The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of both the team identification with the fan and the team similarity to the sponsor on the sport team and the sponsor and analyze the interaction effects between the team identification and negative ...
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of both the team identification with the fan and the team similarity to the sponsor on the sport team and the sponsor and analyze the interaction effects between the team identification and negative information on the sponsor.
With a total of 232 undergraduate students, attitudes toward both the sport team and the sponsor have been analyzed in terms of the team identification (high vs low), information (negative vs neutral) and the team similarity.
The findings show that both the team identification and the team similarity have influences on the attitude toward the sport team and the sponsor. For the interaction effects between negative information and the team identification, attitudes to the sport team turned out to vary by the degree of team identification, whereas attitudes to the sponsor did not.
It can be thus assumed that fans distort negative information on the sponsor or weaken the similarity between the team and the sponsor in order to maintain their positive attitude to the team they identify with.