IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v137y2021icp308-318.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The path to game-day attendance runs through sports fan rituals

Author

Listed:
  • Fazal-E-Hasan, Syed Muhammad
  • Neale, Larry
  • Sekhon, Harjit
  • Mortimer, Gary
  • Brittain, Ian
  • Sekhon, Jaswinder

Abstract

Sports, as a service sector, generates billions of dollars not solely through attendance but through the sale of merchandise, which forms part of a sports fan’s rituals. This study uses a sample of 651 attendees at an Australian Football League game to explore ritual behavior, define the game-day rituals observed, and design a scale to measure sports fan rituals in order to investigate a series of positive relationships, including commitment and personal and social rituals, and social rituals and behavioral loyalty (game-day attendance). The findings support previous research that has found a significant and positive relationship between vicarious achievement, fan association, and commitment, and extends previous research by finding a significant and positive relationship between personal and social rituals and behavioral loyalty. For academic researchers, the findings are important to establish the role of personal and social rituals in consumption and behavioral loyalty while opening future research opportunities in other product categories. For sports marketers, the results indicate the importance of developing and facilitating consumption rituals tied to game-day attendance, with a view to generating uncommon loyalty.

Suggested Citation

  • Fazal-E-Hasan, Syed Muhammad & Neale, Larry & Sekhon, Harjit & Mortimer, Gary & Brittain, Ian & Sekhon, Jaswinder, 2021. "The path to game-day attendance runs through sports fan rituals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 308-318.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:137:y:2021:i:c:p:308-318
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.08.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321005877
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.08.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel C. Funk & Anthony Beaton & Kostas Alexandris, 2012. "Sport consumer motivation: Autonomy and control orientations that regulate fan behaviours," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 355-367, July.
    2. Hightower, Roscoe Jr & Brady, Michael K. & Baker, Thomas L., 2002. "Investigating the role of the physical environment in hedonic service consumption: an exploratory study of sporting events," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(9), pages 697-707, September.
    3. Murat Tarakci & Nüfer Yasin Ateş & Steven W. Floyd & Yoojung Ahn & Bill Wooldridge, 2018. "Performance feedback and middle managers’ divergent strategic behavior: The roles of social comparisons and organizational identification," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 1139-1162, April.
    4. Tuškej, Urška & Golob, Urša & Podnar, Klement, 2013. "The role of consumer–brand identification in building brand relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 53-59.
    5. Fournier, Susan, 1998. "Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(4), pages 343-373, March.
    6. Robinson, Matthew J. & Trail, Galen T. & Kwon, Hyungil, 2004. "Motives and Points of Attachment of Professional Golf Spectators," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 167-192, November.
    7. Kirsten Cowan & Nathalie Spielmann, 2017. "The influence of rituals on luxury product consumption: implications for brands," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(5), pages 391-404, October.
    8. Matthew J. Robinson & Galen T. Trail & Hyungil Kwon, 2004. "Motives and Points of Attachment of Professional Golf Spectators," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 167-192, July.
    9. Rook, Dennis W, 1985. "The Ritual Dimension of Consumer Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(3), pages 251-264, December.
    10. Verhoef, Peter C. & Lemon, Katherine N. & Parasuraman, A. & Roggeveen, Anne & Tsiros, Michael & Schlesinger, Leonard A., 2009. "Customer Experience Creation: Determinants, Dynamics and Management Strategies," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 31-41.
    11. Chen, Jihui & Waters, George, 2017. "Firm efficiency, advertising and profitability: Theory and evidence," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 240-248.
    12. Belk, Russell W & Wallendorf, Melanie & Sherry, John F, Jr, 1989. "The Sacred and the Profane in Consumer Behavior: Theodicy on the Odyssey," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(1), pages 1-38, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bradford, Tonya Williams & Sherry, John F., 2013. "Orchestrating rituals through retailers: An examination of gift registry," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 158-175.
