ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1501327
The Impact of Digital Technology on Sports Consumption: Evidence from Chinese College Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Physical Education and Arts, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, China
- 2Department of Physical Education, Xiamen Institute of Technology, Xiamen, China
- 3College of Physical Education, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China
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In an increasingly digitalized world, the impact of digital technology on sports consumption behavior is a pivotal area of study, particularly among college students who are highly engaged with digital platforms. This study investigates how digital technology use shapes college students' sports consumption behavior, incorporating emotional experience as a mediator and symbolic perception as a moderator. Guided by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework and Symbolic Consumption Theory (SCT), data from 861 Chinese college students (511 males and 350 females) were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results reveal that digital technology use significantly enhances sports consumption, not only through a direct effect but also indirectly by improving emotional experience. Furthermore, symbolic perception amplifies the effect of emotional experience on consumption behavior. These findings highlight the dual psychological pathways through which technology influences sports-related decisions. The study offers theoretical contributions by integrating emotional and symbolic mechanisms, and provides practical insights for sports marketers and educators aiming to engage college students in digital-era consumption.
Keywords: Digital technology use, sports consumption behavior, emotional experience, symbolic perception, college students
Received: 24 Sep 2024; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhong, Yang, Guo and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiang-Wei Yang, Department of Physical Education, Xiamen Institute of Technology, Xiamen, China
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