FiT Publishing

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...Read more

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of fan engagement on merchandise purchase intentions. We draw on existing fan engagement literature and focus on non-transactional fan engagement and its effects on merchandise purchasing as a single transactional fan engagement dimension. Data were collected from 206 season ticket holders (Study 1) and 520 fans of professional sports teams (Study 2) and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings show non-transactional fan engagement dimensions explain 51% (Study 1) and 60% (Study 2) of merchandise purchase intentions and...Read more

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of controllable service quality factors as firm-based antecedents to two dimensions of customer engagement behavior among Formula One racing spectators. This study uses the theory of customer engagement (van Doorn et al., 2010) as a guiding framework and applies Bettencourt’s (1997) model of customer voluntary performance (CVP) to examine how perceptions of ancillary services and value can prompt management cooperation and prosocial behavior among spectators of a recurring mega sport event. Findings suggest that spectator interactions...Read more