Contributions to the Theory of Fan Loyalty in Sports: A Finnish Investigation
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2020
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Marketing
Language
en
Pages
60+57
Series
Abstract
In the context of professional team sports, achieving a high level of brand loyalty amongst fans, i.e. fan loyalty, is crucial for organizations due to the unpredictable and seasonal nature of the busi-ness. Loyal fans are sports teams’ most important customer segment as they ensure the team a stable following and revenue stream over time, even when the team performs poorly athletic re-sult-wise. Thus, it is important for sports marketers to be able to recognize factors that create, increase, and maintain fan loyalty. The chosen context for this thesis was Finnish professional ice hockey, and more specifically the fans of the team Helsingin IFK. The research set out to recognize the underlying essentials of fan loyalty and fan-team relationship building, identify relevant factors that increase fan loyalty in the Finnish context and finally suggest practical actions for sports marketers.Description
Thesis advisor
Arnould, EricKeywords
brand loyalty, fan loyalty, consumer-brand relationship, sports marketing