Although sport fandom is often stereotypically associated with negative behaviors such as poor interpersonal skills and aggressiveness, theorists have suggested that, because sport fandom provides such a social and fun atmosphere, fandom may actually be related to psychological health. ... Research for the current study looked to expand prior research as the correlation between Team Identification and several factors, including psychological well-being, collective self-esteem, and community identification. ....

No description available.

Although diversity provides a greater pool of knowledge and perspectives, teams often do not realize the potential offered by these additional informational resources. In this study, we develop a new model seeking to explain when and how teams that are diverse in terms of educational background utilize the afforded informational variety by engaging in deeper elaboration of task-relevant information. We found that collective team identification moderated the relationship between educational team diversity and elaboration of task-relevant information, such that under high (low) levels of team identification, educational diversity was positively (negatively) related to information elaboration. As expected, this moderating effect was shown to be mediated simultaneously through two different types of perceived team diversity. We found that the negative path was mediated through a perceived diversity measure reflecting a split into subgroups, whereas the positive path was mediated through a perceived diversity measure reflecting perceived educational heterogeneity. Taken together, this study contributes to the team diversity literature by shedding light on the important role of collective team identification in unlocking the potential of objective educational team diversity, by uncovering the underlying mechanisms accounting for this effect, and by demonstrating the usefulness of distinguishing between different types of perceived diversity.

M. Tech. (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Sport has become the great unifier globally since governments, countries and organisations are using it as a resource to bring people together. The sport industry is one of the fastest rising business segments and its primary aim/objective is to generate the revenue from sport spectators. In the past decade, the behaviour of sport spectators has received increasing attention in academic literature. A better understanding of how and why sport spectators go to stadiums and travel great distances to support their sport clubs is of great interest to sport marketers. Soccer, in particular, is perhaps one of the greatest sport phenomena in terms of its attraction for hundreds of thousands of occasional spectators of every age and gender, who come together in soccer stadiums around the globe every week to watch games. In South Africa, soccer is the leading sport from both a participation and spectator viewpoint. Understanding sport consumers willingness to attend is arguably one of the most important concerns in sport marketing and consumer-relationship management. As found in sport consumption literature, a “good relationship with sport consumers by sport clubs is an essential factor for a successful sport business” because it is much cheaper to serve satisfied consumers and easier to sustain their support. The purpose of this study was to examine selected motivational variables that influence spectators’ attendance of professional women’s soccer matches to better understand the development of the sports consumption sector. There is an absence of research conducted concerning this direction and subsequently a lack of existing literature, especially among women’s sport. To contribute to filling this void, this study attempts to measure the relationships between these variables. Earlier research has demonstrated that consumers’ willingness to attend is highly determined by their satisfaction. This study is descriptive and correlational in nature and follows a quantitative research approach. The target population comprised spectators of professional women’s soccer in the Gauteng province of South Africa. A snowball sampling technique was used to identify the participants fitting the predetermined sample standards. A total number of 316 questionnaires were received and analysed. Relevant areas, research approaches and data acquiring procedures were described. Additionally, means and factor analysis were performed to determine the level of selected motivational variables, team satisfaction and willingness to attend of spectators and to establish the underlying factors of the constructs respectively. Moreover, a correlation analysis was conducted to establish the strength and direction of the relationship between the study variables. Lastly, a regression analysis was performed to check the predictive relationship between the study’s constructs. The study revealed that motivational variables (vicarious achievement, involvement, social interaction, perceived value) have a significant relationship with spectator satisfaction. In addition, spectator satisfaction was found to be the determinant of spectator willingness to attend professional women’s soccer matches. Based on the results of this study, this research adds to the scant literature on spectators of women’s sport and proposes perspectives on the level of motives and behaviours of spectators, which can be used by women’s sport organisations and government organisations in elevating women’s soccer in South Africa. In this way, sport organisations could develop spectator engagement campaigns and marketing materials in order to engender and enhance women’s spectator participation. Further, sport managers and sport marketers should make every effort to increase the perceived value of services such as fees which are fair, albeit under the global negative economic climate, in order to satisfy the needs of spectators and at the same time reap rewards from the presence of spectators in stadiums and ensure that this presence continues. Based on these findings, limitations as well as future research opportunities and contributions of this study are discussed.

