Abstract

In today’s NBA, superstars are heavily sought after by general managers (GMs) of NBA franchises. Every free agency, the league is thrown into a frenzy by each franchise trying to entice a superstar to bring his talents and help them compete for a championship. Aside from competing for a championship, however, perhaps there are other reasons, related to sales and marketing that superstars are valued so highly by GMs. To measure this, we distributed a survey that gave a participant one of four scenarios, a team in a big city with a superstar; a team in a big city without a superstar; a team in a small city with a superstar; and a team in a small city without a superstar. The survey measured respondents’ thoughts on their given scenario based on 7 variables: purchase likelihood, long-term orientation, perceived satisfaction, need to evaluate, preference for consistency, reactance, and psychological ownership. This survey received 265 responses, and the results were analyzed using T-Tests. The results did not support the idea that having a superstar on an NBA roster improves the team’s marketability. However, the results do show that long-term orientation is higher for scenarios in which a small city was involved, which may have implications on the NBA and its franchises, especially as the league looks toward expansion in the near future.

Semester/Year of Award

Spring 5-4-2020

Mentor

James R. Blair

Mentor Department Affiliation

Business

Access Options

Restricted Access Thesis

Document Type

Bachelor Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Scholars

Degree Level

Bachelor's

Department

Business

Department Name when Degree Awarded

Management, Marketing, and International Business

IRB Approval Number (if applicable)

#3061

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