Marathon Runners: A Fertile Market for “Green” Donations?

Abstract

Marathon events are hosted annually by various communities around the United States. Within this context, marathon runners train and compete in various natural environments. Nature-based places can be primary training areas and often consist a large part of marathon events. Marathon runners, therefore, may care more about the quality of the nature they train in, as the environmental quality can connect to health benefits. The purpose of this study was to test how various types of marathon runner’s motivations influence their environmental concern and donation intentions toward green initiatives. Data was collected from marathon runners of a marathon event using a web-survey. In total, 103 marathon runners responded fully to the questionnaire. Findings indicated motivations related to self-esteem, health benefits, and environmental concern influences significantly and positive marathon runners’ donation intentions for green initiatives. Limitations are highlighted, as future research can explore further the conceptual model of this inquiry.

马拉松运动员——“绿色”捐赠的大好商机

每年美国的周边多个社区都会举办马拉松活动。在此背景下, 马拉松运动员在各种自然环境中进行训练和比赛。天然的场所既是主要的训练区域, 也是马拉松主要的比赛场地。因此, 马拉松运动员可能更关心他们训练所在的天然场所的质量, 因为环境质量对健康有益。这项研究的目的是测试各种类型的马拉松运动员的动机如何影响他们对绿色倡议的环境关注和捐赠意向。数据来源于参加马拉松赛事的马拉松运动员, 对他们进行网络调查。共有103名马拉松运动员对调查问卷做出了充分的回应。调查结果表明, 马拉松运动员的动机与自尊, 健康福利和环境关注有关, 环境关注对捐赠意愿产生重大的积极影响。由于未来的研究可以进一步探索这种探究的概念模型, 因此突出了其局限性。

Keywords:

• Marathon runners
• green donations
• health benefits
• self-esteem
• environmental concern

关键词:

• 马拉松运动员
• ；绿色捐赠
• ；有益健康
• ；自尊
• ；环境关注

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stavros Triantafyllidis

Stavros Triantafyllidis (Ph.D., University of Florida, U.S.) is a visiting Professor at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. He graduated from University of Florida and he is a research associate of the Innovative Research Initiatives in Sport Events laboratory at the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at University of Florida. Dr. Triantafyllidis research interests include sustainability, sport consumer behavior and environmental impacts of sport events.

Kyriaki Kaplanidou

Kyriaki Kaplanidou (Ph.D., Michigan State University, U.S.) is an associate professor and director of the Innovative Research Initiatives in Sport Events laboratory at the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at University of Florida. Dr. Kaplanidou research interests include sport consumer perceptions, event and destinations image, and sport event tourism.