The influence of paralympic endorsement on consumers’ purchase intention

Abstract

Celebrity endorsement is a multi-million dollar industry, with corporations spending large sums of money to hire sports celebrities to endorse their products and services. The existing literature shows that celebrity endorsers positively affect consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. Although much research effort has focused on various types of celebrities, little attention has been devoted to understanding the influence of Paralympian endorsement (PE) on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. This research therefore aimed to investigate the characteristics of Paralympian endorsers that influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions, and to develop a theoretical framework relating the determinants of Paralympian endorsers to consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions in the UK. A theoretical framework was developed based on the integration of the theories of source attractiveness, source credibility and components of the theory of reasoned action. The proposed Paralympian Endorsement Framework (PEF) was examined in two phases, using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design. During the first phase, an exploratory study was performed using 30 semi-structured interviews. The second phase used a quantitative survey involving 316 questionnaires. Consumers exhibited high levels of acceptance and positive attitudes towards Paralympians endorsing products and services. Attractiveness, expertise, familiarity, trustworthiness and respect were found to positively influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. Consumers also perceived corporations employing Paralympian endorsers as socially responsible, which further encouraged them to support and purchase from these companies. This is the first study using mixed methods to investigate consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and purchase intentions towards Paralympic endorsement. It is also one of the first to introduce the theory of reasoned action into the celebrity endorsement literature. The PEF provides a valuable foundation for future work, since it is the first such model of Paralympian endorsement. It is shown to be both robust and appropriate, implying that the theories on which it is based are indispensable for future research in this area. This research has several limitations, since the framework was tested solely on consumers in the UK who had expressed an interest in sport. To verify the generalisability of the results and to control for cultural differences, future work is needed which tests the model on sports retailers and consumers from other developed countries. The framework presented here is likely to be of importance to both academics and marketing professionals, in terms of both theoretical development and corporate practice.