Hyungil H. Kwon
Galen T. Trail
Donghun Lee

We examined the influence of vicarious achievement and team identification on BIRGing and CORFing behavior. We tested three different models (direct effects, partially mediated, and fully mediated) across two different situations: BIRGing with the winning team and CORFing with the losing team. Data were collected from 246 students. The fully mediated model fit best in the BIRGing situation and the partially mediated model fit best in the CORFing situation. We found that vicarious achievement explained 12.7% to 16.9% of the variance in team identification across situations. Vicarious...Read more

Richard M. Campbell
Damon Aiken
Aubrey Kent

While much previous research has been conducted related to the tendencies for sports fans to bask in reflected glory (BIRG) and cut off reflected failure (CORF), the present work derives a model of fan behavior inclusive of two new concepts that extend existing theory: basking in spite of reflected failure (BIRF) and cutting off reflected success (CORS). The authors provide examples of image-management behaviors associated with BIRF and CORS and suggest multiple explanations for these relatively unusual consumer actions. Further, the authors develop formal propositions to guide future...Read more