The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival�? appears... more The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival�? appears frequently in academic work, researchers have not applied a consistent approach to determine what constitutes a rival. The purpose of this research is to identify key characteristics of a rivalry and the antecedents to rivalry formation. Also explored are the behavioral outcomes of a rivalry and, specifically, how individuals react toward a rival team and its fans. This initialization of a more rigorous conceptualization of rivalry began with a qualitative inquiry to set the foundation for a subsequent survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the potential indicators and outcomes of sports rivalry that emerged from the survey.
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Mar 22, 2021
PurposeA sponsorship performance cycle of business-to-business (B2B) exchange is conceptualized, ... more PurposeA sponsorship performance cycle of business-to-business (B2B) exchange is conceptualized, where distinct types of resources are invested by sponsoring firms into sponsored properties and the competitive success of those properties enhances returns to sponsors. While the latter return channel in this cycle is well-documented, the former investment channel has remained opaque. Recognizing this empirical missing link, this paper aims to illuminate the investment channel through a longitudinal analysis.Design/methodology/approachBased on 50 years of Formula One (F1) team and sponsor alliances, this study models the effects of three different sponsorship categories on team performance in the annual F1 constructors’ championship.FindingsThe results demonstrate that each incremental sponsor offering performance-based resources is associated with four additional team points in the championship, controlling for factors such as past success and team experience. Conversely, sponsors offering access to financial or operational resources have no competitive impact. This performance-based sponsor effect is illustrated in models of the current and following seasons.Research limitations/implicationsIn combination with related literature, this study substantiates a complete sponsorship performance cycle in the motorsports context.Practical implicationsThe findings contribute an empirically-based strategy for sustainable sponsorship support that emphasizes acquisition of performance resources in the business-to-business exchange over operational or strictly financial alternatives.Originality/valueWhile scholars have discerned that sponsors invest heterogeneous resources into sponsored properties, and the competitive success of those properties can enhance returns to sponsors, this study demonstrates that particular resources invested by sponsors are related to the property’s competitive success.
With increases in sponsorship expenditures outpacing traditional advertising, return on investmen... more With increases in sponsorship expenditures outpacing traditional advertising, return on investment warrants greater scrutiny. Research overwhelmingly focuses on returns, however, while neglecting the associated investment. This study contributes to the literature on sponsorship costs by analyzing multiple years of prices paid for sponsorships of Formula One racing teams. Contrary to past research, when sponsor industry and sponsorship level were controlled for, prices were not influenced significantly by congruence, clutter, sponsoring company size, or performance of the sponsored organization. Results indicate that the sponsoring company’s brand equity and shared nationality with the sponsored team predicted price premiums, suggesting agency conflicts among advertisers.
Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts, 2019
This chapter provides a foundation for those new to rivalry inquiry. First, it introduces seminal... more This chapter provides a foundation for those new to rivalry inquiry. First, it introduces seminal social psychology concepts, such as group identity, social identity theory, social categorization theory, and ingroup/outgroup formation. Next, the chapter explains three properties of rivalry and the 100-point single-item measure of rivalry intensity. Study 1 examines these in new leagues (MLB, MLS, NBA), finding robust support for rivalry as 1) non-exclusive (fans perceive multiple rivals), 2) continuous in scale (intensity varies among rivals), and 3) bidirectional (opposing fans rarely share equivalent perceptions of the rivalry). Study 2 explains 11 rivalry antecedents and investigates their manifestation within five sport leagues (MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL). These are, in descending order of influence: frequency of play, defining moments, recent parity, star factors, geography, relative dominance, historical parity, competition for personnel, cultural difference, unfairness, and cul...
Previous research on sports rivalry has emphasized fans’ social identity and the threat posed by ... more Previous research on sports rivalry has emphasized fans’ social identity and the threat posed by rivals. Much of this scholarship is based on intercollegiate sports, where many fans, such as students and alumni, have a formally defined identity with the university. In this study, fans (N = 4,828) across five major professional leagues — MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, and NHL — are surveyed to compare their animosity toward rivals based on four variables: schadenfreude, disidentification, prejudice, and relationship discrimination against rivals. The results consistently demonstrate that NFL fans harbor significantly greater animosity toward rivals than their counterparts in other leagues. Apart from the NFL, fans of NHL teams generally exhibit more animosity compared to other leagues, and NBA fans exhibit the least. While fan identification is relatively consistent across leagues, highly identified fans react more adversely to rivals. These differences in rivalry reactions have implications fo...
Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2016
Educators and administrators are exploring competency-based education as an effective and efficie... more Educators and administrators are exploring competency-based education as an effective and efficient method to facilitate student learning. This reinforces a burgeoning neo-behaviorist movement in higher education which seeks to synthesize such behaviorist approaches with the cognitive focus of the last 20 years. The current research examines the outcomes in three years of a sport marketing class that blends cognitive-based and competency-based pedagogy. The first half of the course is primarily self-paced, with regular quizzes checking student mastery, while the second half of the course has students work in teams on marketing-related projects; a final examination assesses overall student learning. The research revealed that the blended approach resulted in complementary strategies which partially addressed the conventional criticisms of both cognitive- and competency-based pedagogical approaches. The study used paired sample t-tests to compare results on quizzes versus the final ex...
International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 2019
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team ... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team within cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) campaigns affects fans’ intentions to support the cause. The purpose of the studies is to assess the perils of featuring a specific team in league-wide activations of cause-related marketing. Design/methodology/approach The research comprises three experiments. Study 1 employs CRSM advertising to test fans’ responses when rival or hometown team imagery is featured by Major League Baseball (MLB). Studies 2 and 3 utilize a press release to activate a cause partnership in MLB and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and assess the potential influence of team involvement and schadenfreude toward the rival team. Findings Contrary to previous research, results demonstrate that rival team presence in league-wide activation can reduce intentions to support the cause effort across both leagues, but not in all circumstances. The influence of rival ...
Accessing and exploiting organizational resources are essential capabilities for competitive spor... more Accessing and exploiting organizational resources are essential capabilities for competitive sport organizations, particularly those engaged in motorsports, where teams lacking resources frequently dissolve. Corporate sponsorship represents a common method for resource acquisition, yet not all sponsorships equally benefit the sponsored organization. Sponsorship utility can be dependent on institutional dynamics such as league governance that produces competitive disparities. Through this study we extend the resource-based view to assert that sponsorships vary in their propensity to contribute to team survival, warranting prioritization in sponsorship strategy based on access to different sponsor resources. To empirically investigate the influence of a variety of sponsorships, survival analysis modeling was used to examine 40 years of corporate sponsorship of Formula One racing teams. One finding from the longitudinal analysis was that sponsorships offering financial or performance-b...
While rivalry debates rage among soccer fans and the media, scholars have focussed much of their ... more While rivalry debates rage among soccer fans and the media, scholars have focussed much of their research on clashes between specific clubs that share a considerable history of competition. Yet, historical conflict is just one of several elements that contribute to enduring sports rivalries, and several soccer teams – particularly in America and Canada – have limited history but salient rivals. This study compares the intensity of rivalries within Major League Soccer through a league-wide fan survey that also measures the importance of eleven antecedents to rivalry and how these elements are associated with fans’ negative reactions to rivals. While geography and frequency of play are the two most important rivalry antecedents according to fans, elements of bias such as cultural difference and unfairness are more closely associated with fans’ schadenfreude and relationship discrimination against rivals. Quotes from fans aligned with the most intense rivalries in MLS illustrate these findings.
Rivalry is ubiquitous across sports, yet the representation and specification of rivalry varies w... more Rivalry is ubiquitous across sports, yet the representation and specification of rivalry varies widely. Such discrepancy poses problems when distinguishing between multiple out-groups and when employing rivalry to explain related questions such as demand for sport consumption. In this paper, we critically examine the many differing conceptions of rivalry and to discern properties of rivalry across different sports. We survey college football fans (N = 5,304) to empirically test the exclusivity, scale, and symmetry of rivalry; then, we replicate the study twice in the context of professional sports (1,649 National Football League fans; 1,435 National Hockey League fans). Results consistently indicate that fans perceive multiple rivals (nonexclusive), rivalry intensity varies among rivals (continuous in scale), and opposing fans rarely share equivalent perceptions of the rivalry (bidirectional). Accordingly, we develop and test a parsimonious 100-point rivalry allocation measure that ...
