1. Introduction
Research in the field of digital marketing management in the sports industry is particularly relevant today, given the evident growing trend in the application of digital transformation of the sports brand. With the increase in the acceptance of the Internet and social networks, in terms of a new communication channel, its strategic importance in the marketing of the sports industry is also growing. Research in the field of digital marketing indicates that marketing strategies must be clearly identified in order to maintain and ensure the competitive advantage of companies in the digital environment (
Kannan and Li 2017). A sustainable competitive advantage can only be achieved by combining the company’s existing capabilities and using digital technologies. The sports industry recognizes the usefulness and importance of strategic marketing planning. It has been found that without the implementation of strategic planning in marketing, sport will not survive in a competitive entertainment industry market (
Kriemadis and Theakou 2007). As the business environment becomes more complex and consumer needs become more sophisticated, the need for companies, especially in the sport industry, to carefully analyze and implement strategic planning in marketing is evident.
Use of digital technology in this process helps companies in the sport industry to achieve more adequate market positioning.
On social networks, consumers have the ability to filter, select, and share information with each other or with the company (
Nambisan and Baron 2007). The result of this participatory digital medium is the transformation of consumers into both recipients and creators of content. As such social media influencers (SMIs) gain their importance over influencing consumer’s decision-making processes (
Cheung et al. 2022), the strength of consumer influence on the attitudes and opinions of other members of the virtual community is commensurate with the influence of the brand’s marketing message and its cultural significance (
de Valck et al. 2009). This social variable influences consumer purchasing decisions. Consumers are subject to social influence and consider the perceptions and judgments of other individuals relevant (
Demiray and Burnaz 2019). It is evident that susceptibility to social influence stems from the tendency to acquire product knowledge by seeking information from others, adapting to others’ expectations to gain reward or avoid punishment, and identifying with others through buying and owning certain products or brands (
Demiray and Burnaz 2019). Moreover, influencer-promoted ads outperform in customer engagement and positive sentiment from followers compared to the identical ads placed by brands (
Lou et al. 2019).
As customer engagement on the sport club’s social network is still under researched phenomenon. Due to different forms of engagement that emerge among customers, and as their identification with both other members as well as brand is identified as crucial in this process. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore consumer identification with the virtual (social network) community of a sports club brand and its impact on consumer engagement in social media sports club. Hence, this paper builds on social identity theory (
Mael and Tetrick 1992), customer engagement theory (
Pansari and Kumar 2017), and customer engagement in social media (
de Oliviera Santini et al. 2020). Thus, we aim to contribute to a better understanding of customer engagement in social media in the sport industry and to provide insight on how customer identification contributes to customer engagement especially when dealing with sports clubs’ social networks.
This paper is structured as follows. In
Section 2, a literature review and theoretical background on customer engagement and social identity and its dimensions is provided. In
Section 3, the research methodology and results are presented. In
Section 4, a discussion is offered, and theoretical and practical contributions are identified. In
Section 5, the paper ends with identified limitations and further research ideas.
3. Conceptual Model and Hypotheses Development
Despite the prevalence of digital media, there is a distinct dearth of studies on consumer engagement on social networks of sports clubs. Consumer engagement on digital platforms of sports club brands may increase confidence in the sports club brand, as well as stimulate the growth of value co-creation and the sports club brand, by increasing consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Consequently, consumer engagement has caused a change in the application of brand management in the sports industry (
Vale and Fernandes 2018). For sports clubs, understanding and applying consumer engagement enables them to realize a strategic advantage because consumer engagement stimulates consumers to use the sports club’s offer more actively. An engaged sports consumer will actively look for the opportunity to attend specially organized sports events of the sports club he supports, such as attending matches, and is especially motivated to attend events that include socializing with the sport’s club players.
Consumer engagement is reflected in a variety of behaviors that lead to stronger consumer loyalty to the sports club, beyond traditional metrics of consumer loyalty, such as frequency of visits, buying behavior, and future consumer intentions (
Vale and Fernandes 2018). The affective dimension of engagement encompasses consumer emotion towards the engagement focus (
Calder et al. 2017) and follows pattern of continuous emotional process.
The need to examine various aspects of consumer identification with the virtual community of a sports club brand and its impact on consumer activities and behavior in the sports industry is evident. Given the importance of consumer identification with the virtual community of the sports club brand, the following hypothesis was set:
Hypothesis 1 (H1). Consumer identification with members of the sports club’s social network has a positive impact on consumer engagement on the sports club’s social networks.
