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Hee-Tae Jo

Sungkyunkwan University · Psychology

About the Lab

Professor Hee-Tae Jo's research lab specializes in the psychological and behavioral aspects of sport tourism, with a particular focus on nostalgia, volunteerism, and consumer behavior in tourism and leisure contexts. The lab explores how nostalgia—especially in relation to sports teams, personal identity, and group belonging—influences life satisfaction, participation intentions, and travel behaviors. It also investigates the role of psychological factors such as job satisfaction, commitment, and fear in shaping consumer responses, particularly during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. The lab emphasizes empirical research using advanced statistical methods, including structural equation modeling and multilevel analysis, to develop and validate measurement tools such as the Nostalgia Scale for Sport Tourism (NSST).

sport tourismnostalgiavolunteerismconsumer behaviorpsychological well-being

Research Overview

Papers
148
Total Citations
2,782
Papers (5y)
63
Primary Field
Psychology

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
63total
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Citations per year (5y)
415total
20222023202420252026

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|103 citations·2014
A conceptual model for nostalgia in the context of sport tourism: re-classifying the sporting past
Heetae Cho, Gregory Ramshaw, William C. Norman
SJR Q2Journal of Sport & Tourism

The concept of nostalgia is complex and difficult to measure, in part because of its diverse emotional perspectives. Various authors have attempted to classify aspects of nostalgia to further describe this phenomenon and understand its broader application. However, the nostalgia that sports fans experience, particularly in a tourist context, appears to be unique from its other types and forms. This difference is in part because the relationship between sport – and, by extension, sport-related tr

Social PsychologyPsychology
2
Article|98 citations·2020
Understanding sustained usage of health and fitness apps: Incorporating the technology acceptance model with the investment model
Heetae Cho, G. Christina, Weisheng Chiu
SJR Q1Technology in Society
Information Systems and ManagementDecision Sciences
3
Article|96 citations·2020
The Effect of Volunteer Management on Intention to Continue Volunteering: A Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction of Volunteers
Heetae Cho, Zi’En Wong, Weisheng Chiu
SJR Q1SAGE OpenOA

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between volunteer management and volunteers’ intention to continue participating, based on the environmental psychology model. Moreover, this study investigated the mediating role of volunteers’ job satisfaction in this relationship. Using a sample drawn from volunteers of a cultural event in Singapore, this research conducted confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis. The results showed a positive relationshi

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
4
Article|94 citations·2019
Exploring tourists' perceptions of tourism impacts
Dongoh Joo, Heetae Cho, Kyle Maurice Woosnam
SJR Q1Tourism Management Perspectives
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
5
Article|79 citations·2019
Importance of leisure nostalgia on life satisfaction and leisure participation
Heetae Cho
SJR Q1Service Industries Journal

Nostalgia plays a crucial role in individuals’ psychological and behavioral responses. To identify the influence of nostalgia on leisure participants’ life, this study examined how individuals’ leisure nostalgia influenced their life satisfaction, thereby reinforcing their leisure participation intention. 417 responses were collected from leisure participants and analyzed in this study. Results showed that leisure nostalgia positively affected life satisfaction and leisure participation intentio

Social PsychologyPsychology
6
Article|78 citations·2017
A Multilevel Approach to Scale Development in Sport Tourist Nostalgia
Heetae Cho, Hyun–Woo Lee, DeWayne Moore, William C. Norman, Gregory Ramshaw
SJR Q1Journal of Travel Research

Nostalgia has been identified as an essential factor to understand sport tourists’ behavioral intentions. However, a measurement model to examine nostalgia has not been developed in the field of sport tourism. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable Nostalgia Scale for Sport Tourism (NSST) to measure sport tourists’ nostalgia. A multilevel analysis was used in order to avoid biases caused by common characteristics within a travel group. The scale conceptualized sport nostal

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
7
Article|77 citations·2020
Travel overseas for a game: the effect of nostalgia on satellite fans’ psychological commitment, subjective well-being, and travel intention
Heetae Cho, Weisheng Chiu, Xiaofang Doreen Tan
SJR Q1Current Issues in Tourism

Sport tourists have the potential to create a significant impact on the development of regional economy and tourism. Especially, satellite fans who enthusiastically support foreign-based teams through media platforms are now drawing attention in the fields of sport and tourism. However, despite the attention from academia and industry, it has not been much studied on factors influencing satellite fans’ psychological and behavioral responses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend the

