IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/spomar/v21y2018i5p533-548.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A fan’s search for meaning: Testing the dimensionality of sport fan superstition

Author

Listed:
  • Dwyer, Brendan
  • Slavich, Mark A.
  • Gellock, Jennifer L.

Abstract

Uncertainty is a fundamental component of spectator sport fandom. While it may draw some fans to an event, it can be frustrating for others, as fans have little control over how preferred teams perform. As a means to cope with this unpleasant state, some sport fans perform superstitions or create rituals. Little is known, however, how such beliefs and behaviors impact the sport fan experience. In the current study, the authors explored sport fan superstition within the context of mediated team sport spectatorship through a multi-study quantitative approach. The results of Study 1 validated a multidimensional model of sport fan superstition, and superstitious behavior positively impacted in-game mood states for fans of winning and losing teams. In Study 2, the authors tested the dimensionality of sport fan superstition through segmentation and uncovered consumption differences and attribution differences for fans of winning and losing teams. Superstitious behavior was once again an influential factor, as those who behaved more superstitiously were more likely to attribute outcomes to external sources such as referees and fate.

Suggested Citation

  • Dwyer, Brendan & Slavich, Mark A. & Gellock, Jennifer L., 2018. "A fan’s search for meaning: Testing the dimensionality of sport fan superstition," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 533-548.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:spomar:v:21:y:2018:i:5:p:533-548
    DOI: 10.1016/j.smr.2017.12.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1441352317301833
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.smr.2017.12.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McDonald, Heath & Karg, Adam J., 2014. "Managing co-creation in professional sports: The antecedents and consequences of ritualized spectator behavior," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 292-309.
    2. Aaron C.T. Smith & Bob Stewart, 2010. "The special features of sport: A critical revisit," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, January.
    3. Brendan Dwyer & Michael Mudrick & Gregory P. Greenhalgh & Carrie W. LeCrom & Joris Drayer, 2015. "The tie that blinds? Developing and validating a scale to measure emotional attachment to a sport team," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 570-582, October.
    4. Smith, Aaron C.T. & Stewart, Bob, 2010. "The special features of sport: A critical revisit," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, February.
    5. Theodorakis, Nicholas D. & Alexandris, Kostas & Tsigilis, Nikolaos & Karvounis, Serafim, 2013. "Predicting spectators’ behavioural intentions in professional football: The role of satisfaction and service quality," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 85-96.
    6. Muniz, Albert M, Jr & O'Guinn, Thomas C, 2001. "Brand Community," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 412-432, March.
    7. Leonard Lee & On Amir & Dan Ariely, 2009. "In Search of Homo Economicus: Cognitive Noise and the Role of Emotion in Preference Consistency," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 173-187.
    8. repec:cup:judgdm:v:5:y:2010:i:3:p:159-163 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Dwyer, Brendan & Mudrick, Michael & Greenhalgh, Gregory P. & LeCrom, Carrie W. & Drayer, Joris, 2015. "The tie that blinds? Developing and validating a scale to measure emotional attachment to a sport team," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 570-582.
    10. Morrison, Michael & Gan, Sarah & Dubelaar, Chris & Oppewal, Harmen, 2011. "In-store music and aroma influences on shopper behavior and satisfaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 558-564, June.
    11. Heath McDonald & Adam J. Karg, 2014. "Managing co-creation in professional sports: The antecedents and consequences of ritualized spectator behavior," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 292-309, July.
    12. Eric J. Hamerman & Gita V. Johar, 2013. "Conditioned Superstition: Desire for Control and Consumer Brand Preferences," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 428-443.
    13. Westbrook, Robert A & Oliver, Richard L, 1991. "The Dimensionality of Consumption Emotion Patterns and Consumer Satisfaction," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(1), pages 84-91, June.
