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1 – 10 of over 5000Hossein Mansouri, Abdullah Rasaee Rad, Rodoula H. Tsiotsou and Maizaitulaidawati Md Husin
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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).
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Keywords
The purpose of this study is to offer a “brand equity model” that will help football organizations to manage their appeal.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to offer a “brand equity model” that will help football organizations to manage their appeal.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model utilizes structural equation modelling analysis to test the hypothesized marketing brand equity (MBE) model. The empirical part of the research stems from a large survey of 1,300 Israeli football fans.
Findings
As expected, knowledge about the team, the team’s image and its perceived personality significantly predicted positive attitudes toward the team. This in turn predicted commitment, which predicted recommendation, which predicted intentions. The linear regression to extract the seven parameters weights was highly significant (F = 163.5, p < 0.001) and explained 52 per cent (R2 = 0.518) of the depended variable “price premium”.
Research limitations/implications
The new MBE model suggested here provides a relative index of brand equity for football club organizations that enables them to competitively compare the marketing equity of their club to that of their rivals. The MBE model also shows that commitment is a central component in the football club’s brand equity model. The current MBE model is the only model that provides a weight for each of the components. Each respective weight represents the internal contribution of each component to the final brand equity index. These weights indicate where an effort should be made to improve the equity of the brand.
Practical implications
Football teams may also need to focus on the constructs underlying the commitment (Shuv-Ami, 2012) of fans to their football club organization, that is, the team performance and satisfaction stemming from the fans’ experience with their team and the feelings of loyalty and involvement that represent the degree of fan engagement with the team. Although football teams do what they can to improve performance, much can be done in marketing to improve the other constructs and, thus, fan commitment. Improving the experience of fans, both on and off the field, regardless of whether the team is winning or losing, builds fan engagement.
Originality/value
The current research suggests two new brand equity models for football club organizations. One is a comprehensive theoretical model that combines and expands current conceptual brand equity models (Keller, 1993, 2008; Aaker, 1991, 1996; Keller and Lehmann, 2006); the other is an empirical model that makes it practical to measure the marketing strength or the brand equity of football clubs. The new empirical MBE suggested here provides a relative index of brand equity for football club organization that enable them to compare competitively the marketing equity of their club to that of their rivals. The MBE model also shows, for the first time, that commitment is a central component in the football club brand equity model. The current MBE is the only model that provides a weight for each of its component.
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Anish Yousaf, Anil Gupta and Abhishek Mishra
Sport teams not only compete with other teams for the ultimate prize but also for a share of customer mind space. For winning fan loyalty and resultant economic success…
Abstract
Purpose
Sport teams not only compete with other teams for the ultimate prize but also for a share of customer mind space. For winning fan loyalty and resultant economic success, management of sport teams need to focus on team-branding, and thus, developing and measuring a team’s brand equity becomes essential, which is the core purpose of this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
Current work builds upon previous efforts to develop a reliable and, more importantly, a parsimonious sport team brand-equity (STBE) index, as opposed to the usual multi-dimensional reflective scales, too complicated and not of much use to practitioners.
Findings
The authors propose that the STBE index having eight indicators is enough to capture the full domain of the concept and provide a snapshot about the ability of a team’s administration to create strong emotional bonds with its fans.
Research limitations/implications
Apart from demographics of the respondents, an important drawback is that the STBE index is from the perspective of television or online viewers and not those watching live in stadiums. This work contributes to extant sports brand equity literature by proposing a simpler scale made of casual variables, as opposed to reflective scales running into large number of similar items, a first of its kind in this domain. The authors also are able to forward the growing call for developing more of such scales through this effort.
Practical implications
Not only can the present scale be easily used by sport-marketers and researchers, it will be especially useful for marketing managers who want to associate their brands with sport teams, as it affects performance of their own brand.
Originality/value
The work represents a novel effort for developing a team-based brand equity and, to the authors’ knowledge, has not been attempted in this literature before.
