Sport Marketing in Asia: Trends and Issues for the 21st Century
Guest Editors: Bob Heere, University of South Carolina, Yukyoum Kim, Florida State University, & Masayuki Yoshida, Biwako Seikei Sport College
The recent decision of the IOC to return the Summer Olympics to Tokyo, Japan in 2020, 56 years after the first Asian Summer Olympics, was the latest in a series of mega events that are being hosted by countries of the largest continent, including Summer Olympics in the Republic of Korea (1988) and China (2008), and a World Cup tournament co-hosted by the Republic of Korea and Japan. These events signaled the emergence of a modern sports industry in the most populous and diverse continent in the world, stretching all the way from the Bosporus in the West to Papa New Guinea in the East. While the sport industry in Asia has matured over the last few decades, its founding preceded the first Olympics in 1964. From professional baseball in Japan, to boxing in the Philippines and Thailand, and cricket and field hockey in India and Pakistan, sport has been an integral part of the Asian culture, similar, yet distinct to their counterparts in the Western hemisphere (Majumdar & Mangan, 2005). However, as the economies in most Asian nations vastly improved during the latter part of the 20th century, their major sports served as a catalyst for the expansion of the entertainment industry resulting in the emergence of professional leagues such as the Japanese Football League, the Korean Baseball and Football league, the Indian Premier League of Cricket and the Chinese Basketball League.
Aside from the large growth of the sport industry on this continent, the sheer size of the continent and the enormous populations in emerging economies such as China and India have made this continent the holy grail for many firms around the world and many have attempted to use sport as a vehicle to gain a market share in these fast growing economies through the sponsorship of athletes, stadiums, events and sport teams (Geng, Burton & Blakerriore, 2002).
Over the last two decades, the academic discipline of Sport Marketing has experienced a similar growth of Asian interest in our field. Many of the Asian students who come to the United States for their doctoral education choose to focus on the sport marketing track, resulting in Asian sport marketing faculty working in the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan among others. Yet, despite this growth, most of the contributions in our field are still based on North American marketing theories, studied by authors working for North American universities, and relying on North American data. A review of SMQ issues from 2010 to 2013 revealed 15 articles in which authors of Asian descent were involved in, yet of those 15 articles, only three relied on data collected outside of the United States, and most of the authors of Asian descent were faculty members of North American universities. Because of the strong focus on North America, our field has yet to take full advantage of the knowledge and expertise that the Asian Sport Marketing industry can offer to the world. To that purpose, this special issue focuses on trends and issues within Asia in the field of sport marketing. Authors are encouraged to conduct studies not aimed at the American sport marketing industry and focus on any sport marketing issue that they deem important to their nation and might add to the existing sport marketing literature. Therefore, Sport Marketing Quarterly would like to invite researchers to submit both conceptual and empirical articles. When data are collected, authors are encouraged to use populations outside the United States.
While there are no limitations to what subjects in sport marketing the authors could address, examples of trends and issues of sport marketing in Asia are provided below:
- Cultural/nation interpretations of global sport marketing strategies
- Sponsorship strategies
- The role of marketing in the development of new sport organizations (teams, events, etc.)
- Sport participation marketing
- The usage of new communication technologies and its effect on the field
- Country of origin effects versus globalization
- Event marketing
- Professional sport (team) marketing
- Cause related marketing or CSR initiatives
Manuscripts should follow the standard author guidelines for the Sport Marketing Quarterly and should be submitted either directly to the guest editors VIA EMAIL or through the online manuscript management platform Editorial express.
Manuscripts should be submitted no later than November 30, 2014 to receive full consideration for publication in the special issue. Manuscripts must not be submitted to another journal while they are under review by Sport Marketing Quarterly, nor should they have been previously published. Anticipated publication of the accepted manuscripts is September 2015.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact any of the special issue editors:
Guest Editors
Dr. Bob Heere
Associate Professor | PhD Program Director
College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management
University of South Carolina
Carolina Coliseum, Room 2026m
Columbia, SC 29201
803-777 9679
Dr. Yukyoum Kim
Associate Professor
Department of Sport Management, College of Education
Florida State University
Room 1020 Tully Gym, 139 Chieftan Way
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4280
Phone: (352) 870-8271,
Dr. Masayuki Yoshida
Associate Professor of Sport Management
Biwako Seikei Sport College
1204 Kitahira
Otsu, Shiga 520-0503 Japan
+81-77-596-8475