Data at www.KnowRivalry.com; Central to the conceptualization of rivalry is the process of social... more Data at www.KnowRivalry.com; Central to the conceptualization of rivalry is the process of social categorization and seeing the self and others as members of ingroups and outgroups. For some sport fans—especially those deemed highly identified—a favorite team becomes an extension of one’s self, and opposing teams and their fans are seen as dissimilar outgroups. Akin to other definitions, we view a rival as being a highly salient outgroup that poses an acute threat to the identity of the ingroup. To bring further clarity and consistency to the rivalry discussion, we quantify the perceived rivalries within a closed network of organizations by surveying college football fans (n=5,317) from 122 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, or Division I-A) teams using on an online questionnaire posted on 194 fan message boards. Through employing social network analysis (SNA), we graphically map rivalry scores in Netdraw and conduct further statistical analysis via UCINET SNA software. The network ana...
Abstract Emotion impacts fans' information processing and evaluation of sport sponsors. This ... more Abstract Emotion impacts fans' information processing and evaluation of sport sponsors. This paper examines the emotion of schadenfreude (joy at others' misfortune) within rivalry contests under a cognition-emotion theoretical framework. Study 1 assesses the relationships between appraisals of 11 rivalry antecedents and schadenfreude using survey data from 5,459 fans across six sport leagues. Results show that unfairness and cultural difference have the strongest association with schadenfreude. Study 2 utilizes an experimental design involving 543 fans of professional teams in four US-based rivalries. Findings show positive effects of schadenfreude on fans' reactions to the sponsor, mediated by perceived sincerity of the sponsoring brand. Specifically, emotionally-engaged fans (based on heightened schadenfreude) see sponsor support as more sincere, which enhances fan interest, favorability, and intended consumption of the brand. Implications for sponsors include recognizing how activation tactics in affiliation with rivalry games may circumvent the drawbacks of sponsoring just one side of a rivalry.
ABSTRACT Research question: Despite pervasive attention to the concept of rivalry, there is neith... more ABSTRACT Research question: Despite pervasive attention to the concept of rivalry, there is neither uniform definition nor universal understanding. The purpose of this paper is to explore sport rivalry and derby matches from the fan perspective and identify the most influential elements that characterize rivalry. Research methods: This work employs a sequential exploratory mixed method design. Study 1 engaged 38 fans through open-ended questions to explicate antecedents to 76 rivalries. Study 2 used an exploratory factor analysis based on survey responses (n=429) that measured a broader sampling of rivalries to quantify the importance of the rivalry elements identified in Study 1. Results and findings: We define a rival group as a highly salient outgroup that poses an acute threat to the identity of the ingroup or to ingroup members’ ability to make positive comparisons between their group and the outgroup. Study 1 identified 11 recurring elements of rivalry: frequency of competition, defining moment, recent parity, historical parity, star factors, geography, relative dominance, competition for personnel, cultural similarity, cultural difference, and unfairness. Study 2 confirmed these elements within three primary dimensions: Conflict, Peer, and Bias. Implications: Our findings expand rivalry research by recognizing core rivalry antecedents useful for scholars investigating topics such as ticket demand, promotions, and sponsorship strategy. From a managerial perspective, these findings provide guidance to sport entities seeking to leverage rivalry to increase fan interest; conversely, when animosity surrounding a rivalry becomes overheated or violent, better understanding rivalry’s underpinnings can help managers de-emphasize the rivalry’s most salient contributors.
ABSTRACT The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival”... more ABSTRACT The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival” appears frequently in academic work, researchers have not applied a consistent approach to determine what constitutes a rival. The purpose of this research is to identify key characteristics of a rivalry and the antecedents to rivalry formation. Also explored are the behavioral outcomes of a rivalry and, specifically, how individuals react toward a rival team and its fans. This initialization of a more rigorous conceptualization of rivalry began with a qualitative inquiry to set the foundation for a subsequent survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the potential indicators and outcomes of sports rivalry that emerged from the survey.
