The blurry spectrums of team identity threat

Highlights

•	Fans use social creativity/competition to cope with sustained team identity threat.
•	Numerous contextual factors differentiate types of team identity threat.
•	Team identity threat should not be differentiated by time period alone.
•	Team identity threat also varies by salience and impact on meaning.

Abstract

Team identity threat is an area of growing interest in sport consumer behaviour. Despite scholars’ calls for examinations of prolonged threat in the context of sustained team performance failure, researchers have not yet answered the call. In the current study, the authors use social identity as a theoretical lens, interviewing fans of a historically poor-performing team. Results indicate such fans cope with prolonged threat through social creativity and competition; they also perceive their social identity as distinct. More critically, the authors find that the identity threat experienced by these fans is not just unique due to the duration of threat, but also the threat’s salience and overall impact on the identity meaning. In light of findings and existing literature, the authors introduce spectrums that illustrate the different types of threat fans may experience. Because identity threat differs contextually, these spectrums are understood as blurry.

Keywords:

• Consumer behaviour
• Identity threat
• Social identity theory
• Team identification