Impact van milieu- en sociale duurzaamheid op de betalingsbereidheid voor sportproducten en sportdiensten

Sustainability is gaining increasing attention among a growing number of stakeholders within the sports industry, including managers, researchers, event organizers, and consumers. However, most sustainability initiatives in the sports industry have been found to be initial steps, with more elaborate efforts missing. This suggests that there must be barriers that inhibit organizations and manufacturers within the sports and adjoining areas from investing in sustainable development. High financial investments required for sustainable development have been identified as one of these barriers. However, sustainability initiatives can lead to competitive advantages, cost savings, and additional revenue generation. Motivated by raising awareness of these potential benefits of sustainable development in the sports industry, this doctoral dissertation assesses the impact of environmental and social sustainability on the willingness to pay for sports products and sports services. For both categories, one specific research object (sports apparel and media pay cards for mega sports events) has been chosen. This approach should allow for the acquisition and combination of results for products and services. The "SustainaGoodPay Framework" was created to form the overarching theoretical background of this dissertation. The framework is modified throughout the dissertation to match different research contexts. Three data collections, including choice-based conjoint analyses, have been conducted. Those data collections formed the basis for six research papers. The first paper focuses on three main research questions that aim to analyze the preference and willingness to pay for sustainable sports apparel. These questions are looked at through the lens of product bundling. To analyze the data of the choice-based conjoint analysis, average utilities are calculated, and the willingness to pay is estimated. The results show that customers have a strictly higher preference for higher levels of environmental and social sustainability when buying sports apparel. Additionally, the respondents were found to have a steadily increasing willingness to pay for higher sustainability efforts of up to 31.50 EUR for 100% environmental sustainability and 25.02 EUR for 100% social sustainability. The second paper aims to understand which intrapersonal factors affect the impact of environmental and social sustainability on the willingness to pay for sports apparel. To get an idea of factors that can influence sustainable consumption, the SustainaGoodPay Framework, which includes internal, external, and demographic factors, was created and used to categorize the determinants. Multiple linear regressions were performed with individual willingness to pay as a dependent variable. The results showed that less competitive running, higher yearly spending on sports apparel, as well as higher past sustainable purchase preference (measured through the newly developed Sustainable Purchase Preference Index), led to a higher willingness to pay for sustainable sports apparel. The third paper is aimed at assessing the willingness to pay for sustainable sports apparel when using different types of multi-level sustainability labeling. The key theoretical concept is signaling theory, including its four elements: signaler, signal, receiver, and feedback. The paper compares its results with those of the first paper by applying the same method. While the first paper used percentage-based labels, this paper includes self-created graphic labels (i.e., GREEN- and SOCIAL-Score). When communicated through graphic labels, the willingness to pay for the highest level of environmental sustainability is 32.92 EUR and 31.34 EUR, for social sustainability. In comparison to the steady increase in willingness to pay for percentage-based labels, with graphic labels, the pattern is less consistent, with the majority of willingness to pay skimmed off at level D. Meaning that there is a much higher willingness to pay for level D of the GREEN- and SOCIAL-Score than 25% environmental and social sustainability. The fourth paper is a comprehensive analysis of the perceived credibility of novel sustainability labels (GREEN- and SOCIAL-Scores) and their determinants. The first analysis presented in the paper is descriptive, while, for the second part, multiple linear regressions were conducted. The findings show that customers seem to perceive sustainability labels, such as the GREEN- and SOCIAL-Score, as honest, credible, and trustworthy. When looking at the determinants, it seems that younger, lower educated, active runners with a high past sustainable purchase preference, a high environmentally conscious purchase behavior, and high past purchase behavior of the Nutri-Score (basis of GREEN- and SOCIAL-Score design and probably the best-known graphic label in the German food market) seem to have higher perceived credibility. The fifth paper aims to assess the willingness to pay for the media consumption (i.e., media pay cards) of sustainable mega sports events. Similar to the first paper, these questions are examined through the lens of product bundling by using a choice-based conjoint analysis. The data is analyzed by calculating average utilities and estimating the willingness to pay. The findings show that there is a higher preference and willingness to pay for higher levels of sustainability, which is steadily increasing. The additional average willingness to pay for media pay cards for events with 100% environmental sustainability is 21.32 EUR and 20.84 EUR for events with 100% social sustainability. The sixth paper focuses on understanding how sports spectators can be segmented according to their pronounced individual preferences for a media pay card to watch a sustainable mega sports event. This benefit segmentation was implemented through latent class analysis. The results show that the sample can be segmented into four clusters: price-performance, sustainability-oriented, event-oriented, and sustainability-price. The names of the groups are derived from the attribute with the highest relative importance in each cluster. The price-performance and sustainability-oriented groups are the largest with around 30% of the sample. Regarding the willingness to pay, all clusters showed an increased willingness to pay for higher levels of sustainability. The sustainability-oriented group has the highest willingness to pay, with 21.67 EUR for 100% environmental sustainability and 21.56 EUR for 100% social sustainability. The event-oriented group has the lowest willingness to pay for environmental sustainability (7.75 EUR). In conclusion, this PhD dissertation analyzed the impact of environmental and social sustainability on the willingness to pay for sports apparel and media pay cards to watch mega sports events, as well as the relevant determinants and different labeling methods. The findings revealed that higher levels of environmental and social sustainability are consistently preferred over lower levels in the sports industry, regardless of how sustainability is labeled or whether it is bundled with a product or a service. However, relevant differences within the pool of respondents and between percentage-based and graphic labels were observed. These results are displayed in three modifications of the SustainaGoodPay Framework, showing the willingness to pay for sustainable product bundles and the demographic and internal factors influencing this willingness to pay. Building on these insights, it seems economically justifiable (at least to some extent) that manufacturers of sports apparel, mega sports event organizers, and media companies invest in enhancing the sustainability of their products and services due to possible additional revenue generation. Additionally, multi-level sustainability labels, either percentage-based or graphic, can be advantageous for all stakeholders. The graphic labels, in particular, seem to be an accessible and credible tool for consumers of sports products.