Engaging fans in social media through team brand associations: the mediating role of sport team identification
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v70.116836Keywords:
Social media engagement, sport fans, sport team identification, team brand associationsAbstract
Introduction: Because of the importance of having engaged sport fans on social media, research has also focused on the antecedents of fan social media engagement.
Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between team brand associations (i.e., benefits, product related attributes, and non-product related attributes) and individuals’ engagement with their favorite team on social media (i.e., consumption, contribution, and creation activities), while also considering the mediating role of sport team identification.
Methodology: A quantitative approach was followed by using an electronic questionnaire, which was disseminated through a football-related Facebook page. The sample consisted of 213 fans of football teams who were followers of this page.
Results: The findings indicated that benefits predicted the consumption and contribution dimensions of social media engagement, while non-product related attributes predicted only the consumption facet. Benefits and non-product related attributes were also found to be related to sport team identification. Sport team identification was shown to be associated with benefits and non-product related attributes, while it also acted as a mediating variable in the relationships between benefits and social media dimensions and in the relationships between non-product related and social media engagement dimensions.
Conclusions: This research uncovers how team brand associations can be related to fan social media engagement and offers practical implications to sport managers aiming to engage their fans on social media.
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