نشریه مطالعات بازاریابی ورزشی
سال چهارم شماره 4 (پیاپی 16، زمستان 1402)

In today's highly competitive sports environment, where businesses compete without regard to geographical boundaries, achieving and maintaining a leading position in the industry has become a challenge. Value creation in sports organizations based on knowledge entrepreneurship has become increasingly important due to the necessity of coping with various changes, especially in the technology domain that has emerged in the sports and technology environment. Organizations and businesses in sports, particularly with increasing competition in the sports market, play a crucial role in their success through productivity and efficiency. Therefore, this research examines the impact of technology intelligence on the sustainable performance of sports businesses, as well as the mediating roles of organizational agility and customer agility in realizing the full potential of technology intelligence as influential background factors. This research employed a quantitative research method based on a descriptive-survey approach for the research model examination. The statistical population of this study consisted of all managers and individuals engaged in sports businesses. To determine the minimum sample size in PLS-SEM, the rule of thumb of 10 times was applied. Accordingly, due to the improvement of research reliability, a sample size of 250 individuals participated in the study through online convenience sampling. The sports businesses investigated in this research comprised three main sectors. The first section included sports service clinics (such as sports massage, corrective exercises, and rehabilitation), and fitness clubs (sports consultancy, private and general coaching, fitness clubs, virtual sports services, sports performance analysts, and sports camps). Finally, the third section encompassed sports goods manufacturing companies and sports goods stores. A questionnaire with two sections was used to collect research data. The first section included participants' demographic information, while the second section was used to collect data on the four main variables of the research (technology intelligence, sustainable performance of sports businesses, organizational agility, and customer agility). All questionnaires in this study utilized a 5-point Likert scale. The questionnaire was sent to sports management professors for face and content validity confirmation. Thirteen of these professors provided their feedback to the research group, which was incorporated into the questionnaires. Furthermore, the reliability of the research structure was confirmed through Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic characteristics of the population using SPSS version 27 software, and for hypothesis testing, PLS-SEM and Smart PLS version 3.2.8 software were utilized. Additionally, statistical tests including path coefficients, importance of path coefficients, and variance explained by the inner constructs were employed, as well as the Sobel and Goodman mediation tests for hypothesis testing. This study was conducted on sports businesses, focusing on analyzing the effect of technology intelligence on the sustainable performance of sports businesses with the mediating roles of organizational agility and customer agility. The results showed that the effect of technology intelligence on the sustainable performance of sports businesses was not significant (β = 0.073), but technology intelligence had a positive and significant impact on organizational agility and customer agility (β = 0.66; β = 0.604). Furthermore, the effects of organizational agility and customer agility on the sustainable performance of sports businesses were positive and significant (β = 0.318; β = 0.513). Ultimately, the effect of technology intelligence on the sustainable performance of sports businesses with the mediating roles of organizational agility and customer agility was positive and significant (β = 0.210; β = 0.310). The application of information technology enables organizations to maximize their investments and use of technology, leading to increased agility and competitive advantage. Technology intelligence also influences various aspects of agility in sports businesses, such as human resource agility and innovation agility (Jinkins, 2021). Another study by Olan et al (2022) found that "implementing artificial intelligence technologies alone is not sufficient to improve organizational performance", therefore, it can be acknowledged that the mediating role of organizational agility can be instrumental in creating competitive advantage with value creation capability and formulating sustainable strategies for sports businesses. Sports businesses, due to their highly dynamic market and intense competition, strive to enhance their agility. Organizational agility and customer agility are two important factors that can help sports businesses compete effectively (Hu and Kee, 2022). Improving the performance of sports businesses and