The Fan Attitude Network (FAN) Model: Exploring Attitude Formation and Change among Sport Consumers

Abstract

Attitude-related research in the existing sport literature has focused on measurement of the affect component to examine existing attitudes towards sport teams. Recent studies question sole reliance upon affective reactions to assess sport consumers’ attitudes towards sport teams. Current thinking conceptualises attitudes as possessing distinct structural properties such as importance, extremity, accessibility, certainty, and so on, whose combined presence is believed to be a better measure of attitude formation towards a focal object. This paper presents a conceptual model to advance our understanding of attitude formation relative to sport and athletic teams. The Fan Attitude Network (FAN) Model proposes a process through which the fulfilment of dispositional needs serves as a catalyst for the internalisation of a sport team. The internalisation process culminates in a sport identity that mediates the formation of the structural property importance, which in turn influences the formation of additional structural properties that subsequently impact attitude consequences such as fan loyalty. Based upon the proposed FAN Model, two directions for future research are offered for the systematic study of attitude formation among sport consumers.