FiT Publishing

One of the most valuable assets a sport entity possesses is its brand. However, existing sport branding research has largely examined brands at an individual level and not taken into account the relationships be-tween connected brands or the actual behavioral outcomes of branding. Th is article provides an overview of the current state of sport branding research; proposes an extended conceptualization of sport brand archi-tecture within a sport brand ecosystem framework to guide future examination of sport branding research; introduces the four articles published in this special issue; and...Read more

Most papers analyze the broadcast demand for a single league. However, professional football clubs participate in two or more tournaments simultaneously every season. Hence, the perception of fans may differ. This is a relevant topic, since television rights constitute the main source of revenue for professional football. The Brazilian football market is an appropriate laboratory to test it: The first division teams play two national-level tournaments, including a state-lev-el championship, and the top clubs also compete in an international championship. The dataset comprises 458 broadcast...Read more

In the years since basking in spite of reflected failure (BIRFing) was hypothesized, no empirical evidence has confirmed its existence, nor have the various hypothesized antecedents been investigated. This multiphase study makes a much-needed contribution to the sport consumer behavior literature in its investigation of BIRFing behaviors, utilizing a sample of long-suffering fans of the Chicago Cubs. Results confirmed that diehard fans do BIRF, the behavior is predicted by team identification, and that loyalty and camaraderie are antecedents. Data collection for the study’s second phase...Read more

Scholars have studied sport team identification for decades, advancing our understanding of the influence of a psychological connection to a sport team on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Despite the contribution of the study of team identification to the sport fan psychology and sport consumer behavior literatures, a critical issue is apparent. A review of the methods used by scholars to assess and study team identification uncovered a misinterpretation of participant responses to team identification scale items. In previous re-search, not-identified individuals have been examined as...Read more

In the years since basking in spite of reflected failure (BIRFing) was hypothesized, no empirical evidence has confirmed its existence, nor have the various hypothesized antecedents been investigated. This multiphase study makes a much-needed contribution to the sport consumer behavior literature in its investigation of BIRFing behaviors, utilizing a sample of long-suffering fans of the Chicago Cubs. Results confirmed that diehard fans do BIRF, the behavior is predicted by team identification, and that loyalty and camaraderie are antecedents. Data collection for the study’s second phase...Read more

eSports–organized video game competitions–are growing in popularity, with top tournaments drawing crowds of spectators rivaling traditional sporting events. Understanding the extent to which eSport operates similarly to traditional sport is vital to developing marketing strategies for the eSport industry and informing academic research on eSport. Prior research has examined eSports in isolation from traditional sports, overlooking direct comparisons to understand the degree to which eSport spectators are motivated similarly to traditional sport spectators. The current study measures widely...Read more

Ticket pricing in professional sports is transitioning from a cost-based to demand-based approach. It has been argued that consumer perceptions of fairness regarding demand-based ticket pricing could influence purchase decisions. Perceptions of unfair pricing practices can lead to dissatisfaction and negatively affect purchase behavior. However, familiarity with demand-based pricing strategies could mitigate perceptions that real-time price fluctuations are unfair to the consumer. Guided by transaction utility theory, the current study examined the relationship between various ticket...Read more

Despite the growing body of literature on consumer loyalty, little attention has been given to identifying attitudinal variables useful in predicting allegiance to athletic teams. The changing nature of sport marketing has made it imperative to develop new segmentation variables to augment behavioral information on consumers. The present study examined the predictive validity of eight attitude properties in explaining allegiance to a professional sports team. A composite loyalty measure (commitment and behavior) was utilized to segment the sample (N=379) into high-, moderate-, and low-...Read more

Dynamic ticket pricing (DTP), a new revenue management (RM) strategy in sport, has grown in popularity in response to the demand-based ticket resale market. Previous research has examined the relationship between the primary and secondary ticket market and determinants of price in a DTP environment. However, research has not focused on consumer perceptions of DTP or resale prices. The purpose of this study was to examine consumer perceptions of demand-based pricing over time, to assess the influence of attitudes on perceived value and purchase intentions. Results indicated that time, team...Read more

The Seattle Sounders FC took Major League Soccer by storm in its inaugural season of 2009. The club led the league in attendance, won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup trophy, and clinched a playoff berth. The team’s success was attributed in part to its rabid fan base, which routinely sold out its 30,000-seat venue and nearly doubled the league attendance average. How was it that an expansion franchise was able to garner such immediate, fervent support, while original franchises with well-established fan bases struggled? This case study sought to supplement the limited current literature...Read more