utilizing innovative technologies, including technology intelligence, can enable them to achieve optimal performance in a dynamic and competitive business environment. The use of technology intelligence allows sports businesses to utilize their data and respond to the needs of their customers through data analysis. This enables sports businesses to improve their products and services, increase customer satisfaction, and find the best solutions for enhancing their performance with organizational agility. In essence, technology intelligence helps sports businesses stay up-to-date and quickly adapt to environmental changes and customer needs. Moreover, with the use of technology intelligence, sports businesses can enhance their productivity and promptly respond to the needs of their customers. Technology intelligence helps sports businesses maintain their growth and development by utilizing innovative technologies and ensuring optimal performance in the competitive environment they operate in (Smith et al, 2004). Sustainable performance of sports businesses can be achieved through the mediating role of organizational agility and customer agility. By focusing on improving business performance, innovation capability, and leveraging new technologies, sports businesses can gain a competitive advantage in a dynamic business environment. In this regard, technology intelligence plays a crucial role in effectively using and deploying innovative technologies, identifying customer needs, and designing new products and services, leading to sustainable performance. This study confirmed that technology intelligence does not directly affect economic, social, and environmental performance, and organizational agility and customer agility play a mediating role.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the Impact between satisfaction and the intention to purchase electronics of sports store customers with the mediation of customer loyalty. The intended statistical population included all customers using electronic sports goods across the country. G-power software was used to estimate the statistical sample. For this purpose, the statistical sample used was 479 people. The tool of the present research was the usage questionnaire. For this purpose, 3 standard questionnaires including Darzi and Bhatt's customer satisfaction questionnaire (2018), Zuhir et al.'s customer loyalty questionnaire (2011) and Chatura and et al.'s (2008) electronic purchase intention questionnaire were used. The method of conducting this research was causal relationship, which is a type of applied research. In this research, descriptive statistics methods including central tendency indices and dispersion indices and inferential statistics methods including Pearson correlation and structural equations were used at the alpha level of 0.05. SPSS26 software was used for data analysis and PLS3 software was used for modeling structural equations. The results indicate that customer satisfaction has a significant causal relationship with customers' purchase intentions. Also, loyalty as a mediator has a more effective role on customers' purchase intention. Finally, the communication model of customer satisfaction, customer purchase intention, and customer loyalty has a good fit. Paying attention to the findings of the research, managers of sports stores that provide services electronically can first look for customer satisfaction in order to become loyal customers so that the purchase intention among customers increases.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of digital entrepreneurship in the development of the marketing mix of professional clubs in the southern and central cities of Iraq. The current research is applied in terms of purpose, quantitative in nature and descriptive-survey in terms of strategy. The statistical population in this research included all the employees of professional sports clubs in the southern and central cities of Iraq, consisting of 170 people, and based on the Cochran formula, the number of 118 people was estimated as the final sample at the level of error (P<0.05). In this research, the random cluster sampling method was used for sampling, and the structural equation model was used to test the research hypotheses. Based on the results, digital entrepreneurship has a significant positive effect on the development of marketing mix (Sig=0.001, t=23.686) with the path coefficient (β=0.816) in professional sports clubs in the southern and central cities of Iraq, and the entrepreneurial effect model Digital marketing mix development of professional sports clubs in the southern and central cities of Iraq is also necessary. Therefore, it is suggested that the marketing managers of sports clubs use digital entrepreneurship solutions such as developing electronic infrastructures, creating service-educational blogs, and introducing sports clubs for the development of mixed marketing for market research, communication with the target community and creating desire in customers.

