Uncovering the knowledge structure of the fan-sporting object relationship: a bibliometric analysis

Fans are a central entity in the sport ecosystem, and their importance in the sport value chain needs no emphasis. Despite extensive scholarly work around fans in sport management, the discipline lacks a unified view from a relational perspective. In this study, we present a bibliometric and content analysis of the fan-sporting object relationship literature. We conduct citation and cocitation analysis across 1704 journal documents, having 91,071 references. Our study finds that six intellectual clusters depict the realm of this relationship. Further, we report the centrality attributes of the most influential works of the domain. Our work thereby presents the intellectual structure of the literature of the fan-sporting object relationship and depicts it in an integrated framework. We complement our bibliometric review with a content analysis of relevant recent scholarly work to incorporate contemporary viewpoints. In doing so, we contribute to sport management by taking an expansive perspective of fans and accordingly provide future research directions. This study presents the state of research around the fan-sporting object relationship through bibliometric and social network analyses.It complements the bibliometric methods by using content analysis to present contemporary themes emanating from current research.It depicts the dominant clusters around the relationship and synthesizes them into a framework that acts as this relationship’s blueprint.Finally, the study guides future research that identifies the transcendence of fans beyond spectating roles.