Impact of On- and Off-Field Sports Scandals on Team Identification and Consumer Behavior Intentions

A review of sport media on any given day seemingly includes news about an athlete involved in some type of questionable behavior, or what is likely referred to as a "scandal." For example, consider the numerous stories published about Lance Armstrong's denial then subsequent admission of using performance-enhancing drugs, or the stories about Tiger Wood's marital infidelity. Despite what seems to be daily reports in the media about scandals involving athletes, empirical assessment of the impact of knowing about such scandals on sport consumers' remains limited (Prior, O'Reilly, Mazanov, & Huybers, 2013). With the viability and prosperity of commercially-oriented sport teams dependent on consumption by sport fans and spectators, it is important to ascertain the impact scandals involving athletes have on consumer behavior. There is anecdotal evidence that sport scandals have a negative impact on sport consumer behavior. There remains limited empirical research, however, examining the direct impact of sports scandals on sport team-related consumption patterns of consumers. This project was an attempt to investigate the impact of reported sports scandals on team identification and sport consumers' sport team-related behavior intentions. Two objectives guided the research. First, ascertain whether on-field and off-field sports scandals have an impact on sport consumers' team identification and sport team-related behavioral intentions. Second, assess whether a sport consumers' level of team identification moderates the impact of on-field and off-field sports scandals on subsequent sport team-related behavioral intentions. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design was used to collect quantitative measures of team identification and sport team-related behavioral intentions prior (pretest) and subsequent (posttest) to on-field or off-field sport scandal condition exposure. The results of the investigation are contradictory to anecdotal evidence. It was concluded from the results that irrespective of the type of sports scandal, sport consumers' team identification levels and sport team-related behavioral intentions remained static subsequent to learning of a scandal. There was no negative spillover effect on the associated sport team.