The Structural model of factors affecting the approvalof famous athletes

Despite numerous research works, about the consequences of approval and endorsement of sports figures, not much study has been done on the background of such endorsement. This study was carried out with the aim of providing a structural model of the factors affecting the effectiveness of endorsement of sports figures. This research work, in terms of its purpose, is applied and in terms of its nature and form of implementation, a descriptive-survey. The statistical population of this research are all the audience of Iranian National Radio and Television organization (IRIB) in northern Iranian Golestan Province (unlimited population), from which a sample of 384 people were selected. In this study, in order to collect information for testing the hypotheses, a questionnaire with four dimensions and 20 questions was used, which was developed based on a five-point Likert Scale. Skewness- kurtosis tests showed that the data follows a normal distribution. The structural equation modeling technique has been used to test the hypotheses. The results of the main hypotheses test, showed that the three factors of appropriateness between the endorser and the product, the gender of the athlete, and the extent of his /her activity in social networks, have a significant and positive effect on the effectiveness of the endorsement of athletes. At the end, based on the findings of the study, some existing shortcomings related to the current actions taken for endorsement of famous athletes within the country, have been elaborated.