Consuming extreme sports : psychological drivers and consumer behaviours of extreme athletes

Author(s)

• Raggiotto, Francesco

Bibliographic Information

Consuming extreme sports : psychological drivers and consumer behaviours of extreme athletes

Francesco Raggiotto

（Palgrave pivot）

Palgrave macmillan, c2020

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book explores the consumption behaviour of 'extreme' athletes from a quantitative perspective. Extreme sports are a multi-billion-dollar industry. The behaviour of athletes who participate in them differs from the majority of consumers in that they voluntarily seek out risky and dangerous situations that other consumers actively avoid. It has therefore been suggested that these consumer-athletes may have a unique psychology in this regard. The book adopts a novel approach based on established psychological theories concerning the behaviour of extreme individuals, applying and translating them into marketing research and practice. It discusses how specific psychological drivers impact the consumption behaviour of consumer-athletes and a variety of marketing-relevant outcomes. By demonstrating that extreme consumers are characterized by a unique psychology that leads them to act and think differently, this book offers scholars deeper insights into consumer behaviour, while also helping practitioners target this lucrative marketing segment more effectively.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION The introduction presents the overarching research question denoting the entire book proposal: "How do psychological drivers impact on extreme consumption behaviors?" The overview of the book contents is presented highlighting the contribution of the single book section in framing answers to the general, guiding research question of the book. Further, the introduction specifies the focus of the book in terms of research setting and context, and particularly specifying which kind of consumer behavior it will consider (i.e., behavior of active consumer-athletes) CHAPTER 1 - THE EXTREME SPORTS PHENOMENON: DUST TO GLORY. This chapter describes the setting of extreme sports, tracing the origins of its emergence as a novel consumption phenomenon, through its evolution throughout the action of marketers, media, and societal changes. This chapter will provide the definition of extreme sports which will be adopted in the entire book. CHAPTER 2 - I'M ON THE EDGE. PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON EXTREME SPORT PARTICIPANTS. This chapter reviews the major theoretical approaches addressing individuals engaging in extreme behaviors, providing a multidisciplinary literature review and reviewing existing empirical evidence (both qualitative and quantitative) on the topic. Chapter 2 will present the basic psychology-based concepts that will be extensively employed and explored in the remainder of the book proposal. CHAPTER 3 - LIVE (AND SPEND?) TO TELL. AN INVESTIGATION OF DRIVERS OF CONSUMER UPGRADING IN EXTREME SPORTS. Major headings (draft version): Introduction Literature review and hypotheses development Empirical analyses Discussion of results Implications for theory and practice Chapter 3 addresses extreme sports' novel consumer importance providing a representation of the drivers of consumer intention to upgrade (i.e., the relationship with product/service provider(s)). Despite most of existing marketing research insisted on considering repurchase intentions as a major positive signal in the consumer-provider relationship, some authors suggested that, instead, it often is the decision to enhance the relationship (through higher merchandise spending, more equipment expenditures, higher purchase frequency, etc.) that signals a positive outcome of management of the relationship and increases value for the seller (Visentin & Scarpi, 2012). Such enhancement may comprise up-selling, cross-selling and, in general, an upgrade to the relationship with the partner or brand (Visentin & Scarpi, 2012). The model developed and tested in Chapter 3 hence addresses consumer intention to upgrade in extreme sports, combining two separate streams of literature. A model branch addresses traditional sports marketing drivers of upgrading, well assessed in industrial and relationship marketing, such as loyalty, trust, satisfaction, and image related to extreme sports events. Further, the model proposes that such constructs might work differently in extreme sports rather than in traditional ones, as extreme activities emphasize a sense of challenge, thrill, risk, and self-improvement and have been shown by psychological literature to induce different behavioral patterns. Thus, basing on two leading psychological theories examining behavior of individuals facing extreme challenges (i.e., edgework theory and cognitive adaptation theory), an additional, self-enhancement-based model branch addresses further drivers of the intention to upgrade, accounting for the unique psychology of extreme sport active participants. Data were collected by means of a paper and pencil questionnaire administered to 580 athletes participating in two leading championships for extreme sports: the BMX European Cup in Italy and Ironman in Austria. Data collection was carried out on the days in which events took place. Model estimation was carried out using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings provide some key outcomes: There is full support for previous research findings in showing that satisfaction, trust and event image are relevant drivers of loyalty
• The present study further combines risk-taking attitude, perceived control and image congruence with self-enhancement to demonstrate that they influence the consumer's intention to upgrade. From this viewpoint, findings show that it matters how the event image is interiorized by consumers and experienced in relationship with personal capabilities and self-image
• Multigroup comparisons show that some consumers' characteristics impact on drivers of the intention to upgrade, namely consumers' age and distance travelled to reach the event venue. On the one hand, younger consumers are driven more than older consumers by self- enhancement
