Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the endorsement of Iranian athletes.
Methodology: This study was administered by using a grounded theory approach. Interviews (n=29) were conducted with famous athletes and coaches, legislators, and experts that selected by judgment sampling. Data were analyzed according to the open, axial and selective coding by using of Atlas.Ti software.
Results: through the three coding phase, categories and sub-categories of athletes endorsement were identified and related to each other as follows: Causal conditions (individual and social factors, business-related factors, professional factors of sports industry, and media-related factors); Intervening and context condition (sociological factors, institutional factors, economic and trade-related factors, and media-related factors); Action strategies (governance actions, socio-cultural actions, sports organizations’ actions, commercial contract-related actions, media-related actions); and Consequences (social, national economy, professional, marketing and media consequences). Finally, coding paradigm described and theory was created.
Conclusion: Current limitations of Iranian athletes’ endorsement have occurred under various situation. It is far from desired situation that may have undesirable consequences. However, it can be achieved desired situations by using practical strategies that may lead to considerable outcomes.