Testing the role of sport event personality on the development of event involvement and loyalty : The case of mountain running races

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test: the applicability of Aaker’s (1997) brand personality model in the context of mountain running races; and the influence of event personality on event involvement and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 177 runners ( n =177) at two mountain running races participated in the study and filled the brand personality (Aaker, 1997) and leisure involvement (Kyle et al. , 2004a, b) questionnaires. Findings – The confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the factorial validity of the brand personality and event involvement models. The analysis confirmed also the structural model. Four of the five personality facets (excitement, competence, ruggedness and sincerity) significantly influenced the three dimensions of event involvement, which in their turn influenced event loyalty (intention to participate and W-O-M communications). Practical implications – The topic of brand personality is important for building brand equity and guiding market positioning in the growing running races sector. The current study provides event organizers with a tool for measuring the personality of their events. Furthermore, it explains how event personality influences the development of event involvement, which is an important variable for the development of event loyalty. Originality/value – It contributes to the academic literature in two ways: first, the construct of brand personality has not been previously applied in the context of outdoor sport events and especially mountain running races; and second, while it has been theoretically proposed (Aaker, 1997; Keller, 2008) and empirically supported (Eisend and Stokburger-Sauer, 2013) in the general marketing literature that brand personality is associated with positive behavioral and attitudinal (e.g. brand loyalty and brand involvement) outcomes, there has been no published research to test the relationships among brand personality, involvement and loyalty in the context of outdoor sport events.