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Online brand communities (OBCs) and their role in determining consumer behavior is gathering interest of theorists and practitioners. This study examines the role of OBCs in influencing the level of involvement leading to perceived sport team brand equity (STBE) of sports fans from a social exchange theory perspective. The role of self-congruity as a moderator is examined to determine the differences in the level of involvement and attachment of fans in OBCs.

Based on quantitative research and convenience sampling, data for the study were collected from 394 football fans who were existing members of OBCs. The research model is tested using partial least square structural equation modeling.

The results show a direct and significant impact of brand involvement on brand attachment. Consumer brand engagement (CBE) mediates the relationship between brand attachment and STBE. While self-congruence does moderate the effects between brand involvement and brand attachment.

The study reveals the role of community related factors on sports fans’ perceived STBE. The study also provided a novel approach to examine sport fan behavior in social media through the lens of social exchange theory. Finally, it is providing a novel approach in examining role of OBCs in influencing behavior of sports team fans towards the team and brand.

This study aims to develop and validate an accurate machine learning model to categorize NBA fans into meaningful clusters based on their perceptions of sport sponsorship. Additionally, by predicting the intensity of NBA fans’ attitudes toward sponsors, the authors intend to identify the specific features that influence prediction, discuss these findings and offer implications for academics and practitioners in sport sponsorship.

This study used a sample of 1,142 NBA fans who were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Fans identification, sponsorship fit, behavioral intentions, sponsor altruistic motive, sponsor normative motive, sponsor egoistic motive were surveyed as predictors, whereas fans’ attitudes toward sponsors was collected as the dependent variable. The LASSO regression, SVM, KNN, RF and XGboost were used to develop and validate the prediction model after verifying the measurement model by the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).

The RF model had the best accurate in predicting the intensity of fans’ attitudes toward sponsors, achieving an AUC of 0.919 with a sensitivity of 0.872, a specificity of 0.828, a PPV of 0.873, a NPV of 0.828 and an accuracy of 0.848. The most influential feature in the model was “the fit of 0.301”. “Fans’ perceptions of sponsor’s normative motive”, “behavioral intentions supporting sponsors”, “fans’ identification with their favorite team”, “fans’ perceptions of sponsor’s altruistic motive” and “fans’ perceptions of sponsor’s egoistic motive” were exhibited in descending order.

This study is the first in sport sponsorship to accurately classify the intensity of fans’ attitudes toward sponsors as either high or low using machine learning models, and to formulate how fans’ attitudes formed toward sponsors from their perceptions of sponsorship process.

This study aims to provide supplements to the research on digital human avatar (DHA) and suggestions for brands to use DHA appropriately to build brand fans effect.

On the basis of integrating Avatar theory and Stimulus-organism-response theory, this study obtains data from 733 Chinese respondents aged 18–25 and uses regression analysis and bootstrap analysis to verify the relationships among the variables: DHA characteristics (form realism, behavioral realism and brand alignment) as the independent variables, brand fans effect as the dependent variable, consumer positive emotion as the mediating variable and product type (experience vs search) as the moderating variable.

The results show that DHA characteristics positively influence brand fans effect and consumer positive emotion, consumer positive emotion positively influences brand fans effect and consumer positive emotion plays a mediating role. Meanwhile, for experience products, the impact of DHA’s form realism and behavioral realism on consumer positive emotion is higher than that of brand alignment; for search products, the impact of DHA’s brand alignment on consumer positive emotion is higher than that of form realism and behavioral realism.

This study enriches and expands the empirical research perspectives and conclusions in the DHA field, improves its research framework and provides suggestions for brands to appropriately use DHA to build brand fans effect.

Male celebrities are increasingly being chosen to endorse female cosmetic brands by marketing managers, yet this practice has not received sufficient scholarly attention. This study aims to explore the dynamics of male celebrities endorsing cosmetic brands.

The study employs the netnography approach to collect data from an online community.

The study contributes to the marketing literature by providing a conceptual framework of male celebrities endorsing cosmetic brands, highlighting the key attributes that contribute to the effectiveness of these endorsements, the evolution of relationships between fans, celebrities and brands, the features of this dynamic relationship and the influence of male celebrity endorsements on fans’ purchase decisions.

This research sheds light on an emerging trend in the marketing industry and provides valuable managerial insights for marketers seeking to effectively use male celebrity endorsements to promote female cosmetic brands.

The aim of this research was to investigate fans’ responses toward a sponsor that has had a long-standing sponsorship deal with a club and decided also to sponsor the club’s rival.

A long-term sponsorship deal between a retsina wine company and a popular football club and a newly established deal between the company and the main rival club were selected as the research setting. Data were collected from a total sample of 302 participants, fans of the two teams, using an online survey and PLS-SEM was employed to test the relationships of the proposed structural model.

The results provided evidence for the importance of the inclusion of perceptions of fit for both teams to the model as it impacted the responses in the joint sponsorship. Team identification emerged significant for improving fans perceptions of fit between the sponsor and their favorite club but also led fans of the long-term sponsored club to feel betrayed from the sponsor. The sense of betrayal impacted the level of fit, the rejection of sponsorship but did not emerge significant for driving negative responses toward the sponsor’s brand. The same held for the rejection of the joint sponsorship.

