Differentiating attitudes: team loyalty and attitude towards spectating behaviour

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate sport spectators’ attitudes, specifically team loyalty and attitude towards spectating behaviour by investigating the reliability and validity of the proposed model, and the influence of the attitudinal factors on intention to re-attend sporting events.

Design/methodology/approach

In this quantitative study, data were longitudinally collected from five professional soccer teams of the Japanese professional soccer league official surveys of 2008. The study was analysed in two phases by first examining the reliability and validity of the measurements and then the appropriateness of the model. Finally, a multiple group analysis was conducted to examine the applicability across the aforementioned five teams.

Findings

Team loyalty conceptually and empirically differed from attitudes towards spectating behaviour. The proposed model indicated how attitudes have impacts on spectators’ future attendance at professional sports events, but the model significantly changed when parameters of the model were progressively constrained, suggesting that each team's uniqueness may influence spectators’ intention to attend future games.

Originality/value

Sport spectators’ attitudes play a significant role in the decision-making process of deciding to attend an event, and an understanding of how spectators’ attitudes influence their intention to re-attend events could be of value to both scholars and sports team managers. Spectators of each team have their own characteristics and although this makes it difficult to generalise the results, this study contributes to an understanding of spectators’ attitudes.

Citation

Sumida, K., Fujimoto, J. and Sakata, M. (2014), "Differentiating attitudes: team loyalty and attitude towards spectating behaviour", Sport, Business and Management, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 109-124. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-02-2011-0024