Sport Volunteers: Research Agenda and Application

Abstract

Recruiting and retaining volunteers for sport events and services are fundamentally marketing problems. Successful recruitment of sport volunteers requires that the volunteer experience be constructed and promoted in terms of benefits that differentiate volunteer activities from one another and from alternative leisure pursuits. The present consensus of opinion is that benefits such as insider knowledge, opportunities to earn or display prestigious symbols, and interaction with valued others are possible valued benefits that attract sport volunteers. However, the strength and importance of these benefits appears to vary according to the specific volunteer task. Volunteer retention is essentially a task of relationship marketing wherein benefits of volunteering are updated, repackaged, and marketed back to volunteers. Research in all these areas lacks the sophistication and detail needed to map the range and impact of benefits sought by various volunteer segments. This paper describes the research status quo, applications of the available knowledge that can be applied to recruitment and retention, and a suggested research agenda that will fill in the major gaps limiting our understanding of volunteer behavior.