When feeling is for pursuing: exploring the moderating role of spectatorship locus of control on fans’ emotion-directed pursuit of consumption goals

ABSTRACT

This study explores emotions-directed activation of consumption goals in conjunction with the role of locus of control (LOC) in the context of spectatorship sport. The functionalist perspectives of emotions position as a major theoretical framework. By adapting the consumption goals hierarchy (gain, hedonic, normative) as well as the four types of discrete emotions (happiness, sadness, anger and fear), the current study postulates that specific emotions activate certain consumer goal hierarchies corresponding to internal vs. external LOC. A laboratory experiment is conducted where a unique statistical approach is employed to control for 17 confounding variables. The results revealed that emotions more dynamically activate consumption goals for spectators with an internal LOC. This study provides implications of what product information and attributes consumers would look for to cope with their emotions, and also what business tactics would be most appropriate corresponding to the rise of certain emotions in relation to spectatorship LOC.

KEYWORDS:

• Goal pursuit
• consumer goals
• internal locus of control
• LOC
• spectator sports

Acknowledgments

We extend our gratitude to the undergraduate research team, comprised of Ericka Copeland, Dayden Ambrose, Dylan Cantrell, and Nicolas Cantu, for their invaluable assistance with data collection for this project. Additionally, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to the entire SMR review team for their exceptional guidance and support. Any remaining errors present in this work are solely our responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).