Segmenting volunteers by motivation in the 2012 London Olympic Games

• We conducted a survey of a total of 11,421 London Olympic volunteers.
• We employed a combined factor-clustering method to extract distinct volunteer segments.
• We found three meaningful distinct segments.
• The obligated group contained the largest number of volunteers among three groups.
• The enthusiastic group had the highest satisfaction and the highest retention.

The present research employed seven motivational factors to delineate sports-event volunteer segments for the 2012 London Olympic Games. The investigators conducted a survey of 11,421 volunteers in the 2012 London Olympic Games and used the factor-clustering method to identify three distinct segments (i.e., the obligated, the enthusiastic, and the semi-enthusiastic). In addition, these segments' overall satisfaction, behavioral intentions for other future events, and socio-demographic backgrounds were assessed, uncovering significant differences among the segments. An ANOVA and a chi-square test found the segments to differ significantly from each other in all of these regards.