Elevating self-esteem through sport team identification: a study about local and distant sport fans

Abstract

PurposeThe concept of sport team identification has been widely used as a theoretical framework in explaining sport fan behavior. However, limited attention has been devoted to the consequences of distant (i.e., foreign) team identification. The purpose of the current research was to examine the way in which fans (local and distant) can increase their levels of collective and personal self-esteem due to their team identification.Design/methodology/approachData were accumulated from three Greek websites (N = 742). Among them, 623 subjects were grouped as local and 119 as distant football fans. A structural invariance analysis was followed.FindingsThe results revealed how team identification, enduring team-related social connections, and basking in reflected glory are interrelated to affect collective and finally personal self-esteem. Moreover, no differences were found between local and distant fans regarding the paths from eam identification to collective self-esteem and from collective self-esteem to personal self-esteem.Originality/valueThis is one of the first endeavors to examine the psychological consequences of distant team identification and to test the invariance across local and distant fans concerning the mechanisms that their personal self-esteem can be enhanced because their psychological connection to their favorite sport team.

Psychological processes connecting team identification and social well-being for middle-aged and older adults: moderated mediation of subjective and objective on-field performance

“…However, our research differs from Lianopoulos et al in that we examined the mediating effect of fans' perceptions in combination with the moderating effect of objective on-field performance data collected from secondary sources. Thus, the evidence from the current research makes a distinctive contribution to the literature on the relationship between team identification and social well-being (e.g., Inoue et al, 2015;Inoue, Wann et al, 2020;Lianopoulos et al, 2020;Wann, 2006;Wann, Waddill et al, 2011) by showing that the psychological processes underlying this relationship involves not only individuals' perceptions of intragroup relations but also how they respond to objective performance data to form subjective perceptions of group status.…”

“…Within spectator sport, group status can be clearly examined in terms of on-field performance, with win-loss records indicating a team's position in the hierarchy of competition relative to other teams in the same league or conference (Jetten et al, 2017). Therefore, our examination of subjective and objective on-field team performance as mediating and moderating variables extends existing research that predominantly focused on the quality of intragroup relations among fans of the same team -as indicated by social connections (Lianopoulos et al, 2020;Wann, 2006;Wann, Waddill et al, 2015 or emotional support (Inoue et al, 2015;Inoue, Wann et al, 2020) -to connect team identification and social well-being. One notable exception to this intragroup focus is Lianopoulos et al's (2020) study of Greek sport fans.…”

“…Their findings demonstrated that, along with social connections, the relationship between team identification and collective self-esteem (a social well-being measure) was mediated by fans' engagement in behaviours related to basking in reflected glory (BIRGing). BIRGing behaviour reflects an individual's tendency to promote their affiliation with the success of a team in the eyes of others (Cialdini et al, 1976;Lianopoulos et al, 2020), hence capturing fans' perceptions of the team's relative on-field performance. However, our research differs from Lianopoulos et al in that we examined the mediating effect of fans' perceptions in combination with the moderating effect of objective on-field performance data collected from secondary sources.…”

“…This ageing trend is notable for team sport entities, such as Major League Baseball (median age in 2016 = 57 years), the Women's National Basketball Association (55 years), college football (52 years), the National Football League (50 years), and National Hockey League (49 years; Lombardo & Broughton, 2017). Second, despite the ageing of sport fans, except for two studies (Inoue, Wann et al, 2020;Wann, Rogers et al, 2011), most research examined the relationship between team identification and social well-being by analysing data from student samples (e.g., Wann et al, 2003;Wann & Pierce, 2005;Wann, Waddill et al, 2015 or consumers with a range of age groups (e.g., Inoue et al, 2015;Lianopoulos et al, 2020). As there is evidence to suggest that middle-aged and older adults consume spectator sport differently from their younger peers (Lock et al, 2009;Van Driel & Gantz, 2019), it is essential to explicitly examine how team identification contributes to the social well-being of middle-aged and older adults, who constitute primary customer segments for many sport organisations (Lombardo & Broughton, 2017).…”

The era of consumer entitlement: investigating entitlement after a perceived brand failure

“…Additionally, consumers who have high affinity and high expectations of a brand's performance are likely to be more dogmatic and inflexible (Redden and Steiner, 2000) and more likely to experience even greater frustration when they perceive a brand failure. Furthermore, given the strong ties of the brand to the individual's identity, there is a strong connection between fan identification and self-esteem (Lianopoulos et al, 2020). Consequently, failures may even seem highly personal and threaten an individual's self-esteem (Bizman and Yinon, 2002;Keeney, 2011), making expectations of how a brand should respond to them in such failures even higher.…”