Consumer identification with a brand has been found to be a key determinant of brand loyalty (
Zaglia 2013), but it also influences determinants of behavior in the digital environment, such as consumer engagement through social media and positive e-WOM (
Chu and Kim 2011). Given the importance of identifying consumers with the brand of a sports club, the following hypothesis was set:
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Consumer identification with the sports club brand on social networks has a positive impact on consumer engagement on the sports club’s social networks.
According to literature review and stated hypotheses, the following conceptual model is proposed (
Figure 1).
5. Research Results
Table 1 presents descriptive statistics of the consumer identification with social network members sports club and consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network items.
The analysis of individual dimensions of identifications determined that the highest value belongs to the item related to the notion that they share the same goals with members of the virtual community/social network of the sports club they follow on social networks (M = 3.920). Meanwhile, the lowest value belongs to the item related to the notion that the believe others respect them because their connections with the social network of the sports club (M = 2.320). The average value of items in the scale Consumer identification with social network members sports club is M = 3.39, while the scale Consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network is M = 2.758.
Subsequently, to continue the analysis exploratory factor analysis was performed. After checking the adequacy of data using the KMO measure and the Bartlett test, it was decided that analysis could continue using the principal axis factoring method with Oblimin rotation.
In order to maintain both theoretically predicted constructs of identification, the a priori criterion was used as a method for determining the factors to be retained, i.e., a predetermined number of desired factors was given, which is two. In an attempt to detect the most adequate factor structure, items with a saturation of less than 0.3 were omitted from further analysis, according to
Field (
2009). During the analysis three items were omitted. The final factor structure of the individual’s identification presented two factors, i.e., Consumer identification with social network members sports club and Consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network, that explain 62.072% of the total variance of the instrument.
Table 2 shows the matrix of the factor form of the final factor solution.
The instrument adopted is reliable as the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient is for both factors above the threshold of 0.7 (
Nunnally 1978), that is 0.868 for Consumer identification with social network members sports club and 0.844 for factor Consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network. Hence, analysis can continue using the identified factors.
The measuring instrument was intended to measure consumer engagement on social networks of sports clubs consisted of seven theoretically predicted dimensions of consumer engagement (Enthusiasm, Enjoyment, Attention, Absorption, Sharing, Learning, Approval). Selected descriptive statistical indicators of individual indicators are shown in
Table 3.
Considering the dimensions of consumer engagement on social networks of sports clubs, the highest average value is noted for dimension Enthusiasm (M = 5.44), while the lowest average value belongs to the items in dimension Absorption (M = 2.68).
To continue the analysis among dimensions of consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs, exploratory factor analysis was performed. After checking the adequacy of data using the KMO measure and the Bartlett test, it was decided that analysis can continue using the principal axis factoring method with Oblimin rotation. In order to maintain theoretically predicted dimensions of consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs, an a priori criterion was used as a method for determining the factors that should be retained, i.e., a predetermined number of desired factors was specified. As the exploratory factor analysis identified six factors, opposed to theoretically seven, the factor Learning saturated by only one item was omitted from further analysis. According to the suggestion by
Field (
2009) items with a saturation of less than 0.3 were omitted from further analysis. The final factor structure of the consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs explains 73.922% of the total variance of the instrument and contains factors Enjoyment, Enthusiasm, Sharing, Attention, Endorsing, and Absorption.
Table 4 shows the matrix of the factor pattern of the final factor solution.
The instrument adopted is reliable as the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient is for all identified factors are above the threshold of 0.7 (
Nunnally 1978) and ranging from 0.797 for Endorsing to 0.929 for Absorption.
Based on the results of explorative factor analysis for consumer identification with social network members sports club, consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network, and dimensions of consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs (enjoyment, enthusiasm, sharing, attention, endorsing and absorption), new factors were formed as the average score of included items. These factors were used for testing hypotheses. The method used for hypotheses testing is multiple regression analysis with Enter as the selection method. Several multiple regression analyses were performed with dimensions of consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs (enjoyment, enthusiasm, sharing, attention, endorsing and absorption) as dependent variables. Consumer identification with social network members sports club and consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network were in all multiple regressions used as independent variables. Results are presented in
Table 5.
Based on performed multiple regression analysis, we can conclude that both consumer identification with social network members sports club and consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network do influence consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs with different magnitude; with the highest influence of consumer identification with social network members sports club on Endorsing (β = 0.451), and the highest influence of consumer identification with the brand of the sports club’s social network on Absorption (β = 0.666). However, to compare their influences on consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs, we calculated the average scale for all dimensions of consumer engagement on the social networks of sports clubs. Results are presented in
Table 6.
