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Team identification is a strong predictor of sport fan consumption behavior. Fans high in team identification are more likely to attend games, pay more for tickets, spend more money on team merchandise, and stay loyal to the team during periods of poor performance. Although Wann (1995) has used the relationships between identification and motives for psychometric purposes, no one has examined the relationship of specific motives on the variance of team identification. Therefore, this study examined the effects of eight motives (vicarious achievement, acquisition of knowledge, aesthetics, social interaction, drama/excitement, escape,family, and quality of physical skill of the participants) to determine which contributed most to the variance of team identification. Through structural equation modeling (SEM) we found that vicarious achievement explained the most variance in team identification (40%). We also investigated whether gender had a differential effect on the motives-identification relationship. Although the models were significantly different, the relationships among the motive paths to identification changed little. For both men and women, the vicarious achievement motive explained the most variance in team identification (men 50% and women 30%), each of the remainder of the motives explained less than 5% of identification variance for either men or women. Results and implications of the research are provided.
INTRODUCTION
Team identification is a strong predictor of sport fan consumption behavior. Fans high in team identification are more likely to attend games, pay more for tickets, spend more money on team merchandise, be satisfied, and stay loyal to the team during periods of poor performance (Madrigal, 1995; Wakefield, 1995; Wann & Branscombe, 1993). While a fair amount is known regarding the effects of team identification, few researchers have specified that motives in general are antecedents of team identification and few have investigated the specific relationships between motives and identification.
Team Identification
Team identification is based on social identity theory. Social identity theory contends that the self-concept is composed of a personal identity and a social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). While the personal identity consists of distinctive attributes, such as abilities and interests, social identity is comprised of notable group categories that can be based on demographic classifications (e.g., sex, race) or organizational membership (e.g., religious, educational, social institutions) (Turner, 1982). Thus, if a person identifies with...