Extending the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) to examine British Asian consumer s awareness and attraction to professional football.

Transcription

1 Extending the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) to examine British Asian consumer s awareness and attraction to professional football. Abstract Supporters who regularly attend professional football matches represent sports consumers who have developed a resilient psychological connection to a sports team. However, few British Asians spectate at professional football matches close to their communities. According to Bano (2013), less than 1% of fans of teams in the North West of England are Asian, despite making up 20% of the population. This study evaluates sports motivation theory by applying the Sports Interest Inventory (Funk et al. 2004) and elements of the Psychological Continuum model (Funk & James 2001) in particular awareness and attraction to British Asian consumers. The aim the paper is to identify and evaluate the factors that influence British Asians awareness and attraction to professional football in England. The main objective is to ascertain the hedonistic and situational factors that motivate British Asians to be attracted to professional football clubs close to their communities. The Research Onion (Saunders 2012) forms a basis for the Methodology. A qualitative method of analysis, incorporating a focus group with existing British Asian football supporters, establishes the factors that attracted them to supporting a football team. Moreover, other factors specific to British Asian consumers are applied to a conceptual model. This research builds upon existing academic research to date and provides an opportunity for football businesses to improve communication with local British Asians whilst enabling communities to benefit from consumers gaining a greater psychological connection to a sports team. Introduction Sport plays a significant role economically, culturally and socially, in many countries (Pons et al) 2006:276; Richelieu & Pons, 2005:151). Research from Sport England (2010) highlighted that sport-related activity contributed 20.3 billion to the English economy. Sport is a cultural institute that has an extensive history, emotional connections, educational benefits, significant social relevance and a benefit to a large number of communities (Boshoff & Gerber, 2008:2; Smith & Stewart, 2010). Branscombe et al. (1991) suggested that sports provide people with connections to the wider structure of society. Sport is the single most influential currency of mass communication in the world, sport cuts right through the differences of age, education, language, gender, and social and economic status (Lipsyte, 1977 as cited in Meenaghan & O'Sullivan, 1999 p. 245). Cronin et al (2008) argued that sport can be an effective means of introducing people from different cultures and therefore, may contribute to greater community cohesion. However, it could be argued, that in terms of sport, integration of different communities has not filtered down onto the terraces of most professional football clubs in England. If sport can bring communities together, one could argue that communities should be more cohesive, and ethnic engagement should be evident in sports grounds throughout the country. However, evidence indicates that British Asian consumers are not engaging in sport such as professional football. 1

2 Burdsey (2007) states, even though British Asians connect widely in a variety of forms of football consumption, they are seldom present at football matches. The word sport, for the purpose of this research will focus on sport from a spectator point of view or sport as a display not sport as play (Smith, 2005). Given that sports consumption is important both economically and socially, it is a fitting context in which to understand the psychological factors, which motivate sports consumers to become attracted to a sports team. The Psychological Continuum model (Funk & James 2001) evaluates the psychological stages that sports consumer develops from an initial awareness of a sport team, through to an attraction, then attachment and then finally an allegiance to a sports team. In moving from awareness to attraction, combinations of situational and hedonistic factors are identified (Funk & James 2001). To evaluate which hedonistic and situational factors motivate sports consumers who are aware of a particular sport, to become attracted to a sports team, the Sports Interest Inventory will be used. The Sport Interest Inventory (SII) as described by (Funk, Ridinger and Moorman, 2004) was developed for the context of sport. Although the (PCM) and the (SII) have been applied within the context of sport, studies to date have not considered British Asian consumers and professional football in England (table 1). Hence, Asian consumers may have a different perception as to what are the important factors that would attract them to football. A qualitative study on British Asian consumers perception of what motivates them to be attracted to football may provide other hedonistic and situational factors that are relevant and so that the model can be developed relative to the perceptions of British Asian consumers. This study aims to make a theoretical contribution by building upon existing academic work to date on supporter types, motivation and consumer s awareness and attraction to professional football teams. Aim To identify and evaluate the factors that influence British Asians awareness and attraction to professional football in England. Objectives To establish the factors that builds awareness of professional football to British Asian consumers. To identify the Hedonistic and Situational factors that attract British Asian sports consumers to professional football clubs. To evaluate the factors which motivate British Asian consumers to attend professional football matches. To develop a sports motivation model pertinent to British Asian sports consumers. Literature Review This chapter will look at existing literature in relation to the outlined objectives. The literature review examines studies to date that establish the motivations of sports consumers to attend sporting events. The Psychological Continuum models and the Sports Interest Inventory model are evaluated to establish the factors that influence attendance at these sporting events. 2