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Young Do Kim, Marshall J. Magnusen, Yukyoum Kim and Minjung Kim
The primary purpose of this study was to generate a composite sport fan equity index (SFEI) for use in estimating the asset value of an individual fan to a sport organization. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this study was to generate a composite sport fan equity index (SFEI) for use in estimating the asset value of an individual fan to a sport organization. The index was developed by applying a simple additive weighting (SAW) method.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey-based research was carried out to validate key components of sport fan equity (SFE) and formulate the SFEI on the basis of the NCAA Division I collegiate sport context. These objectives were satisfied through a twofold process involving first-order confirmatory factor analysis intended to assess the validity of SFE measurement scales and SAW designed to produce the composite SFEI.
Findings
The developed index indicated that the average SFE of focal sport fans of Division I collegiate sport was 54.8 and that the overall SFE of such contributors ranged from 20.4 (the lowest score) to 94.6 (the highest score). The SFEI serves as a single, summary score and an essential gauge for sport marketers to use when assessing profitable fans and tracking/comparing them over time.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the sport marketing literature through its application of SAW in an initial effort to produce an easily understandable index that determines the asset value of sport fans and serves as an imperative criterion for overall sport team valuation from the sport consumer side. Specifically, the SFEI can function as a standard numeric measure that enables sport marketers to identify fans from whom sport organizations can generate considerable profits, segment these devotees systematically, and tailor marketing strategies to each fan base.
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In this paper the authors investigate precarious value creation in English football clubs. They examine strategic, economic, cultural and social capital to analyse the…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper the authors investigate precarious value creation in English football clubs. They examine strategic, economic, cultural and social capital to analyse the orientations of legal owners of football clubs (entrepreneurs) and the implications for moral owners (the fans). Their research question is not if entrepreneurs create value – but whether the value created is productive or destructive.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design is a case study of the professional football industry, specifically 44 football clubs in the top two professional divisions in England, namely the English Premier League and the English Football League Championship. The authors’ methodology is secondary textual data. Their approach is to examine official club statements, triangulated with regional and national press reports, fan accounts and narratives from published artefacts; fan blogs and websites.
Findings
The “opening up” of the professional football industry in England to market forces in 1983 has subsequently attracted entrepreneurs that use football clubs as artefacts to pursue other business interests. Over-grazing on strategic and economic capital at the expense and exploitation of social and cultural capital exists. As entrepreneurial opportunities to exploit a football club's assets becomes more apparent, the unique relationship between club and fan is being strained. The authors observe detachment, disenchantment and protest.
Research limitations/implications
The data sought for this study design was necessarily in the public domain and therefore drawn from secondary sources. The scope was English football and the top two divisions, thus the findings are context specific to that region and level.
Practical implications
For policy, the authors call for a new government inquiry into football ownership in English football, re-examining heritage, purpose and value creation.
Social implications
Football fans are the majority stakeholder in the football industry but are under-represented in English football because of the private ownership of football clubs. Fans are, however, a barometer for how their owners are acting as custodians of their clubs and if the value created by entrepreneurs is productive or exploitative.
Originality/value
This paper has value in drawing attention to this unique and ignored industry from an entrepreneurship perspective, provoking a call for further research to explore this phenomenon. Sustainable value creation may be a useful framework for further research in this and other industries.
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Khaled Hamad Almaiman, Lawrence Ang and Hume Winzar
The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a best–worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) and compares the outcome with that of the purchase intention scale, an established probabilistic measure of purchase intention. The total sample consists of 409 fans of three soccer teams sponsored by three different competing brands: Nike, Adidas and Puma.
Findings
With sports sponsorship, fans were willing to pay more for the sponsor’s product, with the sponsoring brand obtaining the highest market share. Prominent brands generally performed better than less prominent brands. The best–worst scaling method was also 35% more accurate in predicting brand choice than a purchase intention scale.
Research limitations/implications
Future research could use the same method to study other types of sponsors, such as title sponsors or other product categories.
Practical implications
Sponsorship managers can use this methodology to assess the return on investment in sponsorship engagement.
Originality/value
Prior sponsorship studies on brand equity tend to ignore market share or fans’ willingness to pay a price premium for a sponsor’s goods and services. However, these two measures are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of sponsorship. This study demonstrates how to conduct such an assessment using the BWDCE method. It provides a clearer picture of sponsorship in terms of its economic value, which is more managerially useful.
