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This study aims to examine escapism as the explanatory mechanism that can account for distinct outcomes of harmonious and obsessive sports fan passion among US and Chinese fans.

The study uses cross-cultural data collected among sports fans in the USA and China. Using structural equation modeling and PROCESS model, the authors test the mediating role of escapism and the moderating role of indulgence on the relationships between sports fan passion and procrastination.

The authors found that positive escapism mediates the relationship between harmonious sports fan passion and procrastination, whereas negative escapism mediates the relationship between obsessive sports fan passion and procrastination. While individual-level indulgence was not a significant moderator, post hoc analyses revealed that the interaction of indulgence and uncertainty avoidance played a moderating role.

The use of sports fan samples from both the USA and China enables a cross-cultural comparison of the proposed model, thereby extending the model’s generalizability. By advancing the dual model of escapism, the authors hope to stimulate a research dialogue that identifies more nuanced (both positive and negative) predictors and outcomes of passion for an activity and escapism in the broader context of other passion-inducing activities (e.g., Internet use, work, etc.).

Marketers promoting sports events can use this study's results to highlight the benefits of harmonious sports fan passion in terms of positive escapism and reduced procrastination. Organizations promoting sports fandom need to also be aware that sports fans can have obsessive passion for sports that can lead to procrastination. Therefore, it is important to be vigilant and distinguish between “healthy” and “unhealthy” passion early to avoid “unhealthy” passion turning into negative escapism and by extension, procrastination.

Socially responsible marketers should understand a potential negative effect that obsessive sports fan passion may entail and prevent or minimize its negative consequences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explains why sports fan passion can(not) be associated with procrastination. It does so by using the dual escapism as the explanatory mechanism linking harmonious and obsessive sports fan passion and procrastination.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of autoethnography within the context of sports fandom. This paper advocates the use of such qualitative methodologies to enable a greater understanding of sports fans. The paper also aims to provide greater understanding of sports fandom.

The research moves away from traditional methodologies of studying sports fandom from an objective viewpoint and uses an evocative autoethnography to provide an account of the lived experience of a sports fan.

By writing himself into his research it has been possible to gain a deeper insight into sports fandom. The subject of passion arises and while the Dualistic Model of Passion was explored as a mechanism for dealing with obsessive passion it is suggested that attempting to move away from a state of obsessive passion may diminish the enjoyment of being a sports fan.

This paper highlights the benefits that methodologies such as autoethnography can have for academics studying sports fandom and other disciplines. It encourages academics to overcome the perceived lack of academic acceptance of the method.

This paper utilises a qualitative methodology to explore the experience of being a sports fan. This methodological approach is yet to be fully embraced within this field and hence there is a lack of in‐depth data on the experiences of sports fans. This account will allow readers to develop a greater understanding and insight of sports fans.

The purpose of this study is to determine if brand passion shapes attitudinal brand loyalty while driving a series of important brand-related outcomes (i.e. brand advocacy, social media following, sense of community, willingness to pay a premium price and alternative devaluation). These aspects are explored for sports apparel brands after considering the perceptions of Iranian consumers.

This study is based on the analysis of survey data gathered online and face-to-face from a sample of Iranian consumers of sports apparel brands that were analysed using partial least square path modelling.

The key empirical findings obtained confirm that brand passion underpins attitudinal brand loyalty and several important brand-related outcomes. Furthermore, the findings show that attitudinal brand loyalty explains the impact of brand passion on most of the outcomes considered, except for social media following.

This study advances knowledge of brand passion by illustrating its “power” as a strong nuance of relationships between consumers and brands. In particular, this study highlights the importance of brand passion in shaping attitudinal brand loyalty, as well as a driver of several outcomes of theoretical and managerial relevance.

By establishing strategies aimed at enhancing brand passion, brand managers can increase attitudinal brand loyalty, attain important goals such as brand advocacy, premium price and social media following, as well as the devaluation of competing brands.

This study uses a unidimensional theorisation of brand passion to increase the understanding of its role as predictor of attitudinal brand loyalty and driver of relevant outcomes. It also examines the mediating effect of attitudinal brand loyalty, thus illustrating important conceptual links between brand passion and brand loyalty in the context of sports apparel brands in a growing economy (Iran).

The purpose of this paper is to show that football as a sacred experience is often raised, but has never led to an argued approach. Professional football (soccer) is a genuine societal phenomenon, both through the medias’ interest they cause and through the financial stakes that are related to it. It is common to read that football, through the passions it unleashes, for example in terms of tribal violence, has become a type of religion, with its believers (the fans) and its place of worship (the stadiums).

The authors reviewed the literature, research reports and electronic documents on professional football practices to understand the religious dimension of fan passion in Europe (ritualism, collective beliefs, using of totemic objects, etc.).

The paper suggests a reading grid of religions, founded on four interdependent dimensions (the Community, the Law, the Way and the Experience) and applies it to professional football by underlying its relevance in the singular context of sports show.

Beyond well-known economic stakes, the paper clarifies the football passion from a religious perspective and identifies the main pillars of the fan conversion process according to a heteronomous logic.

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 forced most sport leagues to cancel games in March–April 2020, leaving no sport games to watch for sport fans. The present study examined how sport consumers appraise stress and engage in coping behaviors resulted from sport lockout due to the global pandemic.

