2019, Volume 1, Issue 1
Consumer loyalty among fans of sports clubs: How much do they vary across disciplines?
Szczepan Kościółek1
1Institute of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University
Author for correspondence: Szczepan Kościółek; Institute of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University; email: szczepan.kosciolek@uj.edu.pl
Full text
Abstract
Background: In the sports sector, the expected outcome of having loyal fans is equated with the amount and frequency of game attendance, the purchase of team merchandise, following the club’s results in the media, and participation in discussions about the club, whereas the level of loyalty is determined by team identification and customer satisfaction with the team’s performance. However, previous studies have not investigated the differentiation of the loyalty of club fans across different sports disciplines. To fill this research gap, the goals of the study were to measure the difference in loyalty behaviors in sports club fans and their determinants across disciplines and to find whether the discipline can affect the general level of loyalty despite other determinants.
Material and methods: The study was conducted in the form of an online survey (n=1349) spread with the use commercial advertisements in social media. I
Results: In general, the results of the survey revealed that football and speedway fans have higher levels of identification and consumption behaviors than fans of clubs belonging to other sports disciplines.
Conclusions: Contrary to expectations, satisfaction with a team’s performance made no significant difference among sport fans concerning match attendance and interest-in-media, and it had limited impact on merchandise purchasing.
Key words: loyalty behaviours, match attendance, merchandise purchase, team identification, word-of-mouth (WOM)