Brian Patrick McCullough

University of Michigan | U-M · School of Kinesiology

Purpose Sport has emerged as a powerful platform for promoting environmental awareness and action. Major collegiate and professional teams have implemented sustainability strategies, although some have hesitated to promote them out of concern for political polarization and fan alienation. This study aimed to examine differences in environmental att...

Brand authenticity is a crucial concept in determining a continuing relationship between a team and its fans. To better understand brand authenticity in the sport industry, this study explored how professional sport teams’ brand authenticity can be enhanced by its antecedents and what is the role of brand authenticity on fan loyalty, ultimately enh...

Despite consumer concern over climate change, research on environmental issues and sport fandom has focused more on organizational outcomes than on fans themselves. Recognizing fandom can be representative of social movements, and social identity and collective action are utilized in an intrinsic case study of Forest Green Rovers football club supp...

Increasing environmental challenges are prompting sport managers to act to minimize negative ecological impacts. Educational opportunities for sport management students are critical for developing awareness and understanding of environmental sustainability across the sport industry. In 2012, Casper and Pfahl examined the personal environmental acti...

There is a continuing interest in the relationship between sport and nature. As a new field, sport ecology explores the impact sport has on the natural environment and how sport organizations and individuals can promote sustainability. However, a critical element is still missing in the sport ecology discourse—the link between organizations’ sustai...

Environmental sustainability is an imperative topic in contemporary business-related research, aiming to understand and predict how individuals' environmentally friendly behaviors can be encouraged. This research aims to empirically examine the relationship between individuals' pro-environmental attitude and pro-environmental behavior; and to compa...

The use of fossil fuels has pushed the world towards crucial ecological tipping points and a climate crisis. The rapid decarbonization of all sectors is necessary to limit the worst impacts of this. Within the sports and sport-tourism sectors, event organizers and policymakers are increasingly interested in assessing the environmental impacts of ev...

Sport and the natural environment have an intimate relationship threatened by global warming and climate change. Individual sport organizations and events to the collective global sport sector must address climate change on two primary fronts – (1) reducing their impact on the natural environment resulting in climate change to sustain the environme...

Athletes have leveraged their social platform and reach to advocate for a variety of social causes. Most recently, given the persistent impacts of climate change on sport, the sport sector has been leveraged to engage and educate fans, sport participants, and athletes to promote climate action while consuming sport and in their everyday lives. This...

Research Question Climate change continues to be a critical issue that impacts the ways we produce and consume sport. The extent to which sport responds to climate change (e.g. minimizing carbon emissions, adapting to climate impacts) will become more dire. Thus, it is crucial for sport to respond now to address current and emerging sustainability...

Research question The purpose of this study was to analyze qualitative data to understand a sport organization’s external stakeholders’ (i.e. sport fans’, non-sport fans’/community members’) environmental attitudes, ascription of responsibility, and preferences for environmental initiatives that should be prioritized. Research method A purposive s...

Sport is both deeply dependent and connected to nature - without a healthy planet, there is no playing field for sport. Sport is a highly visible sector with billions of participants and fans who consume its products and regularly engage with sports brands and media, its reach is unprecedented. Inspired by the UNFCCC’s Sport for Climate Action Fram...

The sport sector is advancing its efforts to be environmentally friendly. These efforts now include corporate sponsored environmental initiatives, yet fans’ responsiveness to such efforts remains unexamined. Specifically, in this study, the corporate-sponsored environmental initiatives of a college athletic department with an established history of...

Sport organizations are engaging in more advanced environmental sustainability efforts to reduce their environmental impacts. In particular, sport organizations and venues can align their environmental goals with the surrounding city’s environmental objectives. In this study, we examine the relationship between the city and the various sport venues...

The authors investigate drivers and expected outcomes of the adoption of environmental practices by football organizations. Based on a survey of European professional football organizations, the authors examine the influence of stakeholders’ pressures on adopting environmental practices, distinguishing between operational and governance practices....

Research question: This paper evaluates factors impacting corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns’ key performance indicators (KPIs) by extending the sport sustainability campaign evaluation model (SSCEM) with three key variables: ascription of responsibility, fit between the team/sustainability initiatives, and receptivity to messaging fro...

It is vital to study spectator responses to environmental campaigns to advance environmental sustainability initiatives. Therefore, this investigation aimed to identify which factors influence spectator sustainable transport intentions and perform a spectator segmentation based on their responses. Data were collected from 355 spectators at an inter...

