The sudden pneumonia epidemic has made the spread and prevention of the virus become the focus of academic and social attention. Various studies have also shown that enhancing immunity is the foundation of fighting viruses. People began to realize the importance of sports, and it has gradually become a public consensus to enhance physical exercise and improve their immunity. Jianwen and Aihong (2021) pointed out that the health value of physical exercise is coming back. The novel coronavirus epidemic is similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Yalun et al. (2020) believed that according to the judgment of the SARS situation, the awareness of people on physical exercise and consumption behavior have been significantly improved after the epidemic. Qiyuan (2020) found that various sports events and sports performances were canceled or postponed, and gyms and other stadiums were closed, with a negative impact on household sports consumption and sports market in the short term, while bringing new development opportunities to the sports industry by affecting consumer concepts in the long run. Jun and Xiangyang (2021) proposed that the sports industry is an important part of the modern service industry, and finding solutions and strategies to the sports consumption dilemma is crucial to the recovery of the sports industry.

Through the search, it is found that study in the field of sports under the novel coronavirus epidemic mainly concentrates on “physical exercise,” “school physical education,” “sports consumption,” “health awareness,” and “sports psychology” but less supported by the actual data. This study makes an empirical analysis of the data from the survey of Kunshan residents in order to have practical value.

The SOR theory is proposed by the environmental scientists Mehrabian and Russell to explore the influence of external environmental stimuli on individual cognition, emotion, behavior, and physical response. Man and Xiangzhi (2020) noted that S (Stimulus) refers to external factors affecting individuals, O (Organism) refers to the internal state of a person, including sensory, emotional, and cognitive behavior, and R (Response) is the behavioral decision of the organism by integrating external environmental stimuli and internal psychological attitude. Stimuli and responses are connected through a series of intrinsic variables of the organism, which is widely applied to a systematic analysis of human behavioral intentions by focusing on the intrinsic emotional and cognitive factors of people.

Combining the research of previous scholars, Lei and Xiaoqiang (2021) pointed out that the SOR models have been widely used in the study of consumer behavior; Russell and Mehrabian (1999) and Mattila and Wirtz (2001) indicate that consumers develop cognitive, emotional, and physical responses to external stimuli, and these reactions comprehensively affect the actual behavior of consumers; At the same time, Mei et al. (2021) pointed out that the SOR model is an important theoretical perspective to study consumer behavior. Therefore, we believed that the SOR framework model provides a very suitable research perspective and a solid theoretical foundation for the study of sports consumption willingness under the epidemic situation. This study uses the pneumonia epidemic as an external environment S, the public internal cognitive and emotional behavior changes as O, and the future sports consumption willingness as R. It makes up for the lack of interdisciplinary integration research between sports, consumer behavior, and psychology.

The SEM can not only deal with the causal relationship between measurable variables but also construct multiple “latent variables” by factor analysis, and it can discuss the complex relationship between latent variables or between latent variables and measurable variables. SEM provides the possibility to measure highly abstract and difficult variables. Due to the abovementioned advantages, SEM shows the uniqueness that other analysis methods do not have, and it is widely used by researchers.

Chunming et al. (2021) discussed the impact of the changes in the behavior demand of the Chinese consumers on the perception of various dimensions of the indicators of the sports industry marketing strategy under the normalization of the epidemic; Weiti and Ke (2021) used the SEM to identify and evaluate risk factors in large sports events; Dongabe (2020) used SEM to discuss the influence of exercise time and behavior control on the improvement of the physical fitness of students. Huiqin (2018) used the SEM to discuss the influence of external exercise support, subjective norms, perceptual value, behavior control, and other factors on the exercise willingness of middle school students in Yangzhou; Daoli (2018) used SEM to explore the influence of sports involvement on conspicuous sports consumption; Haiyan (2015) used SEM to explore the impact of sports events on urban tourism. This study uses SEM to study the impact of sports consumption characteristics on the sports consumption willingness of residents under epidemic.

