Relevance of ethical criteria in sport mega-events: a segmentation of German media consumers

Abstract Based on recurrent rejections of Olympic bids in referenda, the public support for hosting sport mega-events (SMEs) in liberal democracies is seemingly decreasing. Observing the emergence of an ethical and sustainable consumption culture, the objectives of this research are a) to examine the relevance of ethical criteria for media consumers when evaluating SMEs they follow via the media, and b) to classify media consumers based on ethical and “traditional” sports-following criteria. The present study uses a cluster analysis to segment the consumers based on the identified criteria patterns. This is done based on a sample of 890 German adults. We identified four criteria patterns (escape, eustress, integrity and sustainability) and three media consumer segments (average sport followers, entertainment-driven sport followers and value-driven sport followers). The results revealed that the most significant differentiating factor between the segments was event sustainability, while integrity had a high relative importance for all segments. The findings enhance our understanding of the different types of media consumers and their expectations regarding SMEs, and lay the groundwork for research into the impacts of ethical and sustainable consumer culture on future SMEs.