Travelling to compete: antecedents of individuals’ involvement in small-scale sports events

ABSTRACT

This study is to develop a conceptual model linking motivation, involvement, and changes in travel style to the selection of destinations and choice of events among amateur participants involved in small-scale sports events. Partial least squares and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis were implemented to test this model, based on the responses collected during a local athletic event in Greece. A longitudinal study was conducted to better establish the effectiveness of the proposed model utilising two data sets of the same 99 non-professional athletes, representing the vast majority of participants in the Sfendami small-scale running events held in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The results showed that the influences of destination and event choice factors on involvement were not significant while the effect from changes in travel style were significant for both 2014 and 2016 cases. Two of the four hypotheses were verified and useful managerial insights for small-scale event managers are suggested for supporting the viability of small-scale local sport events.

KEYWORDS:

• Amateur athletes
• travel style
• involvement
• motivation
• PLS
• fs/QCA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anestis Fotiadis

Anestis Fotiadis, PhD, is a Professor at Zayed University, College of Business, Department of Management, Abu Dhabi, UAE. His research focuses on event management, rural tourism and sustainable development. He has published more than 40 research papers in international academic journals such as Tourism Management and Journal of Business Research along with several books and book chapters.

Nikolaos Stylos

Nikolaos Stylos is Postgraduate Research Director, and ‘Smart Networks 4 Sustainable Futures’ interdisciplinary research group Founder/Lead at Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Management, University of Bristol, UK. His research projects focus on decision-making in tourism marketing, digital marketing, and environmental management. He has published in various journals including Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Tourism Recreation Research, Computers in Human Behavior, Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Chris A. Vassiliadis

Chris A. Vassiliadis is a Professor and member of the academic teaching and research staff of the Department of Business Administration of the University Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece. His research interests focus in the marketing of services and the management of tourist destinations. His research has been published in various journals, such as, Journal of Targeting; Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, Tourismos: an International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Journal of Tourism Management, Journal of Vacational Marketing, Journal of International Tourism Research, Journal of Hospitality & Leisure Marketing and the Journal of Tourism Analysis.