Community-level sports fields are public spaces that provide numerous physical, mental, and societal benefits. These fields are often governed, constructed, managed, and used by various interacting groups who have different value systems and preferences that impact their decisions. While sports fields offer an opportunity for community engagement a...

There is a growing need to educate students about the applications of environmental sustainability to current and future jobs. One method that has emerged to teach this application is transformative sustainable learning (TSL). Instructors can use TSL to understand better how to integrate sustainability topics into seemingly unrelated course topics....

Event managers are attempting to reduce their environmental impact but have difficulty in managing stakeholders’ behaviors. Yet, event managers have no guidelines to properly engage stakeholders to improve attitudes towards sustainability or evaluate the effectiveness of current communication strategies to convey the parent organization’s prioritiz...

Amidst a backdrop of a global climate emergency, tourism continues to contribute to Earth's carbon footprint. In recognition of the negative environmental impacts of sport and event tourism, this study quantifies the carbon footprint of the 2019 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Basketball Tournament by considering the travel of fans a...

Political ideology is one of the most powerful predictors of perceptions about environmental sustainability and related behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate how sport fans’ sustainability-specific values, perceptions, and norms related to awareness, engagement, and influence of USA collegiate sport sustainability efforts based on...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine higher education institutions’ participation in association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education’s (AASHE’s) Green Athletics category in the sustainability tracking, assessment and rating system (STARS) sustainability report while assessing how well collegiate athletic departments...

In the past twenty-five years, Olympic host cities have increasingly focused their attention on environmental issues. Given the growing emphasis on environmental sustainability across sport, the purpose of this project was to examine the environmental attitudes and behaviors of residents in Los Angeles, the host city of the 2028 Olympic and Paralym...

Air and water pollution have detrimental effects on health, while physical activity opportunities have a positive relationship. The purpose of this study was to explore whether physical activity opportunities moderate the relationships among air and water pollution, and measures of health. Aggregate data were collected at the county level in the Un...

Purpose Transformative marketing provides a way to encourage positive behaviors. This approach can be applied to community intervention organizations, such as the Special Olympics. Such organizations bring services to provide activity, healthy eating, proper healthcare and caretaker education. This study examines one campaign of the 2018 Special Ol...

Purpose Given greater awareness of environmental issues and the acceleration of climate change, universities are increasingly requiring undergraduate students to complete coursework in environmental issues. Research has shown that environmental courses hosted in science departments can be too challenging for students with no science background. Thu...

Sport organizations are attempting to reduce their environmental impact but have difficulty in managing stakeholders’ behaviors. To combat this challenge, sport organizations have increased the sophistication of their environmental sustainability initiatives to include stakeholder engagement campaigns. Until recently, no guidelines have been provid...

Sport organizations across North America promote and claim deep commitments to environmental issues through sustainability performance signaling. These signals are conveyed through external associations or memberships (e.g., Green Sports Alliance) or internally (e.g., environmental reports and communications). However, researchers have not explored...

The relationship between sport and the natural environment is bidirectional and critical to the production of sport products, events, and experiences. Researchers have studied sport and the natural environment within the various subdisciplines of sport management. However, given the changing climate and mounting public concern for the environment,...

Climate change has impacted people, communities, and industries around the world, including sport and physical activity. Drawing from Stern’s (J Soc Issues 56(3):407–424, 2000) value-belief-norm theory, which focuses on identifying predictors of environmentally significant behavior, the purpose of this study was to explore the degree to which physi...

Research question: The sport industry has deepened its commitment to implementing and deploying environmental sustainability initiatives. However, until this study there were no uniform ways to evaluate these efforts. To this end, the purpose of this study is to create and test the sport sustainability campaign evaluation model among sport particip...

Sport organizations have begun to widely implement environmental sustainability into their daily operations, but more needs to be done to properly plan and implement these initiatives to ensure their long-term success. Specifically, college athletic departments struggle to be proactive in their approach to environmental sustainability despite the v...

A paradox exists between the ways sport organizations evaluate their economic impact, compared with their environmental impact. Although the initial sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts of sport organizations should be celebrated, it is appropriate to call for the next advancement concerning the assessment and measurement of e...

There are immediate calls to action across all business sectors to address the adverse effects of climate change. The sport industry is not immune to these calls. Sport practitioners have engaged participants to further their events’ environmental initiatives through creative messaging campaigns with mixed success. We examine the differential effec...

Recognizing the shared responsibility all entities with a vested interest in keeping the Earth habitable possess, this work proposes ways in which sport organizations can take action by incorporating ecocentric management principles within their organizational practices and thus become more ecologically just. First, by drawing upon the tenets of th...

