PURPOSE This study aimed to explore the structural relationships between technology-related factors and the intention to use baseball data, drawing upon the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and technology readiness (TR). METHODS Survey data from 203 Korean professional baseball players were used in frequency, reliability, correlation, and confirmatory factor analyses as well as structural equation modeling. RESULTS Positive TR positively influenced performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and conditions facilitating baseball data use. Negative TR did not significantly impact performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and conditions facilitating baseball data use. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions were found to positively influence data use intention, while social influence did not significantly impact data use intention. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that increasing performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating condition factors could be key to enhancing the intention to utilize baseball data.
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the integrated marketing communication (IMC) attribute of professional baseball teams, their fans’ perceived value, and voluntary behavior related to the parent company. METHODS In this study, the target population consisted of spectators watching a professional baseball game. A survey was conducted on 360 fans watching the KIA tigers’ and kt wiz’ home game using the convenience sampling method. Finally, a total of 261 were used for data analysis, and frequency, confirmatory factor, reliability, correlation, structural equation model analyses using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0. RESULTS Main findings are as follows: First, interactivity of professional baseball teams’ IMC had positive effects on the emotional value. Second, interactivity and reminders from the parent companies of professional baseball teams’ IMC had positive effects on social value. Third, stakeholder connectivity and reminders from parent company of professional baseball teams’ IMC had positive effects on altruistic value. Fourth, with regard to the social aspect, the fans’ perceived value had positive effects on loyalty, customer participation and customer cooperation of voluntary behavior related to parent company. Lastly, with regard to the altruistic aspect, the fans’ perceived value had positive effects on customer cooperation of voluntary behavior related to the parent company. CONCLUSIONS Therefore, professional baseball teams should identify the IMC elements that fans perceive as important and establish effective marketing communication strategies to enhance the perceived value of their brand among their fans, ultimately increasing their voluntary engagement with the parent company.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship among the social responsibility (economic responsibility, community cultural activity and social contribution activity), the image of the club, and the assets (image, reliability, attitude and loyalty) of the mother company. Methods The objectives of this research were the home fan in “2018 Shinhan Bank My Car KBO League.” A survey was conducted for 350 home fans of SK Wyverns who gathered in Incheon SK Happiness Dream Baseball Ground to watch the games of SK Wyverns vs. Samsung Lions held from April 6 (Fri.) to April 8 (Sun.). Data processing was done with PASW Ver. 18.0 and AMOS 18.0. Results Firstly, among the sub-factors of social responsibility, economic responsibility, community cultural activity and consumer protection had significant influence on the team image. Secondly, the team image had meaningful influence on the mother company image. Thirdly, the mother company image had significant influence on the mother company trust, mother company attitude and mother company loyalty. Fourthly, the mother company trust had significant influence on the mother company loyalty. Fifthly, the mother company attitude had significant influence on the mother company loyalty. Conclusions The mother companies of professional baseball clubs, too, will have to seek various ways for joint working with professional baseball clubs while actively supporting the activities of the professional baseball clubs being aware that professional baseball clubs give positive effect to the mother companies.
This study is aimed at identifying the relationship among brand evaluation, brand identification, brand relationship, and brand loyalty towards professional baseball title sponsors in an empirical manner. The target of this study is 'Korea Yakult,' a baseball title sponsor in 2014. A survey was conducted on 377 home crowd members of Nexen, Doosan, LG and SK based in metropolitan regions. Sampling method was Convenience Sampling Mode, and questionnaire has been structured to be self-administerd type. SPSSWIN Ver. 21.0 and AMOS 18.0 have been used for data processing. The findings are as follows. First, the brand reputation had a significant impact on brand identification. Second, the brand satisfaction had no significant impact on brand identification. Third, the brand attitude had a significant impact on brand identification. Fourth, the brand identification had a significant impact on brand suitability. Fifth, the brand identification had a significant impact on brand attachment. Sixth, the brand identification had a significant impact on brand knowledge. Seventh, the brand suitability had a significant impact on brand loyalty. Eighth, the brand attachment had a significant impact on brand loyalty. Ninth, the brand knowledge had a significant impact on brand loyalty.
PURPOSE This study aimed to identify the factors influencing the success of the sports entertainment program “A Clean Sweep” using big data analysis. METHODS Text mining, sentiment analysis, TF-IDF, connection centrality, and semantic network analysis were conducted using the social big data analysis program Textom and social network analysis program Ucinet6. The research period was limited from June 6, 2022 to November 30, 2023. RESULTS The factors determining success were entertainment programs, Monday, OTT, and independent league. The events and marketing factors were extracted, and A Clean Sweep X Kelly, A Clean Sweep X Mom love, cheering song, uniforms, and direct viewing day influenced success. The new hire factors were rookie draft, Young-Mook Hwang, Sung-Joon Won, and Hyun-Soo Jeong. Positive (such as good, fun, looking forward to, best, and funny) and negative (such as esoteric, regrettable, shocking, dislike, and uncomfortable) emotional factors were also extracted. The extracted star marketing factors were directors (Seung-Yup Lee, Sung-Geun Kim) and players (Dae-Ho Lee, Geun-Woo Jung, Hee-Kwan Yoo, Moon-Ho Kim, Yong-Taek Park, Taek-Geun Lee). CONCLUSIONS We were able to identify the success factors of “A Clean Sweep”, which we hope will contribute to the revitalization of professional baseball as well as sports entertainment programs.
