Contents for SMQ Issue 28:4
| Abstract: Sport Marketing Quarterly, Volume 28, No. 4, December 2019. |
| Smart Sports Fans: Factors Influencing Sport Consumption on Smartphones Authors: Sylvia Chan-Olmsted and Min Xiao |
| Abstract: Smartphones are playing pivotal roles in sports fans’ media consumption journey. However, what motivates sports fans to use smartphones for sports; what are some of the behavioral factors that influence sports consumption on smartphones; how smartphone use for sports is related to other media usage; and how fandom interacts with motivational and behavioral factors still remains unclear to academic scholars. An online survey (n = 646) was conducted to uncover the factors influencing sports consumption on smartphones. The results revealed that the motivator of acquiring information related to the sports, the behaviors of basking in reflected glory (BIRGing), as well as social sports participation, and the usage of websites, streaming videos, social media, radio, newspaper, and fantasy sports are factors that influence the consumption of sports on smartphones. |
| Nonlocal Fandom: Effects of Geographic Distance, Geographic Identity, and Local Competition on Team Identification Authors: Katherine R. N. Reifurth, Matthew J. Bernthal, Khalid Ballouli, and Dorothy Collins |
| Abstract: Sports fans’ identification with their hometown is a very salient aspect of who they are, and thus, they are likely to be attracted to teams that represent the place they call “home.” Although recent sport marketing studies have shed light on the importance of home among fans, there is a void in the literature relative to “nonlocal fans.” This study aims to examine how geographic distance, geographic identity, and the presence of other local teams affect team identification for different types of nonlocal fans: displaced and nondisplaced fans. Nine hundred and twenty self-identified nonlocal US fans completed an online survey distributed via online discussion forums. Results revealed partial statistical support for the hypotheses. Increased distance was not negatively related to team identification no matter the type of nonlocal fan. Results also suggest that the presence of a local team in the same sport or different sports does not diminish team identification for nondisplaced nonlocal fans. The study signifies that nonlocal fans are a valuable segment for teams to target, whether displaced or nondisplaced. Further, results suggest that teams should encourage fans to geographically identify with the city in which a team resides. |
| Corporate Sponsorship in College Football: An fMRI Study Measuring the Effectiveness of Corporate Branding Across Rival Teams Authors: David S. Martin, Kyle M. Townsend, Yun Wang, and Gopikrishna Deshpande |
| Abstract: This research examines a phenomenon the authors have entitled “directional-contamination,” which is a consumer’s response to advertising branded with a rival team after advertising branded with the home team has been shown. Utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the authors exposed two groups of respondents, seven who identify as fans of a specific football team and eight who are not fans to marketing and promotional material that corporate sponsors currently use in their branding efforts. The authors compared the neural responses of the participants (n=15) to three different categories of advertisements: not affiliated with sports, affiliated with a sports team of which the participant is a fan, and affiliated with rival teams. The results indicated that fans were likely to experience a significantly reduced neural response to sponsors that support both their preferred sporting club and a rival sporting club. |
| Follower Segments Within and Across the Social Media Networks of Major Professional Sport Organizations Authors: Michael L. Naraine |
| Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify segments within the social media networks of major professional sport organizations. Relational data were collected from the Twitter accounts of four major professional sport organizations based in Toronto, Canada. Users within these networks were subsequently parsed based upon their Twitter behavior (e.g., likes, retweets, and follows) and their demographic information using an automated cluster analysis. After revealing characteristics of each segment, the findings highlight both sport focused (e.g., hockey, basketball) and non-sport focused (e.g., mothers, music lovers) subgroups which, in some cases, appear in multiple professional sport team networks. The findings provide the antecedents to social media interaction and suggest managers within professional sport organizations consider this in-formation before forging new or enhanced relationship marketing activities as well as cross-promotional campaigns with additional brands. |