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2017-05-22T16:48:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Pedro de Braganca Corat.pdf: 1262846 bytes, checksum: 6f3985beb7935ef79a7ae5bad539f9c5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-22T16:48:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pedro de Braganca Corat.pdf: 1262846 bytes, checksum: 6f3985beb7935ef79a7ae5bad539f9c5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-16 / Fans of sports team gets excited, interacts with others fans, buys to show their belonginess on that social group. However not necessarily this actions means that the individual is really a fan, that celebrates victories and suffers on losses. What difference a fan of a well-wishing is the love to the team (adapted from brand love) and the level of identification. The research, so, intended, at first, to measure the brand love differences between Brazilians fans of national teams and of foreigner teams. Likewise, intended to understand the differences on team identification and purchase intention on these same groups. That distinction is necessary because some numbers shows that Brazilians interest in foreigner teams and diverse sports is growing, so the research wished to investigate if there are Brazilians really being fans of foreigner teams or if they are just enthusiasts. The theoretical concepts that sustained the study were brand love, team identification and purchase intention as a consequent of both. A confirmatory factorial analysis and a structural equation modeling were applied. Results showed that there are no differences between brand love and team identification on Brazilians fans of national teams and Brazilian fans of foreigner teams. The last group’s purchase intention was bigger, by the way. / A torcida de times esportivos se emociona, interage com os demais e consome como forma de exibir seu pertencimento àquele grupo social. Porém não necessariamente a realização destas ações significa que o indivíduo é realmente um torcedor, que celebra as vitórias e sofre nas derrotas. O que diferencia torcedores de simpatizantes é o amor ao time, adaptado do brand love (amor à marca) e o grau de identificação com este. A pesquisa, então, pretendeu, em um primeiro momento, mensurar as diferenças entre o brand love de torcedores brasileiros a times nacionais e a times estrangeiros. Igualmente se objetivou entender as diferenças nestes mesmos grupos à identificação com o time e à intenção de compra. Tal distinção se fez necessária pelo fato de alguns números mostrarem o aumento do interesse de brasileiros por times estrangeiros e modalidades variadas, então se pretendeu investigar se há realmente brasileiros torcendo para times estrangeiros ou se são apenas entusiastas. Os conceitos teóricos que ampararam o estudo são o brand love, a identificação com o time e a intenção de compra como consequência a ambos. Foi aplicada análise fatorial confirmatória e modelagem de equações estruturais. Os resultados mostraram que não existe diferenças entre o brand love e a identificação com o time para torcedores de times nacionais e de times estrangeiros, o que comprova a existência de brasileiros que são realmente torcedores de times de fora do país. A intenção de compra deste grupo se mostrou maior, inclusive.

