Consumer Satisfaction and Identity Theory: A Model of Sport Spectator Conative Loyalty

By Galen T. Trail, J. Fink. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 2005

310 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Sport spectating is a popular activity in the United States but little is known about the theoretical nuances that determine loyalty behavior in sport. The focus of the study was to test three competing conative loyalty models based on identity theory and consumer satisfaction theory. These models included relationships among team identification, disconfirmation/confirma-tion of expectancies, mood, self-esteem responses, and conative loyalty. Data were collected from spectators at a large Midwestern university at two home men's (n=530) and two home women's (n=749) intercollegiate basketball games. Male respondents made up 52% of the total sample. Two models fit well and were statistically equivalent. Model A explained 41% of the variance in sport spectator conative loyalty; however, Model B explained 49% of the variance in conative loyalty and lent support to the two intertwining theories. From a marketing perspective, the results indicated that it is critical to facilitate self-esteem responses to engender conative loyalty and thus attendance at future games and purchasing of team merchandise.

Subfields: Gender Studies, Marketing, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c864ff9a2d79ea3ad94f5f9fdaade4b0552aff27

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Citations in the corpus

How Visitors and Locals at a Sport Event Differ in Motives and Identity (2008, background): “depends on the degree to which the attendee’s identification with the sport renders the associated motives both salient and desirable (Laverie & Arnett, 2000; Trail et al., 2005).”
Attracting and Leveraging Visitors at a Charity Cycling Event (2010, background): “…behaviors such as the goods purchased (Dimanche & Samdahl, 1994), loyalty to an activity or event (Green, 2001; Green & Chalip, 1998; Laverie & Arnett, 2000; Trail et al., 2005), loyalty to a destination (Simpson & Siguaw, 2008), or willingness to travel to a sport event (Snelgrove et al., 2008).”
Identity crisis: a theoretical analysis of ‘team identification’ research (2017, unknown): “Yet while concentrating on importance and strength (Arnett et al., 2003; Dwyer et al., 2013; Laverie & Arnett, 2000; Shapiro et al., 2013; Trail et al., 2005), researchers have ignored the theoretical process argued to increase the salience of roles in a person’s hierarchy (Stets & Burke, 2014;…”
Exploring PERMA in spectator sport: Applying positive psychology to examine the individual-level benefits of sport consumption (2016, background): “…research demonstrating how sport entities can act as a social catalyst facilitating the development of connections with specific communities and likeminded individuals (Gibson et al., 2002; Harrolle, et al., 2010; & Funk, in press; Trail et al., 2000, 2005; Trail et al., 2003; Wann & Weaver, 2009).”
Customer satisfaction with game and service experiences: antecedents and consequences. (2010, background): “To date, intentions to attend future sporting events are the most widely-used outcome in the sport marketing literature (e.g., Kwon et al., 2005; Trail et al., 2005; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996).”
Measuring the Motives of Sport Event Attendance: Bridging the Academic-Practitioner Divide to Understanding Behavior (2009, unknown): “Furthermore, to capitalize on the emotions and accomplishment evoked by a sport team, managers can launch season ticket and membership sales campaigns immediately following the completion of the season (Trail et al., 2005).”
A conceptual framework for understanding relationships between sport consumers and sport organizations: a relationship quality approach. (2011, background): “Accordingly, attendance, or intention to attend, has been the most frequently employed outcome variable in sport management research (DeSchriver, 2007; Funk & James, 2001; Madrigal, 1995; Mahony & Moorman, 1999; Rascher, McEvoy, Nagel, & Brown, 2007; Trail et al., 2005).”
Conceptualization and measurement of fan engagement: empirical evidence from a professional sport context. (2014, background): “The conceptual model of van Doorn et al. (2010) indicates that customer engagement is behavioral and consists of multiple defining indicators such as valence (i.”
Sport spectatorship and life satisfaction: A multicountry investigation (2017, unknown): “Consistent with the definition of team identification provided earlier, this scale is designed to capture the importance of being fans of a sport team to people’s identity (Trail et al., 2005).”