The Role of Emotional and Cognitive Responses to Sport Video Gaming in Sport Brand Attitude Formation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a conceptual model of brand attitude formation using repeated exposure to sport brands in sport video games (SVG); and to examine if the research model has the same pattern across high and low levels of sport brand familiarity. Three hundred seventy five (375) undergraduate students, recruited from two universities in the US, participated in an experiment. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) provide empirical evidence that the repetition of SVG elicits emotional reactions and cognitive evaluations about sport brands detailed in SVG. This study also confirms that emotional reactions to unfamiliar brands in SVG are indirectly transferred to brand attitudes through SVG attitudes. Indirect effects of brand cognition on brand attitudes through SVG attitudes are evident in high levels of brand familiarity but not in low levels of brand familiarity.The findings lead to managerial implications for marketers and provide researchers with empirical data on how future research can explore the unique participatory experience of sport consumers in a virtual sport environment.