FiT Publishing

Motivated by a comment Shaquille O’Neal made about the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), we ask the following question: Is consumer demand and revenue in sports driven by the entertainment spectacle of the contest or the emotional attachment derived from wins and losses? We answer this question by empirically examining gate revenue in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 2000‒01 to 2018‒19. Utilizing a linear regression with panel corrected errors, we examined the impact on factors like dunking, three-point shooting, star power, and team wins on team gate revenue....Read more

The purpose of this study was to examine the gender differences in the formation of esports gameplay intention. To this end, the determinants and esports gameplay intention were adopted from the Esports Consumption Model (ESC; Jang & Byon, 2020a). A total of 498 respondents (male = 54.2%; female = 45.8%) who were adults and had experienced esports gameplay responded to the online survey. We examined the measurement invariance to examine if the constructs were being measured equivalently across gender. Also, we tested for structural invariance to examine if causal relationships exist...Read more

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) utilizes a version of the reverse-order draft lottery similar to the NBA. While previous research has examined factors impacting the draft picks and subsequent professional performance in the NBA,1 we do not believe this subject has been explored for the WNBA. In fact, little has been published on this league. This particular study will build upon the work of Berri and Krautmann (2013), which presented a model of player performance for the WNBA. This work will be paired with the approach to the NBA draft introduced by Berri, Brook, and...Read more

Drawing from signaling theory and creative capital theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of advertising inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals on consumers’ intentions to join a fitness club. The authors also considered the moderating effects of consumer gender and social dominance orientation. Participants (N = 203) took part in an experiment where they reviewed fitness club advertisements and then responded to a questionnaire. Persons who viewed LGBT inclusive advertisements were more likely to believe the club was diverse and...Read more

This paper explores common assumptions about the intrinsic differences between male and female consumers within a subset of leisure consumption ?sport spectating. This research utilized the Sports Interest Inventory (SII) (Funk, Mahony & Ridinger, 2002) to examine differences between spectators (N = 959) attending men’s and women’s basketball games at a NCAA Division I institution. MANOVA results revealed nine differences for Team-Gender, seven differences for Spectator-Gender, and three interaction effects. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that three core interest factors...Read more

This study explored the role of gender in the transfer of meaning from athlete endorser, to product, to purchase intentions for 150 sport management and kinesiology undergraduates. Most were 18-22-year-old (96%), European-American/White (91.3%), males (68%). Participants viewed photographs of Lance Armstrong, Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee and were asked to identify and describe each athlete. Participants then indicated whether they considered each athlete an expert on products related to her/his sport and whether the athlete's endorsement would influence their purchase...Read more

Description: In an attempt to boost sales and persuade consumers that their product had numerous health benefits, milk producers staged the famousRead more

This research explores the impact of four individual psychological motivations (i.e., team identification, eustress, group affiliation, and self-esteem enhancement) on college student's reported verbal recommendations and patronage behaviors toward a sporting event.Read more

Sport spectating is a popular leisure activity in the United States; however, the study of sport spectator consumption behavior has been limited. The current study examines the differences that exist between genders and between spectators at men’s and women’s intercollegiate basketball games regarding several categories of dependent variables. The three categories were (a) environmental factors associated with game attendance (ticket pricing, friends, family, and promotions), (b) present behavior of spectators (merchandise consumption, media consumption, and wearing of team paraphernalia...Read more