FiT Publishing

The purpose of the current study was to examine (a) the mediating effect of negotiation on the relationship between fans’ motivations and constraints to consume sport and to (b) investigate the moderating role of team identification in a sport consumption model of motivation, constraints, and negotiation. Using two datasets from various college athletics stakeholders (i.e., students, alumni, and non-college associated fans) at a large university in the southeastern United States. Our analyses using structural equation modeling show that negotiation mediates the relationship between...Read more

Smartphones are playing pivotal roles in sports fans’ media consumption journey. However, what motivates sports fans to use smartphones for sports; what are some of the behavioral factors that influence sports consumption on smartphones; how smartphone use for sports is related to other media usage; and how fandom interacts with motivational and behavioral factors still remains unclear to academic scholars. An online survey (n = 646) was conducted to uncover the factors influencing sports consumption on smartphones. The results revealed that the motivator of acquiring information related...Read more

Understanding what leads individuals to consume the product of sport is central to the study of the sport management discipline. Though the study of sport consumer behavior benefits from an extensive body of work, many key issues (e.g., external validity concerns) still require attention. This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive and systematic empirical review of the sport (mostly team sport) attendance literature. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between three categories of predictors (fan-focused, relation-ship-focused, and product-focused) and sport attendance. Also...Read more

An interview with Nicholas Horbaczewski, CEO and founder of the Drone Racing League.Read more

Due to the growing buying power of diverse consumers and the importance of attendance to professional sports in the US, this study qualitatively examines the factors affecting African-American attendance at professional sporting events and identifies several attendance drivers and constraints, including alternative forms of commitment, atmosphere, comfort and convenience, cost, exposure and access to the sport, image and identity, performance and entertainment, social nature of sport, and value. These findings support and extend prior research by offering seven new factors affecting...Read more

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of multidimensional consumer values in the relationship between team identification, purchase attitude, and purchase intention in the team-licensed merchandise context. The study also tested the moderating effects of product category (utilitarian/hedonic) and performance priming (positive/negative). Fans of two college sport teams (N = 203) participated in the study. Both multidimensional consumer values (i.e., functional, emotional, and social) and team identification were shown to influence purchase attitude. In turn, the attitude toward...Read more

This research examines the effects of brand music on consumer behavior in a stadium retail store. Brand music is custom-fit music embodying the unique attributes and characteristics of a brand, using distinctive lyrics in otherwise analogous music to prime specific concepts. Extant research on store atmospherics and theoretical perspectives of conceptual fluency guided this investigation and aided in hypothesis development. A total of 232 shoppers were randomly intercepted during two shopping scenarios in which brand music or generic (popular) music was played in a stadium retail store....Read more

Using data obtained via natural quasi-experiments across four Super Bowl games (2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006), we investigate the impact of pod (commercial break) position on advertising effectiveness in sport broadcasts. A series of multiple regression analyses was conducted by classifying pods into three categories based on their positions: quarter position, within-quarter position, and between-quarter position. The results support general primacy effects. The brands promoted during earlier quarters were significantly better recognized than those that appeared in later quarters in the...Read more

Advertising, sponsorships, and other marketing communications are commonplace in the contemporary world of sports. Are sports fans irritated and annoyed by this commercial bombardment or are they accepting of the role of sports advertising? This study investigates consumers’ perceptions of commercial messages during televised sporting events. The results indicate that fans of two of the most popular US sports (NFL and NASCAR) generally have high levels of sport commercial acceptance (SCA) in televised broadcasts. NASCAR fans—particularly those highly identified with the sport—are the most...Read more

The present research was conducted to explore the impact of social influence (type of reference, group cohesiveness, and susceptibility to influence) on impulsive purchasing behavior of sports team-licensed merchandise. Two experimental studies were conducted. It was concluded from the results that peers’ presence stimulated higher impulsive purchasing behavior of sports team-licensed merchandise than family members’ presence. In addition, high group cohesiveness activated a greater impulsive purchasing tendency of sports team-licensed merchandise compared to low group cohesiveness. High...Read more