Social PsychologyPsychology
8
Article|75 citations·2021
Impact ofCOVID‐19 on consumers' impulse buying behavior of fitness products: A moderated mediation model
Weisheng Chiu, Ga‐Eun Oh, Heetae Cho
SJR Q1Journal of Consumer BehaviourOA

During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are found to be more impulsive to purchase fitness products online. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate a moderated mediation model of consumers' perception of COVID-19 and impulse buying behavior through fear moderated by income. A total of 608 responses were collected from consumers in the United States, and this study employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the hypothesized relationships in

MarketingBusiness, Management and Accounting
9
Article|74 citations·2018
Examining nostalgia in sport tourism: The case of US college football fans
Heetae Cho, Dongoh Joo, G. Christina
SJR Q1Tourism Management Perspectives
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
10
Article|66 citations·2021
The Model of Goal-Directed Behavior in Tourism and Hospitality: A Meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling Approach
Weisheng Chiu, Heetae Cho
SJR Q1Journal of Travel Research

The model of goal-directed behavior (MGB) has been widely utilized to explore consumer behavior in the fields of tourism and hospitality. However, prior studies have demonstrated inconsistent findings with respect to the causal relationships of the MGB variables. To address this issue, we conducted a meta-analytic review based on studies that had previously applied MGB. Moreover, we compared the cultural differences that emerged within MGB. By reviewing and analyzing 37 studies with 39 samples (

MarketingBusiness, Management and Accounting
11
Article|64 citations·2019
Sport tourists' nostalgia and its effect on attitude and intentions: A multilevel approach
Heetae Cho, Dongoh Joo, DeWayne Moore, William C. Norman
SJR Q1Tourism Management Perspectives
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
12
Article|62 citations·2019
Leisure nostalgia: Scale development and validation
Heetae Cho, Do Young Pyun, John Wang
SJR Q1Journal of Leisure ResearchOA

Nostalgia is one of the most critical constructs influencing individuals’ future behavioral intention. However, a measurement scale for nostalgia has not been widely explored and has not been developed in the context of leisure. Therefore, the study aimed to develop a scale, based on the classification of nostalgia, to measure nostalgic leisure behavior. This study followed a rigorous scale development procedure to achieve adequate psychometric properties. The leisure nostalgia scale developed i

Social PsychologyPsychology
13
Article|61 citations·2019
Nostalgia, motivation, and intention for international football stadium tourism
Heetae Cho, Er Chin Khoo, Hyun–Woo Lee
SJR Q1Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research

Based on cognitive–affective-behaviour theory, authors examined how European football club fans’ nostalgia and motivation affect the intention to visit an overseas stadium. Results from 301 European football club fans, yet to visit their favourite football team stadium, showed that nostalgia positively affected motivation and motivation significantly influenced intention to visit the stadium. Testing the mediation effect between nostalgia and intention to visit an overseas stadium, only the indi

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
14
Article|57 citations·2020
Re-theorizing social emotions in tourism: applying the theory of interaction ritual in tourism research
Dongoh Joo, Heetae Cho, Kyle Maurice Woosnam, Courtney Suess
SJR Q1Journal of Sustainable Tourism

Although social emotions can serve as an effective analytic lens through which to study residents’ reactions to tourists and tourism, limited theoretical discussion exists examining how social emotions are related to perceptions or behaviors. Extant literature instead has knitted together empirical support in postulating the relationships among social emotions, perceptions, and behaviors. While such an approach is also considered theoretical in a broad sense, resultant findings can be disjointed

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
15
Article|55 citations·2021
How nostalgia forges place attachment and revisit intention: a moderated mediation model
Heetae Cho
SJR Q2Marketing Intelligence & Planning

Purpose Analyzing sport fans' emotions has attracted much attention and offered important implications for research on sport consumer behavior. As such, diverse emotional factors have been considered to understand their behavioral responses. However, the concept of nostalgia has been examined to a lesser extent in the context of sport. Thus, this study investigated the role of nostalgia and its relationships with place attachment and revisit intention. The frequency of past experience was used a

Social PsychologyPsychology

Research Areas

Social PsychologySociology and Political ScienceMarketingAerospace EngineeringInformation Systems and ManagementInformation Systems

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