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This dissertation explored how sports organizations approach the communication of a defeat on social media from the perspective of organizational image management. Furthermore, this study sought to identify how sports fans react to a defeat on social media and what kind of implications fan reactions have on the organizational image management process. The sports industry has some unique characteristics compared to other commercial industries. The overall success of sports organizations is to a great extent dependent on the on-field performances of the team and the coherence of the fan community. The image of sports organizations is likewise dependent on the combination of on-field performances and how the fan community perceives the organization. Sports fans have a strong psychological connection to their favorite team. The strong attachment to a sports organization results commonly in biased evaluations of their favorite team. This dissertation examines how this dynamic unfolds in an online media environment using a customized theoretical framework that combines organizational image management theory and social identity theory. The research strategy in this dissertation consisted of a case study of six sports organizations in the Swedish Hockey League and their fans. Empirical data was collected through six interviews with communication specialists employed by the teams and by sampling comments written by fans on the teams’ Facebook pages on posts about defeats. The findings show that sports organizations in the SHL have a desire to appear honest in their approach to communicating a defeat on social media. This desire encompasses a straightforward approach to communicating a defeat on social media to their fans, making the organization to resemble a credible disseminator of information to key stakeholders in online environments. Furthermore, through the strong psychological connection to their favorite team, fans were found to have a role in the image maintenance process on social media after a defeat. Fans took mainly two different stances on social media after a defeat and were found to both hinder and aid the image management process after a defeat.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:26:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Adriano de Souza Cardoso Filho.pdf: 370370 bytes, checksum: ac287bc050be77b4f35c89f2278f5fb4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-12-05 / The theme of this dissertation is Brazilian Consumer-Protection Law and sports events since the institution of the Sports Fans Statute . Initially, the importance of sports events is considered from an historical perspective, in order to subsequently situate Sports within Brazilian Constitutional Law. In the following section, Brazilian sports scenery prior to the Sports Fans Statute is described. We examine, in particular, incidents in which consumers suffered injuries or damage, during sports events. Such facts were indication of the prevailing climate of negligence to principles relating to security and quality of the product offered to the consumer, during the period just before the establishment of the Sports Fans Statute (Law nº 10.671 on May 15th, 2003). This description introduces a general analysis of this particular legal peace, the Sports Fans Statute and its complementary character in relation to the Consumer Protection Code. Subsequently, incidents taking place at events unrelated to sports but held in sporting facilities are examined, together with the consequent application of the Consumer Protection Code. We also evaluate the necessity to bestow due importance to secondary disciplines, among which the Sports Fans Statute, in the face of Consumer Protection Code. To conclude, our final considerations are presented, summarizing arguments in favor of the compatibility between the Consumer Protection Code and the Sports Fans Statute / Trata-se de dissertação de mestrado cujo tema é O Código de Defesa do Consumidor e os eventos esportivos após o advento do Estatuto do Torcedor. Inicialmente, fizemos uma abordagem histórica acerca da importância dos eventos esportivos para, a seguir, situar o desporto no campo constitucional brasileiro. Segue abordagem histórica em que se relatou a ocorrência de fatos lesivos aos consumidores em arenas esportivas. Tais fatos denotam a desatenção a preceitos atinentes à segurança e a qualidade do produto oferecido ao consumidor, antes do advento do Estatuto do Torcedor (Lei nº 10.671 de 15 de maio de 2003). Na seqüência à referida narrativa, fizemos uma análise geral do Estatuto do Torcedor e de seu caráter complementar ao Código de Defesa do Consumidor. Posteriormente, analisamos a ocorrência de eventos não esportivos realizados em praça desportiva e a conseqüente aplicação do Código de Defesa do Consumidor. Avaliamos ainda a necessidade de conferir a devida importância às disciplinas secundárias, entre elas, o Estatuto do Torcedor, diante do Código de Defesa do Consumidor. Por fim, desenvolvemos em nossas considerações finais a correlata conclusão acerca da compatibilidade existente entre o Código de Defesa do Consumidor e o Estatuto do Torcedor

With billions of sports fans all over the globe, athletes have a considerable platform to advocate for the environment and catalyse behaviour change. The purpose of this paper was to explore the role of leadership in athlete environmental activism. Furthermore, this study aimed to add to the existing literature on pro-environmental behaviour change by investigating the interventions performed by nature-based athletes when encouraging their fans to adopt pro-environmental behaviours. In this paper, a qualitative research design was employed and semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten individuals who were identified as fans of nature-based athletes. The collected data was analysed using deductive thematic analysis, based on the leadership theory of Charismatic Leadership (CL) and the pro-environmental behaviour change theory of Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) Theory. The results indicated that all but one of the Charismatic Leadership Behaviours described in theory were performed by nature-based athletes, the exception being “setting goals with moral overtones.” Moreover, the study deduced that all VBN Interventions detailed in the academic literature were made by nature-based athletes when encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. The analysis process also revealed two additional findings: nature-based athletes mainly communicate their activism through social media and nature-based athletes’ fans want their favoured athletes to incorporate pushing for systemic change in their activism, in addition to encouraging individual behaviour change. Finally, a model was proposed that synthesises the theories of CL Behaviours and VBN Interventions, based on the findings of this study. This study contributes to the literature on pro-environmental behaviour change under the VBN framework and Charismatic Leadership. Additionally, this paper explores the role of leadership in athlete activism and athlete environmental activism, two topics which have not been extensively researched.