Purpose: The objective of this study is to examine the mediating role of improved performance in sports startups in the impact of AI-driven marketing on sports product marketing strategies.Method: This applied research employed a descriptive-survey design. The study population consisted of physical education professors, sports science students from Mohaghegh Ardabili University, along with sports product sellers and consumers in Ardabil province. Using Cohen’s formula with a test power of 0.80 and an effect size of 0.25, a sample size of 355 participants was determined. Following the removal incomplete responses, 342 questioners were included in the final analyzed. Data collection utilized standardized questionnaires, for which content, divergent validity, and convergent validity were assessed and established. Reliability, measured by Cronbach’s alpha, yielding coefficients of 0.82 for AI marketing, 0.86 for sports product marketing strategies, and 0.78 for sports startups performance. The hypothesis were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with SPSS19 and AMOS23 software.Findings: The findings indicated that AI-driven marketing exerts a 0.42 effect on sports product marketing strategies and 0.14 effect on the performance improvement of sports startups. Furthermore sports product marketing strategies demonstrated 0.60 effect on enhancing the performance of improvement sports startups.Conclusion: Therefore, leveraging AI in marketing constitutes a key factor for the success and sustainable growth of sports startups.
Olya et al. (Thu,) studied this question.