The Design of a Sports Marketing Model for Iranian Women's Professional Sport

The purpose of this study was to design and develop a model for Iranian women's professional sports. This study adopted a qualitative approach with the grounded theory for data analysis. A semi-structured interview was used to collect data. 14 sports managers and sport’s marketing experts in Iran, aged between 28 to 69, were interviewed. MAXQDA pro 12.3 software was used for the three stages of open, axial, and selective coding. 296 open codes and 49 general concepts were identified which were classified into 28 main categories. Finally, the findings were classified into 9 factors as the main categories in the selective coding. The research findings identified “marketing hegemony in Iranian women's professional sports” as a central phenomenon. It is necessary to note relevant causal, context, and intervening conditions when applying the proposed strategies of research, action and reaction between the mentioned factors. Additionally, the socio-cultural conditions of Iran and the existence of beliefs and ideas of the governments and religious leaders' thoughts should be taken into account when applying the proposed model.