3 The Psychological Continuum Model. The Psychological Continuum model (PCM) outlines the relationship between a sports consumer and a sport or team. The Psychological Continuum Model assessed individual consumers psychological connection to sports teams through their awareness, attraction, attachment and allegiance to a sport (Fink, Trial, & Anderson, 2002; Funk & James, 2001; Gladden & Funk, 2002). According to Funk & James (2001) the stages of adoption from awareness to attraction derives from situational and hedonistic influencers. The situational factors highlighted in the paper are team performance, promotional offers, and the quality of the players. Hedonistic factors are highlighted as a desire to be entertained, escape from day to day life and the opportunity to be with friends and family. The study recognised that there are individuals that may be conscious of a sport but have not developed a desire to follow a sports team. It could be argued that British Asians are aware of football as a sport but have not developed a psychological connection with a professional football team within their community. British Asian individuals have little engagement with professional football clubs local to their communities. Bano, (2013) stated that Oldham Athletic FC a North West football club in the league 1, has less than 1% of its home support comes from the town's local Asian community even though the Asian community in Oldham makes up almost 20% of the local population. Bano (2013) went on further to suggest that this is a similar story in other communities such as Burnley and Preston. Due to this, only the first two of the four stages will be assessed, these are the Awareness and Attraction elements of the model. Awareness according to Funk et al (2001) states when individuals are aware of a particular sport but has not had a specific favourite. Attraction however occurs when individuals acknowledges having a favourite team based upon various motivational factors. The other elements of the PCM are attachment and allegiance. These two aspects of the model relate to those spectators that have already developed a stable psychological connection to a team Funk & James 2001 pg132 and a devotion or allegiance to a team that is not concurrent with most British Asian consumers in England. The Sports Interest Inventory The Sports Interest Inventory (SII) gives a description of elements that creates interest for the sports consumer. The situational and hedonistic motivations that motivate individuals have been categorised by the Sports Interest Inventory (Funk et al. 2004). The situational elements are, family bonding, friends bonding, player interest, role model, team interest and vicarious achievement. Hedonistic elements are drama, entertainment value, escape, excitement and socialisation. This model will assess how sports consumers who are aware of football can progress to attachment to a sports team through the aforementioned factors. Previous studies utilising the Sports Interest Inventory have in the main, studied white Caucasian and black Afro Caribbean supporters in the USA and female sports consumers (Funk et al. 2003). The model has not been applied to British Asian consumers. The aim of the study is to apply the (SII) model to British Asians who are aware of football but are not attracted to a professional football team close to their community. British Asian sports consumers may have a different perception as to what factors are important to them gaining a psychological attraction to professional football; hence, a qualitative study may establish if there are further factors that may need to be considered to complement the existing model. 3

4 Supporter types Sports consumers who have not yet developed a psychological connection to a sport team are defined as individuals who are aware of sports but have no interest in following a particular team (Funk et al., 2006). Arguably these types of consumers represent the Asian consumers who to date have not fully engaged with football teams close to their community. Supporters are individuals who are interested in and follow a sport, team, and/or athlete. (Wann, Melnick, Russell & Pease, 2001). Supporters have been categorised in relation to the strength of their loyalty to a team. Supporters whose behavioural loyalty was very low, attended only a few games a season are casual fans (Tapp, 2003). Fanatics, demonstrate the highest degree of attendance loyalty at sporting events, displaying intense emotional responses and positive attitudes towards a sporting individual or team (Hall et al., 2010). Spectators have been further categorised as those individuals who show different levels of loyalty towards their team have been defined as those whose loyalty depends on basking in reflected glory are called fair weather-fans (Trail et al., 2003) In contrast, there are fans who are described as die-hard fans fans who are loyal to the team regardless of its success. (Branscombe and Wann, 1991) Asian consumers however are seldom present at professional football games as Burdsey (2007) states even though British Asians connect widely in a variety of forms of football consumption; they are seldom present at football matches. (Dan Warren 2004 pg 26) also reported, English clubs say they are mystified about why ethnic communities remain seemingly reluctant to embrace football The low levels of match day representation at football by the majority of British Asians show low levels of psychological connection towards professional football clubs close to their communities. Because of this, they differ from supporters and sports fans as they have not developed a degree of loyalty towards a team. Therefore, it is important to understand what elements of the SII model may motivate British Asian supporters to move from awareness of a sport to an attraction to professional football. Motivation There have been varieties of academic studies that assess sports consumers motivation for attending sporting events such as the Sports Fan Motivation Scale (Wann 1995) Participant and spectator motivations (Milne and McDonald 1999). Trial and James (2001) developed the Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC). The Sport Interest Inventory (SII) (Funk et al. 2004) assessed a variety of elements that motivate sport consumers and the Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) (Funk et al. 2006) which has been used by theorists and marketing professionals to investigate consumer s psychological connection to sport teams (Beaton & Funk, 2008; Funk et al., 2006). Previous studies on motivation within sport have evaluated a variety of sports such as college football (Boyun Woo et al. 2009) Japanese professional football (Mahomey, et al., 2002) Baseball (Trial & James 2001), minor league baseball (Bernthal and Graham 2003) and the NFL (Hansen, H., & Gauthier, R. 1989). Despite of the extensive research to date none has assessed what motivates individuals to attend professional football in England. With the exception of the Psychological Continuum Model, all these academic studies have focussed on those sports consumers who are already attracted to sports teams and are currently either sports supporter or loyal fan. The (PCM) however recognises the psychological stages that individuals go through from awareness, to attraction, to attachment and finally to gaining an allegiance to a sport or team. This model is important as it recognise 4