Spectator sports embody social group conflict, where consumers periodically interact with opposin... more Spectator sports embody social group conflict, where consumers periodically interact with opposing fans, thereby providing outlets for negative brand affect in the form of acrimony toward rivals. To assess the regional nature of rivalry, this study compared 5,145 sports consumers across the four United States Census regions and Canada, including five professional leagues. Consistent with regional personality clustering, fans of Canadian teams harbor less acrimony toward rivals, and fans of teams in the Northeastern US generally exhibit the most acrimony. When developing events and promotional partnerships, sports marketers and sponsors should recognize regional differences in how consumers react to rivals.
The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival�? appears... more The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival�? appears frequently in academic work, researchers have not applied a consistent approach to determine what constitutes a rival. The purpose of this research is to identify key characteristics of a rivalry and the antecedents to rivalry formation. Also explored are the behavioral outcomes of a rivalry and, specifically, how individuals react toward a rival team and its fans. This initialization of a more rigorous conceptualization of rivalry began with a qualitative inquiry to set the foundation for a subsequent survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the potential indicators and outcomes of sports rivalry that emerged from the survey.
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Mar 22, 2021
PurposeA sponsorship performance cycle of business-to-business (B2B) exchange is conceptualized, ... more PurposeA sponsorship performance cycle of business-to-business (B2B) exchange is conceptualized, where distinct types of resources are invested by sponsoring firms into sponsored properties and the competitive success of those properties enhances returns to sponsors. While the latter return channel in this cycle is well-documented, the former investment channel has remained opaque. Recognizing this empirical missing link, this paper aims to illuminate the investment channel through a longitudinal analysis.Design/methodology/approachBased on 50 years of Formula One (F1) team and sponsor alliances, this study models the effects of three different sponsorship categories on team performance in the annual F1 constructors’ championship.FindingsThe results demonstrate that each incremental sponsor offering performance-based resources is associated with four additional team points in the championship, controlling for factors such as past success and team experience. Conversely, sponsors offering access to financial or operational resources have no competitive impact. This performance-based sponsor effect is illustrated in models of the current and following seasons.Research limitations/implicationsIn combination with related literature, this study substantiates a complete sponsorship performance cycle in the motorsports context.Practical implicationsThe findings contribute an empirically-based strategy for sustainable sponsorship support that emphasizes acquisition of performance resources in the business-to-business exchange over operational or strictly financial alternatives.Originality/valueWhile scholars have discerned that sponsors invest heterogeneous resources into sponsored properties, and the competitive success of those properties can enhance returns to sponsors, this study demonstrates that particular resources invested by sponsors are related to the property’s competitive success.
With increases in sponsorship expenditures outpacing traditional advertising, return on investmen... more With increases in sponsorship expenditures outpacing traditional advertising, return on investment warrants greater scrutiny. Research overwhelmingly focuses on returns, however, while neglecting the associated investment. This study contributes to the literature on sponsorship costs by analyzing multiple years of prices paid for sponsorships of Formula One racing teams. Contrary to past research, when sponsor industry and sponsorship level were controlled for, prices were not influenced significantly by congruence, clutter, sponsoring company size, or performance of the sponsored organization. Results indicate that the sponsoring company’s brand equity and shared nationality with the sponsored team predicted price premiums, suggesting agency conflicts among advertisers.
Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts, 2019
This chapter provides a foundation for those new to rivalry inquiry. First, it introduces seminal... more This chapter provides a foundation for those new to rivalry inquiry. First, it introduces seminal social psychology concepts, such as group identity, social identity theory, social categorization theory, and ingroup/outgroup formation. Next, the chapter explains three properties of rivalry and the 100-point single-item measure of rivalry intensity. Study 1 examines these in new leagues (MLB, MLS, NBA), finding robust support for rivalry as 1) non-exclusive (fans perceive multiple rivals), 2) continuous in scale (intensity varies among rivals), and 3) bidirectional (opposing fans rarely share equivalent perceptions of the rivalry). Study 2 explains 11 rivalry antecedents and investigates their manifestation within five sport leagues (MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL). These are, in descending order of influence: frequency of play, defining moments, recent parity, star factors, geography, relative dominance, historical parity, competition for personnel, cultural difference, unfairness, and cul...