Today, sports as a social and cultural phenomenon; It has had several effects, for example, in the social dimension and especially in citizenship; It can bring effective participation of citizens in all citizenship activities and promises a healthy and cheerful society. Promoting public sports, according to the type of activity and the conditions of personal and professional life at the community level, can cover part of the effects of physical inactivity and increase national vitality and productivity. The great sense of passion and excitement that sports creates can increase the effectiveness of social marketing activities in the field of public sports culture, so that they can influence many citizens to accept voluntary and desirable behaviors. Give the purpose of this research is the strategies for the development of public sports culture in Khuzestan province. This research was carried out in terms of its purpose, including applied research, with a qualitative method and with a fundamental exploratory nature in two qualitative phases. Research data were analyzed through semi-structured interviews with the participation of experts, collected by thematic analysis method. In order to carry out sampling in two phases of the research, first a list of experts and specialists with executive and operational records or having scientific and research records and theorizing in the field of marketing and public sports was prepared and then an in-depth interview was held with them. After completing each interview, each of the interviewees was asked to introduce other experts to the researcher. . This work continued until the researcher reached the saturation point; where the new data collected were not different from the data collected before and were similar. Before conducting each interview, the researcher provides the interviewees with the necessary knowledge by sending a message or an email while taking time from the interviewee, by sending an email containing the main questions and a brief description of the topic. Interview time from 50 minutes to 150 minutes; It was done in person in the office of the participants. Finally, theoretical saturation was achieved in the first phase with 17 interviews and in the second phase with 15 interviews. To determine the reliability of the data (which is equivalent to reliability in qualitative research and validity in quantitative research), the decoding method (test-retest reliability) was used by another researcher. In the decoding method, three interviews were given to another researcher. Each of them was coded twice in a 15-day interval by the researcher. The stability index was calculated through the amount of agreements and non-agreements in two stages of coding. By immersing the researcher in the data; extracted 48 basic concepts, then through revision and refinement; Concepts in the form of sub-categories and then these themes were classified into 5 main categories based on the nature of what it contains. The findings of this research in the first qualitative phase include the identification of five main factors; Optimizing places, conforming to beliefs, economic and social requirements, beneficial and important institutions, public participation in the development of public sports culture. In the second phase of the research; after repeated analyzes of 104 basic concepts with the title of suggested solutions; Based on the seven dimensions of social marketing mix, it was presented in the form of sub-categories. In the following, based on the solutions and aspects of social marketing, five desirable behaviors (improvement and development of sports infrastructure and easy access, appropriate culture, economic-social foundation, all-round cooperation and synergy of the Ministry of Sports, media, religious, political and Educational centers and strengthening the presence of family, celebrities and well-known figures in sports and art) were identified in the form of main categories. With the development of public sports in the province, while developing and strengthening movement and physical skills, gaining public health and creating social vitality, it is possible to increase the per capita consumption of goods, products and sports equipment and support employment and indirect entrepreneurship from an economic point of view. Did Also, increasing public health and strengthening physical strength will lead to labor productivity, which is also important from an economic point of view. Therefore, in order to increase people's participation in public sports, it is necessary to increase the number of public sports spaces per capita, to cooperate as much as possible with the government institutions in order to develop public sports in the province, to try to increase motor literacy and change people's lifestyles. Designing policy versions appropriate to the challenges and problems of public sports in the province, benefiting from the opinions of researchers and researchers of academic and research centers and financial support from the programs and policies of this field; The level of participation of the people as well as the institutions with interests and roles in the development of public sports has increased in order to raise the status of national sports in the international arena, to generate income, develop tourism, generalize the general vitality and strengthen the spirit of self-confidence and even political development.