Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner Experiences

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technology rapidly integrates into daily life, offering advantages in sports, including personal performance tracking, athlete-fan communication via social media, and virtual event organization. However, its comprehensive use in marathons to enhance marathone...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sawitree Phua, Atthaves Borriraklert, Theeraya Mayakul
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-01-01
Series:Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2024/7488352
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832544515223715840
author Sawitree Phua
Atthaves Borriraklert
Theeraya Mayakul
author_facet Sawitree Phua
Atthaves Borriraklert
Theeraya Mayakul
author_sort Sawitree Phua
collection DOAJ
description Following the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technology rapidly integrates into daily life, offering advantages in sports, including personal performance tracking, athlete-fan communication via social media, and virtual event organization. However, its comprehensive use in marathons to enhance marathoner experience remains underexplored. This study presented a technology-driven marathon service process, guiding digital technology applications across prerace communication, marathon registration, race entertainment, medical service, and postrace engagement. A mixed-method approach, utilizing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), informed technology selection for each service dimension under expert judgment. Three groups of experts, including World Athletics marathon organizers, elite runners, and marathon medical team members, were invited for triangulated discussion, validated, and confirmed the technology selection. The results revealed the decision-making for incorporating digital technology into each marathon service process. In the realm of prerace communication, interactive content and content management were appropriated for addressing awareness, motivation, trust, and engagement. In terms of marathon registration, experts agreed that application programming interfaces (APIs) can streamline procedures for runner convenience. For race entertainment, extended reality (XR) excels can stimulate runner motivation through realistic competition simulations. Regarding medical service, digital health records emerged as a vital tool for medical operations during the marathons. Lastly, elite runners had shown a compassionate inclination towards affiliation e-rewards, enabling them to convert their achievements into tangible benefits. A service blueprint was constructed to visualize the integration of digital technologies into marathon events covering marathoner actions, front-of-house employee actions, back-of-house employee actions, and internal information technology systems. These findings offer valuable insights to marathon organizers, enhancing marathoner experiences, and service quality through digital technology that becomes more prevalent.
format Article
id doaj-art-ea378804b6204cb2b48ef469e01f5276
institution Kabale University
issn 2578-1863
language English
publishDate 2024-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies
spelling doaj-art-ea378804b6204cb2b48ef469e01f52762025-02-03T10:18:12ZengWileyHuman Behavior and Emerging Technologies2578-18632024-01-01202410.1155/2024/7488352Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner ExperiencesSawitree Phua0Atthaves Borriraklert1Theeraya Mayakul2Information Technology Management DivisionDepartment of Industrial DesignInformation Technology Management DivisionFollowing the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technology rapidly integrates into daily life, offering advantages in sports, including personal performance tracking, athlete-fan communication via social media, and virtual event organization. However, its comprehensive use in marathons to enhance marathoner experience remains underexplored. This study presented a technology-driven marathon service process, guiding digital technology applications across prerace communication, marathon registration, race entertainment, medical service, and postrace engagement. A mixed-method approach, utilizing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), informed technology selection for each service dimension under expert judgment. Three groups of experts, including World Athletics marathon organizers, elite runners, and marathon medical team members, were invited for triangulated discussion, validated, and confirmed the technology selection. The results revealed the decision-making for incorporating digital technology into each marathon service process. In the realm of prerace communication, interactive content and content management were appropriated for addressing awareness, motivation, trust, and engagement. In terms of marathon registration, experts agreed that application programming interfaces (APIs) can streamline procedures for runner convenience. For race entertainment, extended reality (XR) excels can stimulate runner motivation through realistic competition simulations. Regarding medical service, digital health records emerged as a vital tool for medical operations during the marathons. Lastly, elite runners had shown a compassionate inclination towards affiliation e-rewards, enabling them to convert their achievements into tangible benefits. A service blueprint was constructed to visualize the integration of digital technologies into marathon events covering marathoner actions, front-of-house employee actions, back-of-house employee actions, and internal information technology systems. These findings offer valuable insights to marathon organizers, enhancing marathoner experiences, and service quality through digital technology that becomes more prevalent.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2024/7488352
spellingShingle Sawitree Phua
Atthaves Borriraklert
Theeraya Mayakul
Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner Experiences
Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies
title Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner Experiences
title_full Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner Experiences
title_fullStr Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner Experiences
title_full_unstemmed Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner Experiences
title_short Integrating Digital Technology Into Marathon Race With a Technology-Driven Service Design Approach to Enhance Marathoner Experiences
title_sort integrating digital technology into marathon race with a technology driven service design approach to enhance marathoner experiences
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2024/7488352
work_keys_str_mv AT sawitreephua integratingdigitaltechnologyintomarathonracewithatechnologydrivenservicedesignapproachtoenhancemarathonerexperiences
AT atthavesborriraklert integratingdigitaltechnologyintomarathonracewithatechnologydrivenservicedesignapproachtoenhancemarathonerexperiences
AT theerayamayakul integratingdigitaltechnologyintomarathonracewithatechnologydrivenservicedesignapproachtoenhancemarathonerexperiences