Previous research on sports rivalry has emphasized fans’ social identity and the threat posed by ... more Previous research on sports rivalry has emphasized fans’ social identity and the threat posed by rivals. Much of this scholarship is based on intercollegiate sports, where many fans, such as students and alumni, have a formally defined identity with the university. In this study, fans (N = 4,828) across five major professional leagues — MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, and NHL — are surveyed to compare their animosity toward rivals based on four variables: schadenfreude, disidentification, prejudice, and relationship discrimination against rivals. The results consistently demonstrate that NFL fans harbor significantly greater animosity toward rivals than their counterparts in other leagues. Apart from the NFL, fans of NHL teams generally exhibit more animosity compared to other leagues, and NBA fans exhibit the least. While fan identification is relatively consistent across leagues, highly identified fans react more adversely to rivals. These differences in rivalry reactions have implications fo...
Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2016
Educators and administrators are exploring competency-based education as an effective and efficie... more Educators and administrators are exploring competency-based education as an effective and efficient method to facilitate student learning. This reinforces a burgeoning neo-behaviorist movement in higher education which seeks to synthesize such behaviorist approaches with the cognitive focus of the last 20 years. The current research examines the outcomes in three years of a sport marketing class that blends cognitive-based and competency-based pedagogy. The first half of the course is primarily self-paced, with regular quizzes checking student mastery, while the second half of the course has students work in teams on marketing-related projects; a final examination assesses overall student learning. The research revealed that the blended approach resulted in complementary strategies which partially addressed the conventional criticisms of both cognitive- and competency-based pedagogical approaches. The study used paired sample t-tests to compare results on quizzes versus the final ex...
International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 2019
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team ... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team within cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) campaigns affects fans’ intentions to support the cause. The purpose of the studies is to assess the perils of featuring a specific team in league-wide activations of cause-related marketing. Design/methodology/approach The research comprises three experiments. Study 1 employs CRSM advertising to test fans’ responses when rival or hometown team imagery is featured by Major League Baseball (MLB). Studies 2 and 3 utilize a press release to activate a cause partnership in MLB and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and assess the potential influence of team involvement and schadenfreude toward the rival team. Findings Contrary to previous research, results demonstrate that rival team presence in league-wide activation can reduce intentions to support the cause effort across both leagues, but not in all circumstances. The influence of rival ...
Accessing and exploiting organizational resources are essential capabilities for competitive spor... more Accessing and exploiting organizational resources are essential capabilities for competitive sport organizations, particularly those engaged in motorsports, where teams lacking resources frequently dissolve. Corporate sponsorship represents a common method for resource acquisition, yet not all sponsorships equally benefit the sponsored organization. Sponsorship utility can be dependent on institutional dynamics such as league governance that produces competitive disparities. Through this study we extend the resource-based view to assert that sponsorships vary in their propensity to contribute to team survival, warranting prioritization in sponsorship strategy based on access to different sponsor resources. To empirically investigate the influence of a variety of sponsorships, survival analysis modeling was used to examine 40 years of corporate sponsorship of Formula One racing teams. One finding from the longitudinal analysis was that sponsorships offering financial or performance-b...
While rivalry debates rage among soccer fans and the media, scholars have focussed much of their ... more While rivalry debates rage among soccer fans and the media, scholars have focussed much of their research on clashes between specific clubs that share a considerable history of competition. Yet, historical conflict is just one of several elements that contribute to enduring sports rivalries, and several soccer teams – particularly in America and Canada – have limited history but salient rivals. This study compares the intensity of rivalries within Major League Soccer through a league-wide fan survey that also measures the importance of eleven antecedents to rivalry and how these elements are associated with fans’ negative reactions to rivals. While geography and frequency of play are the two most important rivalry antecedents according to fans, elements of bias such as cultural difference and unfairness are more closely associated with fans’ schadenfreude and relationship discrimination against rivals. Quotes from fans aligned with the most intense rivalries in MLS illustrate these findings.
