Paper Title
The Moderating Effect of Mainstream Media Use on the Relationship between Social Media Use for Sport Fan Relationship Management and Perceived Sport Team Performance
Abstract
Nowadays, competitions among football clubs exist here and there. Clubs face challenges in various aspects such as establishing a solid fan base, recruiting quality players and generating revenues, popularity gaining, the unpredictable changes in sport participation trends, and more sophisticated fan relationship managment. Unarguably, the ability of firms to establish a sustainable fan base determines the success of a sport team as a company. The present study explores the relationship between the intensity of social media use for sport fan relationship management and team performance as perceived by sport club managerial staff. The survey data are collected from managers and staff working for football clubs in Thailand and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The study is expected to produce results that benefit the sport club management and entrepreneurs who might consider consolidating social media use in their marketing efforts by maximizing the fans’ satisfaction with their team performance. Given that communication in social media tends to involve less interpersonal interactions than face-to-face communication, using social media for fan relationship management activities might be essential in enabling sport clubs with less social competency to interact with customers. The main findings of this research also provide practical implications for small local clubs with fewer financial, human capital, and technical resources to improve their fan relationship management and to increase business competitiveness.
Keywords - Mainstream Media Use, Social Media Use, Sport Fan, Perceived Performance