Philip Kang

Scholarship

Selected Recent Publications

• Application of machine and deep learning techniques on sport non-fungible token tweets: exploration of perceived values and risks, 2025
  Journal Article, Academic Journal
• Artificial Intelligence in Sports and Recreation, 2025
  Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
• A conceptual framework for understanding brand connection to sport mascots, 2025
  Journal Article, Academic Journal
• New Day, New Game: Examining Consumer Needs in Daily Fantasy Sports, 2022
  Journal Article, Academic Journal

Research Interests

My research examines how emerging technologies and branding strategies shape sport consumer behavior. I pursue two complementary streams: first, tech-infused sport consumption and analytics, where I use machine- and deep-learning on user-generated content (e.g., LDA topic modeling, Word2Vec, UMAP, VADER) to study values, risk perceptions, and motivations surrounding NFTs, metaverse activations, daily fantasy sports, and technology-forward properties such as TGL; second, strategic sport branding and endorsements, where I investigate how athlete expertise, product brand popularity/type, and signature-brand strategies affect attitudes, eWOM, and purchase intentions. A related line explores mascot branding and the psychological mechanisms by which mascots and conspicuous branding cues foster connection and behavior. Methodologically, I combine controlled experiments, survey modeling (SEM, moderated mediation), and large-scale social data mining to deliver actionable implications for rights holders, teams, and sponsors.