This study examined the relationship between sport fans’ psychological dispositions, threat appraisal and coping strategies among professional sport fans in the USA. A panel of sport fans (N = 446) representative of the US adult population participated in an online survey in the fourth week of April, 2020 when no major sport leagues made a return from the lockout due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Results of this present study showed that anger, aggressiveness and need for affiliation increased threat perceptions toward the COVID-19 lockout, which subsequently had significant effect on emotion-focused and disengagement coping behaviors.

This is the first empirical study that examined stress and coping behavior among sport fans in the global public health crisis context. Our findings show what triggers stress appraisals and how fans cope with them.

Findings suggest that segmenting sport fans based on psychological dispositions could be useful in predicting fans that will engage in coping behaviors.

While the hope is to return to normal postpandemic, COVID-19 might not be the last. We are uncertain whether there might be another potential pandemic-related sport lockdown. Understanding how lack of sport events can create distress in sport fans and have important public health implications.

The findings provide empirical evidence on how sport consumers respond to the pandemic-related sport lockdown and cope with the unprecedented situation. The findings of this study contribute to the sport management literature as we are unsure whether the sport industry might face this challenging situation in the future again.

The present study aims to analyse sport entrepreneurs' passions and motivations to start a sport business. It answers calls from the literature to investigate sector-specific entrepreneurship ventures and expand the scope of sport entrepreneurship to innovative sport business owners.

Twenty-six entrepreneurs based in Scotland who started a sport business have been surveyed and 8 entrepreneurs were interviewed.

Participants demonstrated a high inclination for self-employment mainly following pull factor reasons such as career change. Their passion for sport, inventing and work played an influential role in their decision to start and grow their business. Some sport entrepreneurs also aimed to pursue higher goals through their innovative sport product or service by contributing to a social cause, which closely aligns with social entrepreneurship.

This study theoretically contributes to the literature by illuminating the specificities of sport entrepreneurship and how passion – as both an antecedent and an outcome – affects the motivational state of sport entrepreneurs.

This research aims to examine football fans' awareness of their team sponsors and to compare sponsorship awareness between season ticket holders and casual spectators. Data was collected from among fans of a professional football team and results revealed that spectators recall 'top of mind' those sponsors with their logo displayed on the team shirts. Thus, being visible from the stadium stands is important to ensure recall rates. Fans are typically able to properly recognise sponsors and non-sponsors of their team. However, some competitor brands engaged in football sponsorship are incorrectly recognised as sponsors of a team. Finally, the number of brands recalled and recognised correctly by season ticket holders is significantly higher than for casual spectators. The research findings, managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Professional football clubs currently strive for a number of concurrent goals, ranging from on-field success to profit maximization to fan expansion and engagement. The purpose of this paper, theoretically informed by the social penetration theory, is to analyze the economics behind such goals and examine the association between team performance, commercial success, and social media followers in professional team sports.

A data set relating to 20 European professional football clubs that combines financial (revenues and costs), sporting, and digital-reach measures for three consecutive football seasons (2013/2014 to 2015/2016) was used. In addition, to elaborate on this data in terms of a descriptive study, the study constructs a range of correlation statistical tests and linear modeling techniques to obtain quantitative results.

The results indicate that all the three main sources of club revenues (match-day, commercial/sponsorship, and broadcasting) are positive drivers for Facebook followers. Staff investments (staff costs) are also positively related to Facebook followers, albeit to a lesser extent, while higher-ranked clubs seem to follow a constant approach in terms of their revenues and cost structure.

This study seeks to bridge the communication and sport economic research, providing evidence that Facebook followers are part of the cyclical phenomenon of team revenues and team performance. In doing so, it initiates a debate on the relationship between the digital expansion of a football club and its sports and financial indicators.

This conceptual article presents a theoretical approach to understanding the atmosphere at sports stadiums. Using the environmental psychology behavioural model proposed by Mehrabian & Russell (1974), and taking into account recent findings in consumer research, we develop a comprehensive framework for investigating this atmosphere. The framework highlights the role of emotions elicited by different stimuli in sports stadiums. We also suggest a number of direct and indirect influences on behavioural outcomes, caused by the emotional reactions and personal predispositions of spectators - influences that are of economic relevance. The proposed framework also forms a starting point for future empirical studies.

The sale of NFTs and the interest in them has “exploded” recently. While there is a lot of information on them, it is not clear what final form they will take. There are several reasons to be uneasy, such as the prevalence of scams, but there are also reasons for optimism and confidence in NFTs. First, they solve the problem of how to own digital assets. Additionally, some of the more reliable and proven cryptoasset exchanges are offering them. However, this innovation will have difficulties reaching a wider audience until more clarity is achieved on two main issues. Therefore, this study aims to clarify what the NFT business models are, and how do they build trust.

This research attempts to identify the NFT business models with case study analysis in three stages. The first stage is a focus group, followed by 16 short case vignettes and finally four longer case studies.

The findings show that there are four NFT business models: (1) NFT creator; (2) NFT marketplace, selling creators’ NFTs; (3) company offering their own NFT (fan token) and (4) computer game with NFT sales.

This research brings the literature on business models and NFTs together to offer clarity on the proven NFT business models.