scholarly journals Becoming Sport Fans: Relative Deprivation and Social Identity

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Chae Rhee ◽  
John Wong ◽  
Yukyoum Kim
Keyword(s):  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Team Identification ◽  
Support Teams ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Sport Team ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Irrational Behavior ◽  
Community Identification ◽  
Sport Fan

This study explores how people become sport fans by elucidating why people support teams even when they are unsuccessful. This study fills a gap in the literature on sport fan behavior by applying Relative Deprivation and Social Identification Theories to understand sport fans’ seemingly irrational behavior. We conducted a series of interviews with 17 sport fans with diverse backgrounds. Findings suggest that interaction among Community Identification, Relative Deprivation, Team Identification, Sport Involvement and Representativeness of a sport team helps explain why people support certain teams and become fans, regardless of team success. Findings suggest that team Representativeness in a specific community is one of the most important factors influencing people to become fans. We also found that sport involvement is very important, especially if relative deprivation can elicit team identification from people with little to no sport involvement. Further research may identify the exact relationship between sport involvement and relative deprivation.

Elevating self-esteem through sport team identification: a study about local and distant sport fans

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-718
Author(s):  
Yannis Lianopoulos ◽  
Nicholas D. Theodorakis ◽  
Nikolaos Tsigilis ◽  
Antonis Gardikiotis ◽  
Athanasios Koustelios
Keyword(s):  
Self Esteem ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Team Identification ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Sport Team ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Collective Self Esteem

PurposeThe concept of sport team identification has been widely used as a theoretical framework in explaining sport fan behavior. However, limited attention has been devoted to the consequences of distant (i.e., foreign) team identification. The purpose of the current research was to examine the way in which fans (local and distant) can increase their levels of collective and personal self-esteem due to their team identification.Design/methodology/approachData were accumulated from three Greek websites (N = 742). Among them, 623 subjects were grouped as local and 119 as distant football fans. A structural invariance analysis was followed.FindingsThe results revealed how team identification, enduring team-related social connections, and basking in reflected glory are interrelated to affect collective and finally personal self-esteem. Moreover, no differences were found between local and distant fans regarding the paths from eam identification to collective self-esteem and from collective self-esteem to personal self-esteem.Originality/valueThis is one of the first endeavors to examine the psychological consequences of distant team identification and to test the invariance across local and distant fans concerning the mechanisms that their personal self-esteem can be enhanced because their psychological connection to their favorite sport team.

Exploring and Measuring Spectator Sport Fanaticism

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Dwyer ◽  
Carrie LeCrom ◽  
Gregory P. Greenhalgh
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Sport Team ◽  
Expert Review ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Spectator Sport ◽  
Three Samples ◽  
Sport Fan

Spectator sport fan behavior is vast and represents one of the society’s most universal leisure activities. While event attendance and media consumption has received a great deal of attention from researchers, there is growing understanding that sport fans interact with their favorite teams in numerous other ways. Little is known, however, of what constitutes the fanatical behavior of sport spectators. Thus, there is an opportunity to understand the impassioned actions of the sport fan population to provide marketers and media providers with a better understanding of how sport fans interact with team brands beyond direct consumption. The current study aimed to discover and develop an instrument to measure spectator sport team fanaticism. Two focus groups were utilized to uncover and generate items. Three samples and an expert review were then conducted to validate the instrument. The following four unique dimensions were uncovered and preliminarily validated: instigation, superstition, committed interaction, and vicarious impact.

Predicting Fan Behavior Through Egocentric Network Analysis: Examining Season-Ticket Holder Renewal

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Matthew Katz ◽  
Bob Heere ◽  
E. Nicole Melton
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
College Football ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Season Ticket ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Past Behavior ◽  
Sport Fan ◽  
Egocentric Network

The purpose of this study is to utilize egocentric network analysis to predict repurchase behaviors for college football season-ticket holders. Using a research approach grounded in network theory, we included the relational and behavioral characteristics of sport fans in a binomial regression model to predict renewal decisions among college football season-ticket holders. More specifically, we developed a model that incorporates the egocentric network variables, past behavior, and behavioral intentions to empirically test which consumer characteristics predict future behavior. Building on previous research emphasizing the role of socializing agents and social connections in sport fan consumption, through the use of egocentric network analysis, we examined the effects of social structure and social context on repurchasing decisions. Moreover, the present study is positioned within the larger discourse on season-ticket holders, as we aimed to add a network theory perspective to the existing research on season-ticket holder churn and renewal.

Classifying Sport Consumers

2020 ◽  
pp. 323-356
Author(s):  
David P. Hedlund ◽  
Rui Biscaia ◽  
Maria do Carmo Leal
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Cluster Analyses ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Sport Fan

Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research often examines fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. Tribal sport fan groups can be identified based on seven dimensions, including membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people. In this research, these seven dimensions are used to classify sport fans (n=1505) through hierarchical and k-cluster analyses. The results of the cluster analyses using the seven dimensions suggest six unique clusters, labelled as (1) casual fans, (2) moderate remote fans, (3) moderate local fans, (4) local developing tribal fans, (5) remote tribal fans, and (6) tribal fans. A discussion of these six fan groups and the implications regarding associations with demographics and other important variables are provided.

