Service participation depth in experiential services: media touchpoints and supportive practices

Purpose This study aims to examine how media touchpoints, involvement and supportive practices are associated with any live attendance and attendance intensity in spectator sport services. Design/methodology/approach Individual-level data from the Sports Life Survey 2024 (Adults) were analyzed using a two-part Bayesian sparse model: a Bernoulli-logit model for any attendance and a zero-truncated negative binomial model for conditional attendance intensity. Prior predictive checks and sensitivity analyses assessed key modeling decisions. Findings Any attendance showed positive posterior associations with online J.League viewing, televised Nippon Professional Baseball viewing, transportation support, televised J.League viewing and sport-club involvement. Online Nippon Professional Baseball viewing remained positive across specifications, but its main-model 95% credible interval narrowly included zero. Conditional attendance intensity was positively associated with online J.League viewing and preparation support. Sample-averaged predictions indicated a 22.9-percentage-point difference in any-attendance probability and a 2.71-attendance difference in the conditional expected count for online J.League viewing; preparation support showed a 2.79-attendance difference in the conditional expected count. Practical implications Managers should distinguish initiatives aimed at generating physical participation from those aimed at increasing intensity among attendees and should test media-linked attendance communications and coordination-support tools separately. Originality/value This study decomposes service participation into occurrence and conditional intensity and jointly examines mediated touchpoints, involvement and supportive practices within a high-dimensional Bayesian framework.