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The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the following relationships in the Asian sports sponsorship context: first, the influence of self-congruity and perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the following relationships in the Asian sports sponsorship context: first, the influence of self-congruity and perceived congruence on sponsor brand identification and sponsor credibility, respectively; second, the influence of sponsor brand identification and sponsor credibility on sponsor brand equity; and third, the mediating effect of sponsor brand identification and sponsor credibility on the relationship that self-congruity and perceived congruence each have with sponsor brand equity.
Design/methodology/approach
A field study was conducted in Taiwan, where 410 questionnaires were collected from baseball fans of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (the local professional baseball league).
Findings
The findings support all of the hypotheses and reveal that self-congruity and perceived congruence leverage sponsor brand equity through sponsor brand identification and sponsor credibility, respectively. Both sponsor brand identification and sponsor credibility partially mediate the relationship that self-congruity and perceived congruence each have with sponsor brand equity.
Practical implications
The findings of this study can assist sponsorship managers in realising how to leverage a sponsor brand equity.
Originality/value
The conceptual model investigated both direct and indirect (i.e. mediated) effects by providing different theoretical explanations to explore how self-congruity and perceived congruence leverage sponsor brand equity in the Asian sports sponsorship context.
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Nicolas Chanavat and Guillaume Bodet
The purpose of this paper is to provide better understanding of potential foreign customers or satellite fans' perceptions of professional‐football brands, as this constitutes a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide better understanding of potential foreign customers or satellite fans' perceptions of professional‐football brands, as this constitutes a necessary step toward setting up an internationalisation strategy to create a global professional‐sport brand.
Design/methodology/approach
Twelve semi‐directed individual interviews with French satellite fans about how they perceive the English Big Four brands of Arsenal Football Club (FC), Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC and Manchester United are conducted.
Findings
The paper found the common and specific features of each club's brand equity and the typical fans' perceptions of the clubs, which constitute major dimensions upon which the clubs are differentiated in the customers' minds. It also identified such key antecedents to building strong professional‐sport brand equity in the French market as the fit between the image, the values or both of the foreign club and the local club a fan supports.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is the size of the sample, even if the saturation‐semantic criterion is applied.
Practical implications
This paper emphasises the need for professional‐sport clubs not to underestimate the need for strategic‐marketing steps different from those used at home before implementing foreign marketing operations and constitutes a first step toward future research into the analysis of the perceptions of potential foreign customers or satellite fans in broader contexts.
Originality/value
Although many studies have dealt with the perception of local professional‐sport brands, this paper represents one of the first empirical studies of the perceptions of professional‐football brands in a foreign market.
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Chengchen Liu, Ya Zhang and Jing Zhang
There is growing interest among marketers in advertising and promoting their brands by adopting an online celebrity endorsement strategy. However, how online celebrities build…
Abstract
Purpose
There is growing interest among marketers in advertising and promoting their brands by adopting an online celebrity endorsement strategy. However, how online celebrities build their own brand equity and how online celebrity brand equity impacts fans’ purchase behavior have not been extensively researched in the extant literature. This paper aims to explore the factors that contribute to online celebrity branding and improving fans’ purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey and an experiment were conducted among consumers from the mainland of China. A total of 12 hypotheses were proposed to exam how self-congruity and virtual interactivity impact online celebrity branding and to explore the moderating role of perceived quality and product type.
Findings
This paper reveals that customers’ perceived self-congruity with online celebrities’ image and virtual interactivity positively impact the brand equity of online celebrities. Additionally, compared with virtual interactivity, the effect of customer perceived self-congruity on a brand is more significant. The brand equity of online celebrities thereby drives followers’ purchase intentions and the perceived quality of products positively moderates this relationship.
Originality/value
The research conclusions provide managerial implications for marketing practitioners for how to use human brands on social media platforms in the web 2.0 era and ultimately enhance consumer purchase intentions.
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Elizabeth Jowdy and Mark McDonald
This case study demonstrates how a start-up professional sport league, the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), successfully incorporated an interactive fan festival into its…
Abstract
This case study demonstrates how a start-up professional sport league, the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), successfully incorporated an interactive fan festival into its inaugural Championship Weekend. Prior to revealing the details of the WUSA event, the history and rationale of interactive fan festivals is outlined. Also highlighted are the key marketing concepts applied (relationship marketing, brand management, experiential branding) in order to assist sport properties interested in using the interactive fan festival as a marketing tool in the future.
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