    14. Siddharth Suri & Duncan J Watts, 2011. "Cooperation and Contagion in Web-Based, Networked Public Goods Experiments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Rodney Fort & Joel Maxcy, 2003. "“Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues: An Introductionâ€," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 154-160, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Baker, Bradley J. & Du, James & Sato, Mikihiro & Funk, Daniel C., 2020. "Rethinking segmentation within the psychological continuum model using Bayesian analysis," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 764-775.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brian S. Gordon & Masayuki Yoshida & Makoto Nakazawa & Jordan Bass, 2021. "The Role of Pride Feelings in the Team and Fan Community Identification Processes: An Empirical Examination in Professional Sport," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(2), pages 76-94, May.
    2. Wang, Michael Chih-Hung & Tang, Ya-Yun, 2018. "Examining the antecedents of sport team brand equity: A dual-identification perspective," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 293-306.
    3. Funk, Daniel C. & Pizzo, Anthony D. & Baker, Bradley J., 2018. "eSport management: Embracing eSport education and research opportunities," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 7-13.
    4. Christoph Pott & Christoph Breuer & Michael ten Hompel, 2023. "Sport Logistics: Considerations on the Nexus of Logistics and Sport Management and Its Unique Features," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Lee, Ye Hoon, 2020. "The role of mindfulness and occupational stress in the goal orientations of development and winning," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 626-639.
    6. Anwar Sadat Shimul, 2022. "Brand attachment: a review and future research," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 400-419, July.
    7. Moital, Miguel & Bain, Amy & Thomas, Harriet, 2019. "Summary of cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes of consuming prestigious sports events," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 652-666.
    8. Yoshida, Masayuki, 2017. "Consumer experience quality: A review and extension of the sport management literature," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 427-442.
    9. Iva Glibo & Laura Misener & Joerg Koenigstorfer, 2022. "Strategic Sustainable Development in International Sport Organisations: A Delphi Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-18, August.
    10. Muhammad Bilal Gulfraz & Xiong Wei, 2019. "Impact of Sales Person’s Customer Orientation, In-Store Promotions and In-Store Environment on Impulsive Buying Mediated by Urge: The Moderating Role of Impulsive Buying Tendency," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 3(6), pages 99-117.
    11. Sato, Mikihiro & Jordan, Jeremy S. & Funk, Daniel C., 2016. "A distance-running event and life satisfaction: The mediating roles of involvement," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 536-549.
    12. Oliver Budzinski, 2011. "The Institutional Framework for Doing Sports Business: Principles of EU Competition Policy in Sports Markets," Working Papers 1103, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.
    13. Riadh Ladhari & Soumaya Cheikhrouhou & Miguel Morales & Emna Zaaboub, 2022. "Antecedents and consequences of emotional attachment to sport teams brands," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(5), pages 454-469, September.
    14. Meiklejohn, Trevor & Dickson, Geoff & Ferkins, Lesley, 2016. "The formation of interorganisational cliques in New Zealand rugby," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 266-278.
    15. Verschuuren, Pim, 2020. "Whistleblowing determinants and the effectiveness of reporting channels in the international sports sector," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 142-154.
    16. Mohsen Behnam & Geoff Dickson & Vahid Delshab & Anna Gerke & Parvaneh Savari Nikou, 2023. "The moderating effect of fan engagement on the relationship between fan knowledge and fan co-creation in social media," Post-Print hal-03969039, HAL.
    17. Cordery, Carolyn J. & Sim, Dalice & Baskerville, Rachel F., 2013. "Three models, one goal: Assessing financial vulnerability in New Zealand amateur sports clubs," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 186-199.
    18. Frank, Björn & Herbas Torrico, Boris & Enkawa, Takao & Schvaneveldt, Shane J., 2014. "Affect versus Cognition in the Chain from Perceived Quality to Customer Loyalty: The Roles of Product Beliefs and Experience," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(4), pages 567-586.
    19. Daniel Adrian Gârdan & Iuliana Petronela Gârdan & Mihai Andronie & Ionel Dumitru, 2020. "Sport Events Customers’ Behavior in the Light of Hedonic Consumption," International Journal of Marketing Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(3), pages 1-26, September.
    20. Pekovic, Sanja & Rolland, Sylvie, 2020. "Recipes for achieving customer loyalty: A qualitative comparative analysis of the dimensions of customer experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:spomar:v:21:y:2018:i:5:p:533-548. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/716936/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.