Sports consumption refers to all personal consumption behaviors related to sports. Wei and Hongchao (2005) believed that the types of sports consumption are divided into three categories, namely, physical, ornamental, and participatory, according to the different ways and functions of sports consumption. Mullet and Karson (1985) noted in the study that consumption willingness is the psychological motivation and position, namely, that willingness to consume sports reflects the possibility that consumers are willing to consume sports-related products or services.

Mingzhi et al. (2020) analyzed the consumption status of different sports consumption characteristics in China under the epidemic. The physical sports consumption of various physical consumption materials was significantly reduced in response to the epidemic prevention and control situation, but at the same time, the online sports purchase increased, especially for home sports equipment. The ornamental sports consumption of the public buying tickets to watch sports events, sports exhibitions, and sports performances is due to the increased risk of personnel gathering and the delay or cancelation of many sports activities. Participatory sports consumption represented by sports fitness, sports tourism, and sports training has been negatively and significantly affected by the epidemic. Different consumption characteristics under the epidemic situation have a significant impact on consumption willingness. Therefore, the following assumptions are put forward:

The significance of introducing intermediary variable research is to help explain the relationship mechanism between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Participation represents an intrinsic mental state variable, and Flynn and Goldsmith (1993) proposed that engagement reflects the high perception and consumption motivation of products or services in a specific environment; Xiaosong and Jihai (2009) believed that engagement has become an important factor on consumer psychological activity and purchase decisions, and Dan (2015) noted that the impact of consumer involvement on repeated purchases has been demonstrated by many scholars. Therefore, this study introduces the intermediary variable of involvement degree.

The essential difference between sports consumption and other types of consumption lies in “sports.” Therefore, when choosing variables, sports elements are essential. Related concepts include sports level, sports consciousness, sports participation, sports habits, and so on. These concepts have a direct impact on the strength of sports consumption consciousness. Wei (2011) introduced consumer involvement into the research of ornamental sports consumers; Daoli (2018) used sports involvement as an intermediary variable to verify that sports involvement has a positive impact on conspicuous sports consumption. Combined with the questionnaire, this study sets the measurement indexes of sports involvement, including sports intensity, time, and frequency. Schiffman and Kanuk (2000) thought that the purchase intention of consumers is the subjective tendency of consumers to consume a certain product, which is closely related to their behavior. Therefore, the following assumptions are put forward:

In consideration of economy and rationality, this study adopts the methods of field investigation, questionnaire (electronic questionnaire and paper questionnaire), interview, and mathematical statistics.

The questionnaire has been collected for more than 1 year, and the respondents are 6,853 Kunshan citizens from 11 government agencies, 53 companies and enterprises, 6 schools, and 37 communities in 3 districts and 8 towns of Kunshan City. A total of 6,220 questionnaires were collected, 585 invalid questionnaires with incomplete answers and non-Kunshan residents were excluded, and the remaining valid questionnaires were 5,635, with an effective rate of 90.5%.

We divided the characteristics of independent variable sports consumption into three dimensions: physical consumption, ornamental consumption and participatory consumption, took the involvement as the intermediary variable and the future sports consumption willingness expenditure as the dependent variables, and selected the corresponding observation variables, as shown in Table 1.

Based on the information and data obtained from the questionnaire, 5,635 valid data were collected, and the basic information of the samples is shown in Table 2.

The survey results (Figure 1) show that during the epidemic period, Kunshan residents chose running, walking, cycling, and badminton the most. These data are consistent with the statistical results of the “National Fitness Program (2011–2015)” issued by the State Sports General Administration, which shows that physical exercise for the purpose of fighting against the “COVID-19 epidemic” has less to do with the selection of sports events.

As shown in Figure 2 among them, students prefer running (16%), badminton (14%), and cycling (14%). Public servants of party and government organs prefer running (17%) and hiking (16%). Retired people basically choose to walk (24%), run (23%), and square dance (19%). Enterprises and individuals choose running (21%) and hiking (18%).