    2. Davis, Robert & McGinnis, Lee Phillip, 2016. "Conceptualizing excessive fan consumption behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 252-262.
    3. Dwyer, Brendan & Mudrick, Michael & Greenhalgh, Gregory P. & LeCrom, Carrie W. & Drayer, Joris, 2015. "The tie that blinds? Developing and validating a scale to measure emotional attachment to a sport team," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 570-582.
    4. Michaud Trevinal, Aurélia & Stenger, Thomas, 2014. "Toward a conceptualization of the online shopping experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 314-326.
    5. Aurélia Michaud-Trévinal & Thomas Stenger, 2014. "Toward a conceptualization of the online shopping experience," Post-Print hal-01743643, HAL.
    6. Bastian Popp & Herbert Woratschek, 2017. "Consumer–brand identification revisited: An integrative framework of brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image and their role for brand loyalty and word of mouth," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 250-270, May.
    7. Shyh-Ming Huang & Shyh-Rong Fang & Shih-Chieh Fang & Chao-Chin Huang, 2016. "The influences of brand benefits on brand loyalty: Intermediate mechanisms," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 41(1), pages 141-160, February.
    8. Vicenta Sierra & Oriol Iglesias & Stefan Markovic & Jatinder Jit Singh, 2017. "Does Ethical Image Build Equity in Corporate Services Brands? The Influence of Customer Perceived Ethicality on Affect, Perceived Quality, and Equity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 661-676, September.
    9. Kharouf, Husni & Biscaia, Rui & Garcia-Perez, Alexeis & Hickman, Ellie, 2020. "Understanding online event experience: The importance of communication, engagement and interaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 735-746.
    10. Donald R. Lehmann & Jeffrey R. Parker, 2017. "Disadoption," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 7(1), pages 36-51, June.
    11. Davvetas, Vasileios & Diamantopoulos, Adamantios, 2017. "“Regretting your brand-self?” The moderating role of consumer-brand identification on consumer responses to purchase regret," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 218-227.
    12. Koryoe Anim-Wright & Rhodalene Amartey, 2024. "Examining the Effect of Brand Like and Brand Love on Brand Loyalty," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 19(2), pages 1-51, March.
    13. Lewin, Jeffrey & Rajamma, Rajasree K. & Paswan, Audhesh K., 2015. "Customer loyalty in entertainment venues: The reality TV genre," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 616-622.
    14. Martin, David S. & Bourdeau, Brian L. & Stephan, John, 2020. "Measuring the effectiveness of facility naming rights sponsorships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 51-64.
    15. Sichtmann, Christina & Davvetas, Vasileios & Diamantopoulos, Adamantios, 2019. "The relational value of perceived brand globalness and localness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 597-613.
    16. Ilaria Baghi & Paolo Antonetti, 2021. "The higher they climb, the harder they fall: The role of self‐brand connectedness in consumer responses to corporate social responsibility hypocrisy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1216-1230, July.
    17. Howat, Gary & Assaker, Guy, 2016. "Outcome quality in participant sport and recreation service quality models: Empirical results from public aquatic centres in Australia," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 520-535.
    18. Rahman, Muhammad Sabbir & Bag, Surajit & Hossain, Md Afnan & Abdel Fattah, Fadi Abdel Muniem & Gani, Mohammad Osman & Rana, Nripendra P., 2023. "The new wave of AI-powered luxury brands online shopping experience: The role of digital multisensory cues and customers’ engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Albert, Noël & Ambroise, Laure & Valette-Florence, Pierre, 2017. "Consumer, brand, celebrity: Which congruency produces effective celebrity endorsements?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 96-106.
    20. Calabuig Moreno, Ferran & Prado-Gascó, Vicente & Crespo Hervás, Josep & Núñez-Pomar, Juan & Añó Sanz, Vicente, 2015. "Spectator emotions: Effects on quality, satisfaction, value, and future intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1445-1449.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:137:y:2021:i:c:p:308-318. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.