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented global crisis that has affected various sectors of society and the economy (de Boer et al., 2021; Rotten, 2020). In the meantime, the sports industry has not been spared from the consequences of the epidemic (Ratten, 2020; Keshgar et al., 2021). By nature, holding regular sports events due to health and safety concerns and safety measures has led to a complex set of socio-economic challenges in sports (Kil et al., 2021). Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, analysis of sponsorship data indicated sustained global growth in sports investment. On the one hand, due to the closure of sports activities, harmful effects have occurred, because normal sports events did not take place. Major players in the sports supply chain (eg teams, sponsors, hotels, airlines and transport operators) have suffered irreparable losses. In addition, related industries that are directly or indirectly related to sports have suspended or closed down their activities. The coronavirus has caused the most changes in the sports industry because the essence of sports is tied to mobility, being outdoors, group activities, whether sports or watching competitions. Due to the safety restrictions and mandatory quarantines, this market has faced a drop in audience and income, but still, the possibility of using digital solutions has provided the possibility of survival to some extent. In this regard, the issue of sports business marketing, which has always been a serious issue in scientific research and deals with finding markets and customers in different conditions, has become one of the most important issues for sports business in these new conditions. As an example, Qazlesflo and colleagues (1400) showed in a research that the technology component and the management component had the highest impact on competitive marketing in the Corona era. Escamila et al. (2021) in a research that was conducted with the aim of introducing the adapted model of sports businesses in the era of Corona, showed that accurate needs assessment of the demands of users, customers and personnel of sports clubs should be the basis of the marketing strategy in the era of Corona. Charkhtab (2020) showed in a research that new versions of network marketing strategies have been created in the sports industry during the Corona era. Heydari et al. (2019) showed in a research that the effect of Corona on the sports industry is classified into two general categories: direct and indirect effects, which include positive and negative effects on the sports industry. Also, Sohaili and Manouchehri (1402) also concluded that the effect of conflict factors, satisfaction and people's attitude on their participation in offline sports events in the era of Corona is significant. Therefore, the current research was compiled with the aim of identifying the impact of the Corona crisis on the marketing method in sports organizations of Qom province. The method of conducting this research is qualitative with content analysis approach. Also, the research is exploratory-development based on the classification of research based on the goal. In this research, semi-structured individual interview methods were used to collect information. The statistical population of this research includes all managers and experts of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth, professors knowledgeable in the field of rehabilitation and sports economics, consultants and marketing and economic managers of sports clubs, which are selected on a case-by-case basis and due to the availability of the research community of Qom province. Was investigated. Until the interviews were progressed to the point where theoretical saturation was achieved with respect to the research topic, the participants in the interviews were selected purposefully and non-probably. The interview started with the purposeful selection of people who were experts and knowledgeable about the research topic and continued in the form of a snowball, and finally, during a 2-month process, 14 interviews were obtained.  Based on the results, the core codes, information issues, support issues, competitive issues, management challenges, price challenges, sports challenges, capital challenges, consumer behavior, sales drivers, sales marketing and product selection as factors affecting the role of the Corona crisis. The traditional marketing method in sports organizations and infrastructure challenges, governance challenges, educational challenges, support challenges, sales incentives, sales strategies and product selection were categorized as factors of the role of the Corona crisis on the electronic marketing method in sports organizations. According to the findings of this research, it is suggested to provide training courses for managers of sports organizations in order to prepare to face similar crises. Also, considering that the Corona crisis has made the role of electronic businesses more visible, increasing the trend of benefiting from new technologies and supporting startups in this field and increasing knowledge in connection with electronic marketing methods can help the development of sports and businesses in this field. The field helps even in times of crisis. Also, providing and strengthening the necessary infrastructure by the government for the use of electronic marketing by sports organizations and customers is essential. Finally, considering that this research was conducted at the level of Qom province and through interviews, it is suggested that the research be designed and implemented on a wider level and also from the customers' point of view.

