Sports entrepreneurship during COVID-19: Technology as an ally to maintain the competitiveness of small businesses.

The sports sector, specifically the field of personal trainer entrepreneurship, has been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. However, there are still few empirical studies that analyze how the actions taken before and during this crisis can affect sports entrepreneurs' performance. This research aims to analyze which combinations of sports entrepreneurs' personal characteristics and actions performed have been most and least effective in minimizing the negative impact of COVID-19 on their businesses. A validated online questionnaire was administered to personal trainer entrepreneurs from May to June 2020 before they reopened their facilities. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was performed to assess the impacts. The results show that both post-COVID measures (adaptation of the business model) and previous strategic orientation seemed essential. Specifically, high levels of sports entrepreneurs' resilience and innovation/R&D when competing against their closest competitors before the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased use of technologies (sports services digitization) during the pandemic have been essential to maintaining the performance of the sports business. Thus, improvements in the digital competencies of personal trainers' sports entrepreneurs, the development of strategic plans and activities related to innovation/R&D and process improvements are important measures to maintain the competitiveness of small sports businesses during crises.

Emotions and Sport Management: A Bibliometric Overview.

Emotions are considered a fundamental aspect of sport scenarios, and within sports, consumer behavior is a very popular area of research in the sport management field. Thus, in recent years, there has been a growing interest for sport managers regarding the role that emotions play in sport consumer behavior. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the academic research on emotions in the sport management field using two techniques: a bibliometric performance analysis and a graphic mapping of the references in this field. This analysis focuses on authors, journals, papers, institutions and countries. Bibliometric indicators including the h-index measure, productivity and the number of citations were used to perform the performance analysis. Then, VOSviewer software was used to perform co-citation, bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence of keyword analysis (mapping analysis). The results of both types of analysis are consistent, with the United States being the most influential country in emotions in sport management research because the main authors and institutions in this research field belong to this country. The overall results indicate that the literature on this research topic has grown significantly in recent years in all scientific disciplines; however, the research topic is incipient, and therefore, the number of articles is still limited. Thus, this research presents the key aspects in the topic of emotions in sport management that could be helpful for researchers and policy makers in the field of sport management to make future decisions.

Amateur Runners' Commitment: An Analysis of Sociodemographic and Sports Habit Profiles.

The aim of this work is to analyse the commitment to running among urban runners by identifying groups regarding commitment to this sport and by defining their sociodemographic profile and their sports habits. A sample of 1806 participants in popular urban races in the city of Valencia was interviewed using an 11-item questionnaire on commitment to running, sociodemographic characteristics, and sports habits. The psychometric properties of the running-commitment scale allowed for the identification of two factors in commitment to running: enthusiasm for running (6 items) and affliction from running (5 items). Subsequently, a cluster analysis combining hierarchical and non-hierarchical methods was performed, identifying three groups of runners: highly committed (n = 650), moderately committed (n = 749), and slightly committed (n = 407). Highly committed runners positively rate all aspects of running enthusiasm (M = 4.15), while moderately committed runners show a more neutral attitude (M = 3.41) and slightly committed runners disagree on these aspects (M = 2.41). Both highly (M = 1.32) and moderately (M = 2.04) committed runners disagree on the affliction-related aspects of running, while slightly committed runners show a trend towards neutrality on some affliction indicators. The variables referring to age, level of studies, sports habits, and running addiction contributed to differentiating the identified groups.

Congruence and placement in sponsorship: An eye-tracking application.

Sporting events can be announced using sports posters and by disseminating advertisements on the internet, on the street and in print media. But until now, no prior research has measured the effectiveness of sponsorship in sporting event posters. This study uses eye tracking to measure the effectiveness of sporting event posters and proposes considering the level of the viewer's attention as an indicator. This research involves a factorial experiment based on the following variables: congruence, the number of sponsors, and placement of the sponsor's advertisement in a sporting event poster. The results indicate that sponsors positioned in the poster's area of action receive more attention. However, we were unable to prove that congruent sponsors receive more attention, as claimed in the literature. This result could be due to a situation of blindness towards the sponsor. The conclusion section of this paper discusses theoretical conclusions and potential managerial actions.