This is the very first study that incorporated the effects of the perceptions of fit of two rival clubs to test the effect of sponsorship for a sponsor brand of a deal that includes a longtime sponsored football club and its rival as a newly sponsored one. It is also one of the first attempts that explores relationships between perceptions of fit, sense of betrayal and rejection of a joint sport sponsorship in a rivalry context, highlighting the importance of preventing fans' betrayal.

This study aims to explore the impact of athlete brand image on fans’ social media engagement, purchase intentions, and also examines the mediating role of emotional attachment on these relationships, as well as the moderating role of perceived price value between emotional attachment and purchase intentions.

The data are based on an online survey conducted in China (N = 572). The PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation model) and regression-based estimation method (PROCESS) are employed to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate a positive relationship between athletes’ athletic performance and fans’ social media engagement as well as purchase intentions. The impact of athletes’ attractive appearance and marketable lifestyle on fans’ purchase intentions is sequentially mediated by emotional attachment and social media engagement. Moreover, the mediation effect of athletes’ off-field image and purchase intentions is contingent upon fans’ perceived price value.

Athletes and marketers could integrate and leverage both the on-field and off-field attributes to cultivate emotional connections with fans. Sports organizations and managers need to pay attention to fans’ social media engagement and provide content that increases engagement and converts into transactional behavioural intentions.

The study provides empirical evidence of the mediating role of emotional attachment between athlete brand image and fans’ purchase intentions. The explanatory mechanisms involving emotional attachment and social media engagement (non-transactional behavioural intentions) are anticipated to be a noteworthy addition to the traditional fan transactional behavioural intentions framework. Moreover, the research introduces and confirms perceived price value as a crucial moderating factor influencing the relationship between emotional attachment and purchase intentions.

The study aims to identify critical factors that influence football fans’ support of their favorite team by examining the impact of social responsibility, brand credibility and team brand equity on patronage intentions of professional football teams.

An online survey collected data from 331 football fans of the Persian Gulf Premier League (PGPL) in Iran. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings revealed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is able to influence brand equity, brand credibility and patronage intentions. Also, brand equity and brand credibility were found to be positively related to patronage intentions. In addition to that, the findings show that brand equity and team credibility partially mediate the relationship between CSR and patronage intentions.

The findings provide valuable insights to sports teams/club managers aiming to attract new fans and retain current ones by investing in CSR and enhancing brand credibility and equity. Strategies to integrate CSR into relationship marketing and brand management are outlined.

This study empirically highlights the critical role of adhering to CSR and the effects of brand credibility and equity in enhancing patronage intentions among football team fans.

The purpose of this study is to identify which dimensions of perceived value best mediate football club branding and fan loyalty from a developing league perspective.

Using a cross-sectional design, we collected data using questionnaires from football fans in Ghana (N = 700). The data were analysed using SmartPLS V3, applying structural equation modelling with bootstrapping procedure.

The results indicate that club branding is an effective precursor of fan loyalty. Moreover, the findings suggest that functional, social and emotional values mediated club branding and fan loyalty, whereas epistemic and economic values did not.

This study contributes to sports management literature by identifying the dimensions of perceived value that will be relevant in the development of club brands in the developing league context.

This chapter explores how the development of football fandom for the Chinese national team and local football clubs is strongly associated with societal changes. Although the performances of Chinese football teams, especially the national team, have failed to impress the world, football remains the most popular because of millions of supporters with loyalty and passion. Most studies related to fans mainly focus on the economic and political implications of spectatorship along with the rise of China. Nevertheless, few articles are available to answer the fundamental questions, such as ‘When did these supporters come out?’ and ‘What were the factors of the development of fandom?’. By going through archival records and published documents over the last decades, this chapter offers a comprehensive and historical analysis of the development of football fandom in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and deals with these unanswered questions. As such, this chapter does not intend to be the most authoritative one but is one of the rare sources to lay down the foundation for research on Chinese football fandom. Furthermore, this chapter also proves that studies on football fandom can be a useful window for observing Chinese society.

Traditional sports have seen declining participation at many levels, with football being no different. This is occurring at a time when emergent technologies present new challenges, particularly to the crucial yet ignored cohort of millennials. Without meeting the needs of millennials, football cannot be successful in the future. This research seeks to understand how millennial football fandom (sport, not team) in Australia impacts football participation, whilst empirically examining the impact of football video games (FVGs).

Survey data are collected from online groups, forums and social media pages of Australian football (soccer) fans. Quantitative analysis of millennial fandom and its influence on football participation (for the first time demarcated into play and engagement) is undertaken, including the moderating influence of time spent playing FVGs, amidst covariate influences of age and number of children.

Results highlight the multi-dimensionality of millennial football fandom in Australia, reveal the typical hours spent playing football across a range of participation types (including play and engagement), support fan involvement’s influence on engagement with football, establish that a desire to interact with other football fans manifests in playing more football, specify how playing FVGs moderates these relationships, supports the covariate influences of age and evidences that playing FVGs does not hamper football play.

This is the first study to examine millennial fans of football (the sport, not tied to a club) and the influence of fandom on football participation. By separating football participation into two forms, play and engagement, we highlight discrete influences, whilst evaluating for the first time the moderating influence of the time millennials spend playing FVGs. For sport managers and administrators, these are important findings to facilitate better segmentation, recruitment, retention and participation, each with broader societal health benefits. This is undertaken in Australia where football is not a dominant code, relegating fandom to a niche, thus revealing important findings for sports and business management.