Spectator Rage as the Dark Side of Engaging Sport Fans

Abstract

Customer rage is a complex phenomenon that is beginning to receive attention from researchers and practitioners. To date, research into the phenomenon has focused exclusively on its occurrence within a failed service context; however, rage may also occur in nonfailure situations as a negative by-product of an organization’s efforts to engage the customer at an emotional level. As a service entity, the live sporting event is characterized by a number of features which make it particularly susceptible to acts of rage. This article examines rage within the context of spectator sport by utilizing a framework that is capable of organizing and focusing attention upon those factors that shape a fan’s consumption experience and render spectator sport, and services in general, susceptible to rage. Services marketers may be unable to eliminate all incidents of spectator rage, especially those that arise when a customer becomes excessively and emotionally absorbed with the service encounter. Nevertheless, fans’ propensity to rage may be reduced by understanding the factors that contribute to it and by carefully designing servicescapes and vigilantly managing customer interactions to generate exhilarating, yet nonaggressive, customer experiences.

Social media and sports: driving fan engagement with football clubs on Facebook

“…(Tsai & Men, 2017, p. 6) Therefore, our study will focus on the intensity of engagement behaviours, namely Consumption, Contribution and Creation activities (Muntinga et al, 2011), considering that fans exhibit distinct fandom levels (Hunt et al, 1999), and hence will display different, gradual levels of CEB towards the club on social media. Though we are aware that sport fandom is a multisensory phenomenon that raises several responses, sometimes unfavourable and negative such as anger or frustration (Grove, Pickett, Jones, & Dorsch, 2012;Hunt et al, 1999;Wakefield & Wann, 2006), our study will not differentiate the valence of social media engagement behaviours (Dolan et al, 2016;Hollebeek & Chen, 2014;.…”

Consumer in Sports: Fan typology analysis

“…This was true in this research as those with high degree of identity with a particular club/venue attended more games. Sport participation tends to absorb fans emotionally, occasionally to an excessive level (Grove et al, 2012). "I go to the game because I am big fan of the team, individual players and venue", "I am loyal to the team by wearing team colours and attend most games", "being a fan is important to me and would experience a loss if I had to stop being a fan", "I identify (Support) the team even when they lose, and, when someone criticizes my team it feels like a personal insult", expressed some of the fans.…”

Consumer Life and User Generated Content in the Age of Social Media

“…Consumer misbehavior has received increasing attention in recent research (Akhbari, Absolvand, & Ghaffari, 2016;Daunt & Greer, 2015;Grove & Fisk, 1997;Grove, Pickett, Jones, & Dorsch, 2012;Harris & Daunt, 2011), signifying undesirable acts of consumers and violation of social norms in consumption situations (Fullerton & Punj, 1993). One can notice here the negative aspect of consumer behavior, which can harm the company, the employer, and other consumers.…”