Search

Adding to research on team identification and well-being, inquiry into meaning in life and team identification could illuminate how sport fandom impacts consumers' lives. In the current study, an instrumental case study design was used to explore how team identification impacts meaning in life, focusing on significance. Participant diaries and interviews with identified fans of a professional women's basketball team revealed that connecting with family and friends, supporting women's sport, and enhancing mental health via support of the team were sources of significance in participants' lives. The findings illustrate that meaning in life is not necessarily experienced just from being a highly identified fan. Instead, specific elements of one's connection to the team provide meaning. The findings also highlight the importance of close relationships over imaginary intimate relationships, impacting social justice among fans of women's sport, and how mental health via fandom may provide older adults significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, almost all team identification inquiries have focused on men's sport, with minimal studies using women's sport to examine the concept. Recognizing social identities are fluid and context dependent, the purpose of the current study was to understand the psychological meaning of team among individuals who identify with a women's sport team. Using an interpretive mode of inquiry, the author conducted interviews with fans of a professional women's basketball team. Central elements of team meaning were gender equality (contributing to social change) and pure sport (perceptions of game play and player characteristics). These aspects jointly contribute to a paradox experienced by fans, in that perceived purity may be sacrificed in realizing social change. Theoretical implications include the ability of teams to represent social movement organizations, as well as the need for individuals to shed status-irrelevant aspects of an identity to raise a low-status group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Team identification has frequently been associated with positive outcomes; however, team identification is also associated with negative outcomes such as identity threat. Team identity threat has been studied from the perspective that fans enduring identity threat employ emotion-focused coping rather than problem-focused coping strategies because they lack the authority to change team-related stressors. In this study, the author examined fan reaction to team identity threat, wherein fans ultimately used both problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping strategies. The particular instance examined involved fans of a National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball team reacting to an identity threat caused by program scandal. Through the use of unobtrusive digital observation, fan reaction was analyzed via comments from three online sources. The study highlights how fans used problem-focused coping to preserve identity meaning, creating their own reality in the process. Theoretical and managerial implications of the research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research question:Scholars have paid little attention to consumer response to the termination of a sponsorship. The purpose of this study was to examine the reaction of fans of a professional cycling team to a sponsorship terminating, which ultimately led to the team disbanding. Research methods:The research purpose was pursued through digital ethnography (via message boards and weblog), examining the case of Basque professional cycling fans. Comments were analysed to understand fans’ reaction to the 2013 cessation of Euskaltel-Euskadi, a Basque professional cycling team, after its sponsor, Euskaltel, exited the partnership. Results and findings:Fan reaction to Euskaltel ending its sponsorship was somewhat paradoxical, in that the terminated sponsorship ultimately led to the team disbanding, yet fans appeared to be appreciative of Euskaltel. They continued to celebrate the team’s corporate sponsor colour as they mourned the end of Euskaltel-Euskadi and questioned the future of Basque cycling. This reaction is made more logical by understanding the long-term duration of the partnership, and how Euskaltel’s support of the team for nearly two decades led to the intermeshing of the team and its sponsor, thus avoiding negative sentiment. Implications:This study makes a meaningful contribution to the sponsorship literature, particularly sponsorship termination. This study is one of the first to examine consumer response to sponsorship termination in a real-world setting, and suggests a potential legacy effect of long-term sponsorship, such that fan reaction to a long-term sponsorship terminating may not be negative, especially if fans understand the sponsor’s contribution over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]