A review of sport media on any given day seemingly includes news about an athlete involved in some type of questionable
behavior, or what is likely referred to as a "scandal." For example, consider the numerous stories published about Lance Armstrong's
denial then subsequent admission of using performance-enhancing drugs, or the stories about Tiger Wood's marital infidelity. Despite what
seems to be daily reports in the media about scandals involving athletes, empirical assessment of the impact of knowing about such
scandals on sport consumers' remains limited (Prior, O'Reilly, Mazanov, & Huybers, 2013). With the viability and prosperity of
commercially-oriented sport teams dependent on consumption by sport fans and spectators, it is important to ascertain the impact scandals
involving athletes have on consumer behavior. There is anecdotal evidence that sport scandals have a negative impact on sport consumer
behavior. There remains limited empirical research, however, examining the direct impact of sports scandals on sport team-related
consumption patterns of consumers. This project was an attempt to investigate the impact of reported sports scandals on team
identification and sport consumers' sport team-related behavior intentions. Two objectives guided the research. First, ascertain whether
on-field and off-field sports scandals have an impact on sport consumers' team identification and sport team-related behavioral
intentions. Second, assess whether a sport consumers' level of team identification moderates the impact of on-field and off-field sports
scandals on subsequent sport team-related behavioral intentions. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design was used to collect
quantitative measures of team identification and sport team-related behavioral intentions prior (pretest) and subsequent (posttest) to
on-field or off-field sport scandal condition exposure. The results of the investigation are contradictory to anecdotal evidence. It was
concluded from the results that irrespective of the type of sports scandal, sport consumers' team identification levels and sport
team-related behavioral intentions remained static subsequent to learning of a scandal. There was no negative spillover effect on the
associated sport team. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / December 9, 2015. / consumer behavior, scandal, team identification / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey James, Professor Directing Dissertation; Amy Guerette, University Representative; Joshua
Newman, Committee Member; Amy Kim, Committee Member.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_360364 |
Contributors | Hamilton, Jennifer Michael (authoraut), James, Jeffrey D. (Jeffrey Dalton) (professor directing dissertation), Guerette, Amy R. (university representative), Newman, Joshua I. (committee member), Kim, Amy Chan Hyung (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Sport Management (degree granting department) |
Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
Source Sets | Florida State University |
Language | English, English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Text, text |
Format | 1 online resource (160 pages), computer, application/pdf |
Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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