Marketing and Environmental Sustainability in the Sport Sector: Developing a Research Agenda for Action

Abstract

Authoritative discourse within the literature indicates a realization that sport impacts the natural environment (Brooks, 2006; Cachay, 1993;Lenskyj, 1998) and that environmental sustainability (ES) in sport management is emerging as a topic of concern. The number of sport-related journal articles focusing on environmental sustainability (ES), however has been found to be insufficient (Mallen, Stevens and Adams, 2011). The purpose of this study, thus, was to complete a content analysis of management journals to reveal marketing-ES literature to underscore the development of a sport marketing-ES research agenda. The premise was that the understandings concerning the outlook, perceptions, opinions and viewpoints in the marketing-ES manuscripts will enhance the capacity of researchers in developing a research agenda in sport marketing-ES. The methods involved content analysis steps provided by Krippendorff (1980), Weber (1985, and Wolfe, Hoeber and Babiak (2002) including: establishing the sampling units, the unit of text, the coding themes and sub-themes, analytical factors and coding mode. The data analysis framework involved the use of key marketing concepts: the consumer perspective (Aaker, 1996) and the corporate perspective (Knapp, 2000), along with the concept of influencers (Davis & Dunn, 2002). In sum, the examination involved 49 journals published from 1999 to 2009. Key findings included 63 marketing-ES manuscripts and their concepts, themes and sub-themes, along with their perspectives and influencers that were applied to construct 30 questions to develop a sport marketing-ES research agenda. It is time for sport researchers to generate a robust research response to the marketing-ES questions.

The green waves of environmental sustainability in sport

“…All levels and types of sport create environmental issues and contribute to the larger societal need to examine human behaviour in relation to the environment (Thibault 2009). However, the issues at hand are complex and filled with a variety of complementary, causal and competing elements in terms of environmental issues themselves as well as the theoretical or ideological approaches for addressing them (Chard, Mallen, and Bradish 2013;DeLuca 2005;Mallen, Stevens, and Adams 2011;Walters Coppola 2007).…”

Marketing for sustainability: Travellers’ intentions to stay in green hotels

“…Trust can be regarded as a belief about others’ behaviour in transactions, or it can be regarded as an inclination to rely on someone or something (Moorman et al, 1993). Researchers also assert that trust is critical for the marketing of green products and services, as consumers believe that producers and other third parties function in a way that matches the sustainable qualities of their products and services (Bonn et al, 2016; Chard et al, 2013).…”

Sustainable tourism in sport with emphasis on spectators' contribution in environmental preservation

“…Result showed that there is correlation coefficient between place Attachment and Behavioral Attitude which is equal to 0. 13…”

“…A substantial amount of literature explores aspects such as the sports tourist experiences, motivations for participation, sport identities and levels of involvement in sport [12]. However, these studies tend to focus on describing behavior, as opposed to providing an explanation of the processes leading to the behavior [13]. Furthermore, there appears to be very little work on ERB of sport event spectators as sports tourists [14].…”