The Effects of Attitude Toward Commercialization on Purchasing Intentions of Sponsors' Products

Zhu Zhang
Doyeon Won
Donna L. Pastore

This study investigated the effects of college students' attitudes toward commercialization and their psychological attachment to an intercollegiate athletic program on their purchasing intentions of sponsors' products. The relationships between attitudes toward commercialization and psychological attachment were also examined. Data were collected from college students (N = 124) of a large Midwest University. A series of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that attitudes toward commercialization and psychological attachment together explained 28 percent of the variance in purchasing intentions; attitudes toward commercialization uniquely explained 12 percent of the variance in purchasing intentions after controlling for psychological attachment. However, of the three subdimensions of psychological attachment, only team identification was significantly associated with purchasing intentions while team commitment and school identification did not have significant effects on purchasing intentions. In addition, our study found an interaction effect between team identification and attitudes towards commercialization on purchasing intentions.