Rivalry in Sport

This book focuses on how rivalry influences fan perceptions and behaviors, the role of organizations to responsibly promote rivalries, and discusses how to decrease negative and group-member deviance surrounding sport rivalry. Rivalry is a phenomenon that helps organizations and participants increase their output while also engaging fans. The author argues that the goal of rivalry should be to increase engagement and interest in the product without stepping over a sometimes invisible line resulting in fan or group member negativity, deviance, and violence. Through the introduction of two scales that specifically measure how group members react to out-groups in the sport setting, this book offers scholars deeper insights into what rivalry means and how it can be used to responsibly promote the sport product.

Proposes how to research rivalry in and outside of sport settings

Contributes to the sport consumer behavior literature through examining how to promote rivalry to increase fan engagement while reducing fan deviance and violence

Uses social identity theory to discuss group member behavior

Autorentext

Cody T. Havard is Associate Professor of Sport Commerce and the Coordinator of Research in the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management at The University of Memphis, USA. He is the Director of the Bureau of Sport and Leisure Commerce and the KWS Coordinator of Research at The University of Memphis. Dr. Havard researches the rivalry phenomenon in and out of sport to better understand group member behavior.

Inhalt

1. Introduction
   This chapter will introduce the reader to the book, detailing each chapter and idea that will be discussed in the book. This chapter will also inform readers how the book would be best used for different audiences.

   2. What is Rivalry and Organizational Responsibility
      This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current literature regarding rivalry using examples primarily from the sport setting. In particular, the chapter will discuss the antecedents and outcomes regarding rivalry, and how the phenomenon influences group members. The chapter will transition into what responsible sport organizations have in promoting rivalry in a responsible manner. For instance, organizations are wise to use rivalry to increase engagement with fan groups. Rivalry can increase a person's likelihood to consume live and mediated content and wear favorite team merchandise.
      Even as rivalry helps organizations increase engagement with fans, it can also increase negativity and derogation among competing groups and group members. The chapter discusses the pitfalls for organizations in not properly promoting and working to control the negativity surrounding rivalry such as legal consequences, loss of revenue, negative public image, and potential loss of long-term fandom. The chapter also discusses examples of promotions and skits implemented by organizations that illustrate their involvement in promoting rivalry in an irresponsible manner. This chapter concludes with a transition and call to better understand that rivalry phenomenon, in particular, perceptions and behaviors involving rivalry discussed in Chapters 3 and 4.
   3. Relative Rivalry and Place
      Chapter 3 introduces readers to the Sport Rivalry Fan Perception Scale (SRFPS, Havard, Gray, Gould, Sharp, & Schaffer, 2013), which measures the way group members perceive out-groups and their members (e.g., supporters of rival team). The chapter will discuss the twelve-item, four-facet measure and how it has been used to investigate the influence of rivalry on fan and group member behavior.
      The chapter will then use the scale to illustrate how fan perceptions differ among groups using two studies. First, based on the extended contact theory, the chapter will detail how fans that have visited or live in the city where their rival team plays perceive their out-group differently from people whom have never visited the city. Results of the investigation show that people whom have visited or live(d) in the city where their rival team plays report different perceptions of their rival team than those that have never visited/lived in the city.
      Finally, based on extended contact hypothesis, the chapter will detail a case study of Colorado State University, University of Colorado, and University of Wyoming fans. Colorado State University is at the middle, with the University of Wyoming to the north and University of Colorado to the south, thus making the relationship ideal to illustrate how location influences rival perceptions. Results show that fans of the University of Wyoming view Colorado State University as their main rival, however, fans of Colorado State University views the University of Colorado as their main rival. The chapter also uses the relationship among the three schools to show how a group (Colorado State University fans) identifies a main rival (University of Colorado) and a secondary rival (University of Wyoming), and how these relationships influence perceptions of the out-group.

   4. GORFing and Consumption
      Glory Out of Reflected Failure (GORF) addresses the likelihood of fans to celebrate the indirect failure of rival teams (Havard, 2014). For example, when a team one considers a rival loses to another team, fans celebrate and feel better about themselves and their in-group. The chapter will begin by introducing GORFing, including a discussion of the differences between GORFing and schadenfreude. The chapter then introduces a scale that measures the phenomenon and discusses how GORFing presents itself in the literature.
      The chapter then presents a study in which the GORFing scale was used to investigate the phenomenon's influence on fan likelihood to wear and purchase favorite team merchandise when a rival team experiences indirect failure. Results show that GORFing is influenced by identification with a favorite team, perceptions of a rival team, and influences likelihood to wear and purchase favorite team merchandise. The chapter illustrates how the indirect failure of a rival team can benefit the engagement with favorite team fans. However, the chapter also cautions organizations against over-promoting rival team indirect failure, and some of the negative outcomes associated with such behavior. For instance, fans celebrated negative news about a rival team when the indiscretion was seen as minimal (e.g., a recruiting violation) or medium (e.g., a DUI). However, when the indiscretion was seen as extremely negative (e.g., felony with proof of cover up), fans did not take much pleasure in celebrating the news, which suggests that fans possibly choose not to pass a morale line (Havard & Eddy, 2019).

   5. Call to Action
      This chapter extends the knowledge and findings of the previous chapters by providing a call to action to practitioners and researches. For instance, practitioners are provided with ideas for promoting rivalry in a responsible and healthy manner. The chapter includes examples from organizations that have responsibly promoted rivalry in a way that increases engagement among fans while limiting the likelihood of overly negative behaviors and deviance. Further, the chapter points out that negative fan behavior cannot be avoided entirely. Rather, building from the information introduced in chapter 2, the discussion focuses on how organizations can limit their perceive responsibility if and when unfortunate fan behavior occurs. For example, when unfortunate fan behavior occurs, organizations will attempt to distance from the behavior, just as group members typically do. However, that effort is made more difficult when an organization has engaged in promotion that in some way encourages negativity. The chapter will discuss ideas to limit this type of promotion.
      The chapter also provides ideas for future research on the phenomenon of rivalry, …