Transcendence beyond sport: examining the dynamic power of sport human brand on national pride
International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship
ISSN: 1464-6668
Article publication date: 28 November 2023
Issue publication date: 19 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon social judgment theory, the research examines whether changes in psychological involvement with a sport human brand owing to their sporting success can generate spillover effects on people's national pride, a proxy for the collective level of well-being and whether the individual's behavioral engagement in sport spectating will moderate this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Leveraging a quasi-natural experiment grounded in the 2021 Indian Premier League championship, the authors solicit responses from 296 representative individuals residing in India twice using a two-wave panel design. The authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis, repeated measures T-test, latent change score analysis, and structural regression analysis to examine the relationship between psychological involvement with sport human brand and national pride.
Findings
The results demonstrate a positive association between psychological involvement with sport human brand and national pride. Further, the findings indicate that an increase in psychological involvement with sport human brand was associated with an increase in national pride due to the successful athletic endeavor involving the sport human brand. However, the relationship between psychological involvement with sport human brand and national pride was invariant irrespective of patrons' spectatorship behavior.
Originality/value
This research demonstrates that sport human brands possess transformative soft power that extends their prerogative cultural identity personified by their athletic ability and success, allowing them to shape public sentiments of national pride via their profound influence through and beyond the complex network of brand ecosystems.
Keywords
Citation
Gulavani, S.S., Du, J. and James, J.D. (2024), "Transcendence beyond sport: examining the dynamic power of sport human brand on national pride", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 142-160. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-05-2023-0098
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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