ABSTRACT

Research question

We investigate empirically the impact of spectators' trust in fairness of the sporting competition on TV demand for sports as well as its role in the doping-demand relation.

Research methods

We use data from a two-wave panel survey and a sporting event scenario where doping issues are present. The effects are estimated using Zero-Inflated Poisson regressions and radius matching based on the propensity score.

Results and findings

Results of the panel survey analysis suggest that trust in fairness has no impact on TV demand. Our scenario analysis further reveals that awareness about a major doping case negatively affects trust in the fair conduct and integrity of athletes. However, we again find no general effect on the demand for sports.

Implications

Results of our study suggest that athletes can be seen as (dis)trust ambassadors promoting the (un)fairness of the sporting competition to consumers. However, in contrast to popular (political) claims, our results question the trust channel as a driver for spectator sports demand and as a mechanism in the doping-demand relation.

中文翻译：

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对公平、兴奋剂和体育需求的信任：一项关于国际田径赛事的研究

摘要

研究问题

我们实证研究了观众对体育比赛公平性的信任对体育电视需求的影响及其在兴奋剂需求关系中的作用。

研究方法

我们使用来自两波小组调查和存在兴奋剂问题的体育赛事场景的数据。使用基于倾向得分的零膨胀泊松回归和半径匹配来估计效果。

结果和发现

小组调查分析的结果表明，对公平的信任对电视需求没有影响。我们的情景分析进一步表明，对重大兴奋剂案件的认识会对运动员的公平行为和诚信的信任产生负面影响。然而，我们再次发现对体育需求没有普遍影响。

影响

我们的研究结果表明，运动员可以被视为（不）信任大使，向消费者宣传体育比赛的（不）公平性。然而，与流行的（政治）主张相反，我们的结果质疑信任渠道作为观众体育需求的驱动因素和兴奋剂需求关系中的机制。