Rivalry is ubiquitous across sports, yet the representation and specification of rivalry varies w... more Rivalry is ubiquitous across sports, yet the representation and specification of rivalry varies widely. Such discrepancy poses problems when distinguishing between multiple out-groups and when employing rivalry to explain related questions such as demand for sport consumption. In this paper, we critically examine the many differing conceptions of rivalry and to discern properties of rivalry across different sports. We survey college football fans (N = 5,304) to empirically test the exclusivity, scale, and symmetry of rivalry; then, we replicate the study twice in the context of professional sports (1,649 National Football League fans; 1,435 National Hockey League fans). Results consistently indicate that fans perceive multiple rivals (nonexclusive), rivalry intensity varies among rivals (continuous in scale), and opposing fans rarely share equivalent perceptions of the rivalry (bidirectional). Accordingly, we develop and test a parsimonious 100-point rivalry allocation measure that ...
Data at www.KnowRivalry.com; Central to the conceptualization of rivalry is the process of social... more Data at www.KnowRivalry.com; Central to the conceptualization of rivalry is the process of social categorization and seeing the self and others as members of ingroups and outgroups. For some sport fans—especially those deemed highly identified—a favorite team becomes an extension of one’s self, and opposing teams and their fans are seen as dissimilar outgroups. Akin to other definitions, we view a rival as being a highly salient outgroup that poses an acute threat to the identity of the ingroup. To bring further clarity and consistency to the rivalry discussion, we quantify the perceived rivalries within a closed network of organizations by surveying college football fans (n=5,317) from 122 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, or Division I-A) teams using on an online questionnaire posted on 194 fan message boards. Through employing social network analysis (SNA), we graphically map rivalry scores in Netdraw and conduct further statistical analysis via UCINET SNA software. The network ana...
Abstract Emotion impacts fans' information processing and evaluation of sport sponsors. This ... more Abstract Emotion impacts fans' information processing and evaluation of sport sponsors. This paper examines the emotion of schadenfreude (joy at others' misfortune) within rivalry contests under a cognition-emotion theoretical framework. Study 1 assesses the relationships between appraisals of 11 rivalry antecedents and schadenfreude using survey data from 5,459 fans across six sport leagues. Results show that unfairness and cultural difference have the strongest association with schadenfreude. Study 2 utilizes an experimental design involving 543 fans of professional teams in four US-based rivalries. Findings show positive effects of schadenfreude on fans' reactions to the sponsor, mediated by perceived sincerity of the sponsoring brand. Specifically, emotionally-engaged fans (based on heightened schadenfreude) see sponsor support as more sincere, which enhances fan interest, favorability, and intended consumption of the brand. Implications for sponsors include recognizing how activation tactics in affiliation with rivalry games may circumvent the drawbacks of sponsoring just one side of a rivalry.
ABSTRACT Research question: Despite pervasive attention to the concept of rivalry, there is neith... more ABSTRACT Research question: Despite pervasive attention to the concept of rivalry, there is neither uniform definition nor universal understanding. The purpose of this paper is to explore sport rivalry and derby matches from the fan perspective and identify the most influential elements that characterize rivalry. Research methods: This work employs a sequential exploratory mixed method design. Study 1 engaged 38 fans through open-ended questions to explicate antecedents to 76 rivalries. Study 2 used an exploratory factor analysis based on survey responses (n=429) that measured a broader sampling of rivalries to quantify the importance of the rivalry elements identified in Study 1. Results and findings: We define a rival group as a highly salient outgroup that poses an acute threat to the identity of the ingroup or to ingroup members’ ability to make positive comparisons between their group and the outgroup. Study 1 identified 11 recurring elements of rivalry: frequency of competition, defining moment, recent parity, historical parity, star factors, geography, relative dominance, competition for personnel, cultural similarity, cultural difference, and unfairness. Study 2 confirmed these elements within three primary dimensions: Conflict, Peer, and Bias. Implications: Our findings expand rivalry research by recognizing core rivalry antecedents useful for scholars investigating topics such as ticket demand, promotions, and sponsorship strategy. From a managerial perspective, these findings provide guidance to sport entities seeking to leverage rivalry to increase fan interest; conversely, when animosity surrounding a rivalry becomes overheated or violent, better understanding rivalry’s underpinnings can help managers de-emphasize the rivalry’s most salient contributors.