In a world that is constantly changing and evolving, most organizations and companies are looking for ways to increase their competitive advantage, and one of these ways is moving towards improvement in providing services to customers; Therefore, organizations usually try to provide more facilities to customers and solve their needs faster. But smart and forward-thinking organizations reconsider the way they behave and communicate with their employees before taking any action, and in the first step, they keep them satisfied. Employees are the most important asset and capital of an organization, and the lack of suitable and good employees to provide services will cause many problems for organizations in today's competitive environment. This can be seen more clearly in service organizations. Attention to internal marketing was raised for the first time in 1980. The meaning of internal marketing is to look at employees as customers and jobs as internal products, which leads to satisfying the needs and desires of internal customers in the way of achieving organizational goals. In this regard; the motivational factors of employees are among the factors that play a great role in creating and developing the innovation of people in the organization. Nowadays, customer retention is important in sports service organizations, and if customer orientation is not the priority of these organizations, sports customers will not be retained, and if customers are not retained, the sports needs of the society will not be met and will be threatened. It can be Customers are the most important part of service organizations and in sports organizations such as sports complexes, customer retention depends on customer orientation in these organizations. If the management along with the employees of the sports organizations are not customer-oriented, the interaction between the customers and the organization will be limited. In this regard Tahamtan et al., 2023; In their research findings, they stated that green products positively affect the green image, green satisfaction, green trust and green loyalty of customers. Although the existing researches have examined the relationship between internal marketing and customer orientation, what is clear is that considering the importance of customer orientation for the survival of organizations and the tremendous effect of internal marketing and employee motivation. Therefore, it is felt necessary to carry out extensive research, especially in the field of sports, and therefore, in this research, an attempt has been made to find out the relationship between internal marketing and customer orientation with the mediating role of the work motivation of the employees of the general sports and youth departments of the western provinces. The country should be explained in order to reach a more complete and comprehensive understanding of the effect of internal marketing on the customer orientation of employees; Because the use of structural equation models in explaining the relationships between variables is more accurate than other methods and is closer to real conditions in terms of application; On the other hand, most of the researches about customer orientation and the factors affecting it have been carried out in non-sports service sectors, and it is necessary to study the status of customer orientation, work motivation, and factors related to it in the country's sports organizations. And especially sports and youth departments should also be studied. Therefore, the main issue of this research is whether there is a positive and significant relationship between internal marketing and customer orientation through the mediating variable of work motivation in the employees of sports and youth departments in the western provinces of the country? This goal-based research is applied and by nature, it is descriptive-analytical and this research is a survey. Study population was all employments and staff of General Sport and Young offices of west provinces of Iran (Hamadan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah) whose number was estimated to be 378 and Due to limited sample population was defined as census that finally 321 questionnaires are received. The data collection tool in this research was 3 standard questionnaires (Kahrabi Internal Marketing Questionnaire (2013), Hajat Customer Oriented Questionnaire (2002) and Bakshi et al.'s Career Motivation Questionnaire (2013) whose reliability was 0.80 using Cronbach's alpha test. and 0.74 and 0.76 were confirmed. Also, the validity of the research tool was confirmed by 10 expert professors. In order to determine the presence or absence of causal relationships between variables and to estimate and generalize the results obtained from structural equation modeling using PLS software was used. The research findings showed that internal marketing has a positive and significant effect on work motivation. Also, the results showed that internal marketing directly affects customer orientation. The findings showed that marketing Internal marketing has a greater effect on customer orientation through the mediating variable of work motivation and indirectly. Therefore, according to the results of this research, it is suggested that the managers of sports and youth departments should engage in internal marketing for customer orientation and providing better services. And the working motivation of your employees, pay special attention to the conditions to provide job satisfaction for the organization's employees. Based on the results of the present research, it seems that the managers of the general departments of sports and youth in the western provinces of the country avoid using methods based on force, coercion, and reprimand in the work environment. If employees work because of fear and to avoid punishment or reprimand, over time, they will suffer from specific psychological disorders in the work environment. It is also suggested to the senior managers of the general departments to involve the employees in the marketing affairs and budget and financial discussions in important decisions and ask them for their opinions on various matters related to their work, on different occasions. Praise be to them.

