Remapping the Sport Brandscape: A Structured Review and Future Direction for Sport Brand Research

Abstract

Despite consistent interest in sport brands and the multitude of brands in the sport ecosystem, extant knowledge remains fragmented and unstructured. The purpose of this study is to integrate and synthesize extant sport brand research, appraise the current state of knowledge, and suggest future research directions. Following structured literature review guidelines, we coded 179 peer-reviewed articles published in four leading sport management journals between 2000 and 2020. Results reveal increased publications in sport brand research within the four examined journals, as well as opportunities to increase theoretical and methodological rigor. Based on the mapping and critical review of extant literature, we introduce the Sport Brand Ecosystem and Environment and discuss two distinct and complementary areas related to theory and research designs and topical domains to address existent concerns and guide future research directions.

Guest editorial: The sport x service experience: an opportunity for sport service management research

“…Brand architecture is the structure that governs the relationships between sport brands and entities in the ecosystem. The architecture of brands in the sport ecosystem is complex, as multiple brands are connected to each – structurally and visually – and these brands can have different goals and objectives (Baker et al , 2022). For example, a league represents the master brand of teams and their athletes, and while a team may be focused on winning a championship, an athlete may be focused on breaking a personal record, and a sponsor may be focused on increasing brand awareness.…”

Transcendence beyond sport: examining the dynamic power of sport human brand on national pride

“…sport human brand) generates trans-level spillover effects on the macro-level well-being outcome of national pride, thereby exploring how sport intersects with individuals' attitudes towards brands and its effect on collective well-being. Second, the study examines how the sporting success of sport human brand changes the individuals' evaluations of psychological involvement and national pride based on their preexisting levels, thereby responding to calls for conducting longitudinal research to examine dynamic relationships in sport brand ecosystem (Baker et al, 2022). Third, the present study sheds light on how cultural and geographical heterogeneity, through a perspective from the non-Western and emerging IPL context, may enrich and bolster the understanding of previously established theories in sport brand research.…”

“…Sport brand research Baker et al (2022) conducted a systematic review of the sport brand research and developed the Sport Brand Ecosystem and Environment to identify trending topical domains and guide future research endeavors. According to the Sport Brand Ecosystem and Environment, the extant research stream can be categorized into three levels of analysis, including the macro-level, meso-level and micro-level perspectives.…”

“…Sport marketing scholarship has generated meaningful insights through empirical analysis of individual-level brands with the corpus of research predominantly centered on explicating personal branding strategies and their impact on marketing outcomes (like brand loyalty; Baker et al, 2022). The key premise of personal branding for individual-level entities is the identification of unique characteristics that make them stand out in a crowded marketplace and develop marketing strategies to gain a competitive advantage for the brand in the minds of consumers (Osorio et al, 2020).…”

Introduction: State of Literature Special Issue

“…Sveinson et al (2022) take an innovative look at women in the sport industry with a mesolevel analysis and the invisible labors of women and draw upon Bohnet's (2015) DESIGN frame to propose future areas of research. Baker et al (2022) synthesize the sport brand literature, suggest specific methodological and theoretical advances, and create a new framework, the Sport Brand Ecosystem and Environment, to organize future brand research. Delia et al (2022) utilize institutional theory to assess the sport consumer behavior literature and discover a woeful lack of diversity in participants and settings, suggesting how future researchers can disrupt these norms.…”