Towards a spectator loyalty model for soccer clubs in South Africa V.S. Mogajane 12944807 PhD Sport and Recreation Science Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Philosophiae Doctor in Tourism Management at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University Promoter: Dr. E. Du Plessis Co-promoter: Prof. Dr. E. Slabbert November 2015 i I, Victor Solomon Mogajane (12948807) with ID number 6509035659089, hereby declare that this thesis registered as “Towards a spectator loyalty model for soccer clubs in South Africa” as part of the completion of my Philosophiae Doctor in Tourism Management at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University, is being submitted as my own work. I comply with the Code of Academic Integrity, as well as other relevant policies, procedures, rules and regulations of the North West University; and has not been submitted before to any institution by myself or any other person in fulfilment (or partial fulfilment) of the requirements for the attainment of any qualification. I understand and accept that this booklet which I am handing in, forms part of this University’s property. _________________________ _________________________ DR. V.S.MOGAJANE DATE ii I have been blessed over the years that I served South Africa as an athlete in sport, in particular soccer at school, community and professional level. This exposure has enabled me to develop the love to study sport as a career. Having achieved my PhD in sport and recreation science, I realised that just like a fish in the sea one needs to keep moving otherwise one remains stagnant. This PhD is like a dream come true as it made me realise that the field of sport and tourism are integral to the 21st century. I am grateful to God and my family for having given me such motivation, support and perseverance to study at this highest level, especially for this second PhD. This has built and developed in me a passion for academic research and achievements. I am also grateful to work for the Public Service to assist Government in planning and providing sport and tourism as a service delivery imperative. I therefore extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to various people and in the same breath acknowledge the help and support I received from different people while I was working towards obtaining my various degrees and completing this thesis. In particular I would like to mention: • Our Heavenly Father and God Almighty, whose unconditional, everlasting love and guidance sustained me and to whom I could turn when my morale was low, day or night. He gave me wisdom, faith, patience and strength to believe in myself, while His goodwill and grace enabled me to accomplish my goals and to complete this thesis. • Prof. Dawie Malan, Director for the School for Biokinetics, Sport Science and Recreation for the opportunity granted to study for my first PhD. His support together with my supervisors, the late Prof. Charle Meyer and Prof. Andries Monyeki is appreciated. • Prof. Melville Saayman, Director for Tourism Research in Economic, Environs and Society for introducing me to the field of tourism. Under his guidance and supervision I accomplished my master’s degree. iii • Dr. Lindie Du Plessis, my promoter for her patience, encouragement, leadership and motivation. Her professional commitment, perspective and valuable comments and suggestions guided me throughout this study, enabling me to complete my study. • A special thank you to Prof. Elmarie Slabbert, for her encouragement, patience, and critical input at a stage that I was losing focus and needed her motivation to keep me going. Thanks are due for the rigorous and ruthless manner in which she read my work and the support and advice she gave me throughout this journey. Thanks to her for never giving up on me and for always pushing me to do my best. • Prof. Casper Lessing, for being so friendly, helpful, and taking the pressure of me to ensure the references were technically ready for submission in time. • Prof. Paul Singh, for the accurate and professional language and technical editing of this thesis, amidst huge pressures and a large workload. May God grant him the strength to see through many more texts. Thanks for also being my lecturer and mentor, assisting me to achieve my Bachelor’s and Honours degrees in Human Movement Science. • All the staff from the Ferdinand Postma library of the North-West University (Potchefstroom campus), a special word of appreciation for friendliness, helpfulness, assistance when help was needed and the promptness in responding to requests, either through an inter library loan or from other campuses. • A special word of thanks to Dr. Suria Ellis from the Statistical Services of the North- West University who sacrificed her time to integrate data from research questionnaires to facilitate its analysis and interpretation. Without her help and assistance, the value of the information collected, would not have been handled meaningfully and interpreted. • A sincere word of thanks to communities and spectators from Royal Bafokeng and Soweto, who so willingly and enthusiastically responded and assisted in completing research questionnaires, and who were the cornerstones in uncovering of knowledge as revealed in this study. Without them this study would not have been possible. iv • All nine Premier Soccer League teams’ executive representatives who participated in the semi-structured interview, my appreciation for their invaluable contribution in making their precious time available and sharing their expertise. • South African Football Association and Premier Soccer League for their permission to conduct the research in nine soccer clubs. • Finally, to my family and in particular my wife Samerine who is my pillar of strength. She has been supportive, understanding and has endured and shared the best and worst of times with me. My children Luke and Nicole for their patience, sacrifices and understanding that this second PhD is an investment in their future. • God has so richly blessed me with a great life and a wonderful family. I would be ungrateful, if I did not publicly acknowledge Him for what He has done in my life. v Understanding loyalty in marketing is important as it can enable soccer clubs to manage the impact on fostering vital spectators and communities support for the sport industry. More importantly, soccer club managers need to understand the importance of spectators in growing the success of their business. Sport has become big business. Spectator sport has also become one of the most popular activities and spectators represent the largest proportion of the sport industry. According to the literature, spectators are a group of consumers who support the popularity of a player or team. They are, in many instances, loyal and fanatical about the performance and success of their team. Spectators demonstrate loyalty towards their clubs through factors such as eustress, self- esteem, escape, entertainment, aesthetic characteristics, group affiliation and family needs to be responsible for motivation leading to sport attendance. Further, it is recognised that loyalty drivers such as commitment, customer satisfaction, service quality, identification, supply image, perceived value, customer relationship, trust, customer retention, waiting time and dependability play a major role in influencing decisions to support and attend sport and other activities. Understanding of these factors by soccer club managers is important in developing a spectator base. Sport spectators are estimated to be worth millions (in monetary terms) to the global economy which supports a valuable niche market segment. Spectator attendance at sport events represents a significant revenue stream for sports venues and sporting associations with subsequent benefits for cities or regions. It was argued that the core feature of sport spectating is its capacity to intimately engage spectators and deliver intensely emotional and loyal attachment to their favourite teams and clubs. Soccer, as part of sport industry, provides these benefits and costs to the spectators and communities, hence generating both positive and negative impacts. Once the communities have turned into spectators to support their teams, their lives will be influenced by this development, thus impacting on their livelihoods. From the literature it was found that no research has been conducted to determine and analyse the loyalty concept with regard to spectators, especially in the context of sport in South Africa. A number of theoretical frameworks have been developed in loyalty to signify how this is vi important in building a relationship with the spectators. Pertaining to loyalty, various definitions and their theoretical models have also been created to describe the functioning of loyalty as a construct. Although critical frameworks have been developed that are distinct to loyalty in a retail environment, to date there is no model that exists that explores the influence of spectators towards supporting their teams. By addressing these issues, a significant contribution is thus made to literature, together with the ensuing practical contributions. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to develop a model to indicate spectator loyalty towards soccer clubs. This primary goal was reached through the achievement of four objectives. The first objective was a critical analysis of literature pertaining to loyalty as a marketing construct. The review of literature gave an analysis of the nature and aspects of marketing and how companies can build their relationship by satisfying customers’ needs and wants. The term “loyalty as well as drivers of customer loyalty explains how and why customers are the important elements of the success of business and these were analysed. This objective provided a foundation for the rest of the study in terms of understanding the impact of loyalty on customers towards building a sound relationship with the company. The second objective was to critically analyse the relevance of and application of loyalty to sport with specific reference to spectators.