA Division I Ticket Sales

  James F. Weiner

  T. Christopher Greenwell

  and Megan B. Shreffler

  College athletics departments are making more money than ever and spending it even faster (Fulks, 2017). As athletics departments look to increase their individual schools’ revenue year-to-year, ticket sales stands out as one of the only revenue streams without a long term contract. The current study examined the effect of relationship selling on several purchase behaviors in Division I college football. A study of over 90 FBS schools concluded the factor of customer disclosure predicted all football-related purchase behaviors, while interaction intensity was found as a non-predictor or...Read more

• Types of CSR Initiatives and Fans’ Social Outcomes: The Case of Professional Sport Organizations

  Yoseph Mamo

  Kwame J. A. Agyemang

  and Damon P. S. Andrew

  While the burgeoning research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) indicates the importance of tracking the interest of external stakeholders to obtain societal goals, insight into what types of CSR activities contribute to social outcomes remain scarce. As such, the purpose of this study was to identify the relevant dimensions of CSR that can enhance the social outcomes of one specific group of external stakeholders (i.e., sport fans). Data were collected from US sports fans (n = 312) over the course of two weeks. The present research indicates that fans gain more excitement and...Read more