The Effect of Marketing Capabilities on Creating Competitive Advantage for Sport Clubs in the Days of the COVID_ 19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of marketing capabilities on creating competitive advantage for sport clubs in the days of the COVID_ 19 pandemic. The research method was correlation with the SEM approach. The statistical population was the customers of bodybuilding sport clubs in Tehran, of which 411 people were selected by cluster-random sampling. In order to collect data, Atuahene‐Gima (1993) and Porter's Competitive Advantage Questionnaire (2002) were used. In data analysis, descriptive statistics (frequency tables and graphs) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation and path analysis) were used. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between marketing capabilities and competitive advantage of clubs in the days of the COVID_ 19 pandemic. Also it was found that the marketing capabilities of 76% of the total variance explain the changes in the competitive advantage of sport clubs. The results of this study emphasize the strengthen of indicators such as promotion activities, customer service, distinctive service, marketing research, customer relationship in sport marketing policies in order to achieve competitive advantage in the days of the COVID_ 19 pandemic, especially sustainable and homogeneous competitive advantage.