Commercialisation. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode. This is in accordance with research, which highlights that as fields or subfields develop, the first stages are often dominated by conceptual and qualitative studies (e.g. 206-216. 5 No. 402-419, doi: 10.1108/03090569910253251. The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of extant studies addressing the impact of commercialization on fans of elite sports. 13 No. 44-68, doi: 10.1177/0193723518800433. Hence, papers with little relevance and/or only a minor focus on the impacts of commercialization on fans of elite sports were excluded. 17 No. 1835-1853, doi: 10.1080/09523367.2017.1341873. * Jensen, R., Bowman, N., Wang, Y. and Larson, B. 3) Some sponsorship (for example, alcohol, fast food) gives a bad image of sport 4) Generous sponsorship is only available to the elite few. 1, pp. 21 No. * Dubal, S. (2010), The neoliberalization of football: rethinking neoliberalism through the commercialization of the beautiful game, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. * Meng, M.D., Stavros, C. and Westberg, K. (2015), Engaging fans through social media: implications for team identification, Sport, Business and Management, Vol. 12 No. Tables 69 have, at least, one thing in common; negative effects on, and negative responses of, fans dominate. Table5 summarizes each theme and the major results found in the specific papers. For this paper, issues relating to degrees of subjectivity and bias must be addressed. Wann, D.L. * Totten, M. (2016), Football and community empowerment: how FC Sankt Pauli fans organize to influence, Soccer and Society, Vol. 51 No. 5, pp. There have on some occasions been problems when the name of the stadium has been changed to include a corporate trademark. 6 No. 4, pp. This yielded four major themes: (1) Fan Identity, (2) Fan Attitudes, (3) Fan Emotions, and (4) Fan Behaviours. 199-217, doi: 10.1108/SBM-06-2013-0013. 29 No. Increasingly, advances in technology influence grass-roots as well as elite sport. While there are probably more positive than negative impacts of commercialization in sports, there are still some negatives worth mentioning. 43 No. However, as Snyder (2019) suggests, it is important to consider excluding articles that, based on a detailed evaluation, do not meet the scope of the review to make the review more trustworthy. Therefore, in line with Garca and Welford (2015), future research must delve into other types of elite sports and other geographical settings to understand how commercialization affects fans to elite sports. 18 No. and Houck, D.W. (2011), Spectacularized sport: understanding the invention of a nostalgic, commodified sporting event, International Journal of Sport Communication, Vol. Furthermore, quantitative studies open for assessing different types of fans (from highly involved to more occasionally involved fans) and how these fans embrace and, or resist commercialization. Instead, the reviewed papers show the many different aspects of commercialization, such as sponsorship, business-like management, and modernization of stadiums. This yielded 42 additional articles. The third most applied theoretical framework is cultural theory. (1990), Diehard and fairweather fans: effects of identification on BIRGing and CORFing tendencies, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Vol. Stokvis, R. (2000), Globalization, commercialization and individualization: conflicts and changes in elite athletics, Culture, Sport, Society, Vol. Wang, C.L., Aksan, G.E., Allison, B., Armstrong Soule, C.A., Biscaia, R., Buchanan-Oliver, M., Burton, T.A.M., Chang, E.-C., Chou, W.W., Coffin, J., Collins, N., De la Pena, A.S., Dill-Shackleford, K.E., Doral, S., Favia, M.J., Gou, C., Gou, S., Hall, K.D., Hao, A., Hedlund, D., Hung, K., Jia, X., Johnson, L.M., Joubert, A., Leal, M., Liu, W., Loehr, G.T., Lovric, B., Mastromartino, B., Metcalf, M., Murphy, J., Olds, K.F., Pun, L.F., Rajendiran, A., Sarkar, A., Sarkar, J.G., Sayan, A., Schau, A., Schau, H.J., Shackleford, L., Todd, B., Volkheimer, J., Wang, C.L., Woo, T.C., Wu, R., Zeng, C., Zhang, J. and Zhang, K. (2020), Handbook of research on the impact of fandom in society and consumerism, in Advances in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, and E-Services (AMCRMES) Book Series. 14 No. 703-720, doi: 10.1080/14660970.2015.1100436. Participants in the study give word to the notion that overcommercialization can lead to disenchantment and thus erode fan loyalty (Hyatt and Foster, 2015). Two main subareas identified within this theme are fan loyalty and fan resistance. * Hoegele, D., Schmidt, S.L. Those reactions span from the formation of a negative attitude towards the involved businesses or clubs to a complete boycott of the sport itself (e.g., Crompton 2014; Howard 1999), which ultimately widens the gap between the sports fans on the one side and . Sports teams are businesses like any other and they need to make money to survive. Elite sports have been subject to commercialization for many decades (Dubal, 2010; Hoehn and Szymanski, 1999). The media promote the commercialisation of sports. 