5 that there are sports consumers who are aware of sports teams but have not have not become a supporter or loyal fan such as the British Asian consumers. Conceptual Model. The Psychological continuum model and the Sports Interest Inventory will be combined to establish the situational and hedonistic elements of the SII, which influence individual sport consumers psychological progression from awareness to attraction. The role of the Sports Interest Inventory in determining British Asian s psychological level of commitment to a sports team. Awareness (PCM) Situational (SII) Family Bonding Friends Bonding Role Model Player Interest Vicarious Achievement Team Interest. Hedonistic (SII) Drama Entertainment Value Excitement Escape Socialisation Attitudinal Loyalty British Asians response to (SII) Other Relevant Factors. Attraction (PCM) This study will build upon previous research on motivation in the context of sport and help sports marketers within the football industry understand which factors of the (SII) motivate Asian consumers to develop a higher level of psychological connection with football teams close to their communities. Methodology A qualitative research method, incorporating a focus group with existing British Asian football fans and interviews with industry professionals will allow the researcher to assess the opinions of stakeholders within the industry and evaluate the factors that influence awareness and attraction of British Asians to professional football clubs close to their communities. The focus group will aim to establish which factors of the Sports Interest Inventory attract British Asian consumers to support their local professional football team. Open questioning techniques will establish if there are other elements, relevant to the perceptions of British Asian consumers. Interviews with Stadium designers, planners and the founder of the Zesh Rahimen foundation, will establish the factors that have helped to raise the awareness of professional football clubs to British Asian consumers. A conceptual model based upon existing studies of sports consumers and motivation will be presented pertinent to the research aim and objectives. This research will build upon academic literature to date on motivation in the context of sport and will help sports marketers understand what motivates British Asian consumers to develop a higher level of psychological connection with football teams close to their communities. 5

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11 Appendix Table 1 Construct Authors & Date Setting Location Motivation Fink, Trail & Anderson, (2002) sports spectator consumption behaviours USA Funk, Mahony & Ridinger, (2002) sport Interest Inventory (SII) USA Trail & James, (2001) Defining sports motivation USA Trail & James, (2001) The Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption USA Pease & Zhang, (2001) The Spectator Motivation Scale USA Wann, (1995) & Wann et al,(1999) Motivation Scale USA Bernthal & Grayham (2001) Attendance motivation College Baseball USA Funk, D. et al (2009). Measuring the motives of sport event attendance USA Funk Ridinger Moorman (2003) SII in Women s Sport Consumers USA Vieceli, et al. (2012) Loyalty & Fandom in Australian Football league Australia Trial et al. (2003) Categorised 8 fan motivations USA Krohn, et al. (1998). Influences on attendance at small college sporting events USA Hansen, H., & Gauthier, R. (1989). Factors affecting attendance at professional Baseball and NFL Canada Wakefield, K. L. and Blodgett, J. G., The effect of the servicescape on customers behaviour USA Bayton, J. A. (1958). Motivation, cognition, learning: Basic factors in consumer behaviour USA Wakefield, K. L. and Sloan, H. J., The effect of team loyalty and selected stadium on spectator attendance USA Zhang, et al.(1996) Professional Sport NBA Viewed by Spectators. USA Wang, zhang, Tsuji (2011) Fan motives & Loyalty - Professional Baseball Taiwan James J. Zhanga, Spectator motivation scales in football USA Yosuke Tsuji Spectator motivation - predictor of past and future attendance behaviour USA Mahony et al, (2002) A SPM for Japanese Professional Soccer League Japan Funk, et al. (2000);Gladden & Funk, (2002) Evaluates the motives of sport consumers USA Wann (1995). Gladden and Funk (2002) Motivations as an escape from day to day life. USA Table 2 The Sports Interest Inventory 11

12 Table 3 Source (Funk & James 2001) 12