“Say hello to Halo”: the halo effect in sports

Lithuanian government attempts to create equal opportunities for children who are brought up in different economic, social, and cultural conditions. The income of the majority of Lithuanian citizens still falls behind the European average. This study aims to examine the effect of household income on the choice of non-formal education activity of children and the costs of participation in sports. A questionnaire survey was public used on a website. Vilnius households (Ʃ = 136) were those whose 3-7 years old children were enrolled in non-formal sports activities. The survey aimed to find out the effect of household income on the selection of children’s non-formal sports education. Results showed that the importance level of a sports club, the sport, or activity selection criteria are more expressed in families with lower income. Survey revealed the annual (nine months) ten categories of expenses incurred by parents. The average parental costs for children’s sports activities per nine months amount to EUR 550, consisting of the membership fees and other costs. Parents tend to finance children’s non-formal education through sport irrespective of household income, i.e., parental predispositions towards their children’s participation in sports are much stronger compared to incurred expenses on sports activities.

The low level of the nation’s health and physical activity highlights the need to find additional mechanisms for the development of the sports sphere, one of which is to increase its financing. This paper aims to investigate how an increase in general government expenditure on recreation and sports affects sports entrepreneurship (turnover or gross premium written in the sports industry; value added at factor cost of sports enterprises; sports industry market size) and the share of the population involved in sports (as an indicator characterizing the development of sports). The study used the panel unit root test and fixed and random effects models. Modeling proved that the increase in general government expenditure on recreation and sports by 1% largely determines the increase in value added at factor cost of sports enterprises (by 5.48%). A significantly less effect is for turnover or gross premium written in the sports industry (by 0.85%), and the smallest is for the sports industry market size (by 0.4%). A 1% increase in general government expenditure on recreation and sport has the greatest impact in the Czech Republic (by 2.37%) and Slovakia (by 2.44%) and the least – in Australia (by 0.4%). The share of the population involved in sports is almost independent of general government expenditure on recreation and sports in all 10 OECD countries.

The increasing global competitiveness of university admissions has propelled the need to understand the critical factors underlying students’ loyalty. Although extensive research has been conducted on student loyalty, it focuses predominantly on student-centric activities, targeting only inward-looking measures aimed at students. In the corporate context, employees are considered the “second audience” for external marketing promotions, and the impact of these promotions on employee job satisfaction has been well researched. However, in the university context, little is known about how external policies affect student loyalty. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the influence of both inward- and outward-looking activities on student loyalty in Japanese universities. An online survey was conducted for 1,000 Japanese university students. The results of applying structural equation modeling to the survey data confirm the positive effect of inward-looking measures on student loyalty. Significant effects were found for lectures (β = 0.670, p-value < 0.000) and job hunting (β = 0.250, p-value < 0.000), while campuses also showed a positive effect (β = 0.148, p-value = 0.039). Among outward-looking measures, only celebrity endorsements contributed positively to loyalty (β = 0.136, p-value = 0.026), while sports and digital channel promotions had negative effects, contrary to expectations. This may be attributed to the reliance of sports on wins and losses and digital channel promotions often inducing feelings of envy when students observe others’ successes. Therefore, when university policymakers implement measures to strengthen their external brands, they must consider their impact on enrolled students.