14 No. For those watching at home the main drawback of commercialisation in sport are the advertisements that appear every time the game stops. 2, pp. Thanks! Thus, in some contexts, such as cycling, where sponsors are intimately connected to the team, fans may identify with the sponsor and even do so after the commercial agreements are terminated (Delia, 2017). 600-619, doi: 10.1177/1469540515611199. * Abosag, I., Roper, S. and Hind, D. (2012), Examining the relationship between brand emotion and brand extension among supporters of professional football clubs, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. Woisetschlger etal., 2013), new types of ownership structures (e.g. 443-460, doi: 10.1123/JSM.2013-0327. Giulianotti, 2002; Numerato and Giulianotti, 2018; Petersen-Wagner, 2017), Commercialization may alter identities of fans through teams and sports seeking to internationalize their reach and fan bases leading to a diversity of identities (e.g. Finally, attitudes among fans have also been studied in relation to the increased tensions between the local and global that commercialization contributes to. Commodification is closely related to commercialization and is often used to describe that in a process where commercial gains are increasingly prioritized, people, services, ideas, and objects, such as sports teams and fans, become commodities with market values (Numerato and Giulianotti, 2018). (2015), Using identity work theory to understand the de-escalation of fandom: a study of former fans of national hockey league teams, Journal of Sport Management, Vol. Daniel and Kassimeris, 2013; Torchia, 2016; Totten, 2016). * Giulianotti, R. (2011), Sport mega events, urban football carnivals and securitised commodification: the case of the English premier league, Urban Studies, Vol. This review also illustrates methods for studying online contexts are scarce (see Table2). Horbel, C., Popp, B., Woratschek, H. and Wilson, B. 5, pp. Biscaia, R., Correia, A., Rosado, A., Maroco, J. and Ross, S. (2012), The effects of emotions on football spectators' satisfaction and behavioural intentions, European Sport Management Quarterly, Vol. * Hognestad, H.K. 217-239, doi: 10.1080/14775085.2013.846228. Erik Winell, PhD Student is a doctoral student at the School of Business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University. and von Uechtriz, C. (2020), The key role of sport policies for the popularity of women's sports: a case study on women's soccer in Germany, Sociology of Sport Journal, Vol. 205-226, doi: 10.1123/jsm.22.2.205. 1012-1026, doi: 10.1080/14660970.2015.1133416. The media can have both a positive and negative effect on sport. While more research is needed on fans to other team sports, focusing on more individualized elite sports, such as motor sports, tennis, golf and athletics, can also make substantial contributions to the literature, as they represent sports with other types of fan communities and traditions. 97-114, doi: 10.1108/SBM-10-2017-0065. 229-252, doi: 10.1080/01639620590905618. There is an inclination towards critical perspectives and critical theorization (10 papers) focusing on commercialization and its negative impacts on fans. The Pro's and Con's for the Sport! Third, elite sports are regarded as sports performed on the highest athletic level. (2012) and Dos Santos etal. Bauers etal. Lpez Fras, F.J. (2018), Football transfers and moral responsibility, Soccer and Society, Vol. 25-44, doi: 10.18666/jasm-2016-v8-i4-7221. Twenty-one articles included commercial elite sports as a fixed context in studying fan identification and the identity of fan communities. and Campos, C.P. Ticket prices, refreshments and team shirt prices have all gone up at the same time more and more advertising space is sold around the stadium and television rights are sold for almost every game. 18 No. Every camera position at the Superbowl is now sponsored by a different company, there are commercials shown almost continually and the advertisements during half time are the most expensive pieces of air time that can be purchased. Table1 provides a detailed list of activities and processes that exemplify intensified commercialization and how it impacts different elite sports. While it is difficult to generalize from the four papers, most arguments discuss the negative impacts of commercialization on fan loyalty. The authors illustrate five dimensions generating emotions among fans in stadiums: customers' density, customers' appearance, customer behaviours, arena ambiance and arena design (Uhrich and Benkenstein, 2012). Another aspect of commercialization revolves around the ownership structures of teams. However, as research on commercialization is remarkably scarce outside Europe, for instance in North America and, or Asia, it indicates that commercialization may not cause the same types of tensions and resistance in these contexts as in Europe. 