What drives spectators’ experiential loyalty? A case study of the Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among the experiential quality (EQ) dimensions, experiential satisfaction (ES), experiential involvement (EI), host city image (HCI), experiential equity (EE), spectator affection (SA) and experiential loyalty (EL) in the sport context.Design/methodology/approachThe data used in this study were based on a sample of 674 spectators from the finals of the men’s and women’s football tournaments held at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio, indicating that the proposed model fitted the data.FindingsFindings show that the six EQ dimensions physical environment quality, outcome quality, access quality (AQ), game quality, trip quality (TQ) and security quality (SQ), EI, EE, HCI and SA positively influence ES. Also, EI moderates the relationship between HCI and EL. Moreover, EL is influenced by EI, HCI, SA and ES.Practical implicationsResults will assist sport management in developing and implementing market-orientated service strategies to increase the EQ dimensions, ES, EI, EE, HCI and SA in order to increase EL.Originality/valueThis study provides data that result in a better understanding of the relationships among the EQ dimensions, ES, EI, HCI, EE, SA and EL in the sporting context.