Sports as service: customer engagement in participant sports through the lens of marathons

Purpose Despite the growing recognition of customer engagement in academia and industry, its application in participant sports remains significantly underdeveloped, especially when contrasted against the extensive attention dedicated to spectator sports. To address this gap, this study explores the antecedents, dimensions, and outcomes of customer engagement in participant sports. Design/methodology/approach Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted on online survey responses from 327 physical and virtual marathon participants. Findings Findings reveal that (1) challenge, enjoyment, mastery, socialization, status, weight, health and fitness, as well as mental wellbeing serve as key motivators driving customer engagement in participant sports, and that (2) engagement during participation is cognitive, emotional, and behavioral, with (3) word-of-mouth and re-participation intention emerging as resultant outcomes. Practical implications Organizers of participant sports (e.g. marathon events) should leverage the identified motivational factors in their marketing initiatives and strive to create an environment conducive to heightened cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement in order to nurture loyalty among customers of participant sports. Specifically, organizers who emphasize enjoyment, personal growth, and wellbeing can foster deeper customer loyalty while delivering substantial societal benefits, as these initiatives promote physical activity and community interaction, support public health, strengthen community bonds, and enhance social integration, thereby advancing both organizational success and societal wellbeing. Originality/value Novelty of study lies in conceptualizing customer engagement in participant sports by highlighting the instrumental role of intrinsic and extrinsic (external regulation, identified regulation, and introjected regulation) motivation in fostering engagement (cognitive, emotional, behavioral) and the consequential impact of such engagement on loyalty (word-of-mouth and re-participation), as grounded in self-determination theory and social exchange theory.