Influencia de la website sobre el patrocinio: Segmentación PLS-POS / The influence of websites on soponsorship: PLS-Pos segmentation

El patrocinio es una de las técnicas de marketing no convencionales que más inversión atrae en el área deportiva. Junto con el sitio web, es una de las principales fuentes de ingresos de las entidades y organizaciones deportivas. Este estudio aplica una segmentación no observada orientada a la predicción (PLS-POS) con el objetivo de examinar el efecto del sitio web sobre el proceso de transmisión de imagen según la teoría propuesta por Gwinner (1997). Obtuvimos 225 encuestas insertando un cuestionario creado ad hoc en un banner de un evento internacional de tenis. La variable actitud hacia el deporte es la mejor variable para segmentar la muestra según los resultados del PLS-POS y la técnica de árbol de decisión CHAID. El estudio aporta dos importantes novedades, por un lado examina la influencia del sitio web sobre el efecto del patrocinio, y por otro, aplica una metodología inédita en el estudio del patrocinio

Sponsorship is among the unconventional marketing techniques that attract the most investment in the sports field. Along with webs, sponsorship is one the main sources of income for sports entities and organizations. Following Gwinner’s theory (1997), this study applies a predictionoriented unobserved segmentation (PLS-POS) with the aim of exploring the impact of websites on the image transfer process. We gathered 225 surveys by displaying a banner in a tennis international event. The variable ‘attitude towards sport’ is the best one for segmenting the sample according to the results of the PLS-POS method and the CHAID decision tree technique. The study introduces two significant developments: on one hand, it analyzes the impact of websites on the effect of sponsorship, while on the other hand it applies an unprecedented methodology to the study of sponsorship

Análisis cualitativo comparativo de la lealtad en servicios públicos deportivos / Comparative qualitative analysis of loyalty in public sports services

Menor sensibilidad al precio, altas tasas de recomendación o la retención de clientes son consecuencias positivas de la gestión de la lealtad. Aunque es un aspecto clave de gestión, en los servicios deportivos es aún un tema poco desarrollado. Esta investigación pretende indagar en los antecedentes clave de la lealtad mediante el estudio de un servicio público deportivo (210 sujetos). El uso de ecuaciones estructurales y análisis cualitativo comparativo nos permiten estudiar de forma novedosa y desde los puntos de vista simétrico y asimétrico las condiciones causales y variables de influencia sobre la lealtad. Los resultados demuestran que la congruencia, la credibilidad y especialmente la calidad se constituyen en condiciones causales suficientes aunque no necesarias para lograr la lealtad. Entre las recomendaciones sugerimos a las organizaciones estrategias específicas de comunicación y marketing relacional con el fin de construir una marca sólida y fiable

Lower price sensitivity, high rates of recommendation or customer retention are positive consequences of loyalty management. Although it is a key aspect of management, in sports services is still a subject underdeveloped. This research aims to investigate the key antecedents of loyalty by studying a public sport service (210 subjects). Using structural equation modeling and comparative qualitative analysis, allow us to study in a new way, and from the point of view symmetrical and asymmetrical, causal conditions and variables that have influence on loyalty. The results show that congruence, credibility and especially quality, constitute sufficient grounds but not necessary conditions to achieve loyalty. As recommendations to organizations, we suggest specific strategies of communication and relationship marketing in order to build a solid and reliable Brand

Influencia de la calidad, satisfacción, valor percibido e imagen corporativa en la confianza en la marca en el servicio fitness / Influence of quality, satisfaction, perceived value and corporative image on the Brand trust in the fitnes service

Cada vez más medianas y pequeñas empresas destinan esfuerzos a aumentar la confianza en su marca. La literatura apoya que la confianza en la marca es antecedente de la satisfacción, la recomendación y la lealtad. Aun vista su importancia, el estudio en el ámbito de la gestión deportiva ha sido subestimado. Nuestro objetivo es proponer un modelo de regresión lineal múltiple para explicar los antecedentes de la confianza en un servicio fitness premium. Los resultados de la consulta (314 usuarios) muestran que la imagen corporativa es el antecedente más importante de la confianza en la marca (β = .53), seguido del valor percibido (β = .16), satisfacción (β = .13) y por último la calidad (β = .12). Este artículo, aporta información novedosa por el hecho de estudiar la confianza en la marca dentro de la gestión deportiva en relación a otras variables ya tradicionales, sumado a que el fitness premium es un campo poco estudiado. La principal aportación extraída, es que la imagen es el factor más influyente sobre la confianza que transmite la marca a los clientes, lo que conlleva implicaciones prácticas para el gestor

Each time medium and small business give time increase the trust in their brand. The literature supports that brand trust is an antecedent of satisfaction, word of mouth and loyalty. Even given its importance, in the field of sport management has been underestimated. Our objective is to propose a multiple lineal regression model to explain the background of the trust in a fitness premium service. The results of the consultation (314 customers) show that the corporative image is the most important background in brand trust (β=.53), followed by the perceived value (β=.16), satisfaction (β=.13) and finally quality (β=.12). This paper provides new information by the fact of studying the brand trust inside sport management in relation with other traditional variables, added to premium fitness is a field little studied. The main extracted information, is that the image is the most influential factor of trust convey to brand customers, which lead to practical information for the sports managers