Dynamic brand evolution mechanism of professional sports teams: empirical analysis using comprehensive major league baseball data

Abstract

In this study, we empirically examine the dynamic development mechanism of team brand equity by proposing a set of team brand equity development model and team brand demand models using comprehensive Major League Baseball data set. Taking advantage of the richness of the game-level data, we provide an alternative estimation approach to accurately measure team brand equity and identify its dynamic evolution process. We find various patterns to the brand equity development across teams over time. More importantly, we find a strong carry-over effect: team brand equity is 3.5–4.5 times larger when we consider dynamic impact, which implied serious underestimation in a static case. Also, we find that postseason performance is a vital element to construct strong team brand equity while seasonal performance has tenuous impact on the brand equity development. Furthermore, we find that a team’s brand community plays a critical role in developing its brand equity. A team that maintains 2–3 times larger brand community benefits from developing team brand equity as much as it achieves successful postseason performances (e.g., winning World Series). However, we find insignificant evidence of a star player to develop team brand equity. Also, we conduct several simulation analyses to provide meaningful managerial implications.