PURPOSE This study aimed to explore methods for stimulating consumer purchasing behavior in the sportswear market, where gaining a competitive edge through traditional means has become increasingly challenging, by focusing on the recently highlighted environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management practices. The objective was to present strategic alternatives for sportswear brands grounded in sustainable management and value creation. METHODS The research employed SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 for frequency analysis, reliability and validity analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and mediation effect analysis. RESULTS First, among the sportswear brand‘s ESG message trust and ESG authenticity, only ESG authenticity positively impacted consumer behavior. Second, both the sportswear brand‘s ESG message trust and ESG authenticity were found to positively influence ESG congruence. Third, ESG message trust and ESG authenticity negatively affected ESG skepticism. Fourth, ESG congruence positively impacted consumer behavior. Fifth, ESG skepticism was found to negatively influence consumer behavior. The mediation effect analysis yielded the following results: First, the direct effect of ESG message trust on consumer behavior was not statistically significant; however, a full mediation effect was observed through ESG congruence and skepticism. Second, the direct effect of ESG authenticity on consumer behavior was statistically significant, with a partial mediation effect through ESG congruence and skepticism. CONCLUSIONS For sportswear brands to achieve sustainable management and profit generation, it is essential to explore methods for stimulating consumer purchasing behavior based on trust and authenticity in ESG messages.
Purpose The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of professional baseball teams' message appeal type (emotional vs. rational) and message delivery method (article with photo vs. article without photo) on consumers' acceptance of the message. The hypotheses were two folds. First, compared with a rational apology article, a professional team's emotional apology article affected consumers' acceptance more positively. Second, a professional team's apology article with a photo attached influenced consumers' acceptance more positively than one without a photo. Methods To achieve the purpose of this study, the authors utilized a 2 (Message Appeal Type: emotional vs. rational) × 2 (Message Delivery Method: article with photo vs. article without photo) factorial experiment. An existing baseball team was selected and was assumed to have been involved in a game fixing situation. Out of 340 participants, 325 were used in the final analysis. Two-way ANCOVA of SPSS 23.0 was conducted to analyze the data. Results Findings revealed when a professional baseball team issued an emotional apology article, consumers were more positive about it than a rational one. Also when a professional team delivered an article with a photo, consumers accepted the article more positively than the one without a photo.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of temporal and spatial distance and types of advertising messages on sport consumer’s attitudes toward and advertising and purchase intentions, based on the construal level theory. Methods Toward this end, 253 usable data were conducted using frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, MANOVA, and ANOVA with SPSS 24.0. Results and Conclusion The study obtained the conclusion that when using different types of messages, the consumer’s attitudes and purchase intentions are influenced by temporal distance, by spatial distance, and by the interaction between both factors.
PURPOSE This study aimed to verify the differences in anticipated regret and gambling discontinuance intent based on the fear appeal type and source similarity in different types of horse-racing gamblers. METHODS Using convenience sampling, 172 responses were collected from horse-racing participants who bought horseracing tickets within the last 6 months. After eliminating 30 insincere responses, descriptive, correlation, reliability, and two-way multivariate covariance analyses were conducted using SPSS Ver. 26.0. RESULTS Anticipated regret and discontinuance intent were higher under fear appeal using social compared with financial risk. Compared to recreational gamblers, problem gamblers had higher anticipated regret and discontinuance intent under fear appeal using social compared with financial risk. There were no differential impacts of source similarity on anticipated regret and discontinuance intent in both types of gambler. CONCLUSIONS Practitioners in charge of conducting messaging campaign to prevent addiction to horse-racing gambling may cause problem gamblers to expect regret and quit gambling by delivering preventive messages with relatively unfamiliar risks such as social risks, rather than familiar risks such as financial ones.
