Sports Marketing

Guest Editor: David Shani Professor, Global Management, Kean University NJ, USA

e-mail: dshani@kean.edu

The increasing globalization of sport created a global multi-billion industry.  Sports events are followed, watched and discussed by billions of spectators, loyal fans and or casual observer. This growing interest in sport didn’t go unnoticed by savvy marketers.  Sports Marketing is much more than the marketing of sports.  It was defined as the use of sports to achieve marketing objectives (e.g. sales, image, loyalty…), and as such became an important tool in the marketing arsenal of small domestic to and major MNC’S (Shani & Sandler, 1988).

As the field of sports marketing evolved, a significant body of research was created to understand better the various elements of sports marketing and how to use them effectively.  As of today, most of these efforts were focused on for profit sector.  Very little effort was made to study and adopt what we learnt about sports marketing to the nonprofit and public sector. The exception might be the subject of country image and sport (Floreck et al (2008), Gibson et al (2008), Green et al 2003), Nebenzhal et al (1991), Wonjun et al (2009)). This focus is perhaps, it is because the mega-events requires an investment of public money and need to be justified.  A recent example is fir sure Sochi Winter Olympics that is estimated to cost the Russian people over 50 billion dollars!!! The un-stated objective of these game is to improve Russia’s image.  Most other areas of non-profit and public marketing were not a focus of sports marketing research efforts. This is quiet puzzling as one could see the great possible synergy of sports marketing and non- profit sector.  Both are about inspiration, people and unique stories. 

This special issue is hoping to bridge the gap and serve as a starting point of focusing more research efforts in the use of sports marketing in nonprofit and public sector. The following list of subject is not exhaustive and it is just to provide an indication for potential contributors.  Any other relevant subject in the area of Sports Marketing will be considered.  As a multi-disciplinary Journal we are looking for original contributions. The effort can be empirical, conceptual, literature review or case studies.

• Entrepreneurial approaches for using sports marketing
• Ethics, social responsibility and sustainability
• The role of sport in marketing social change
• Global sports marketing challenges and opportunities
• Sports and the public sector
• Mega sports events and public policy
• Sports and cause related marketing
• Sports marketing and donors’ motivation
• Sports marketing  to Increase loyalty and engagement at o non-profit organization
• Voluntarism and sports
• How does non-profit  sports  marketing differ from for  profit sports marketing
• Understanding the Sport Consumer and fan loyalty
• Sports marketing and sponsorship  and organization image
• Sports marketing and sponsorship and geographical image (country, region, city)
• Use of sports celebrities for social causes
• Recreation, Leisure, and Social Sport Marketing
• Social entrepreneurship and sport
• Diversity and Cultural issues in Sport Marketing
• The impact of new media on Sports Marketing
• The role of media distribution in sports?
• The Relationship between Sport Marketing, Hospitality, and Tourism

Author guidelines are available at: http://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/marketing/journal/12208

The closing date for submissions is July 15, 2014 for publication in Fall 2015.

If you have questions regarding relevance and submission of your work to this special issue, please email the guest editor at dshani@kean.edu