• further, loyalty in older consumers is driven mostly by satisfaction, whereas for younger consumers trust is more important than satisfaction in driving loyalty. On the other hand, risk-taking is important in shaping the intention to upgrade for those coming from afar, whereas control has a greater impact on the intention to upgrade for those coming from nearby. Loyalty is more important in shaping the intention to upgrade for those coming from afar
• conversely, self-enhancement is more important in shaping the intention to upgrade for those coming from nearby. In summary, findings suggest that, in extreme sports settings, traditional marketing drivers are conditioned by other drivers, accounting for the role of personal enhancement, which require looking at consumers on a more personal, psychological level. In other words, drivers of consumer upgrading in extreme sports both include marketing-related variables and features related to the unique psychology of extreme consumer-athletes (perceived control, risk-taking attitude, image congruence, self-enhancement). From a practitioner viewpoint, it is worth to note that these drivers are not mutually exclusive, rather, they should be jointly addressed to maximize the positive outcomes of the relationship between the consumer and the service provider. Psychological drivers included in this study can be explicitly affected by organizers' actions (e.g., emphasizing consumers' perceived control over the event by providing detailed information about the event and about participants
• adopting a more customer-based perspective in delivering the image of the event). Further insights for practice can be provided by the multigroup comparisons, suggesting variables to differentiate between different consumer target and how to differentiate strategies between them. CHAPTER 4 - THRILL ME! ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS IN EXTREME VS TRADITIONAL SPORTS. Major headings (draft version): Introduction Literature review and hypotheses development Quantitative analysis Qualitative analysis Results and discussion Implications for theory and practice Following the recent, massive popularity of extreme sports, and in a continuous search to find attractive contexts, marketers today are increasingly using such disciplines as an advertising setting
• extreme sports are used also by a number of brands that often sell products unrelated to sports (e.g., watches, cameras, perfumes). This real-world evidence suggests the opportunity to managerially investigating extreme sports not just as a consumer phenomenon, but also as a context of advertising. When advertising in extreme sports, literature on such sports disciplines and on psychology of extreme participants suggests these contexts to be denoted by unique specificities, especially if compared to traditional sports. Hence, when investigating extreme sport advertising, differences with traditional sport contexts for advertising should be highlighted. Such differences are likely to rely mostly to the mindset of the individuals into extreme sports, which, indeed, behave and think differently from the average consumer (Buckley, 2012), as, for instance, they perceive painful challenges and threatening difficulties as positive rather than negative, have a high tendency to seek sensations, and enjoy watching and/or doing activities that push their physical and psychological limits as they attribute a cathartic value to difficulties and risky challenges (Laurendeau, 2011). Chapter 4 takes on the theoretical perspective of cognitive adaptation and edgework theory and adopts an explanatory mixed method approach to understand the relationship between ad and sports type (extreme vs. traditional). The main assumption is that, due to their specificities, extreme sports as contexts for advertising work differently than traditional sports
• thus, ads must differ and employ different psychological mechanisms. On the one hand, extreme activities are sought precisely because they require pushing one's physical and mental limits to the edge and are pursued to discover and push forward those limits (i.e., the "edge"
• Brymer & Houge Mackenzie, 2016
• Milovanovic, 2005). Pursuing increasingly risky challenges feeds individuals' idea of belonging to an elite group of "superior" men/women (Lyng, 2014). In other words, risk-taking is a positive value in extreme sports, leading individuals to undertake extreme difficulties and challenges (Brymer & Schweitzer, 2013). On the other hand, according to cognitive adaptation theory (Taylor, 1983), difficulties and challenges are present in traditional activities but are unsought and actively minimized to restore a safe condition (Taylor, 2011). Coherently, actions that threaten self-preservation are often against the rules in traditional sports, where sensationalism does not usually stem from putting oneself in dangerous situations, but from gameplay, extraordinary actions, choreography, etc. Following this theoretical base, we identify two core elements to interpret the link between sport type and ad appeal focus: difficulty and challenge. A between-subject experimental design was developed, relying on data from over 700 potential and actual consumers from data panels. Respondents were asked to assess: ad persuasiveness, product attractiveness, brand attitude and purchase intention with respect to mock-up ads set in extreme sports and in traditional sports contexts, respectively. Numerical data are further strengthened by means of a qualitative analysis (based on 16 content-analysed interviews). Results show that difficulty- and challenge-based appeals work well for ads set in the context of extreme sports but not when applied to brands advertising in traditional sports. The results hold regardless of the viewer's sports participation (active vs. passive) or favorite sport, which aligns with recent findings in traditional sports (Masanovic, Zoric, & Gardasevic, 2017
