How are fans teams’ consumption behaviors impacted by their federations’ innovativeness perceived organizational legitimacy

Abstract

Fans’ consumption intentions towards their favourite teams’ products and services are essential outcome variables for sport federations and clubs. However, the factors that could affect these outcomes are not yet clear. This study analyzes how the fandom level and the innovativeness’s perceived organizational legitimacy impact their fans’ consumption intentions. Data was collected in Costa Rica by using a structured questionnaire. The results show that consumption intentions behaviour are partially mediated by the innovativeness perceived organizational legitimacy. Moreover, the multimedia consumption intention is moderated by normative interpersonal influence. Specifically, fans use the National Football team as a tool for their self-identity; while judgements made towards the National Football Federation’s innovation’ capacity to open new markets, regulate their consumption intentions. Hence, federations should create innovative legitimacy policies to ensure fans’ consumption intentions. These findings contribute to Social Identity and Social Judgement Theories showing how they are intertwined in a sport context.

Keywords:

• Innovativeness
• legitimacy
• multimedia consumption
• official merchandise consumption
• sport fan
• normative interpersonal influence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.