ATHLETES BEHAVING BADLY TEAM IDENTIFICATION AND THE OFF-FIELD BEHAVIOUR OF ATHLETES: EFFECT ON CONSUMER INTENTION IN TRADITIONAL AND NON-TRADITIONAL SPORTING CONTEXTS Benjamin Tarr Bachelor of Business Management Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations QUT Business School Queensland University of Technology 2020 Supervisory Team: Professor Larry Neale (Principal Supervisor) Associate Investigator and Principal Supervisor Director of Studies at the QUT Business School [email protected] Dr. Louise Kelly (Supervisor) Associate Investigator and Supervisor Senior Lecturer at QUT [email protected] Keywords Consumer Evaluations, Established Professional Sport, New Teams and Leagues, Sport Fan Behaviour, New Sporting Teams, Non-traditional Professional Sport, Off- Field Athlete Behaviour, Team Identification, Professional Sport Across Contexts, Athletes Behaving Badly Team Identification and the Off-field Behaviour of Athletes: Effect on Consumer Intention in Traditional and Non-traditional Sporting Contexts i Abstract Off-field behaviour by athletes has tended to attract significant attention from the press, fans, marketers and researchers. To date, academic research has primarily been confined to traditional sports and limited to off-field occurrences. This study questions whether fans react differently to off-field athlete behaviour based on their support for traditional or non-traditional sporting teams. Established professional leagues and teams are referred to as ‘traditional’, verses newer leagues and teams, often within regions where the sport does not have a traditional footprint, being referred to as ‘non- traditional’. The research extends team identification and social identity theory literature around how athlete behaviour interacts with team identification and consumer intentions on a comparative basis, in traditional and non-traditional sport settings. Three independent samples are drawn upon to provide context, with a focus on fan reaction to findings that a key athlete or athletes have engaged in either antisocial, benign or prosocial behaviour. A total of 473 participants were drawn from two traditional professional sports leagues and one non-traditional sports league. These included the traditional sports leagues of Rugby Union (n=125) and the National Football League (NFL; n=122), and the non- traditional professional sports league, Major League Rugby, USA (n=226). Participants responded to three developed stimuli articles. Correlation and Regression analyses were used in an experimental study to unveil the relationship between team identification, consumer intention and off-field athlete behaviour evaluations. Identification with the sporting team was used as a covariate as to whether respondents’ perception of off-field behaviour was impacted by ‘in’ or ‘out’ group membership. Social identity theory suggests that attitudinal modification exists around in/out group identification. The results provide evidence as to the impact of prosocial and antisocial off-field athletes behaviour in traditional and non-traditional professional sport contexts. The off-field behaviour of athletes was found to significantly influence consumer intention in a non-traditional setting, with results indicating the less identified a person is with their team the more susceptible they are to off-field athlete behaviour changing their consumer intention levels. Conversely, off-field athlete behaviour of athletes did not significantly impact consumer intention at all among the traditional participants. This research supports the view that because established teams and leagues enjoy a full complement of causes and antecedents of team identification the off-field athlete behaviour is not as powerful a variable as it is in non-traditional or emerging teams and leagues. Athletes Behaving Badly Team Identification and the Off-field Behaviour of Athletes: Effect on Consumer Intention in Traditional and Non-traditional Sporting Contexts ii Table of Contents Keywords ................................................................................................................................. i Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ iv List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... v List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. vi Statement of Original Authorship ......................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 Background ............................................................................................................................. 1 Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 4 Significance, Scope, and Definitions....................................................................................... 5 Thesis Outline ......................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................... 9 Chapter 3: Research Methodology ......................................................................... 21 Methodology and Research Design ....................................................................................... 21 Participants ........................................................................................................................... 24 Instruments ........................................................................................................................... 28 Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 30 Ethics and Limitations .......................................................................................................... 35 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 4: Results .................................................................................................... 38 Summary of Key Outcomes .................................................................................................. 55 Chapter 5: Discussion .............................................................................................. 56 Chapter 6: Conclusions............................................................................................ 67 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 69 Appendices ................................................................................................................ 83 Appendix A Questionnaire .................................................................................................... 83 Appendix B ........................................................................................................................... 86 Surveys ................................................................................................................................. 86 Appendix C ........................................................................................................................... 95 Facebook Postings ................................................................................................................ 95 Athletes Behaving Badly Team Identification and the Off-field Behaviour of Athletes: Effect on Consumer Intention in Traditional and Non-traditional Sporting Contexts iii List of Figures Figure 1 Antecedents and Causes of Team Identification (Wann, 2006)............................ 12 Figure 2 Moderating Effect of Off-field Athlete Behaviour ............................................... 33 Figure 3 Age variable ......................................................................................................... 40 Figure 4 Team identification score ..................................................................................... 40 Figure 5 Team Identification Scores across all participants ............................................... 42 Figure 6 Age breakdown across all participants ................................................................. 45 Figure 7 Hypothesised Model ............................................................................................ 48 Figure 8 Simple Slopes Graph of Moderating Effect ......................................................... 50 Figure 9 Team Identification and consumer intention ........................................................ 52 Athletes Behaving Badly Team Identification and the