Sport is currently one of the most attractive markets in the field of investment. Iran's sports sector in general and Alborz province in particular are supported by government resources, and these government resources are dependent on various crises in the country such as currency market fluctuations and other unpredictable crises such as the corona virus.Therefore it is more important to pay attention to the issue of investing in sports in Alborz province for the development of the health sector, championship sports and professional sports of this province.With this description, this research was conducted with the aim of identifying the investment opportunities of the private sector in sports in Alborz province.The reason for choosing the topic of investing in sports is that, as Andreff & Andreff (2009) pointed out, investing in sports has been neglected. Also, only two foreign researches (Farouk, 2016) and two domestic researches (Jaffrey & Hemtinejad, 2021) were found in identifying private sector investment opportunities in sports. But none of them have focused on identifying investment opportunities in Iran's sports in general and Alborz province in particular. The present research method was qualitative in terms of practical results, exploratory purpose and in terms of the type of data.In this research, the statistical population of the current research is the previous and current heads of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth in Alborz province during the last five years, the previous and current deputy heads of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth in Alborz province during the last five years, the previous and current heads of sports departments andthe youth of the cities of Alborz province during the last five years, sports management professors of Alborz province who are aware of the issue of investing in sports, Knowledge-based sports companies, start-ups and sports equipment manufacturing companies in Alborz province.In order to collect information in this research, first, the investment opportunities of the private sector in sports in Alborz province were collected. Due to the lack of information in this area, semi-structured interviews were used. The interview time varied from 30 minutes to one hour and 45 minutes.In the interview process, the questions were asked in an order in which they have a logical system.Also, in the process of the interviews, considering that the interviewees did not allow the audio recording of the interview, the researcher used the method of note-taking and noted down and recorded the concepts and themes of the interviewees.The data analysis method in this part was based on thematic analysis method.Also, a PhD in sports management was requested to participate in the research as a research associate (coder) and help in reviewing the codings.At the end of this stage, after the necessary corrections, questionnaire items were prepared to use fuzzy Delphi to agree on the number of items. The descriptive findings of the research show that 5.6% of the people in the research sample are women and 94.4% are men. 5.6% of the statistical sample is in the age group of 30 years and under, 22.2% in the age group of 31 to 40 years, 55.5% in the age group of 41 to 50 years, and 16.7% in the age group of 51 years and older. 5.6% of participants' educational qualifications were diploma and sub-diploma, 16.7% bachelor's degree and 77.7% master's degree and above. The findings of the present research identify and rank seven opportunities for sports goods manufacturing companies, sports medicine, sports knowledge-based companies, sports start-ups, sports supplement manufacturing companies, sports venues and sports tourism. It led to investment in sports in Alborz province. These findings are consistency with the results of Farouk (2019), Noble (2019), Khatat Nejad (2016), Farouk (2019), Jæger (2019), Martín-González et al (2021),Campbell (2011), Mayol (2012), Alonso & Fernandez-Garcıa (2020), Deloitte (2017), Ratten & Thompson (2020) and Lakshmi & Narisetti (2020) . Based on the result, the highest average rank is related to the component of sports goods manufacturing companies and the lowest rank is related to the component of sports tourism. Considering the large area of Alborz province and its proximity to the capital and the high demand for the export of sports equipment to the whole country and abroad, it has led to the greatest desire to invest in sports goods manufacturing companies. While the dispersion and insufficient financial efficiency of sports tourism in Alborz province has led to the least willingness to invest in this sector.The findings of the present research identify and rank seven opportunities for companies producing sports goods, sports medicine, knowledge-based sports companies, sports start-ups, companies producing sports supplements, sports venues and sports tourism. It led to investment in sports in Alborz province. These findings are in agreement with the results of Nobel (2019) in the component of sports facilities; with the results of Martin Gonzalez, Surratt and Luke Gill (2021) in the sports tourism component; with the results of Campbell (2011) in the component of sports goods manufacturing companies; with the results of Alonso and Fernandez-Garcia (2020) in the component of sports supplement manufacturing companies; It is consistent with the results of Rotten and Thompson (2020) in the sports start-up component and with the results of Lakshimi and Naristi (2020) in sports medicine. On the other hand, it is inconsistent with some of the results of Farogh (2019) that there are other investment opportunities such as sports events, sports marketing, launching sports channels, sports financial support in the field of sports. In the end, by identifying seven factors and 71 indicators for the investment opportunities of the private sector in the sports of Alborz province, it can be said that there are various opportunities for investing in the sports of Alborz province, and attention can be paid to each of them for revenue from sports investors.