ABSTRACT The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival”... more ABSTRACT The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival” appears frequently in academic work, researchers have not applied a consistent approach to determine what constitutes a rival. The purpose of this research is to identify key characteristics of a rivalry and the antecedents to rivalry formation. Also explored are the behavioral outcomes of a rivalry and, specifically, how individuals react toward a rival team and its fans. This initialization of a more rigorous conceptualization of rivalry began with a qualitative inquiry to set the foundation for a subsequent survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the potential indicators and outcomes of sports rivalry that emerged from the survey.
Spectator sports embody social group conflict, where consumers periodically interact with opposin... more Spectator sports embody social group conflict, where consumers periodically interact with opposing fans, thereby providing outlets for negative brand affect in the form of acrimony toward rivals. To assess the regional nature of rivalry, this study compared 5,145 sports consumers across the four United States Census regions and Canada, including five professional leagues. Consistent with regional personality clustering, fans of Canadian teams harbor less acrimony toward rivals, and fans of teams in the Northeastern US generally exhibit the most acrimony. When developing events and promotional partnerships, sports marketers and sponsors should recognize regional differences in how consumers react to rivals.
Annual Conference for the North American Society of Sport Management (NASSM), May 30, 2014
Central to the conceptualization of rivalry is the process of social categorization and seeing th... more Central to the conceptualization of rivalry is the process of social categorization and seeing the self and others as members of ingroups and outgroups. For some sport fans—especially those deemed highly identified—a favorite team becomes an extension of one’s self, and opposing teams and their fans are seen as dissimilar outgroups. Akin to other definitions, we view a rival as being a highly salient outgroup that poses an acute threat to the identity of the ingroup. To bring further clarity and consistency to the rivalry discussion, we quantify the perceived rivalries within a closed network of organizations by surveying college football fans (n=5,317) from 122 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, or Division I-A) teams using on an online questionnaire posted on 194 fan message boards. A representation of the data can be found at www.knowrivalry.com. Through employing social network analysis (SNA), we graphically map rivalry scores in Netdraw and conduct further statistical analysis via UCINET SNA software. The network analysis results are most interesting when viewed graphically as nodes (universities) with bi-directional ties among them of various magnitude. In the study, we employ SNA measures of ego networks, centrality and power to reveal insights about the nature of rivalry.
Sport Marketing Association annual conference, 2009
The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival” appears ... more The concept of rivalry is nearly ubiquitous across sports, and although the term “rival” appears frequently in academic work, researchers have not applied a consistent approach to determine what constitutes a rival. The purpose of this research is to identify key characteristics of a rivalry and the antecedents to rivalry formation. Also explored are the behavioral outcomes of a rivalry and, specifically, how individuals react toward a rival team and its fans. This initialization of a more rigorous conceptualization of rivalry began with a qualitative inquiry to set the foundation for a subsequent survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the potential indicators and outcomes of sports rivalry that emerged from the survey.
Many sport leagues and organizations are aggressively seeking to increase awareness and interest ... more Many sport leagues and organizations are aggressively seeking to increase awareness and interest of their sport across national borders. Research on the globalization and diffusion of sport has largely focused on the expansion of spectator sport, while limited research has focused on participant sports in cross-cultural contexts. This research examines the branding and positioning issues associated with the penetration of Australian Rules Football in the United States. Specifically, this research seeks to identify: 1) awareness and interest of Australian Rules Football in the United States, 2) the perceptions of a sport in a new cultural context, 3) barriers to participation in the sport, and 4) strategies to effectively brand and position the sport within the new cultural context.
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Papers by B. David Tyler