As shown in Figure 3, during the epidemic period, first, most residents spent sports to keep fit. Second, it is due to personal interests, healthcare, and exercise of will. It can be noted from this that the epidemic situation has made people deeply realize the importance of physical exercise to enhance their physical fitness, and physical exercise has become a voluntary lifestyle. This is consistent with Wei and Chaoyang (2003).

In this study, the stability and reliability of the scale were tested by using the corrected item-total correlation (CITC) coefficient and Cronbach’s α value. Cronbach’s α value of the Consumer Consumption Characteristics Scale (Table 7), Involvement Scale, and Consumer Willingness to Spend Future Sports Consumption Scale (Table 8) are all higher than the minimum standard value of 0.60, which indicates that the scales have good reliability.

In the Consumer Consumption Characteristic Scale, the CITC value of SE1 is less than 0.5, so consider eliminating it. After SE1 is eliminated, Cronbach’s α value cannot be significantly improved if any of the remaining 12 measurement items are eliminated. As a result, the questionnaire formed by retaining the remaining 12 measurement items is more accurate.

The COVID-19 epidemic has greatly improved the awareness of people on sports and health promotion. In this epidemic, the whole society advocates home fitness, and the government and relevant departments can play the role of neighborhood committees. Establishing some small-scale and small-group sports activities can increase sports activities and also avoid large-scale crowd gatherings. At the same time, aiming at citizens of different ages and occupations, different types of activity associations should be established. For example, the elderly prefer the slower-paced sports activities, while the normally busy citizens prefer the relatively lower-intensity sports activities. At the same time, the epidemic situation has also stimulated the scales of small-sized fitness equipment suitable for home use.

On 18 March 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism held a press conference on “Promoting the resumption of the cultural tourism industry in an orderly manner and actively promoting the potential of consumption replenishment.” Under this mobilization, tourism started a new prelude to resume work and production. All provincial capitals and cities seize the opportunity to improve the industrial chain of the sports tourism industry, promote the continuous integration of sports tourism with clothing, accommodation, transportation, entertainment, and other industries, and realize synergy and development of new consumption. Residents naturally pay monetary costs for sports tourism and promote the development of the sports consumption industry.

Considering low-density participation, scene experience, and non-contact service, we will provide different sports products for different market segments, such as setting up stadiums of different grades. It is to adopt a differentiation strategy to meet the needs of different consumer groups, so as to enhance the sports consumption willingness of residents and obtain the long-term sustainable development benefits.

For example, according to the Tmall 2019 Sports Consumption Trends Report (2019), in terms of sports and fitness, women have also shown unprecedented enthusiasm in recent years, such as yoga based on female groups, and practitioners, in 2014, from 10 million people increased to 20 million people. In 2016, there were 14,000 yoga studios, and by 2018, there were over 30,000 yoga studios. Being keenly aware of market changes and providing accurate services to specific consumer groups will make you stand out and seize market share.

In recent years, the widespread popularity of the Internet has made the public increasingly dependent on the Internet. There is also a new force emerging in the sports industry, such as Keep, Music Carving, Super Orangutan, and other sports fitness apps. After the epidemic, enterprises can make full use of the Internet, break through the time and space constraints, and realize the perfect combination of online and offline sports.

As an offline enterprise, while coping with the crisis and resuming production, it also needs to have an innovative spirit, constantly update its strategic layout, make its service content and products more attractive, and firmly grasp the hearts of consumers. For example, the use of brand membership. Usually, consumers with membership cards have a stronger willingness to consume than other consumers. When the membership system makes the participation of citizens become a stable habit, it will help to increase their sports consumption needs. The participation of one family member in sports will also lead to the participation of other family members. It is still a long-lasting battle to establish brand loyalty in the sports consumption market. Only by finding our own core competitiveness, we can ride the wind and waves in the fierce competition.