Living on the edge: Psychological drivers of athletes' intention to re-patronage extreme sporting events

Extreme sports are a multi-billion-dollar marketing phenomenon. The authors explore in the context of extreme sports the relationship between risk-taking attitude, perceived control, self-enhancement, event image, and re-patronage intention, through the lens of edgework theory and cognitive adaptation. The authors advance a theoretical model of multiple moderated mediation that provides insights for understanding what drives consumer-athletes’ intention to be loyal to extreme sporting events. The authors test the model with the PROCESS macro in SPSS on 500 active participants in such events and find that risk-taking leads to feelings of self-enhancement, especially when consumers feel in control of the risks they face. Self-enhancement in turn leads to re-patronage intention, especially when consumers have a positive image of the event.