39 No. We identified four outcome variables in our review: Fan Identity, Fan Attitudes, Fan Emotions and Fan Behaviours. - more media interest. It is difficult to come to a clear-cut conclusion for how fans respond to increasing commercialization. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. He has published in journals such as International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Tourism Management, and Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 3, pp. 133-150, doi: 10.1007/s11747-012-0308-3. Thus, it is important to include a variety of databases to obtain a valid foundation for analysis (Tranfield etal., 2003). * Rouvrais-Charron, C. and Kim, C. (2009), European football under close scrutiny, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. Furst, R.T. (1971), Social change and the commercialization of professional sports, International Review of Sport Sociology, Vol. 386-410, doi: 10.1177/0193723505280530. 26 No. In an ethnographic study of an English premier league team, Putra (2019) highlights that the commercialization of the club, the possibility of selling tickets to foreign fans, and increasing ticket prices can potentially reduce loyalty among local fans. 1, pp. 2, pp. 1, pp. * Richardson, B. and Turley, D. (2006), Support your local team: resistance, subculture, and the desire for distinction, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 3, pp. The third theme that emerged in the review relates to the impacts of commercialization on fan emotions, for instance, the intensity of anger, anxiety, dejection, happiness, and excitement as responses to certain stimuli in the elite sport context (Biscaia etal., 2012). Definition of commercialisation. This development supports financial growth and, e.g. Commercialisation also offers a distraction from the game as the top name players are singed up by major labels to promote products. Thus, studying other contexts with different background and traditions of sport is important to gain an holistic understanding of commercialization. Thus, we encourage future studies to cover a wide variety of aspects to better comprehend the connection between commercialization and fans. 25 No. 1-20, doi: 10.1080/16184742.2019.1643384. 9, pp. As Turk points out: Unlike a retail clerk, the teacher's role is not to sell a product or please customers. Frew and McGillivray, 2008; Real and Mechikoff, 1992; Meng etal., 2015), Commercialization shift heavily involved fan identities into becoming more like passive consumer identities (e.g. According to commercial ideals, having a modern stadium is deemed fundamental. We then analysed the content and findings to perform a relevant thematic analysis. Rose, M., Rose, G.M., Merchant, A. and Orth, U.R. 824-837, doi: 10.1016/j.smr.2020.04.001. Merkel, S., Schmidt, S.L. Granados, M.L., Hlupic, V., Coakes, E. and Mohamed, S. (2011), Social enterprise and social entrepreneurship research and theory: a bibliometric analysis from 1991 to 2010, Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 333-339. Gordon, K.O. Abstract. Outline three positive impacts of commercialisation in sport on performers (3 marks). 9 No. Rohde, M. and Breuer, C. (2017), The market for football club investors: a review of theory and empirical evidence from professional European football, European Sport Management Quarterly, Vol. Merkel etal., 2016; Laurell and Soderman, 2018) and is at least partly induced by sponsors (e.g. Erik Lundberg PhD is associate senior lecturer in Marketing and at the Centre for tourism, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. 147-159, doi: 10.1016/j.smr.2017.06.003. 22-34, doi: 10.1080/14610980008721860. Commercialized sports was one of several male bastions. 23 No. However, there is a general shortage of quantitative studies to test the specified relationships on larger samples. This as the standardized design, process and analysis reduces biases and errors in the review process (Snyder, 2019). For instance, fans may witness how their favourite teams cooperate with new sponsors, create new engagement platforms, or raise ticket prices to ensure revenues (Thani and Heenan, 2017). Snyder, H. (2019), Literature review as a research methodology: an overview and guidelines, Journal of Business Research, Vol. * Merkel, U. Liang, Y. Fahln, J. and Stenling, C. (2016), Sport policy in Sweden, International Journal of Sport Policy, Vol. He received his PhD in marketing, and his research interest lies within the intersection of experiential marketing, value creation and value measurement within empirical fields such as cultural tourism, cultural economics and event and festival management. and Exler, S. (2008), Brand image and fan loyalty in professional team sport, Journal of Sport Management, Vol. 7 No. The marketing of professional sports leagues, The key role of sport policies for the popularity of women's sports: a case study on women's soccer in Germany, Engaging fans through social media: implications for team identification, Football fans and clubs in Germany: conflicts, crises and compromises, The future of professional football: a Delphi-based perspective of German experts on probable versus surprising scenarios, Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, Alternative to what? Broadcasted sports as an entertainment product, Athletes/players/teams becoming global brands, Expansion of marketing reach beyond domestic borders. 