• Bajramovic, Zoric, & Masanovic, 2018). The quantitative findings are further validated by qualitative interviews emphasizing that the psychological meaning and valence of difficulties, risks and challenges are different in extreme sports and in traditional sports, as the authors predicted after examining literature from psychology and sport psychology. Results suggest that managers should be aware of the psychological meaning that difficulties and challenges acquire in extreme sports. Further, advertisers should be aware that extreme sports lovers do not deny effort, training, dedication and challenge in traditional sports, yet they do not want "common people" to meddle in their disciplines. Additionally, managers might find it useful to know that traditional sport lovers do not want to focus on limits-pushing ordeals, though also traditional sports require a considerable amount of discipline, endurance and hard training. Advertising practitioners may take advantage of the theoretical lenses provided in the present research to assess their current campaigns and to devise future ones. CHAPTER 5 - THE HEAT IS (ALWAYS) ON? EXTREME PERSONALITIES AND EXTREME SPORTING EVENT REVISIT INTENTIONS. Major headings (draft version): Introduction Literature review and hypotheses development Empirical analyses Discussion of results Implications for theory and practice Events are nowadays the bulk of the extreme sports industry. Weirdly, despite the clear managerial relevance of extreme sports events (in terms of, for instance, massive participation and tourism-related implications), previous research has not addressed revisit intention for sporting events outside of traditional sports (Richelieu and Pons 2006). Chapter 5 addresses this gap by investigating the determinants of revisit intention for extreme sporting events. In doing so, we use concepts and constructs from the psychological literature addressing extreme behaviors, as well as from sport tourism literature
• this allows to consider some key specificities of extreme athletes noted by literature in psychology. Apart from emphasizing extreme individuals' intrinsic need to continuously push further their physical and mental limits, psychological literature additionally suggested that extreme individuals actively seek sensations which originate from risks (Milovanovic, 2005). Sensation- seeking theory is based on the sensation-seeking personality trait (Schroth, 1995), which refers to the individual need to continuously look for an optimal level of stimulation by means of "the seeking of varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experiences" (Zuckerman 1994, p. 27). Recent research argued that individuals denoted by sensation seeking motives have been exhibiting a frequent engagement in extreme sports (Heirene et al, 2016). Hence, from sensation seeking theory, we derive the construct of sensation seeking tendency, and fit (congruence) between the image of the event and the image of the self, while from sport tourism literature we derive the concept of satisfaction. Notably, previous studies have suggested that such intrinsic psychological characteristics of extreme sports may have important marketing implications, but also that marketing related variables might work differently in this context (Self, Henry, Findley, & Reilly, 2007). Accordingly, we investigate how event revisit intentions for extreme active sport tourists could be shaped by not only a set of marketing-related variables usually addressed in the behavioral intentions literature and in traditional sport tourism research, but also by context-specific variables related to the unique psychology of extreme individuals. The proposed model was tested on data collected through a questionnaire administered to athletes participating in competitions for skydiving, snowboarding, BMX, and triathlon. A total sample of 300 respondents was collected
• the model was tested with the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Empirical results can be summarized as follows: Sensation-seeking indirectly influences revisit intentions through satisfaction
• The link between event satisfaction and revisit intention was stronger when individuals exhibited a stronger event image fit (i.e., event image fit moderates the relationship between event satisfaction and revisit intentions). The model gives empirical confirmation of a positive relationship between satisfaction and revisit intentions and shows that it is impacted by the psychological fit between the event and the participants. The analysis considers those psychological drivers which can be addressed by the actions of event marketers. For instance, managers could address consumers' sensation-seeking tendency by providing increasing levels of difficulty and novelty
• this may provide unique competitive benefits, leading to the development of highly-differentiated, innovative events. The moderating effect of image fit may suggest the need to adopt, even in extreme sports event management, a more customer-based perspective in delivering the image of the event, rather than merely pursuing the image desired by event managers. Results of this study suggest that there is a systematic interrelation with event-related features which drive the probability individuals will revisit the event in the future. From a managerial viewpoint, event organizers should hence consider a meticulous definition of how the event deploys and transmits itself and its image to participants. CONCLUDING REMARKS This final section provides a summary of the major results emerged throughout the previous chapters, linking them to the general research question defined in the Introduction. Further, this section discusses the major limitations of the book, concerning, for instance: The focus of the book, specifically, addressing, for instance, the kind of consumers which it considers (i.e., representing the average extreme sports population)
• The theoretical approach on which the book is based
• The methodological limitations of the book (e.g., the lack of qualitative enquiries)
• Finally, directions for future research are proposed as well.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BC05485153
• ISBN:
  • 9783030401269
• Country Code: sz
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Cham
• Pages/Volumes: ix, 126 p.
• Size: 22 cm
• Classification:
  • DC23 : 796.0460688
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Consumer behavior
  • LCSH : Extreme sports -- Marketing
  • LCSH : Extreme sports -- Psychological aspects
  • LCSH : Athletes -- Psychology
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BB1163475X