Information-Sharing Behaviors Among Sports Fans Using #Hashtags

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore sports fans’ hashtags usage for information sharing over social media on the basis of the theory of interpersonal behavior. We collected data from 323 social media users who have employed hashtags to exchange sports-related information during the past 12 months. The structural equation modeling confirmed affect, perceived usefulness, perceived reciprocity, and social factors as motivators of the intention to share information. Other motivators, including habit and facilitating conditions, function as predictors of actual hashtags posting among sport fans. In deriving empirical evidence and novel insights into the role of hashtags, this research elevated our understanding of information circulation among sport fans over social media and serves as a foundation for inquiries into hashtag adoption in sport domains.

Who Will Help to Strive Against the “Infodemic”? Reciprocity Norms Enforce the Information Sharing Accuracy of the Individuals

“…First, the results suggest that individuals with higher reciprocity norms are more likely to share information, which is consistent with previous research ( Haeussler, 2011 ; Schumann et al, 2014 ; Pai and Tsai, 2016 ). Moreover, the promotion effect stems from people’s expectation of returns ( Kim et al, 2021 ), that is, people expect to get positive return in the future because of information sharing behavior. The more accurate the information people have, the higher the perceived usefulness of the information ( Larcker and Lessig, 1980 ; Machdar, 2019 ).…”

“…Individuals often share information and knowledge in the expectation of returns, such as material benefits, information exchange, self-satisfaction, etc. ( Kim et al, 2021 ). This means that an individual is willing to share information as long as he/she expects that others will provide information or other feedback in exchange ( Zaheer and Trkman, 2017 ).…”

“…As a kind of universal social norms, reciprocity norms enables both sides to enhance mutual assistance ( Cook et al, 2013 ). In other words, motivated by reciprocity norms people are able to voluntarily help others and share information ( Kim et al, 2021 ), even without direct reciprocity ( Lee and Suzuki, 2020 ). Based on the promotion effect of reciprocity norms on information sharing, we further explore whether reciprocity norms promote the sharing of accurate information, that is to say, whether individuals with higher reciprocity are more willing to share accurate information they obtain.…”

Does It Matter if Sport Fans “Root for the Home Team?” A Test of the Team Identification–Social Psychological Health Model

“…Modern technology, however, has dramatically increased the number of opportunities that fans have to support their team and interact with fans of the same team, regardless of whether or not their favorite team is locally-based (Real, 2006). Sport organizations have taken advantage of social media to promote their team, engage with fans, and encourage interaction among fans using unique hashtags (e.g., #BillsMafia, #COYS, #WeTheNorth; see Kim et al, 2019). It is clear that fans heavily rely on social media to follow their team (Phua, 2012;Yoon et al, 2016).…”

“I found what I needed, which was a supportive community”: an ethnographic study of shared information practices in an online cosplay community

“…After these groundbreaking studies, academic studies of fandom began to increase in number. Of the many studies that have been published, several have studied the communication between fans and between fans and authority creators (Kim and Kim, 2017;Soegito, 2019), fan productions (Fazel and Geddes, 2015;Hill and Pecoskie, 2017), and knowledge sharing (Kim et al, 2019). Hartel (2003) and Stebbins' (1992Stebbins' ( , 2009 pioneering work in studying serious leisure through the lens of information science opened new avenues for information researchers who had previously focused almost exclusively on scholarly and professional contexts.…”