Sport Management Studies

Designing an Agile Branding Framework with a Qualitative Approach (Case Study: Sportswear Brands)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Faraz Divani 1
Navid Mahtab 1
Mohsen Akbari 2
Maryam Varmaghani 3

1 Department of Sport Management, Qor.c., Islamic Azad University, Qorveh, Iran.

2 Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management and Economics, Guilan University, Rasht, Iran

3 Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economic, Management and Administrative Sciences, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22089/smrj.2026.16708.4023
Abstract
The most important mission of brands is to maintain sustainable differentiation in today's competitive conditions. Today, despite the existence of countless brands and the increase in competition between them, a brand that cannot quickly adapt to environmental changes, or in other words, is not agile, is out of the choice of consumers. Therefore, maintaining brand agility is very important in today's era. For this reason, in the current research, the design of the brand agility model in sportswear brands was discussed due to the high competition of these brands with domestic and foreign competitors. This research is exploratory in terms of its purpose and qualitative in terms of the nature of the data. In the present study, seven university professors were interviewed using snowball sampling and 19 managers and experts of brand and marketing of sportswear brands were interviewed using purposive sampling. Grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data and the data were categorized according to three stages of open, axial and selective coding. Results of the research showed Management and leadership style, strategic, structural, cultural, marketing, innovative factors, and factors related to the brand (causal conditions) influence brand agility. The findings confirmed the effect of brand agility, contextual factors, and intervening factors on strategies (brand adaptability, flexibility, innovation, and quality/cost) and the effect of these strategies on consequences. The results of this research have helped a lot to make brand management of organizations more agile and provide a useful research path for future research.

