Personal and Collective Processes of Spectator Emotion: Effects on Happiness and Behavioral Intention*

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide a framework for spectator emotion research and examine the role of customers’ emotions, during the consumption experience, in creating sport fans’ psychological well-being and on fan behavior. We establish the framework of emotional experience based on spectator experience and well-being literature. Empirical evidence of the effect of positive emotions on subjective happiness and behavioral intentions are provided. Extraversion and team identification were identified as personal and collective antecedents of spectator’s readiness for embodied emotions. Extraversion and team identification were the exogenous variables, emotion was the mediator, and happiness and spectator intentions were the dependent endogenous variables. Extraversion and team identification had a significant positive impact on spectator emotion. Spectator emotion had a significant positive effect on subjective happiness and spectator intentions. Indirect effects indicated mediation effects except for paths from extraversion to subjective happiness. The significant role of emotion and the mediation effects of the framework highlight the importance of hedonic and affective experience in sports.