Articles
Franchise Ownership as Individual-Level Sport Brands: Exploring a Digitally Intermediated Process Model
Research suggests when local consumers perceive professional sport team owners as like them, they are more likely to attend games and spend freely (Hayduk & Walker, 2021). We developed and tested an intuitive process model to examine how some owners are better able to increase profitability, incentivize attendance, and induce consumer spending. We built and tested a process model of owners’ individualized impacts on franchise outcomes using franchise-level panel data merged with city-level Google search traffic data. Early-tenure owners from the same franchise city demonstrated positive outcomes. This paper contributes to the dearth of literature on franchise owners and their contributions to franchise-level outcomes.
Keywords: sport brands, owners, profitability, attendance, finance
Applying the Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media Scale to Professional Sport: A Psychological Approach to Measuring Social Media Engagement
This research takes a psychological approach to measuring social media engagement in sport by applying the consumer brand engagement (CBE) in social media scale. We collected two samples to evaluate the psycho- metric properties of the CBE scale in a professional sport team context. After finding the CBE scale reliable and valid in both samples, we explored its impact on relationship quality, purchase intentions, and referral intentions. We found that an increase in CBE leads to an increase in relationship quality and subsequent purchase and referral intentions. After testing an alternative model, where we replaced CBE with its three dimensions (cognitive, affective, and activational), we found that results replicate for the affective and activational dimensions. Taken together, these findings are consistent with and extend past work that studies social media from a behavioral approach via specific consumer actions (e.g., like, comment, share).
Keywords: social media measurement, consumer behavior, social media management, professional sport, sport marketing
Exploring Fans’ Experience of Toxicity in Women’s Sport Social Media Communities
Women’s sport has newfound momentum and popularity, and fans are proceeding to engage through various channels like social media. However, social media is not always positive, and there exists a dark side to this online dynamic. Left unchecked and unexamined, it is possible that fans withdraw from these digital spaces, a potential critical problem for sport marketers seeking to build online fan communities. This study explored fans’ experiences of toxicity in women’s sport social media communities through semi-structured interviews with self-identified women’s sport fans. The findings revealed key insights on how fans behave in these communities, including their reasons to enter these spaces, how toxicity affects their experience, and their intentions to continue engaging despite the prevalence of antisocial activity. The findings suggest that sport marketers need to have concerted efforts to build and manage social media communities through great- er education and advocacy, rather than leaving them open and susceptible to hate.
Keywords: women’s sport, social media, toxicity, fan engagement, online community
Contextualizing Fans’ Divergent Experiences of Sport Activism Through a Social Identity Threat Lens
This article examines how multiple intersecting social identities influence the fan experience of sport activism by incorporating the social identity approach (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner et al., 1987). To do so, a heterogeneous sample of 16 sport fans was interviewed, and qualitative data were analyzed following Braun and Clarke’s (2021) six-step reflexive thematic analysis. The findings revealed that participants’ alignments between sport activism and personal beliefs anchored their polarized interpretations of and responses to the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. Privileged critics reiterated previously found and commonly held denunciations of sport activism (i.e., sport as apolitical and skepticism toward activism) to justify their opposition to the BLM movement. Yet, we maintain that those frequently communicated responses protect threatened White participants’ social identities by removing race from the equation, in part extricating race- based threats. The findings demonstrate the usefulness of interest convergence and divergence for interpreting objections to sport activism and broader issues related to equality. Moreover, this research suggests that there are opportunities for sport organizations to leverage activism to extend educational and informational relationships with fans, particularly if it is genuine and well-intentioned.
Keywords: sport activism, social identity, interest convergence, Black Lives Matter
The Value of the Call: An Examination of MLB Broadcasters as Points of Fan Attachment
This study investigates the relationships between fans’ perceptions of the credibility and demographic fit of local sport broadcasters and their corresponding attachment to the broadcasters, along with their identification and loyalty to the team. A sample of 288 Major League Baseball (MLB) fans from the United States and Canada were recruited via Twitter and Facebook fan pages and surveyed to answer questions about their fandom, favorite team, and organization’s broadcasters. The perceived demographic fit with the locale of an MLB broadcast team was found to be significantly related to fans’ attachment to the broadcast team, which then significantly predicted identification and team loyalty. Given the vast focus on television ratings and network contracts, knowing the value that a broadcast team possesses toward cultivating team identification and long- term support has considerable merit.
Keywords: source credibility, sport broadcasting, attachment, consumer behavior
Brand Mark Comprehension: The Influence of Athlete Logo Understanding on Consumer Evaluations of Athlete Brands
The current investigation examines how consumers perceive various types of athlete logos based on the number and recognizability of different brand associations. With the growing number of athletes who utilize a logo to enhance their brand, generate additional revenue, and differentiate within a crowded marketplace, examining perceptions of logo characteristics is vital. A pre-post test experimental design was constructed using the results from a content analysis of current WNBA and NBA athlete logos, in addition to a free-thought listing exercise and a hypothetical logo creation/validation. One-way MANOVAs and repeated measures MANOVAs were employed to examine consumer perceptions (n = 288) regarding the brand equity and logo evaluation. They perceived the quality of the athlete and their brand before and after the logo was explained to the consumer in full. Results indicated minimal but significant differences between the leagues, no impact on brand loyalty, and varied responses pertaining to logo aesthetics and evaluations.
Keywords: athlete logo, athlete branding, logo design, consumer perceptions
