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Toward a Better Understanding of Uncommon Loyalty

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Toward a Better Understanding of Uncommon Loyalty QUT Digital Repository: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/ Neale, Larry (2007) Toward a better understanding of uncommon loyalty. PhD thesis, University of Western Australia. © Copyright 2007 [please consult the author] Toward a Better Understanding of Uncommon Loyalty: An Application in Sport Lawrence G. Neale B. Bus, Curtin University (1991) M.B.A., The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1994) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Marketing) at The University of Western Australia, School of Economics and Commerce 2006 ii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to Denice and baby Thomas. Play like a champion today, son. And in loving memory of my grandmother Freda. iii Acknowledgements There is no way I could have completed this thesis without enormous help and support throughout. In my supervisor Dick Mizerski I found the winning qualities of challenge and support. Nothing I proposed went unchallenged, and steadfast support was always there. I greatly appreciate his guidance and look forward to many more collaborations over the years. To Jamie Murphy I say thanks – not only for guidance with my thesis, but for welcoming me to academia with his great ability to make people feel included, and his friendship. I am also grateful for the support of my colleagues on the second floor: Jill, Fang, Sharon, Dave, Doina, Claudia, John, Min and others, and the administrative staff were always wonderfully helpful and efficient. Thanks to Dan Dunk for all his help and for moving to Australia at (for me) a great time. To my fellow PhD students such as Alvin, Richard, Desmond and others with whom I shared this ride – thanks to you too. I’m proud to have completed this thesis while studying at The University of Western Australia, and am thankful for the professional and financial support the university provided me. Thanks also to the wonderful people at the Fremantle Football Club who gave me access to the club, and made collecting data easy. I share this achievement with the best family a man could have. The support from my parents, wife, son, brother, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and in-laws was there long before I commenced PhD studies, and will be there long after this thesis turns to dust. While I am grateful to be finished, I enjoyed the journey tremendously. iv Abstract Some brands seem to garner uncommon levels of loyalty from their customers. These brands can weather economic downturns, long-term competitive disadvantage and continual performance failures to emerge with a core of dedicated, committed, and loyal consumers. Good examples of this phenomenon come from sports. Some sports teams have fans who proudly proclaim their loyalty as well as financially support their team through attendance, yet live their entire life without witnessing their team win a championship. Why would they do this, when switching brands is possible? This study used the sports industry to explore the minds and analyse the behaviours of sports fans in order to learn more about their uncommon loyalty towards their favourite team. A comprehensive review of loyalty and sports literature revealed researchers were better defining and measuring the dimensions of loyalty, while sports marketers were able to explain more of the variability in attendance. There was still a gap, however, that needed filling to explain this uncommon loyalty. One of the features of the sporting industry is the ritualised way in which it is consumed across the world. Fans of every sport have rituals and v superstitions to help them enjoy the spectacle, socialise with other like- minded fans, and reduce some of the anxiety of watching their team play. Although some sports researchers have touched on the topic of ritual, none has defined, measured or applied it to desirable outcomes such as commitment and attendance. This study uses a sample of 651 attendees at an Australian Football League game to explore ritual behaviour, define the game-day rituals observed, and design a scale to measure sports fan ritual in order to investigate the link between ritual, and attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Fan ritual was found to be two-dimensional with personal and social rituals. The associations between social ritual and commitment, and social ritual and attendance are positive and significant, while personal ritual does not significantly influence commitment or attendance. The findings support previous research that found a significant and positive relationship between identification and attendance, and extend previous research by finding a significant and positive relationship between social rituals and attendance. For academic researchers, the findings are important to establish the role of ritual in consumption and loyalty, while opening future research opportunities in other product categories. For sports marketers, the results vi indicate the importance of developing and facilitating consumption rituals tied to game day attendance, with a view to generating uncommon loyalty. vii Presentations and Publications Based on This Research Neale, L. and Funk D. (2006), Investigating Motivation, Attitudinal Loyalty and Attendance Behaviour with Fans of Australian Football, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 7 (4), 307-317. • Publication used in Chapters 2, 3 and 5 of this thesis Neale, L. and Mizerski, R. (2005), Validating a Scale for Measuring Sports Fan Rituals, in Proceedings of the Sport Marketing Association's 3rd Annual Conference. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. • Presentation used in Chapters 3 and 4 of this thesis Neale, L. and Funk, D. (2005), Fan Motivation and Loyalty: Extending the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) to the Australian Football League, in ANZMAC 2005: Broadening the Boundaries, Sharon Purchase (Ed.). University of Western Australia, Perth, WA. • Conference paper used in Chapters 2 and 5 of this thesis The co-authors of these presentations and publications have kindly given permission to allow use of these works in this thesis. viii Table of Contents Dedication .................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... iv Abstract ........................................................................................................................... v Presentations and Publications Based on This Research .................................. viii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ............................................................................................................ xiii List of Tables ................................................................................................................ xv Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Why Sport? ...................................................................................................... 5 Winning Isn’t Everything ................................................................................. 9 Research Questions.......................................................................................... 11 Academic and Managerial Contribution ...................................................... 11 Chapter 2: Previous Research.................................................................................... 13 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 13 Fanaticism ......................................................................................................... 13 Loyalty ............................................................................................................... 15 Behavioural Loyalty ........................................................................................ 24 The Importance of Attendance ...................................................................... 26 Peripheral Factors Affecting Attendance ..................................................... 28 Production Function – Team Performance ............................................... 28 Demand Function – Consumer Demand .................................................. 30 Attitudinal Loyalty and the Psychological Factors Affecting Attendance ............................................................................................................................ 35 Satisfaction .................................................................................................... 35 Motivation......................................................................................................... 41 Sports Fan Motivation ................................................................................. 43 Identification .................................................................................................... 50 Group Identification .................................................................................... 55 Commitment ................................................................................................. 60 Are Identification and Commitment the Same Thing? ........................... 64 Summary of Psychological Constructs ......................................................... 66 Behaviour and Habit ......................................................................................
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