درگیرسازی نسل نقره‌ای در ورزش: بینش‌هایی از تجربه کسب‌وکارهای ورزشی کوچک در ارتقای مشارکت فعال سالمندان

Introduction

Population aging has become one of the most significant demographic transformations of the 21st century. Iran, like many other countries, is experiencing a rapid increase in the proportion of older adults, generating both societal challenges and unprecedented market opportunities. As the number of older adults grows, their demand for meaningful social engagement, physical activity, and well-being-oriented services increases correspondingly. Sport, in particular, has been recognized as a powerful driver of physical, psychological, and social health in later life. Consequently, a wide range of sport-based programs and services are emerging to address the preferences and needs of the silver generation.

Despite these developments, many sport enterprises—especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—struggle to attract and maintain older adult participation. Traditional marketing approaches are often insufficient for such a dynamic and heterogeneous segment. Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM), which integrates innovation, opportunity recognition, resource leveraging, and customer-intimacy, offers a more flexible and opportunity-driven approach.

The purpose of this study is to explore how Iranian sport SMEs conceptualize and implement entrepreneurial marketing strategies to enhance active engagement among older adults.

Methods

This research adopted an applied, qualitative design grounded in an interpretive–constructivist paradigm. Data collection was conducted through purposeful and semi structured interviews featuring open-ended questions, allowing participants to express their experiences and perspectives in depth.

Sixteen interviews were conducted with enterprise owners, executive managers, and senior staff (5 women and 11 men). Participants represented diverse types of sport services, including fitness studios, aquatic centers, wellness programs, functional movement clinics, and community based physical activity ventures.

Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) served as the analytical method. RTA was chosen because it supports interpretive flexibility, acknowledges researcher subjectivity, and produces rich thematic insights well suited for exploratory studies on marketing and entrepreneurial practices.

Results

The analysis yielded five overarching themes and fifteen subthemes, forming a cohesive framework for entrepreneurial marketing in the silver sports economy.

1. Reframing Value: Sport for older adults is being reimagined beyond traditional performance and aesthetics. Managers frequently described reframing sport as “everyday empowerment,” which resonated strongly with older participants.
2. Product Innovation & Experimentation: Innovation emerged not as high-tech transformation, but as continuous, customer-responsive iteration.
3. Experience-Centric Personalization: This resulted in more satisfying and psychologically safe environments for seniors.
4. Networking, Sponsorship & Resource Leveraging: Such partnerships helped enterprises maintain economic viability while expanding reach.
5. Creative & Narrative-Based Promotion: Promotional strategies focused less on technical features and more on meaningful storytelling.

These strategies countered negative stereotypes of aging and encouraged participation through emotional connection.

Together, these themes indicate that engaging the silver generation requires holistic orchestration of innovation, personalization, value co creation, and relational marketing—core principles of entrepreneurial marketing.

Conclusion

The findings demonstrate that attracting and retaining older adults in sport enterprises extends far beyond conventional marketing tactics. It is a multifaceted process involving value redefinition, iterative innovation, personalized experience design, community networking, and creative storytelling. Entrepreneurial Marketing provides a highly adaptive and opportunity-driven framework that empowers sport SMEs to navigate demographic change while enhancing the quality of life for the silver generation

Footnotes

Ethical approval

All stages of the research were conducted in accordance with ethical research principles, including academic integrity, respect for authors’ intellectual property rights, and avoidance of data fabrication or distortion.

Funding

This research has not received financial support from any organization or body.

Authors’ contribution

All authors participated in the data collection process and writing the content of the article.

Conflict of interest

No conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors of the article.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all those who helped and assisted in conducting this research.