PURPOSE This study developed and tested a theoretical research model delineating the relationships between sports consumers’ team identity and their response to regional identity, sense of community, and community contributions. METHODS To achieve the purpose of this study, a total of 1,196 spectators who attended professional baseball games were surveyed. For the data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity, discriminate validity, and composite reliability were performed to confirm the validity and reliability of the scale through AMOS 24.0. Research model and hypothesis testing were conducted using structural equation modeling, which used data from ten different professional baseball team area contexts. RESULTS The results provide empirical evidence of the positive influence of sports consumers’ regional identity and sense of community on team identity toward community contributions in sporting event area contexts. CONCLUSIONS This study confirmed the role of regional identity and sense of community in building professional sports team identities and community contributions.
PURPOSE This study aimed to examine contemporary sports reality and its problems through the feature-length independent film <Not Out>, which focused on baseball, a popular sport, and highlighted its rather dark side. METHODS The researcher performed a textual analysis using the perspective of critical theory. RESULTS Gwang-ho was the hero of a walk-off hit in the national baseball competition final, who suffered from three career strikes during his third year of high school and thought that he had bright future ahead of him. Before the amateur draft, Gwang-ho boldly rejected the proposal of a trainee contract from a professional team (strike 1), then he was subsequently not selected in the amateur draft (strike 2), before he applied for the college entrance examination for baseball specialties, and was eventually rejected. (strike 3) In the end, he was able to enter college through a bribe given by his father (not-out situation). CONCLUSIONS <Not Out> is a film based on a true story, and it showcased the realities of elite sports by revealing the dynamics of society and school, where the main character responded with reluctance and indifference. This movie highlighted the realities of delinquency, violence, abusive language, bribe, and violations of the right to learn and how these have continued to evade the law despite being thought to be gone.
[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to identify research trend regarding pro-sports and visualize keyword network by using semantic network analysis. [Methods] After searching researches about pro-sports from 1994 to 2016, total 686 researches selected. In this process, inappropriate researches were excluded by 2 researchers’ consensus. [Results] First, the distribution of the number of researches were arranged on pro-baseball, pro-football, pro-basketball, and pro-volleyball in that order. Second, fan, team, and athletes were main research subject. Third, quantitative researches were dramatically more than qualitative researches and mixed method researches. Forth, the proportion of co-working have increased with the course of time. Fifth, the number of keyword which are appeared in researches has increased with the course of time, it dramatically was increased at 2010. [Conclusion] Through these results, researches regarding pro-sports have been broaden with the course of time and interdisciplinary convergence researches with adjacent fields were performed. However, some keyboards were repeated and academic interest about rare keywords was decreased with the course of time. Therefore, scholars in sports field need to have a inquiring stance about novel variables and phenomenons
PURPOSE This study aimed to identify the underlying dimensions of brand (professional sport team) authenticity and to develop a valid, reliable scale to measure these dimensions. METHODS A pool of 67 potential items was drawn through a literature review, content analysis, qualitative research (n=43), and an expert evaluation. The identified items were subjected to exploratory factor analysis (n=248) and confirmatory factor analysis (n=285). In addition, multiple regressions were conducted to examine the criterion validity of the scale. RESULTS The results showed that the brand authenticity scale for professional sport teams consists of 42 items representing 8 dimensions: continuity, originality, quality commitment, heritage, symbolism, credibility, stakeholder-related integrity, and consumer-related integrity. The study has proven evidences of internal consistency and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of the scale. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that the scale developed in this study offers a vital foundation to understand the structure of brand authenticity in the context of sport fans and its impact on sport consumer behavior.
This study aimed to compare professional sport consumers on the basis of their ideology, spectator motivation, and message framing. In order to answer the research questions, the study first examined whether message framing effects existed across the designated variables. The study also assessed whether there were any differences in progressive-conservative ideology and motivation across respondent groups. The participants were spectators of two professional sports, soccer and baseball, sourced from 9 stadiums. Data were collected by the researcher and 33 survey assistants, from May to August 2013. The results of a chi-square test, MANOVA, and MANCOVA indicated that significant effects in message framing existed across the two variables. The findings also showed differences in ideology and motivation across major variables (e.g., age, gender, sports, and choice of newspaper). Some issues including media communication strategies were discussed based on the results of this study.
