Sports Marketing for a Greener Indonesia: Challenges and Opportunities in Building a Sustainable Sports Industry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26740/jses.v9n1.p22-28Keywords:
Sport marketing, Sustainability, Indonesia, Stakeholder engagement, Green marketingAbstract
Purpose: This study examines the integration of sport marketing and sustainability within Indonesia’s growing sports industry, employing a comprehensive mixed-methods approach to identify key challenges, opportunities, and practical strategies for implementing sustainable practices.
Materials and Methods: The research employed a mixed-methods design, combining qualitative interviews with 30 industry stakeholders and quantitative surveys of 120 participants. The sample represented diverse sectors, including sports organizations, marketing professionals, athletes, event planners, policymakers, and fans.
Result: Findings reveal a significant disconnect between sustainability awareness and practical application; while 65% of respondents demonstrated general awareness of sustainability concepts, only 30% understood their specific relevance to sport marketing. Current initiatives, such as eco-friendly merchandise and green events (25%), were found to be largely ad hoc rather than strategically implemented. Three primary opportunity areas were identified: leveraging Indonesia’s high digital penetration, forming strategic partnerships with sustainability-focused brands, and developing targeted fan engagement campaigns. Notably, 70% of stakeholders recognized the brand reputation benefits of sustainable marketing, though 50% expressed concerns regarding implementation costs and complexity.
Conclusion: These findings highlight the critical need for structured educational initiatives and policy support to bridge the awareness-implementation gap. Consequently, the research team developed the "Sustainable Sport Marketing for Indonesia" training program to equip professionals with tools to align marketing strategies with environmental and social goals. The study contributes to academic and practical discourse by demonstrating how sport marketing can drive sustainability in emerging markets, while addressing Indonesia’s unique challenges, such as resource limitations and infrastructure constraints.
References
Babiak, K., & Trendafilova, S. (2011). CSR and environmental responsibility: Motives and pressures to adopt green management practices. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 18(1), 11–24.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2018). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
DeVellis, R. F. (2017). Scale development: Theory and applications (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Elkington, J. (1997). Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century business. Capstone Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-095X(1998090)9:5%3C397::AID-ENV308%3E3.0.CO;2-9
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11
Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Goodway, J. D., Ozmun, J. C., & Gallahue, D. L. (2019). Understanding Motor Development: Infants, Children, Adolescents, Adults: Infants, Children, Adolescents, Adults. Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=h5KwDwAAQBAJ
Kellison, T. B., & Kim, Y. K. (2018). Marketing and sustainability in the sport sector. Sport Management Review, 21(2), 119–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.10.001
Kellison, T. B., & McCullough, B. P. (2018). A Research Agenda for Environmental Sustainability in Sport Management. Journal of Sport Management, 32(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2018-0016
Kusumawardhani, F. (2021). The Impact of Sports Events on Environmental Sustainability in Indonesia: Challenges and Opportunities. Asian Journal of Sports Management, 12(3), 45–60.
Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews. SAGE Publications.
Nations, U. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. United Nations General Assembly. https://sdgs.un.org/goals
O’Brien, D., & Slack, T. (2004). Strategic Responses to Institutional Pressures for Sustainability: The Case of Sport Organizations. Journal of Sport Management, 18(4), 317–340.
Peattie, K., & Crane, A. (2005). Green marketing: Legend, myth, farce, or prophesy? *Qualitative Market Research. An International Journal, 8(4), 357–370. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/13522750510619733
Shilbury, D., Westerbeek, H., Quick, S., & Funk, D. (2014). Strategic sport marketing (4th ed.). Allen & Unwin.
Smith, A. C. T., Westerbeek, H. M., & Stewart, B. (2021). Sustainability in sport: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Sport Management, 35(3), 213–228. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2020-0123
Susanto, R. (2020). Challenges in Implementing Sustainable Sport Marketing in Indonesia: A Stakeholder Perspective. Indonesian Journal of Sports Studies, 5(1), 25–40.
Trendafilova, S., Babiak, K., & Heinze, K. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability: Why Professional Sport is Greening the Playing Field. Sport Management Review, 16(3), 298–313.
Walters, G., & Tacon, R. (2010). Corporate Social Responsibility in Sport: Stakeholder Management in the UK Football Industry. Journal of Management & Organization, 16(4), 566–586. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S1833367200001953
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 JSES : Journal of Sport and Exercise Science
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract views: 20
,
PDF Downloads: 11