Keywords

Agility
Brand management
Grounded theory
Sports brand
Subjects
1. Al-Khaldi, H. M. (2022). The quality of organizational improvisation in raising the level of effectiveness of the game elements in Jordan Football Association (JFA). Journal of Positive School Psychology, 7607-7616. https://doi.org/10.22051/sbj.2025.48104.1179
2. Al-Sanjari, K. I., & Al-Ashryfi, R. A. (2023). Evaluating the organizational agility of the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sports from the point of view of its division directors. Al-Rafidain Journal for Sport Sciences, 26(82), 401-418. https://doi.org/10.33899/rjss.2023.18294017
3. Azizi, B., Mahmoudi, A., Ghaebi Dastjerdi, A., & Mobaraki, N. (2022). The analysis of components of brand bravery in customers of sports products (Case Study: Majid Brand). Research in Sport Management and Marketing, 3(4), 29-42. https://doi.org/10.22098/rsmm.2023.10535.1096
4. Birks, M., & Mills, J. (2022). Grounded theory: A practical guide. London: Sage.
5. Bozkurt, S., Gligor, D., Locander, J., & Ahmad Rather, R. (2023). How social media self-efficacy and social anxiety affect customer purchasing from agile brands on social media. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 17(6), 813-830. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-08-2022-0242
6. Capoano, E., Balbé, A. D., & Costa, P. R. (2024). Is there a “Green Moral”? How young people’s moral attributes define engagement with narratives about climate change. Social Sciences, 13(3), 145. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-08-2022-0242
7. Chuah, S. H. W., Aw, E. C. X., & Tseng, M. L. (2020). The missing link in the promotion of customer engagement: the roles of brand fan page attractiveness and agility. Internet Research, 31(2), 587-612. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-01-2020-0025
8. Davcik, N.S., Da Silva, R, & Hair, J.F. (2015). Towards a unified theory of brand equity: conceptualizations, taxonomy and avenues for future research. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 24(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2014-0639
9. delucasancillo, A., del Val Nunez, M. T., & Gavrila, S. G. (2021). Workplace change within the COVID-19 context: a grounded theory approach. Economic Research, 34(1), 2297-2316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122673
10. DiPietro, R., Martin, D., & Pratt, T. (2019). Understanding employee longevity in independent fine dining restaurants: A grounded theory approach. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 31(10), 4062-4085. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2018-0869
11. Eydi, H., Abbasi, H., & Bakhshi Chenari, A. (2018). Anticipation of organizational agility in the ministry of youth and sports according to organizational forgetting and its Factors. Sport Management Studies, 10(47), 241-258. https://doi.org/10.22089/smrj.2018.108.1034 [In Persian].
12. Faghat, E. R. B., Khani, N., & Alemtabriz, A. (2020). A paradigmatic model for shared value innovation management in the supply chain: A Grounded Theory Research. International Journal of Innovation Science. 12(1), 142-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIS-07-2019-0074
13. Gavilan, D., & Martinez-Navarro, G. (2022). Exploring user’s experience of push notifications: a grounded theory approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 25(2), 233-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-05-2021-0061
14. Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (2017). Discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Routledge.
15. Javdani Gandomani, T., & Ziaei Nafchi, M. (2016). Agile transition and adoption human-related challenges and issues: A grounded theory approach. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 257-266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.009
16. Keller, K.L., Swaminathan, V. (2019). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson.
17. Leso, B. H., Cortimiglia, M. N., & Ghezzi, A. (2022). The contribution of organizational culture, structure, and leadership factors in the digital transformation of SMEs: A mixed- methods approach. Cognition, Technology & Work, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-022-00714-2
18. Lies, J. (2024). Systems theory and agile brand management: The educative view of branding. Taylor & Francis.
19. Lotfi, K., Farzan, F., Khodadadi, M., & Razavi, S. M. H. (2023). Designing a model of recreational sports in the family with a grounded theory approach. Sport Management Studies, 15(79), 83-104. https://doi.org/10.22089/smrj.2021.10406.3393 [In Persian].
20. Mahtab, N., Ghafouri, F., Varmaghani, S., & Varmaghani, M. (2022). Sports marketing agility: Identifying antecedents, consequences and its impact on organizational performance with the moderating role of market turbulence (Case Study: Majid Sports Brand (Merooj)). Sport Management Studies, 15(79), 35-56. https://doi.org/10.22089/SMRJ.2022.11444.3501 [In Persian].
21. Nayal, P., & Pandey, N. (2022). What makes a consumer redeem digital coupons? Behavioral insights from grounded theory approach. Journal of Promotion Management, 28(3), 205-238. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2021.1989541
22. Peers, D., Joseph, J., Chen, C., McGuire-Adams, T., Fawaz, N. V., Tink, L., ..., & Hall, L. (2023). An intersectional Foucauldian analysis of Canadian national sport organisations’‘equity, diversity, and inclusion’ (EDI) policies and the reinscribing of injustice. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 15(2), 193-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2023.2183975
23. Peterson, M. (2020). A high-speed world with fake news: Brand managers take warning. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 29(2), 234-245. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-12-2018-2163
24.  Pöhlmann, M., Jambrino-Maldonado, C., de las Heras-Pedrosa, C., & Seitz, J. (2024). Trends and evolution of agile branding: a bibliometric analysis. Business: Theory and Practice, 25(2), 406-419. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-12-2018-2163
25. Pöhlmann, M., Seitz, J., Jambrino-Maldonado, C., & de las Heras-Pedrosa, C. (2024). Conceptualizing agile branding: Dimensions and antecedents for managing brands in a dynamic environment. Administrative Sciences, 14(6), 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14060112
26. Pramani, R., & Iyer, S. V. (2022). Adoption of payments banks: a grounded theory approach. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41264-021-00133-w
27. Ramezani Nezhad, R., pahlavan, H., & Naderinasab, M. (2022). Developing a conceptual model for the development of worker sport in Iran. Sport Development and Management, 11(2-30), 214-231. https://doi.org/10.22124/jsmd.2023.6708 [In Persian].
28. Rogoll, C. (2015). Star brands: a brand manager's guide to build, manage & market brands. New York: Allworth Press.
29. Sadat Ghoreishi, M., Savadi, M., & Saybani, H. (2022). Designing a model for the development of disability volunteering in sports based on data theory. Sport Management Studies, 14(75), 17-48. https://doi.org/10.22089/smrj.2022.11719.3537 [In Persian].
30. Salimi, M., & Nazarian, A. (2022). The effect of organizational agility as mediator in the relationship between knowledge management, and competitive advantage and innovation in sport organizations. International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies, 13(3), 231-256. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJKMS.2022.123712
31. Shabini Bahar, G. R., Maghsoudi, H. R., Godarzi, M., & Honari, H. (2018). Development of structural equation models of strategical thinking and organizational agility in selected Iranian sports federations. Sport Development and Management, 7(1-13), 52-65. https://doi.org/10.22124/jsmd.2018.2970. [In Persian].
32. Shaikh, A., & Gandhi, A. (2016). Small retailer’s new product acceptance in emerging market: a grounded theory approach. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 28(3), 547-564. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-06-2015-0087
33. Sharma, A., Patro, S., & Chaudhry, H. (2021). Brand identity and culture interaction in the Indian context: a grounded approach. Journal of Advances in Management Research, 19(1), 31-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAMR-12-2020-0361
34. Shukla, S., Kalangade, J., & Iyer, R. (2023). Amul: An agile brand and its leadership: “Road to self-reliance”. In Agile leadership for industry 4.0 (pp. 271-284). Apple Academic Press.
35. Son, S. C., Bae, J., & Kim, K. H. (2023). An exploratory study on the perceived agility by consumers in luxury brand omni-channel. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 33(1), 154-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/21639159.2022.2153261
36. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (2014). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Sage publications.
37. Varmaghani, M., Zarei, A., Feiz, D., & Maleki Minbashrazgah, M. (2024). Brand intelligence: Its conceptualization, measurement, and impact on firm performance. Interdisciplinary Journal of Management Studies, 17(3), 875-887. https://doi.org/10.22059/ijms.2023.344777.675178
38. Varmaghani, M., Zarei, A., Feiz, D., & Maleki Minbashrazgah, M. (2023). Designing Brand Intelligence Model in Tourism Startups: A Mixed Approach. Tourism Management Studies, 18(62), 123-159. https://doi.org/10.22054/tms.2023.73204.2832 [In Persian].
39. Wei, W., & Ni, H. (2020). Analysis on the operation mechanism of the ecosystem of crowd innovation space based on grounded theory. Journal of Industry-University Collaboration, 2(2), 79-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIUC-02-2020-0002
40. Zarei, A., Feiz, D., Akbarzadeh Pasha, M. (2018). Thematic analysis method application in recognizing brand agility. Brand Management, 4(12), 85-119. https://doi.org/10.22051/bmr.2019.17201.1386 [In Persian].
41. Zhang, J. X., Cheng, J. W., Philbin, S. P., Ballesteros-Perez, P., Skitmore, M., & Wang, G. (2023). Influencing factors of urban innovation and development: A grounded theory analysis. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 25(3), 2079-2104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02151-7
Sport Management Studies
Volume 18, Issue 95
March and April 2026
Pages 141-160

  • Receive Date 29 April 2024
  • Revise Date 21 October 2025
  • Accept Date 22 January 2026

Home

Publication Ethics

Submit Manuscript

News

Journal Metrics

Contact Us