Drivers of soccer fan loyalty: Australian evidence on the influence of team brand image, fan engagement, satisfaction and enduring involvement

Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of the paper is to contribute to the extant sport marketing literature by positing fan engagement, team brand image and cumulative fan satisfaction with the team as factors influencing attitudinal and behavioural soccer (football) fan loyalty, with enduring involvement with the team as a moderator.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>A convenience sample of Australian A-League soccer fans completed a paper-and-pencil, self-administered survey to evaluate their team on the focal constructs. A total of 207 participants were recruited from a major Australian east-coast university.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>Using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the study found that fan engagement influences both team brand image and cumulative fan satisfaction, while team brand image also influences cumulative fan satisfaction, and both of these constructs influence attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty. The moderating role of enduring involvement was also found for two relationships: team brand image → attitudinal loyalty and team brand image → behavioural loyalty, along with a mediating role of attitudinal loyalty.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>This study increases our understanding of the reasons why soccer fans are committed to and exhibit fan-related behaviours for a team, thus contributing to the sports-marketing literature on the relationships amongst fan engagement, team brand image, cumulative fan satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty, along with the moderating role of enduring involvement. The findings also assist sports-marketing practitioners to formulate more effective, fan-centric marketing-communication strategies leading to a larger loyal fan base.</jats:p></jats:sec>

Change in brand attitude depending on fashion film type: the psychological mechanisms by engagement and consumer fantasy proneness

“…Many terms have been adopted in the literature to represent the concept of engagement in particular contexts, such as virtual engagement, customer engagement, brand engagement, fan engagement and eWOM engagement (Ananda et al. , 2019; Yun et al. , 2020).…”

“…However, with the advent of new media characterized by interaction, research on engagement has expanded to online, mobile and Brand attitude effect of fashion film social media (Ma and Kim, 2021;Naqvi et al, 2021). Many terms have been adopted in the literature to represent the concept of engagement in particular contexts, such as virtual engagement, customer engagement, brand engagement, fan engagement and eWOM engagement (Ananda et al, 2019;Yun et al, 2020). Calder and Malthouse (2008) identified two types of engagement: engagement occurring with the advertising medium and engagement with the advertised brand.…”

Antecedents of satisfaction and loyalty in different spectator tribes in a football context

“…While club perceived image might be a critical antecedent of loyalty, along with satisfaction, the combination of both has not been sufficiently investigated (Prayag et al , 2017). Following Yun et al (2020), team brand image in sports can be defined as “the cumulative product of brand associations in the sport consumer's mind”, including a multitude of product- and nonproduct-related attributes (e.g. coach, success, star players, logo, colors, history and tradition).…”

“…Customer loyalty and satisfaction have been identified as key to retaining spectators, improving profitability and guaranteeing the sustainability of sport events (Ahrholdt et al , 2017). The importance of enhancing satisfaction and loyalty has been emphasized from a consumer behavior standpoint in the sports literature (Howat and Assaker, 2016; Ahrholdt et al , 2017), with several studies investigating their possible antecedents and outcomes (Yun et al , 2020; Ahrholdt et al , 2017).…”

“…Research evidence indicates both service quality (Ahrholdt et al , 2017; Çevik and Şimşek, 2020) and club image (Yun et al , 2020; Beccarini and Ferrand, 2006) to be important motivations to attend football games that ultimately enhance satisfaction and therefore loyalty. These are, in fact, among the few constants in spectator perceptions that sports marketers can directly influence in terms of building a stable and loyal spectator base (Alonso-Dos-Santos et al , 2018; Biscaia et al , 2016).…”