La diversité dans les équipes pose plusieurs enjeux, notamment en ce qui concerne la performance d’équipe. Les études jusqu’à présent ont rapporté un lien parfois positif, parfois négatif ou inexistant entre la présence de diversité et la performance de l’équipe. Puisque les équipes interdisciplinaires sont de plus en plus sollicitées par les organisations pour faciliter la résolution de problèmes de plus en plus complexes, il semble important de bien comprendre comment la diversité affecte la performance d’équipe. L’une des avenues encore peu explorée s’attarde à la perception de la diversité plutôt qu’à la diversité objective, par l’entremise de l’étude de l’identification à l’équipe. En effet, une identification à l’équipe forte permettrait d’atténuer la perception de diversité et aurait un impact positif sur la performance. Cependant, très peu d’études se sont intéressées à ce phénomène et aucune, à notre connaissance, n’a évalué l’impact de l’identification à l’équipe sur les processus d’équipe ou n’a évalué l’impact de différents types d’identification simultanément sur la performance d’équipe. Faute d’écrits sur la question, la compréhension du phénomène d’identification dans les équipes s’avère partielle. Par ailleurs, la définition et la mesure de l’identification à l’équipe sont affligées de plusieurs problèmes psychométriques, ce qui engendre beaucoup de confusion dans les écrits scientifiques portant sur l’identification à l’équipe. Devant ce constat, la présente thèse vise à approfondir la compréhension du phénomène d’identification à l’équipe sur la performance d’équipes interdisciplinaires et d’en clarifier la conceptualisation et la mesure. Dans cette optique, trois études, regroupées en deux articles, ont été menées auprès de deux échantillons indépendants. Ancré dans les écrits scientifiques portant sur l’identification à l’organisation (p.ex. Ashforth, & Mael, 1989; Christ, van Dick, Wagner & Stellmatcher, 2003; Edward, 2005; Tajfel, 1978), le premier article a pour visées de proposer une conceptualisation claire et intégrée de l’identification dans un contexte organisationnel, puis de développer et valider une mesure de l’identification à l’équipe. Deux études ont été réalisées pour évaluer les propriétés psychométriques de cette mesure. Des analyses factorielles exploratoires et confirmatoires, de même que des analyses de fidélité et de validité confirment les propriétés psychométriques préliminaires de l’échelle. Les implications pour la pratique et la recherche sont abordées en détail. La diversité est considérée comme l’un des obstacles à la performance d’équipe au sein d’équipes interdisciplinaires. C’est pourquoi le second article évalue ce phénomène en considérant l’impact de différents types d’identification (c.-à-d. l’identification à l’équipe et l’identification à la profession) sur la performance d’équipe. À la lumière du modèle d’Ilgen et collaborateurs (2005), les types d’identification et leur influence respective sur la performance d’équipe par l’entremise de processus d’équipe (c.-à-d. les conflits et la collaboration) ont été évalués. Cette étude est la première à considérer les interactions entre les types d’identification sur la performance d’équipe au sein d’équipes interdisciplinaires. Deux cent soixante-huit employés canadiens du système de la santé ont répondu à différents questionnaires autorapportés. Des analyses de processus conditionnels de médiations modérées (Hayes, 2013) démontrent que l’identification à l’équipe influence la performance d’équipe par l’entremise du processus de collaboration, alors que l’identification à la profession et les conflits n’auraient pas d’impact. Cette étude met en lumière l’impact de deux types d’identification en évaluant leurs impacts simultanément, en plus de suivre les recommandations de Mathieu et collaborateurs (2008) et d’évaluer simultanément l’impact de plus d’un type de processus d’équipe (c.-à-d. processus de transition, d’action et interpersonnel). Les implications pratiques qui découlent de cette étude incluent la formation d’équipe, (Salas et al., 2008), les activités de consolidation d’équipe (Klein et al. 2009) pour améliorer la collaboration, en plus de la rehausser l’attractivité de l’appartenance à l’équipe (Dutton et al., 1994) et de favoriser un style de leadership transformationnel (Hirst, et al., 2009) pour engendrer une plus grande identification à l’équipe. Une discussion générale précise la portée des résultats présentés dans le cadre des deux articles. / Diversity poses many challenges within teams, especially in regard to team performance. So far, some studies have shown a positive, negative and ever non-significant link between diversity and team performance. Since organizations are relying more often on interdisciplinary teams to help them solve the increasingly complex problems they face, it appears important to understand how diversity affects team performance. One fresh way to look at the problem is by looking at perceived diversity instead of objective diversity through the lenses of team identification. Indeed, strong team identification would attenuate perceived of diversity and would positively impact team performance. However, very few studies have investigated this phenomenon and, to our knowledge, none have looked at the impact of team identification influence on team processes nor looked at the impact of different types of identification on team performance. Due to a gap in the literature, the influence of identification within teams is not well understood. Moreover, the definition and measure of team identification has, so far, been plagued with numerous psychometric problems. This generates even more confusion surrounding the literature on team identification. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate the impact of team identification on team performance within interdisciplinary teams and to clarify its definition and measurement. In order to do so, three studies were conducted using two independent samples and are presented in two articles. Taking root in organizational identification literature (e.g. Ashforth, & Mael, 1989; Christ, van Dick, Wagner & Stellmatcher, 2003; Edward, 2005; Tajfel, 1978), the first article proposes a clearer and integrated definition of identification in an organisational context. Following the clear conceptualization of team identification, a new scale was developed and validated. Two studies were conducted to assess its psychometric proprieties. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, plus reliability and validity analysis provide support for the scale’s reliability and validity. Practice and research implication are discussed in greater depth. Diversity is often considered an obstacle to team performance in interdisciplinary teams. Therefore, the second article addresses this issue by looking at the impact of types of identification (e.g. team and profession identification) on team performance. Drawing on Ilgen and collaborators’ (2005) model, the influence of these types of identification on team performance through their influence on team processes (e.g. conflict and collaboration) was evaluated. This study is the first to consider the interaction of different types of identification on team performance within interdisciplinary teams. Two hundred and sixty-eight Canadian healthcare employees answered five self-assessed questionnaires. Conditional process analyses (Hayes, 2013) show that team identification impacts team performance through its influence on collaboration, while neither identification to one’s profession nor conflicts impacts this relation. This study highlights the impact of different types of identification by considering their simultaneous effect. Moreover, in line with Mathieu et al.’s (2008) suggestion, different types of team processes were simultaneously evaluated (e.g. transition, action and interpersonal process). Practical implications that arise from this research includes team training (Salas et al., 2008), or team building activities (Klein et al. 2009) to improve collaboration, and heightened attractiveness of team membership (Dutton et al., 1994) or favoring transformational leadership (Hirst, et al., 2009) to foster greater team identification. A general discussion addresses the implications of the results presented in these two articles.