Fan loyalty: The structure and stability of an individual's loyalty toward an athletic team.

摘要

The notion that loyalty plays a critical role in repeat purchase behavior remains an implicit assumption among scholars. A high degree of loyalty represents the greatest assets a marketer can possess (Engel, Blackwell, & Miniard, 1993). The current economic status of professional and collegiate sport has made it imperative to identify those factors which contribute to loyal consumers. Increased expenditures, competition from various entertainment alternatives, escalating tuition and legislative enactment's (Howard & Crompton, 1995) have combined to make it critical for these organizations to avoid fluctuations in their in base.;Brand loyalty literature posits operationalizing the construct of loyalty via two independent dimensions: behavioral and attitudinal (Jacoby & Chestnut, 1978). Although the attitudinal component precludes direct observation, an attitude's mediational role is inferred from an individual's response to stimulus and predictive of subsequent behavior (Fiske & Taylor, 1992). The present study utilized a (2 x 2 x 3) mixed-design ANOVA to identify the underlying structure of loyalty and empirically tests the stability of the attitude-behavior relationship.;An instrument was developed and tested using LISREL 8.0 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993) on 379 undergraduates to confirm the measurement and structural model of loyalty toward the Cleveland Indians. Regression analysis indicated that Importance and Direct Experience explained 84% of the variance in behavior and 81% of the variance in commitment toward the Indians. A multiple discriminant analysis revealed that these two attitude properties could be used to profile students into non, moderate and high loyalty groups with 80% accuracy. 149 students from the original sample were randomly exposed to one of three persuasive messages and re-tested for structural change. Results indicated that subject's level of loyalty moderated changes in attitude structure.;The present study integrated attitude strength and brand loyalty research to diagnose the stability of the underlying structural properties which contribute to loyalty. These results enable sport researchers to develop profiles of cognitive, affective and conative differences for the systematic study of individuals involved in spectator sports as well as various leisure pursuits. Sport managers and marketers can now make informed decisions on how to maintain, enhance and attract a loyal customer base.