Prof. Joon Sung Lee, Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at the University of Florida
Date: December 14, 2018
Topic: Understanding athlete transgression in contemporary sport
To build and increase brand awareness, celebrity endorsement, a form of brand or advertising campaign that involves a well-known person using their fame to help promote a product or service, is necessary. Many sport brands or bottling companies have chosen famous athletes who have believability and credibility as their models, and gain substantial positive effects.
The cheating scandal surrounding Tiger Woods, an American professional golfer, shocked the sponsors and golf fans all around the world in 2009 when it was revealed that he was accused of having affairs with multiple women. Even though he made a heartfelt apology for the transgressions, the public and media harshly criticized him, and his main sponsors such as Gatorade and AT&T dropped him. Contrastively, Nike has continued to sponsor him despite his indiscretion, and some people kept their faith. His splendid career was thought to be nearing an end, but he returned to competitive golf a year later amid the mounting controversy. The number of supporters has been increased after playing well at the several tournaments.
“We understand this complex phenomenon by applying the concept of moral reasoning, a critical analysis to specific events to determine what is right or wrong. Moral decoupling, moral rationalization, and moral coupling are the main three strategies to understand moral reasoning from a various perspective and explain sport fans’ and consumers’ multi-faceted responses to athlete transgression,” said Prof. Joon Sung Lee during the special lecture, titled “Understanding athlete transgression in contemporary sport,” held on December 14 at Seoul National University.
His main research encompasses topics surrounding corruption in sport as critical sociocultural issues such as consumers’ responses to public figure’s transgression, assessment of post-transgression actions on repairing trust, or impacts of athletes’ pre-transgression philanthropic behavior on consumer post-transgression evaluation are drawing particular attention amid growing sport market expansion in modern society.
“Providing appropriate athlete transgression preventative education and compliance monitoring program are essential to reduce risk and raise awareness,” he added. He stressed that education and monitoring program are the best tools not only for athlete protection but for sport market.
Prof. Lee is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at the University of Florida. In 2015, he was selected as a runner-up for the European Association for Sport Management Conference New Researcher Award and a winner of the Sport Marketing Association Conference Best Student Paper Award.
