Uniting a sport teams’ global fan community: prototypical behavior of satellite fans enhances local fans’ attitudes and perceptions of groupness

ABSTRACT

Research question: This research examines the determinants and conditions that influence local sport fans’ evaluations of satellite fans (i.e. foreign fans abroad) of their favorite team. Specifically, we consider how prototypical (versus non-prototypical) sport fan behavior of the satellite fans influences the local fans’ perceptions of group entitativity and attitudes. In addition, the study takes into account the local fans’ fear of losing resources as a result of the internationalization of team sports as a moderating condition in the investigated relationship.

Research methods: The hypotheses are tested in two online experiments that use the first football divisions of Spain (study 1) and Germany (study 2) as the empirical setting.

Results and findings: The findings indicate that prototypical (versus non-prototypical) fan behavior of satellite fans results in more positive attitudes towards them among local fans. This effect is mediated by increases in the perceived entitativity of the fan group as a whole. The results also highlight that the effects of prototypicality decrease the more the local fans perceive the internationalization of team sports to be a process that deprives them of social (e.g. identity enhancement) and economic (e.g. ticket availability) resources.

Implications: Our findings suggest that professional sport teams seeking to attract an international fan base and create a global fan community should educate foreign supporters in terms of the prototypical behaviors of the existing local fan community. Moreover, local fans’ concerns about losing resources (e.g. less attractive kick-off times) should be taken seriously and, if possible, remedied.

KEYWORDS:

• Internationalization
• fan behavior
• distant fans
• team sport
• group entitativity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.