The aim of the report was: 1. to provide an overview of international research in this area; 2. offer conclusions and recommendations on characteristics for a new research programme, and identify areas that are most relevant/should receive priority; and 3. propose in detail the orientation of a new research programme to be used to draft text for a...

Institutions of higher learning may be considered dual-identity organizations because of the perceived distinctiveness between universities’ academic and athletic missions. One way in which these barriers can be weakened is through cross-sector social partnerships (CSSP), a form of collaborative engagement aimed at achieving a common societal goal....

The sport sector has witnessed a shift where organizations at all levels have begun to place considerable importance on becoming more environmentally conscientious. Simultaneously a growing body of scholarship has addressed sustainability in sport as well. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the state of scholarship on environmental sustainab...

The natural environment is a central issue in both academic and wider societal discourse. The global sport industry is not immune from this discussion and has to confront its responsibility to reduce its impact on the natural environment. This book goes further than any other in surveying both the challenges and the opportunities presented to the s...

There is an increased need for data-driven sustainability campaigns within the sport industry. Currently, sport organizations are initiating sustainability campaigns and encouraging sport consumer participation to help further their efforts. However, sport organizations typically employ marketing and communication strategies haphazardly, with littl...

The purpose of this work is to present a conceptual model of shared responsibility within the sport context. Focusing on issues of harm and injustice, this model proposes that organized sport can exist as an oppressive social structure that endorses ignorance through the presence of asymmetrical power relations. This ignorance reinforces oppressive...

This study examined how consumers purchase intentions were influenced by a secondary communication in a newspaper article on a sport apparel company’s environmental policy. Hypotheses were based on signal theory and social dominance theory. One group read a negative review stating the company had the worst environmental track record. Another group...

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which environmentally themed activities within an intercollegiate sport context impact fan engagement. A total of 557 fans responded to an online survey measuring fan connection to the athletic department, environmental values, expectations for environmental activities, event and at home enviro...

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship sport fans have with their mascots - when represented by a nonhuman animal who is a member of an endangered species group. Adopting a shared responsibility perspective, this study examined the level of knowledge sport fans possess about their endangered species mascot and how sport fan ident...

The sport industry has a tremendous impact on the natural environment. As a result, sport organizations have implemented ways to reduce their impact ranging from energy upgrades, waste management programs, and fan engagement. However, fan engagement efforts have received mixed results to increase participation in sustainability initiatives. This pa...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework surrounding the typology of environmental sustainability efforts made within the sport industry. We draw from multiple theoretical frameworks (i.e., institutional theory, diffusion of innovation) to understand the increased similarities of environmental sustainability efforts through or...

As the environmental movement continues to grow steadily around the world, sports organizations are facing an increasing number of calls to reduce the negative impacts of their facilities and events on the natural environment. Given the wide popularity of professional sport across cultures, the adoption of pro-environmental initiatives by prominent...

Across the world, organizational personnel in various industries are integrating natural environment issues into existing organizational practices. In the intercollegiate sports world, environmental efforts are undertaken as part of a strategic effort involving collaborative processes across university units. The purpose of this study is to develop...

Problem statement: The sport industry recognized the impact it has on the natural environment and developed strategies to address relevant issues. This concern triggered two environmental initiatives: reducing the ecological footprint and using sports as a means to raise environmental awareness. Purpose of study: This presentation provides an overv...

The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of sport spectator recycling behaviour. Specifically, the author utilises the theory of planned behaviour to understand how attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural controls influence sport spectator recycling behaviours during a large-scale sporting event. Findings indicate th...

In drawing from the theory of planned behaviour, the purpose of this research project was to examine factors that influence sport spectators| intentions to recycle plastic bottles. In Study 1 (n = 144 students), the authors developed and provided validity evidence for a questionnaire measuring recycling behaviour. In Study 2, data were collected fr...

The purpose of this paper is to articulate a conceptual model of how and why sport organizations engage in environmentally-friendly business practices. In drawing from multiple theoretical frameworks (i.e., institutional theory, upper echelon theory, identity theory), we argue that functional, political, and social pressures are likely to positivel...

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of job applicant sexual orientation on subsequent evaluations and hiring recommendations. Data were gathered from 106 students (48 men, 57 women) who participated in a 2 (applicant sexual orientation: heterosexual, sexual minority) × 2 (rater gender: female, male) × 2 (applicant gender: female,...