Collective emotional dynamics: Perspectives for marketing

Abstract

This article focuses on the emotional dynamics at work in a collective experience. It thus fills a gap in research on emotions in the field of marketing, where emotions are usually tackled from an individual perspective. Its contribution is twofold. First, it draws on a review of the existing literature in psychology, social psychology, and sociology in order to identify, define, and characterize the main concepts related to emotions when they are experienced in a collective context. It also builds on this review by distinguishing the processes of emotional transfer from the collective emotional states that result from these transfers. Second, this article shows that the existing marketing literature almost exclusively addresses these topics through the lens of the buyer–seller dyadic relationship. Finally, it proposes further avenues of research that are focused on integrating collective emotional dynamics into marketing research.

The impact of green marketing on collective behaviour: Experimental evidence from the sports industry

“…First, we show that supporters tend to evaluate alternative options based on collective gains and losses due to their tendency to behave as a group (Didry & Giannelloni, 2019; Wann & Branscombe, 1993), which diverges from the individual‐level judgement suggested by prospect theory. This group behaviour sets supporters apart from traditional categories of consumers (Giulianotti, 2002), due to their strong emotional attachment towards their favourite sports clubs (Baena, 2018), which can generate emotional reactions towards everyday life problems when they are in stadiums.…”

“…These results provide the first evidence of stadiums' peculiarities compared to other social contexts, such as retail shopping (Matthes et al, 2014) or tourism (Aliperti et al, 2018), where the environmental message has a significant influence on both attitudes and behavioural intentions. In particular, the absence of effects on PBI confirms that stadiums are basically places of suspension of values, interests and power relations where supporters are fully emotionally focused on the match (Didry & Giannelloni, 2019; García & Welford, 2015).…”

“…This evidence also confirms the presence of the well‐known ‘attitude‐behaviour’ gap (Boulstridge & Carrigan, 2000; Young et al, 2010), which in stadiums also applies to predictors of actual behaviours like behavioural intentions (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). In this regard, the presence of a strong collective identity of supporters during sports matches (Didry & Giannelloni, 2019; Smelser, 2011) might contribute to turning stadiums into places where individual rationality and proactiveness do not flourish and individual pro‐environmental intentions are reduced or even suspended. Given that in this context environmental messaging alone, especially if they recall everyday life, is ineffective, it should usefully evolve towards gamification approaches that are emotionally resonant with the sports event and the collective emotions in stadiums.…”

“…In particular, ‘they can act as role models, setting examples, raising awareness and modelling behaviours, particularly among young people’ (United Nations, 2022, p. 2). Thus, given the engagement of supporters in collective emotions and behaviours during sports events (Chang & Inoue, 2021; Didry & Giannelloni, 2019; Smelser, 2011), we assume that, in case of a credible environmental commitment of their favourite sports club, environmental messages aiming at reducing the environmental impact of sports events positively influence supporters' PCE (Inoue et al, 2013).…”

“…In this regard, management studies underlined that football supporters are a special category of consumers because they have a strong group identity and a strong emotional attachment to their favourite sports clubs (Baena, 2018; Walker & Heere, 2011). Sports team attachment directly impacts supporters' emotions during sports events by reducing, or even suspending, the supporters' individualistic inclinations (Didry & Giannelloni, 2019; García & Welford, 2015).…”