2016-12-23T18:49:38

The purpose of this study was to propose and test a conceptual Model of Athlete Brand Image (MABI) that is based on Keller's Customer-based Brand Equity framework (1993). The MABI consists of three dimensions which are crucial in developing consumer brand equity for athletes: athletic performance, attractive appearance, and marketable lifestyle. Athletic performance consists of four subdimensions: athletic expertise, competition style, sportsmanship, and rivalry. Attractive appearance consists of physical attractiveness, symbol, and body fitness. Marketable lifestyle consists of life story, role model, and relationship effort. To test this model, the Scale of Athlete Brand Image (SABI) was developed. A total of 427 college students were surveyed to test the model. Based on the result from two-step Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Model (SEM) test, MABI and SABI were modified and revised. In the final model, MABI shows a reasonable fit to the data and SABI is psychometrically acceptable.

This research explored the role of athlete on- and off-field brand image on consumer commitment toward the athlete and associated team, preference by the athlete’s sponsor, and the mediating effect of consumers’ self-brand connection on these relationships. Data were collected from fans of soccer players through a cross-sectional survey promoted on social media platforms. A partial least squares structural equation model examined the direct effects of both athlete brand dimensions on athlete commitment, team commitment, and athlete sponsor preference, and the indirect effects mediated via self-brand connection. The results indicate that an athlete’s on-field image is significantly related to athlete sponsor preference, while the off-field image influences athlete commitment and team commitment. Self-brand connection is influenced by athlete off-field image and mediates the relationship between off-field image and athlete commitment. This study contributes to a better understanding of how to manage athlete brands and linkages between fans, athletes, and associated entities.

It is important for brands to appropriately respond when their athlete endorsers are involved in a scandal. The present study examines how consumer evaluations of endorsed brands are influenced by a brand’s response to an endorser scandal. A 2 (brand response strategy type: maintenance vs. termination) × 2 (endorser scandal type: competence-relevant vs. competence-irrelevant) between-subjects experiment is conducted. Specifically, the authors focus on the perceived appropriateness of the response strategy and consumer attitudes toward an endorsed brand. Subjects were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk ( N = 111). Consumers perceive that terminating an endorsement contract with a scandalized endorser is more appropriate than maintaining the relationship. This is particularly true when celebrity endorsers are involved in competence-relevant scandals. A further analysis provided support for the idea that perceived “appropriateness” mediates the relationship between competence-relevant scandal and consumer attitude toward an endorsed brand. A termination strategy was considered appropriate when scandalized endorsers engaged in competence-relevant scandals, which eventually lead to more favorable consumer evaluations toward an endorsed brand.

BackgroundThe study of communication skills of Asian medical students during structured Problem-based Learning (PBL) seminars represented a unique opportunity to assess their critical thinking development. This study reports the first application of the health education technology, content analysis (CA), to a Japanese web-based seminar (webinar).MethodsThe authors assigned twelve randomly selected medical students from two universities and two clinical instructors to two virtual classrooms for four PBL structured tutoring sessions that were audio-video captured for CA. Both of the instructors were US-trained physicians. This analysis consisted of coding the students’ verbal comments into seven types, ranging from trivial to advanced knowledge integration comments that served as a proxy for clinical thinking.ResultsThe most basic level of verbal simple responses accounted for a majority (85%) of the total students’ verbal comments. Only 15% of the students’ comments represented more advanced types of critical thinking. The male students responded more than the female students; male students attending University 2 responded more than male students from University 1. The total mean students’ verbal response time for the four sessions with the male instructor was 6.9%; total mean students’ verbal response time for the four sessions with the female instructor was 19% (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThis report is the first to describe the application of CA to a multi-university real time audio and video PBL medical student clinical training webinar in two Japanese medical schools. These results are preliminary, mostly limited by a small sample size (n = 12) and limited time frame (four sessions). CA technology has the potential to improve clinical thinking for medical students. This report may stimulate improvements for implementation.

Marketers worldwide consider athlete endorsement a highly effective promotional tool. However, little is known about consumers' responses towards athlete endorsement in global markets - particularly the bi-directional image transfer mechanism. This study examines the image match between athlete endorsers and products using a three-dimensional visual map and comparing image perceptions towards athlete endorsements among respondent groups from Japan, Korea and the United States during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The results show that image perceptions of selected athlete endorsers, endorsed products and their match are significantly different in these markets.

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