Exploring Fan Behavior: Developing a Scale to Measure Sport eFANgelism

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 642-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Dwyer ◽  
Gregory P. Greenhalgh ◽  
Carrie W. LeCrom
Keyword(s):  
Step Method ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Sport Team ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Spectator Sport ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
The Many ◽  
Data Collections ◽  
Team Brand ◽  
Brand Evangelism

Brand evangelism, an advanced form of marketing where consumers voluntarily advocate on behalf of the brand, can bring numerous benefits to a firm. Pro-brand behaviors such as word-of-mouth promotion, recruitment of consumers, and disparagement of rivals are just a few of the many actions associated with brand evangelism. With highly impassioned and provocative fans, an opportunity exists to explore brand evangelism within the spectator sport context. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale to measure sport team (brand) evangelism. Guided by Fournier’s (1998) brand extension of relationship theory and following Churchill’s (1979) eight-step method for developing marketing measures, two focus groups of fans were interviewed and an additional 450 sport fans were surveyed through two distinct data collections in an attempt to identify sport team evangelistic behaviors, and test a measure of such behaviors. The assessment of the instrument included two forms of reliability analysis and three modes of validity analysis as the scale was parsimoniously reduced from 88 initial behaviors to four factors and 14 items.

Those Who Rarely Attend Alone

2018 ◽  
pp. 386-416
Author(s):  
David P. Hedlund ◽  
Rui Biscaia ◽  
Maria do Carmo Leal
Keyword(s):  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Structural Testing ◽  
American Football ◽  
Division I ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Sport Fan

Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research frequently segmented fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. In this chapter, seven dimensions of sport fan tribalism are proposed and tested (membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people) with samples from top-level American college football (Division I American football) and the top level of professional Portuguese soccer (Primeira Liga). The results provide reliability and validity evidence in support of the seven-dimension scale. In addition, the structural testing of the scale highlights differences between tribal fans and their teams (relative to other teams) in terms of five behavioral intentions and two commitment- related outcome variables. The implications of labeling sports fans at tribal, the use of the seven-dimension scale and the structural results are all discussed.

Classifying Sport Consumers

2021 ◽  
pp. 254-287
Author(s):  
David P. Hedlund ◽  
Rui Biscaia ◽  
Maria do Carmo Leal
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Sports Fans ◽  
Cluster Analyses ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Sport Fan

Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research often examines fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. Tribal sport fan groups can be identified based on seven dimensions, including membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people. In this research, these seven dimensions are used to classify sport fans (n=1505) through hierarchical and k-cluster analyses. The results of the cluster analyses using the seven dimensions suggest six unique clusters, labelled as (1) casual fans, (2) moderate remote fans, (3) moderate local fans, (4) local developing tribal fans, (5) remote tribal fans, and (6) tribal fans. A discussion of these six fan groups and the implications regarding associations with demographics and other important variables are provided.

The Role of Sport Fan Curiosity: A New Conceptual Approach to the Understanding of Sport Fan Behavior

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seong-Hee Park ◽  
Daniel Mahony ◽  
Yu Kyoum Kim
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Present Review ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Sport Fans ◽  
Fan Behavior ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Sport Fan ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors ◽  
Shed Light

Most literature on sport fan behaviors has focused on highly identified or loyal sport fans. While the literature has found that factors influencing current sport fans and their behaviors are related to, and based on, various psychological, social, and cultural factors, only a limited number of studies have investigated what factors initially attract individuals to consume sport. Curiosity has been found to be one of the crucial motivators that initially influence human exploratory behaviors in many domains. Using theories of curiosity, the present review aims to shed light on the role of curiosity in explaining various sport fan behaviors.

SPORT FAN AGGRESSION AND ANONYMITY: THE IMPORTANCE OF TEAM IDENTIFICATION

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 597-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Wann ◽  
Robin R. Peterson ◽  
Cindy Cothran ◽  
Michael Dykes
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Significant Relationship ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Team Identification ◽  
Current Form ◽  
Sport Team ◽  
Sport Fan

The current study tested the hypothesis that there would be a positive relationship between sport team identification and willingness to injure anonymously an opposing player or coach. To test this hypothesis, 88 college students were asked to indicate their willingness to murder someone anonymously and their willingness to injure anonymously the star player and coach of a rival team. The data confirmed the hypothesis, even after controlling for level of sport fandom. However, because the data failed to reveal a significant relationship between team identification and desire to murder someone anonymously, it is apparent that the highly identified fans were not simply more aggressive in general. Rather, they were more aggressive only when the target was a player or coach of a rival team. Discussion centers on the instrumental nature of the current form of fan aggression.

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