Motivation and satisfaction of athletes : towards a strategy to market sports endurance events in Malaysia

From the marketing perspective, when consumers are motivated to purchase certain services, it is likely that they are satisfied with the experienced service. This relationship however is not sufficiently explored within the endurance sports setting. Futhermore, there has no study being conducted to undertand the significant difference between the local and international athletes in terms of their motivations and satisfactions towards the sport events that they participate in.To contribute to the body of knowledge of sports management, this study has been carried out. Three objectives have been established namely ; (i) to examine the differences in the mean motivation and satisfaction scores for international and local athletes of endurance sport events, (ii) to investigate the relationship between motivation of endurance sport athletes and, (iii) to assess the moderating role of athlete type (i.e., local versus international) in the realtionship between motivation and satisfaction variables. The context selected for this study was Malaysia Ironman Triathlon 70.3 and the respondents are consisting of 158 athletes, 79 each from local and international category. There were two-dimensional factors included in the instruments. (i) Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) which include IM, EM and AM and (ii) Overall Satisfaction with the event includes overall evaluation of the event in the scale.The main findings of this study indicates that while there is no significants diffrence in the mean motivation scores, there is significant difference in the satisfaction scores for international and local endurance sport athletes. Futher the study also reveals that the relationship among intrinsic, extrinsic motivation and satisfaction is all significant except, the relationship between motivation and satisfaction which was not significant. Another significant findings is the link between the motivation (Intrinsic and extricsic) and satisfaction which is not significantly moderated by whether or not the athletes are internationals or locals . The findings generally indicates that the making theory pertaining to the link between motivation and satisfaction also exists within the sports situation. There is also evidence found in this study that demonstrate the needs to have a different marketing strategy for the local and international participants. Although both of them are strongly influenced by the levels of their motivations, the internationals apparently have different expectations that lead to the results of significant difference from those of the locals in the aspects of extrinsic motivation as well as the overall satisfaction of the whole experience in the event. Futher investigations therefore are highly encouraged in order to understand the reasons behind these phenomena.