A service ecosystem experience-based framework for sport marketing

Traditional theories in sport marketing limit the context of the sport experience to firm–customer encounters or the consumer’s individual sphere of practices and processes. Our paper responds to recent calls for developing conceptual frameworks that better explain sport market exchanges. Specifically, we aim to contribute to sport marketing by attempting to provide a deeper understanding of sport experiences and the context that frames exchanges in sports. To accomplish this objective, we propose an integrative framework that combines the service-dominant logic ecosystem perspective with consumer culture theory. We broaden the context of the sport experience by applying a service-ecosystems perspective and identify five factors that influence sport experiences from this extended context – historical meaning, tribal logics, rituals and socialization processes, value-in-subcultural-context, and the co-construction/co-destruction of context. The proposed integrative framework directs researchers and managers toward an extended, rich context that is reproduced through the co-creation of value and influences evaluations of sport experiences.