Sport Events Customers’ Behavior in the Light of Hedonic Consumption

Abstract

Consumption of sport events has raised the specialists’ interest since it has become a global phenomenon, accessible to a large mass of consumers. At the same time, this consumption generates implications from an economic, social, and cultural point of view, in the countries/locations where various sport events have been organized, through the development of cultural and sport tourism. Sport event consumption belongs to the category of consumption acts that presume total implication apart from individuals and accordingly, their emotional involvement. This involvement is correlated on the one hand with the typology and the nature of needs and consumption motives underlying this consumption, and on the other hand with the more and more intensive promotion of these events and the easier participation access of consumers. Consumer involvement is a multidimensional construct, so the idea of an “involvement profile” is more appropriate to describe how the consumer relates to such products or services. The purpose of our paper is to clarify whether involvement within consumption for sport events customers is determining a specific behavior for the hedonic type of consumption also related to other categories of products or services. The consumption of sport events represents mainly a hedonic type of consumption correlated with a high level of emotional involvement during the consumption process, an involvement developed against the backdrop of the special role, and specific meaning that sport events can have at the level of individuals’ perception.