While mega events substantially contribute to a hosting community's economy and marketing appeal, small-scale events might result in more positive effects because they operate within an existing infrastructure, require a smaller budget, create a more manageable level of crowd congestion, and have high-impact regional effects on the community. Despite the positive effects and prevalence of small-scale events, few have examined their conceptual development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hierarchical relationship among event image, satisfaction, and behavioral intention (i.e., intention to revisit and recommend the event to others) in the context of a small-scale marathon event. A total of 297 valid questionnaires were collected from participants at the Mercedes-Benz Marathon Event and the Publix Marathon Event, recurring small-scale marathon events held in southeastern cities in the United States. Results from a confirmatory factor analysis of the event image-satisfaction-behavioral intentions model indicated a good fit to the data. The results of regression analyses demonstrated that event image and satisfaction were positively associated with behavioral intention and that satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between event image and behavioral intention. In addition, the z-value provided by the Sobel test indicated that the indirect effect of event image on behavioral intention through satisfaction was significant. The findings offer important implications for event organizers (i.e., marathon) that can be used to develop marketing strategies that attract participants to small-scale marathon events.
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