The Loyalty, Trust and Word -of-Mouth in Sports Advertising: A Meta-Analysis

This research aims to conduct a meta-analysis of the relationship of loyalty and trust on word-of-mouth advertising in sports.

The meta-analysis method was used to conduct this research. For this purpose, sixteen databases and two search engines analyzed all articles and theses published on the effects of trust and loyalty on word-of-mouth advertising in sports between 2002 and 2022. Finally, 18 articles were included in this study and were analyzed using CMA2 software, and the heterogeneity of the studies was determined by performing the q-value, I-squared, and tau-squared tests.

The results showed that the effect size of trust and loyalty on word-of-mouth advertising was 0.30 and 0.29, respectively. Based on Cohen's interpretive system, this level of influence was evaluated as moderate, although these relationships were significant (P<005). Finally, using the tree diagram, the studies with a minor deviation in the effect size of the random model were identified and identified as more valuable research. Also, according to the FSN test regarding the effect of trust and loyalty on word-of-mouth advertising, it can be claimed that loyalty and trust positively affect word-of-mouth advertising. Therefore, it is suggested that sports managers give priority while maintaining the budget to create solutions that develop loyalty and trust in consumer sports products and services and focus on these issues.

In this study, we determine the results of world sports studies regarding the effects of trust and loyalty on word-of-mouth advertising in the form of a general result using the meta-analysis method.