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Team loyalty and intergenerational influence: the role of nurturant fathering in the transference process

Daniel White (Department of Kinesiology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA)
Dylan Williams (Department of Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA)
Sean Dwyer (Department of Marketing and Analysis, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, USA)
Darin White (Entrepreneurship, Management, Marketing Department, Brock School of Business, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, USA)

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship

ISSN: 1464-6668

Article publication date: 30 August 2022

Issue publication date: 17 January 2023

294

Abstract

Purpose

This study assessed the intergenerational influence of family socialization, specifically, nurturant fathering – the affective quality fathers provide children through warmth and acceptance – to explore how individuals initially connect with a sports team to become team-loyal.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected via an online survey from respondents self-described as college football fans who selected their “Favorite NCAA Division I football team.” The 623 respondents subsequently selected their biological father's favorite team. An intergenerational “match” between father and child served as the dependent variable. Step-wise logistic regression assessed the relationship that team loyalty, nurturant fathering, and their interaction had on the intergenerational matching of a father's favorite team.

Findings

Team loyalty had a significant, positive relationship with an intergenerational match. A positive but weak direct relationship was found between nurturant fathering and a favorite-team match. However, nurturant fathering significantly moderated the relationship between team loyalty and intergenerational match. This suggests that the quality of a father-child relationship during the child's formative years can facilitate team loyalty to a team favored by the father.

Research limitations/implications

The strength and quality of the relationship between a father and his children through nurturant fathering during their formative years can facilitate mutual team loyalty toward a college football team if not directly, then indirectly, through an interaction effect with a parent-socialized, team-loyal child.

Practical implications

College athletic teams, and sports properties in general, should address the bond between fathers and their children to take advantage of the intergenerational transference process identified in this study through targeted, family-focused sports marketing. More specifically, university athletic departments should engage in marketing efforts that encourage and solidify the mutual loyalty fathers and children may have to their father's favorite football team. The outcome would be a competitive advantage that leads to the cultivation of long-lasting fans from generation to generation.

Social implications

College football teams and sports properties in general should engage in father-child marketing promotions to encourage and enhance the intergenerational influence of fathers on their children with respect to the father's favorite team. However, while building future team loyalty among the children, these marketing promotions and the resultant father-child game attendance concurrently reinforce the father-child relationship. This ideally leads to a virtuous cycle of parental bonding and team loyalty.

Originality/value

This study extends research in intergenerational influence in a sports setting by introducing the construct of Nurturant Fathering and its scale to the sports marketing literature. The results found that a nurturing father can facilitate the formation of a mutual team loyalty between a father and his child with regard to the father's favorite football team. Extant research has focused on the behavioral elements of loyalty (e.g. attendance and revenues). This study's focus was on the attitudinal aspects of team loyalty. It empirically identified, at least in part, how individuals initially connect with a sports team to become team-loyal.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

All authors contributed equally to this study.

Citation

White, D., Williams, D., Dwyer, S. and White, D. (2023), "Team loyalty and intergenerational influence: the role of nurturant fathering in the transference process", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 203-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-04-2022-0089

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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