On Board for Brands: Understanding the Motivating Influences of Sponsored Female Snowboarders

While athlete endorsements and sponsorship have been extensively researched in sport marketing, little attention has been given to the athlete’s perspective (Dumont, 2016). This study sought to address this gap by exploring the motivations and decision-making factors that drive female athletes’ sponsorship agreements, particularly within action sports. In so doing, the work addressed a number of important limitations of the extant research. Whereas previous studies have primarily concentrated on male athletes or the benefits for sponsors, this study investigated the motivations and long-term benefits from the athlete’s perspective. Likewise, while much of the literature on athlete endorsements has concerned traditional professional sport, action sports offer a unique sub-cultural ethos that encourages entrepreneurial self-branding, making them ideal for studying sponsorship motivations (Parris et al., 2014). Finally, the research emphasizes the overlooked perspectives of female athletes (Fink, 2019), and explores potential branding barriers faced by female athletes, contributing to the growing body of action sports research, as called for by Dumont (2016) and Thorpe and Dumont (2019). This study employed semi-structured interviews with nine female snowboarders, capturing diverse sponsorship experiences across elite competition, freestyle, and park disciplines. Data analysis involved two-stage coding (Miles et al., 2014), beginning with values coding to identify discrete attitudes and beliefs, followed by pattern coding to extract central themes and develop a narrative description. The findings highlight the importance of values congruence, personal relationships, and in-kind support in shaping athletes’ decisions, advancing our understanding of how sponsorships function as both professional opportunities and platforms for personal advocacy, offering insights for both athletes and brands in action sports.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. Applied Health Sciences

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Faculty of Applied Health Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Applied Health Sciences Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Brock University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Petrie, Mackayla

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Burton, Nicholas

• Action Sports
• Female Athletes
• Decision Making
• Values

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10464/19304

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:brocku.scholaris.ca:10464/19304