The Relationship Among Social Media Consumption, Team Identification, and Behavioral Intentions

This study examined the relationship among social media consumption, team identification, word-of-mouth intention, and attendance intention. By analyzing a total of 146 undergraduate students, this study revealed the following insights. First, social media consumption directly affects team identification and word-of-mouth intention. Second, team identification directly affects word-of-mouth intention and attendance intention. Third, social media consumption affects word-of-mouth intention and attendance intention, mediated by team identification. These results expand the use of social media in the marketing and research field upon prior studies of social media and team identification in sport. The most important contribution of this study was to provide the evidence that social media consumption can affect behavioral intention directly and indirectly with team identification as a mediating factor. Thus, this study suggests the way that social media can be used not only for information distribution but also for driving more revenue by stimulating fans’ team identification and intentions.