Purpose Guided by the “balance between motives and constraints” framework, this study investigates the market profiles, determinants and staged process of Olympic sport participation to offer theoretical and practical insights for sport participation legacy delivery. Focusing on late adolescents as a key target market of the Olympic movement, this study (1) identifies motive-/constraint-based market profiles for skiing following exposure to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and (2) examines motives and constraints are examined as determinants of ski participation intention within and across profiles. Design/methodology/approach Latent profile analysis was conducted based on motives (internal, external) and constraints (intrapersonal, interpersonal, structural) to identify key market profiles. Multi-group regression tested whether and how motives and constraints influential on ski participation intention varied by profile. Findings Five market profiles emerged that are “amotivated”, “passionate”, “non-committal”, “structurally constrained” and “motivated but constrained”. Applying the balance framework, each profile faced different types of issues (e.g. low internal motives, high structural constraints) and occupied distinct stages in the leisure intention/behavior formation process (i.e. preference formation, and the shift from preference to behavior). Multi-group regression identified cross-profile (e.g. curiosity, program) and profile-specific (e.g. lack of skill) determinants of intention. Practical implications Findings demonstrated the importance of viewing Olympic sport participation decision-making as a staged process and developing profile-based diversified strategies. Originality/value This study adds to the Olympic literature by answering calls for more attention to the demand-/marketing-side of sport participation legacy and to sport marketing and leisure studies by applying the balance framework to the Olympic context. Use of latent profile analysis offers novel insights.
Kim et al. (Mon,) studied this question.