The sports industry has been growing a lot during last years. However, low attention has been devoted to its main actor: the fan. Unlike what happens with customer engagement in the retail industry, theories about fan engagement are still in their early stage and often lack empirical validation. This thesis wants to investigate the determinants of fan engagement starting from the sport consumer perceived quality of the experience delivered by sport organizations. Building upon a review of the literature, a research model has been proposed. The research framework includes five sets of constructs: customer experience quality, sport product involvement, customer satisfaction, brand experience and fan engagement. The literature-grounded hypotheses were tested collecting data through a survey directed to fans of different teams that attend live matches. In all, 184 questionnaires were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling techniques. First, findings show that customer experience quality and fan engagement relationship is both direct and indirect with brand experience and customer satisfaction as relevant mediating constructs. However, brand experience and customer satisfaction are each triggered by different dimensions of customer experience quality. Additionally, the role of sport product involvement as a moderator is confirmed, suggesting that different fan typologies has different preferences in terms of experience. Finally, findings show that while brand experience affect all the dimensions of fan engagement, customer satisfaction dimensions, on the other hand, influence different fan engagement dimensions each. The results provide sport organizations with a clearer picture of how to engage their fans by enhancing their touchpoints quality to improve the overall customer experience quality. This study, by means of the analysis conducted, provides empirical validation to different propositions suggested in the literature by confirming or rebutting them. It finally offers an unambiguous understating of the fan engagement determinants, taking into account the different characteristics of various fan typologies.
L'industria dello sport è cresciuta molto negli ultimi anni. Tuttavia, poca attenzione è stata dedicata al suo attore principale: il fan. A differenza di quanto accade con il cliente nel settore della vendita al dettaglio, le teorie sul coinvolgimento dei fan sono ancora nella fase iniziale e spesso mancano di convalida empirica. Questa Tesi vuole indagare le determinanti del coinvolgimento dei tifosi a partire dalla qualità percepita dal fan dell'esperienza fornita dalle organizzazioni sportive. Sulla base di una revisione della letteratura, è stato proposto un modello di ricerca. Quest’ultimo comprende cinque serie di costrutti: qualità dell'esperienza del cliente, attaccamento al prodotto sportivo, soddisfazione del cliente, brand experience e fan engagement. Le ipotesi basate sulla letteratura sono state testate raccogliendo dati attraverso un sondaggio diretto ai fan di diverse squadre che si recano allo stadio/arena/palazzetto. In totale, 184 questionari sono stati analizzati utilizzando tecniche SEM. In primo luogo, i risultati mostrano che la relazione tra customer experience quality e fan engagement è sia diretta che indiretta, avente brand experience e la soddisfazione del cliente come costrutti di mediazione rilevanti. Tuttavia, brand experience e la soddisfazione del cliente sono stimolate da diverse dimensioni della qualità dell'esperienza del cliente. Inoltre, il ruolo dell’attaccamento al prodotto sportivo come moderatore è confermato, suggerendo che diverse tipologie di fan hanno preferenze diverse in termini di esperienza. Infine, i risultati mostrano che, mentre la brand experience influisce su tutte le dimensioni del fan engagement, le dimensioni della soddisfazione del cliente, d'altra parte, influenzano ciascuna diverse dimensioni del fan engagement. I risultati forniscono alle organizzazioni sportive un'immagine più chiara di come coinvolgere i propri fan migliorando la qualità dei loro punti di contatto per innalzare la qualità complessiva della customer experience. Questo studio, attraverso l'analisi condotta, fornisce convalida empirica a diverse proposizioni suggerite in letteratura confermandole o rifiutandole. Infine, questo lavoro di Tesi offre una comprensione inequivocabile dei determinanti del fan engagement, tenendo conto delle diverse caratteristiche di varie tipologie di fan.
Fan engagement : an empirical investigation of its determinants
VARVARO, GASPARE
2017/2018
Abstract
The sports industry has been growing a lot during last years. However, low attention has been devoted to its main actor: the fan. Unlike what happens with customer engagement in the retail industry, theories about fan engagement are still in their early stage and often lack empirical validation. This thesis wants to investigate the determinants of fan engagement starting from the sport consumer perceived quality of the experience delivered by sport organizations. Building upon a review of the literature, a research model has been proposed. The research framework includes five sets of constructs: customer experience quality, sport product involvement, customer satisfaction, brand experience and fan engagement. The literature-grounded hypotheses were tested collecting data through a survey directed to fans of different teams that attend live matches. In all, 184 questionnaires were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling techniques. First, findings show that customer experience quality and fan engagement relationship is both direct and indirect with brand experience and customer satisfaction as relevant mediating constructs. However, brand experience and customer satisfaction are each triggered by different dimensions of customer experience quality. Additionally, the role of sport product involvement as a moderator is confirmed, suggesting that different fan typologies has different preferences in terms of experience. Finally, findings show that while brand experience affect all the dimensions of fan engagement, customer satisfaction dimensions, on the other hand, influence different fan engagement dimensions each. The results provide sport organizations with a clearer picture of how to engage their fans by enhancing their touchpoints quality to improve the overall customer experience quality. This study, by means of the analysis conducted, provides empirical validation to different propositions suggested in the literature by confirming or rebutting them. It finally offers an unambiguous understating of the fan engagement determinants, taking into account the different characteristics of various fan typologies.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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Descrizione: Fan engagement: An Empirical Investigation of its Determinants
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/144565