Projecting authenticity is crucial for athletes engaged in personal branding. Prior scholarship has emphasized the “frontstage” of authenticity: what tactics athletes use to present themselves and how audiences perceive such tactics. But it has not yet examined the “backstage”: why athletes pursue authenticity and the strategic considerations involved in such ongoing self-presentations. Using a constructivist grounded theory that draws on interviews with 30 elite athletes engaged in personal branding, we unpack these backstage processes, which are not straightforward but entail an ongoing cycle of authenticity negotiation. Our model of authenticity negotiation identifies conflicting authenticity demands and constraints imposed by various actors, which athletes attempt to resolve over time using a range of authenticity management tactics. By modeling the backstage processes in authenticity negotiation, our research integrates, contextualizes, and suggests extensions to the existing frontstage work on authenticity. It offers guidance to athletes and practitioners on managing athlete brands and stakeholder collaborations.

对于从事个人品牌建设的运动员来说，展现真实性至关重要。先前的学术研究强调真实性的“前台”：运动员使用什么策略来展示自己以及观众如何看待这些策略。但它还没有审视“后台”：为什么运动员追求真实性，以及这种持续的自我展示所涉及的战略考虑。我们使用建构主义扎根理论，对 30 名从事个人品牌建设的精英运动员进行采访，解开了这些后台流程，这些流程并不简单，但需要一个持续的真实性谈判周期。我们的真实性协商模型识别了不同参与者施加的相互冲突的真实性要求和限制，运动员尝试使用一系列真实性管理策略随着时间的推移来解决这些问题。通过对真实性谈判的后台流程进行建模，我们的研究对现有的真实性前台工作进行了整合、情境化和扩展建议。它为运动员和从业者提供管理运动员品牌和利益相关者合作的指导。