The most Social games? Exploring the role of social media in consumers’ engagement with sponsors of Paris 2024 Olympics
(A2025-124401)

AUTHORS

KONSTANTINOS KORONIOS, University of Peloponnese; Lazaros Ntasis, Univeristy of Peloponnese; Efi Tsitskari, Democritus University of Thrace; Athanasios Strigkas, University of Peloponnese; John Douvis, University of Peloponnese - Sport Management Department; Andreas Papadopoulos, University of Peloponnese - Sport Management Department

ABSTRACT

Sponsorship for mega sport events has increasingly played a critical role in achieving financial benefits in return for business in the past few decades. Not until the recent Olympics: 2024 Olympics in Paris, started the sponsorship for mega sport events experiencing more vibration in business due to the intervention of social media in relevance to the sponsored event. Notwithstanding this potentiality, the degree to which social media affect individuals’ engagement with sponsors is unclear. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether sponsorship effects differ significantly for “heavy users” of social media compared to the “non-heavy one”. A total of 7,412 questionnaires from Greek spectators of 2024 Olympics were successfully completed and analyzed by SPSS and AMOS. Structural equation modeling confirmed social media usage as a critical mediating variable, significantly influencing sponsor engagement through the direct effects of sport involvement, event attachment, subjective event knowledge, and brand familiarity.