Sports Consumption Behavior: Discovering Typologies of Amateur Cyclists

Abstract

Abstract Introduction. Cycling is one of the most popular and practiced sports both in Europe and globally. However, management studies aimed at defining cyclists’ consumption behavior are still limited. The most recent contributions describe cycling consumption as an activity heavily influenced by the intensity and sociality of its practice but do not highlight the importance of expenditures related to participation in amateur cycling events and cycle tourism experiences. Starting from these behavioral dimensions, the article proposes an original segmentation of the sport and leisure market, leading to the identification of different profiles of amateur cyclists. Material and methods. The research was conducted on a sample of 182 cyclists located in one single Italian region to ensure a high level of social, economic and cultural uniformity. The data was collected by conducting a questionnaire, and its resulting information relating to sport and consumer behavior was processed through a cluster analysis procedure. Results. The results reveal the existence of five different amateur cyclists’ profiles (the parsimonious, the competitive, the ostentatious, the sociable and the experiential), each distinguished by specific behavior in terms of the intensity and way of conducting the sports activity and the propensity to incur different types of expenditure. Conclusions. From a theoretical point of view, the results confirm the effectiveness of behavioral segmentation in the market of sports consumption. From an operational point of view, they provide useful marketing indications for businesses operating in the sport-system chain and destination management operators.