The aggregate of a sport team’s fans may be viewed as a consumption community that surrounds the team and its brand (Devasagayam & Buff, 2008; Hickman & Ward, 2007). Beneath this larger consumption umbrella, smaller groups of consumers may exist (Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo, 2004), such as specific supporter groups for a team. Individuals thus may identify with multiple layers of the consumption group simultaneously (Brodsky & Marx, 2001; Hornsey & Hogg, 2000). Although past researchers have studied supporter groups (Giulianotti, 1996, 1999a; Parry & Malcolm, 2004) and consumption communities (Kozinets, 2001; Muñiz & O’Guinn, 2001; McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002), there has been limited research on the interaction among subgroups within the superordinate group. The current study examines the American Outlaws (AO), a supporter group for the United States men’s national soccer team (USMNT). AO members belong to local AO chapters (subgroups) as well the national (superordinate) group. This structure creates multiple levels of identification and is conducive to studying the phenomenon in question. Through employing a grounded theory methodology, data were collected via participant observation and ethnographic interviews over a two year period. The current study identifies six prominent foci of identification among AO members: the USMNT, the United States of America (national identity), the sport of soccer, AO National, AO Local, and one’s small social group. These identities are found to be mutually reinforcing and shape members’ interactions with the team, the supporter group, and social groups therein. Specifically, the regional subgroups (AO Local chapters) create opportunities for social interaction, which fosters members’ sense of community and group identification. In turn, this strengthens group cohesion at the subgroup and superordinate group levels. Further, supporter group members alter their team consumption experiences by creating places of prolonged identity salience at live games and when watching games on television. These events increase identification with the supporter group and its related identities. For practitioners, implications of this study include the understanding of supporter groups’ impact on members’ frequency and duration of brand-related consumption.

Since automatic attention is given to beauty, and appearance is the first thing noticed upon meeting a person, one would assume attractiveness is the more important selection factor for a relationship partner. Theories such as the matching hypothesis and mortality salience dispute this idea. The matching hypothesis proposes selection occurs between individuals similar in attractiveness, not necessarily selecting the most attractive individual available. Mortality salience suggests attractiveness is used in selecting a partner for short-term relationships, but discounts physical attractiveness for long-term relationships. This theory proposes an ideal partner for a long-term relationship is selected based on similarity of beliefs. Mortality salience is centered on beliefs of religious groups, with which individuals can become highly identified. Individuals can also become highly identified with a sport team. This connection can be even stronger than the connection with a religious group. Since this connection is so strong, and identification with a religious group can influence selecting a partner, identification with a sport team might have a similar influence. This study attempts to bridge the gap from attraction and dating to sport fan identification. The first hypothesis is sport fans highly identified with the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team will rate a model fan for that team as more attractive than a model fan from a rival team. The second hypothesis is those fans will rate the model fan for the University of Kentucky’s basketball team as more attractive when prompted with a long-term relationship condition as opposed to a short term condition. Participants in this study completed demographics before being randomly assigned an opposite sex dating profile page. They were informed the website they were evaluating was either for people looking for long-term or short-term relationships. They completed a questionnaire about their opinion of the person in the profile, and the Sport Spectator Identification Scale for both the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville men’s basketball teams. The hypotheses and previous research were not supported. This study did produce other interesting findings. The additional findings lend some support to the sociometer theory proposing self-esteem as an important relationship factor.

