Examining the relationship for sport motives, relationship quality, and sport consumption intention

ABSTRACT

As the sport industry becomes progressively competitive, most professional teams focus on ways to develop a long-term relationship with fans. One such strategy is sport marketing intended to enhance relationship quality between fans and teams, which may be related to high sport consumption. Accordingly, in this study the authors developed a model that explains the antecedents and outcomes of relationship quality initiatives in the context of professional sport. To this end, a sport fan motivation framework and a relationship quality model were used to explain fan behaviors within a professional volleyball league. Results showed that sport fan motives significantly affect relationship quality and behavioral intention regarding sport consumption, with emotional motivation exerting a considerable association. The study also demonstrated that relationship quality mediates the association between emotional motives and behavior intentions. The current research extends the sport management literature by empirically investigating the effects of emotionally driven sport motive on relationship quality and desired relational outcomes.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Emotional motives positively impacted relationship quality between sport teams and sport consumers.

• Relationship quality improved sport consumption behavior intention.

• Relationship quality mediated emotional motives’ impact on sport consumption behavior intention.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional motives
• Cognitive motives
• Behavioral motives
• Relationship quality
• Sport consumption behavior intention