Based on research analysis, we can conclude that both hypotheses (H1 and H2) were accepted. Consumer identification with a sports club brand on social media has a higher influence on consumer engagement on a sports club’s social networks (β = 0.528) than Consumer identification with members of a sports club’s social network (β = 0.373).
6. Discussion and Conclusions
This research established and tested a model in which the drivers of consumer engagement on the social network of a sports club, such as individual’s identification with members of sports club’s social network and with sports club brand, influence consumer engagement on the sports club’s social network. The relevance of the topic under study is seen in the understanding and adaptation of the consumer engagement concept within the spectators’ sports sector. Consumer engagement in sports club social networks is reflected in various behaviors that lead to a stronger relationship between consumers and a sports club that goes beyond traditional measures of consumer loyalty, such as attendance frequency, purchase behavior, and future intentions (
Vale and Fernandes 2018), increasing brand perception, consumer trust, or consumer satisfaction. Hence, focusing on consumer engagement will contribute to the sport club.
This paper aimed at contributing to a better understanding of customer engagement in social media in sport industry and to provide insight on how customer identification contributes to customer engagement especially when dealing with sports clubs’ social networks. Paper contributes in several ways. First, it demonstrates that individual’s identification both with the members or brand on sports’ club social media consequently influences their consumer engagement. This research explored the significance of distinguishing consumer identification with members of a sports club social network and with a sports club brand. This is in line with previous research on online and offline identification (
Algesheimer et al. 2005;
Popp et al. 2016) indicating the importance of approaching customer’s identification as multifaceted construct. Additionally, by differentiating between various identification goals, it is possible to positively influence the value co-creation (
Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004;
Marčinko Trkulja 2021). According to this study, customer engagement on sports club social networks is heavily driven by brand identity. It is obvious that having distinct identification aims is critical for optimizing the value generation process in the digital world.
Second, we approach consumer engagement on a sports club’s social networks as multidimensional structure of six different dimensions, thus offering the possibility to understand consumer engagement according to different dimensions when spectators’ sports on social media are explored.
Third, approaching consumer engagement on a sports club’s social networks as a multidimensional construct offers the idea that individual’s identification with members of a sports club’s social network or with a sports club brand on social media influences differently each customer engagement dimension. As indicated, individual’s identification influence dimensions of customer engagement on a sports club’s social networks differently. This provides the possibility to sport marketing managers to identify some of the engagement dimensions as especially important for their sport club, to encourage such behavior. For example, if a specific sport club wants to encourage enthusiasm among its spectators, it is advised to boost the identification among social network members to feel the spirt of connectedness and mutual sharing through communication on the social media.
Customer identification on social networks is approached in the framework of social-identity theory. This helped to understand the complex relationships between consumers and sports club brand. Moreover, this research contributes to the understanding of customer engagement in social media as a multidimensional construct when sport club’s social media is considered.
In addition, implications for marketing managers of sport clubs are noted. The results can be used by marketing managers to understand customer engagement on social network of a sports club as a multifaceted. Hence, marketing managers by identifying a dimension of customer engagement that is important to them to boost, they can approach their sport customers or fans by encouraging such engagement through posts on social media and communication narrative. Hence, if identification with members is found to be more influencing specific dimension, then in posts, reels, or stories, marketing managers can stress friendship among members through posts from matches, socializing during the match or before/after the match, to boost identification with members and consequently provoke sharing dimension of consumer engagement. Similar, if identification with brand provides greater support to the selected dimension of consumer engagement, then marketing managers can encourage brand identification through a sense of respect if someone is following a sport club social network, e.g., posting how it is important to follow the social media to keep up with the latest news and prioritizing social media over other communication channels, thus providing the sense of absorption of sport customers and fans in information they provide, such as additional information on players, news from the locker room, or behind the scenes footage after the match.
Since the research used the convenient sample, generalizing research conclusions to all sports clubs that use digital media for communicating with target audience is limited. Still, as the research sample size is rather big, it could be used as good indication of relations in the spectator sports. Moreover, a more detailed analysis of the consumer engagement on the social networks of the sports club is needed. This could help grasp in more depth the phenomenon, so additional relationships and possible identifications with not just brand or social network members can be analyzed. Through qualitative research, such as in-depth interviews and focus groups with members active on social networks of sport clubs, researchers could obtain some additional insights in regard to the richness of the relationships observed. This research is limited to one country. Hence, using a multi country sample would contribute to the generalizability of research results. Further research could also include differentiating the sample by sports or by frequency of interaction with other members through social media networks of the sports club.