15 No. These changes may negatively affect fans' engagement with and perceived value of being fans (Tinson etal., 2021; Hognestad, 2015). For some fans, this focus may imply tensions and conflicts with their own ideals and perceptions of authenticity (e.g. Commercialization contributes to tensions between the local and the global, for instance, between fans and local teams, and fans and foreign teams living in the same area (Evans and Norcliffe, 2016). For example, new leagues are created in, e.g. 536-554, doi: 10.1080/14660970.2012.677227. Our review illustrates that the effects on fans of elite sport commercialization have mainly been studied in men's elite football, especially in English top-division contexts (14 of 42 papers are related to the English Premier League). John Armbrecht is member of the editorial board of Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. 515-531, doi: 10.1080/19406940.2015.1063530. 6, pp. How Do You Use Toothpaste to Remove Scratches How Much Do Music Video Directors Get Paid? Why Nike Uses Endorsements & Sponsorships, The average semi-pro footballer's salaries, Instructions for Monopoly Simpsons Edition. 1487-1510, doi: 10.1108/EJM-03-2012-0140. However, fans may not consider themselves to be customers as their levels of engagement and loyalty to their teams often are very distinct from traditional relationships between a customer and a firm (Numerato and Giulianotti, 2018). 1, pp. Some studies also highlight that commercialization can spark fan resistance. Additionally, instead of focusing on attitudes towards the team or athlete, Parganas etal. Andon and Houck (2011) study fan emotions in relation to the NHL Winter Classic, a special and commercial sporting event. 89-96, doi: 10.1007/s12599-014-0315-7. 3, pp. 13 No. 4, pp. Today it seems there is hardly any level of sports participation which does not have sponsorship or some variety of commercial venture. (2014), Estimating consumer spending on tickets, merchandise, and food and beverage: a case study of a NHL team, Journal of Sport Management, Vol. Sponsorship places on the team clothes increasing in worth, Transforming ownership structures of elite sport teams and increase in private owners, Private investors taking over to either make profits (e.g. Funk, D.C. and James, J. Heere, B., James, J., Yoshida, M. and Scremin, G. (2011), The effect of associated group identities on team identity, Journal of Sport Management, Vol. Commercialization is increasingly evident in many elite sports service ecosystems (e.g. Este artculo fue escrito, editado y revisado exhaustivamente por el equipo de Cuida Tu Dinero con la finalidad de asegurar que los lectores reciban la mejor y ms detallada informacin posible. 1741-1757, doi: 10.1080/02642069.2011.556190. Belk, R.W. 3, pp. Positive impacts of commercialisation on society. conducting the review, aims to ensure a valid search process. * Dos Santos, M.A., Moreno, F.C., Guardia, F.R. * Lee, M.S., Sandler, D.M. In the following sections, we analyse the state of research and present a research agenda to serve future studies. 1, pp. Sponsorship has been extensively researched in relation to fans' attitudes. The review contributes with an analysis of studies and an agenda for future research, focusing on how fans are affected byand respond toincreasing commercialization. Thus, is it fair to conclude that fans respond to and are affected negatively by an increasing commercialization of elite sports? This should be addressed given the rapid increase in commercial influences in women's elite sports (Meier and von Uechtriz, 2020; Mumcu etal., 2016). 6, pp. franchise teams) or to make the team a marketing platform, Global sport events, such as The Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, becoming Mega-Sport-Events (MSEs). Thani, S. and Heenan, T. (2017), The ball may be round but football is becoming increasingly Arabic: oil money and the rise of the new football order, Soccer and Society, Vol. 461-469, doi: 10.1002/mar. However, to date, no structured review has been published on this topic. For this review, we used the following eight databases: Academic Search Complete, BusinessSource Premier, Google Scholar, JSTOR, PsycINFO, Scopus, CABI Leisure Tourism and SportDiscuss. 336-355, doi: 10.1177/1469540517744692. Yet, considering the scarcity of papers examining the effects of elite sport commercialization in other contexts, it is important to broaden the contextual applications and conceptual breadth. Moore, R. (2005), Alternative to what? Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates, Answers to the most commonly asked questions here, 2022, Erik Winell, John Armbrecht, Erik Lundberg and Jonas Nilsson, References marked with an asterisk indicate studies included in the review, Examining the relationship between brand emotion and brand extension among supporters of professional football clubs, Spectacularized sport: understanding the invention of a nostalgic, commodified sporting event, International Journal of Sport Communication, Jokerits move to KHL: an odd momentum in the commercialization of Nordic elite ice hockey, Brand image and fan loyalty in professional team sport, Club members in German professional football and their attitude towards the 50+1 RuleA stakeholder-oriented analysis, Uniting a sport teams' global fan community: prototypical behavior of satellite fans enhances local fans' attitudes and perceptions of groupness, A child's Christmas in America: Santa Claus as deity, consumption as religion, The effects of emotions on football spectators' satisfaction and behavioural intentions, Football's emerging market trade network: ego network approach to world systems theory, Experiential marketing in sport spectatorship services: a customer perspective, The Politics and Culture of FC St. Pauli: from leftism, through anti-establishment, to commercialization, A digital ethnography of fan reaction to sponsorship termination, Football fandom and Disneyisation in late-modern life, Influence of the virtual brand community in sports sponsorship, The neoliberalization of football: rethinking neoliberalism through the commercialization of the beautiful game, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Local tradition versus globalisation: resistance to the McDonaldisation and Disneyisation of professional football in England, Divided loyalty? 119-150, doi: 10.1016/S1441-3523(01)70072-1. Given the multifaceted nature of elite sports commercialization, more research is needed using other theoretical and conceptual approaches, such as consumer psychology, consumer behaviour and stakeholder theory, which have already been applied with interesting outcomes (see Table4). international player recruitment, which fans may perceive differently compared to how intensified commercialization is perceived in men's elite football. (2019) studied German football fans' attitudes towards selling more than 50% of clubs to private investors. 25-49, doi: 10.1080/16184742.2013.865248. 736-757, doi: 10.1002/mar. Table6 highlights aspects of commercialization found in the review, as well as the main conclusions reached in the studies on how fans respond to commercialization. 5, pp. Quantitative papers, on the other hand, often find both positive and negative responses among fans. and Mechikoff, R.A. (1992), Deep fan: mythic identification, technology, and advertising in spectator sports, Sociology of Sport Journal, Vol. Backman, J. and Carlsson, B. These effects are increased injuries, possible loss of tradition in the sport and the exclusion of athletes due to loss of access of the technology. 28 No. It is exemplified in this review process by the strict criteria for including papers that explicitly addressed the impacts of commercialization on fans. 2, pp. (2001), The psychological continuum model: a conceptual framework for understanding an individual's psychological connection to sport, Sport Management Review, Vol. 8 No. Sponsorship in sport. These types of brand extensions are discussed as sports organizations' activities going beyond the core product of the team to generate more revenues, for example, marketing branded merchandise to extend the fan experience (Abosag etal., 2012). Several studies also indicate that commercialization affects how, and through what interactions fans develop their personal identity with the team or the sport (e.g. 95-118, doi: 10.1207/s15506878jobem5001_6. 529-546, doi: 10.1108/SBM-09-2017-0042. European Sport Management Quarterly, International Journal of Sport and Society, Sport Management Review, Journal of Sport and Tourism, and Sport Marketing Quarterly, Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal. Khondker and Robertson, 2018). 198-218. 341-358. and Shani, D. (1997), Attitudinal constructs towards sponsorship: scale development using three global sporting events, International Marketing Review, Vol. Below, we set out a research agenda focusing on methodological, theoretical, conceptual, and empirical development. (2019), Your Neighbors Walk Alone (YNWA): urban regeneration and the predicament of being local fans in the commercialized English football league, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Vol. and Backhaus, C. (2013), Fans' resistance to naming right sponsorships: why stadium names remain the same for fans, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. Thus, there is an urgency in approaching fans of women's elite sports and discussing how they respond to commercialization.