This study aims to give answers to what type of content, published by professional sport organizations on social media, can engage Swedish sport fans. The definition of "engagement" is based on subjective motives and can be expressed in various forms. Thereby the reason to study whether it was possible to group fans who were of similar character, to understand if they were engaged by the same content on social media. We used segmentation as a strategy to group sport fans with the same level of engagement toward sport organizations. The respondents we got were interesting and brought light to a relative new area of research, which was the goal of this study. The research shows that preferred content is similar in every segment group. Research also indicates that there is no correlation between level of engagement and preferred content on social media. The preferred content is most based on individual preferences and characteristics. However, the study reveals that using segmentation as a strategy can be efficient to group sport fans with similar character, to give a sport organization a brief - but useful - insight in what type of content each segment can feel emotional (and physical) engaged by. This can further lead to higher levels of engagement but is left out for future research attempts. This study can be well suited in the development of the Swedish sport industry looking at the current and future impact of the world’s digitalization. / Denna studie berör svenska elitidrottsföreningars marknadsföringsarbete på sociala medier. Studien ämnar ge förslag på vad för typ av innehåll som elitidrottsföreningarna kan publicera för att engagera sin idrottspublik och därmed uppnå eller fortsätta vara lönsamma. Ett engagemang är svårt att definiera och kan ta många uttryck. Därav fann vi det intressant att studera huruvida olika delar av en idrottspublik kan känna ett engagemang på skilda sätt, för att således ge en förståelse om innehållet behöver anpassas därefter. För att studera vad för typ av innehåll som genererar ett engagemang på sociala medier valde vi att med hjälp av segmentering dela in respondenter i potentiella målgrupper. Segmenteringen utgjordes av 14 respondenter och empirisk data samlades in via intervjuer. Samtliga målgrupper kom att indikera på lönsamhet och kan sägas engageras av liknande innehåll. Men hur personer föredrar att budskapet framställs - såväl som hur man reagerar på det som engagerar - kan variera beroende på vilka individuella karaktärsdrag personer besitter. Dock kan segmentering vara ett effektivt verktyg för att få fram målgrupper bestående av personer som har liknande karaktärsdrag, för att få riktlinjer i utformandet av innehåll på sociala medier som kan tänkas engagera respektive målgrupp. Denna studie kan användas i den svenska idrottssektorns arbete för att utveckla sitt arbete med sociala medier, då digitaliseringen av vårt samhälle verkar vara här för att stanna.

Sport team fans identify with a team and continually internalize their favorite team as part of their self-concept (Wann, Melnick, Russel, & Pease, 2001). However, individuals simultaneously act different from the group to fulfill a psychological need to be distinct and unique (e.g., Brewer, 1991). The majority of prior studies in sport consumption behavior have emphasized that the sense of belonging to a sport team significantly influences a fan’s attitude toward the team and consequent sport consumption behaviors. Beyond the fan-team relationship, there has been limited research on why an individual fan behaves differently from others in the group, specifically why and how sport fans assert their personal and collective selves while in groups. Furthermore, fans attach not only to their favorite sport teams, but also to a fan community which support the team. Under the optimal distinctiveness framework, group dynamics are conceptualized as perceived interchangeability of group inclusion to the same group and interindividual differences (Simon & Kampmeier, 2001). This notion highlights the opposing forces or needs between fan distinctiveness (FD), to be distinct from other group members, and fan inclusiveness (FI), to be similar to other group members, as mutual determinants of the interpersonal self. Thus, the purpose of this research is to explore the psychological mechanism through which sport fans in a fan group balance two conflicting needs of group dynamics to make a decision on team apparel consumption. This was accomplished through two studies. Study 1 employed a survey design to confirm the established evidence on the effects of team identification on team merchandise consumption behaviors in prior sport management studies. It also uncovered the role of group dynamics in sport fans’ team apparel consumption behavior. Findings of Study 1 showed that the mechanism of group dynamics was induced by a level of FI, FD, or both. With a sequential association from university identification (UID) to team identification (TID), the group dynamics were shown to significantly influence team apparel consumption behavior. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 with undergraduate students and National Football League (NFL) fans across group contexts. Study 2 was implemented with the same measurement items to investigate whether the effect of group dynamics on team apparel consumption are moderated by social visibility as a situational cue as well as a boundary condition. Study 2 provided additional evidence of the mechanism underlying the impact of group dynamics on team apparel consumption across two different research contexts. The overarching theoretical implication is that the mediator (group dynamics) and moderators (social visibility and context) influence sport fans’ team apparel consumption behaviors. The pendulum effect between the opposing forces of FI and FD in terms of group dynamics provide an insightful idea to extend optimal distinctiveness theory (ODT) framework and advance the theory. FD and FI play a key role in predicting fan unique team apparel consumption behavior. Moreover, if one of the needs, either FD or FI, are too dominate, the pendulum effect will help balance the needs out. The existing concept of group dynamics explains why sport fans seek unique team products, but cannot account for the traditional perspective of TID to consumption behavior models. Therefore, the current findings further understanding of why and how individuals within a group of fans consume team products based on their unique balance between group inclusiveness and personal distinctiveness. The findings will provide practical guidelines for both teams and sports brand marketers to understand the desire of sophisticated consumers to signal their individuality and what products and services should be offered according to the context-specific need. / Tourism and Sport