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Abstract
Virtual fan communities (VFCs) have become a popular online platform for millions of sport team fans to interact and share information. Traditionally, teams, leagues, and their close affiliates have assumed control of these communication platforms as free services for fans. However, a marked increase in third-party VFCs have given rise to a growing number of independent sites focused on monetization via subscriptions. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a subscription-based third-party VFC indirectly affiliated with a large university athletics program. Data were collected from a sample of VFC subscribers and nonsubscribers to examine differences in attitudes and engagement across interactivity measures. Notably, the tested relationships revealed that nonsubscribers accounted for more variance across all of the outcome variables. These results show that free services are more influential and that "freeloaders" are an important population for digesting online marketing content.
Keywords: virtual fan community, online marketing, attitudes, engagement
Introduction
Online website communities have become an increasingly common way for individuals from around the globe to remain connected. These communities also serve as "... a source of knowledge and a repository of information from which members draw on their real-life experiences" (Young, Takeda, & Cuellar, 2011, p. 206). In 2015, for example, nearly two-thirds of American adults used social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), up from only 7% in 2005 (eMarketer, 2015). The marked uptick in the general popularity of social media has been echoed in sport as well. For example, online message boards or virtual fan communities (VFCs) have seen a meteoric rise in popularity among sport consumers (Clavio, 2008; Frederick, Clavio, Burch, & Zimmerman, 2012; McClung, Eveland, Sweeney, & James, 2012). The continued popularity of these mediums has not surprisingly led to their monetization via memberships, sponsorships, and advertising. As a result, the revenue produced through these channels continues to increase, characterized in the recent Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Revenue Report (2016), which indicated Internet ad revenues increased more than 20% in 2015, totaling $59.6 billion. The same report showed that social media advertising, which includes virtual communities, increased 55% from 2012 to 2015.
Despite increases in usage, popularity, and revenue generation, there is a relative paucity of research on these communication mediums. For example, investigations...