The Impact of Perceived Team Reputation on Team Identification in the Context of European Football League Teams

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between sports team reputation and team identification (ID) when team reputation was operationalized at the dimension level and measured using reflective indicators. The Spectator-based Sports Team Reputation (Jang et al., Int J Sports Market Sponsorship 16(3):52–72, 2015) was modified and used to collect data from 520 fans of five European football league champions (i.e., Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain) during the 2018–2019 season. Results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) showed five dimensions of SSTR (i.e., performance, spectator-orientation, social responsibility, tradition, and management quality) were significantly and positively related to ID. In addition, the results of the Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method showed that high ID exists under two SSTR dimensions complex configuration, while absent under three complex configurations. Theoretically, the results provide a deeper understanding of the differential impact of spectator-based team reputation dimensions on fans’ team identification. Managerially, sports teams can use the scale as a diagnostic tool to measure their reputation from their fans’ perspective and strategically allocate their resources on the important dimensions and configurations of SSTR to improve fans’ ID. This research applied an innovative analysis approach to reveal necessary and sufficient conditions when conventional methods such as SEM have limited power. This paper highlights a valuable insight on how ID is formed through the SSTR.