City Branding's impact on cities hosting sporting events: Top-down and bottom-up effects in a pre-post study

This study investigated the effect of city image on residents' perceptions and the top-down and bottom-up effects of sporting events on the host city. The study developed and tested a research framework delineating the relationships among city image, city attitudes, sporting event attitudes, and word-of-mouth (WOM). This research further examined the impact of sporting events through a pre-post design. Using a mall-intercept sampling approach, a total of 620 participants were collected. The results of PLS-SEM demonstrated that positive direct and indirect relationships were found. In addition, moderated-mediation analysis found significant differences between the pre-post surveys in the relationship where city image indirectly influences attitudes toward cities through sport event attitude. These findings suggest city image impacts city attitudes and sport event attitudes and further influences WOM. Importantly, the top-down and bottom-up effects were significantly stronger after the event.