Association Between Team Identification and Sport Consumption Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

AbstractThe relationship between team identification and sport consumption behaviors is crucial for sports management researchers and practitioners. Given that collective information about the relationship is still inconclusive, this study conducted a comprehensive review of team identification and sport consumption behaviors and explored the relationships and the impact of sport setting, culture, and sample type as moderators. The meta-analysis analyzed data from 75 effect sizes based on 43,608 participants from 52 studies. The results showed that team identification was significantly correlated with sport attendance (r = .47), media consumption (r = .46), sport merchandise consumption (r = .49), and word-of-mouth (r = .60). Sport setting and culture were found to affect the relationship significantly. The current study presents a comprehensive model that synthesizes a broad spectrum of previous studies and offers important implications for investigating sport consumption behaviors and planning sport organizations’ strategies.Keywords: Attendancemedia consumptionmerchandise consumptionword-of-mouthconsumer behavior Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest has to be reported.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSeungbak LeeSeungbak Lee is a doctoral student and a graduate assistant at the University of Mississippi, Health, Exercise, and Recreation Management program. His research interest involves big data analytics, machine learning, and text mining in the context of physical activity and sports.Younghan LeeYounghan Lee (Ph.D., Seoul National University) is a professor in the Sport Management Program of the Mississippi State University. His research interests include sport marketing and management, sport sponsorship, and data analytics. His scholarly work has appeared in the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, International Journal of Sport Marketing and Sponsorship, Sport Marketing Quarterly, Communication and Sport, Psychology & Marketing, among others.Minsoo KangDr. Minsoo Kang is a Professor of the HESRM department and Program Director of Sport Analytics master’s program. His background is in Measurement and Evaluation in Kinesiology with emphasis in IRT, Rasch, and psychometrics. His research focuses on measurement, statistical methods, and big data analytics and their applications to physical activity and sport performance.