Service quality, perceived value and behavioral intentions among highly and lowly identified baseball consumers across nations

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how team identification and country influence professional baseball team spectators’ evaluations of service quality factors, perceived value and future behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected online from sports consumers of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan (n = 600) and Major League Baseball in the USA (n = 460). A regression-based estimation method (PROCESS) and structural equation modeling approach were used to assess the relationships. Findings Both direct and indirect (via perceived value) effects of most service quality factors (schedule convenience, economic consideration, game amenities, ticket service and venue quality) on behavioral intentions are stronger for lowly than for highly identified CPBL fans. The indirect effect of home team on behavioral intentions is stronger for the lowly identified CPBL fans. The direct effect of game amenities and the indirect effect of venue quality (via perceived value) on behavioral intentions are stronger for the highly identified MLB fans. The indirect effect of opposing team and economic consideration is stronger for the lowly identified MLB fans. The positive relationship between venue quality and perceived value is stronger for the USA than for Taiwan fans. The relationships between game amenities and perceived value and between perceived value and behavioral intention are perceived to be invariant between fans from the two countries. Taiwan fans’ behavioral intentions tend to be directly and indirectly affected by service quality factors, whereas US fans’ behavioral intentions tend to be indirectly affected by service quality factors. Originality/value The study provides empirical evidence of the moderating role of team identification associated with the relationships between separate service quality factors, perceived value and behavioral intentions among consumers of a professional spectator sports in two different countries.

The impact of consumer knowledge on profitable consumer loyalty through perceived service quality and psychological involvement in non-profit sport clubs

“…consumers' psychological involvement and present a logical framework in NPSCs settings that identifies CKM as an antecedent of consumers' psychological involvement through perceived service quality. In addition, the results showed perceived service quality influences psychological involvement of consumers in NPSCs and contributes to prior research on service quality outcomes (e.g., Alexandris et al, 2012;Jones et al, 2019;Ma and Kaplanidou, 2020;Xiao et al, 2019). The results of this study show that the improvement of the physical environment of services and the interaction quality of clubs with consumers is effective in increasing their pleasure.…”

Service quality and its effects on consumer outcomes: a meta-analytic review in spectator sport

“…That is, consumers in Western cultures tend to focus more on personal preferences while in Eastern cultures collectivistic appeals are generally favoured. Also, recent research in spectator sport suggests that the role of service quality on spectator outcomes can vary according to country's culture (Ma & Kaplanidou, 2020). Thus, we argue that: H4: The effect of service quality dimensions on spectators' outcomes varies in Western and Eastern cultures.…”

“…Nevertheless, team identification may help explaining the complex relationships between service quality and spectators' outcomes (Theodorakis et al, 2009), with the emerging scholarly efforts (e.g. Ma & Kaplanidou, 2020) likely contributing for future opportunities to systematically examine these interactions. Therefore, instead of a complete set of every possible aspect affecting spectatorship experiences and its outcomes, this study should be regarded as a theoretical clarification and empirical examination of service quality in spectator sport and its most common consequences.…”

An Empirical Study on Online Learners’ Continuance Intentions in China

“…Perceived value is often considered an equity concept, referring to the evaluation of the fairness, utility, or perceived cost of the offering [34,36]. Different values can be perceived by customers, such as functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value, and conditional value [37]. For this investigation, perceived value is defined as consumers' overall assessment of what is received relative to what is given [38,39].…”