Profiling residents based on their perceptions and attitude toward sport event: insights from the fia world rally championship

This study aims at profiling residents based on their perceptions and attitude toward a motor sport event, namely the FIA World Rally Championship. A structured questionnaire was developed and responses from a convenience sample of 759 residents were collected face-to-face in Olbia (Sardinia, Italy), the main municipality involved in the event. A two-step cluster analysis was applied to the seven factors identified by running exploratory factor analysis on a list of 46 statements used to investigate residents' perceptions and attitudes. Results show that residents perceptions and attitudes are not homogeneous and that four clusters can be identified with significant differences based on their socio-demographic characteristics. "Supporters" is the biggest one, followed in decreasing order of size, by: "Neutrals", "Enthusiasts but culturally and environmentally concerned" and "Critics". Contributions to the body of knowledge and managerial implications are discussed and suggestions for further research are given.