PurposeThis study investigates the intersection between nutrition and sport management, focusing on how sport fans' dietary choices are influenced by the framing of food attributes in different game contexts.Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments were conducted around American football events to examine these choices. Experiment 1 utilized a 2 (Perceptions of Rivalry Games: Rivalry vs. Non-Rivalry) × 3 (Perceived Food Attributes: Energy vs. Healthiness vs. Environmental-Friendliness) between-subjects design. Experiment 2 employed a 2 (Game Outcome: Victory vs. Loss) × 3 (Perceived Food Attributes: Energy vs. Healthiness vs. Environmental-Friendliness) between-subjects design.FindingsThe findings revealed that during rivalry games or after their favorite teams' losses, fans tend to prefer high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods framed as energy sources. Conversely, victories prompt fans to opt for healthier and more environmentally friendly food choices.Originality/valueThis research provides novel insights into how a performance-driven mindset influences dietary choices among sport spectators. The results offer practical implications for sport managers and marketers, emphasizing the importance of strategically framing food attributes at sporting events to encourage healthier eating behaviors among fans. By leveraging these insights, sport organizations can enhance fan experiences and promote overall well-being.

We examine the effects of team identification on unhealthy eating behavior. Leveraging the functionalist perspective of emotions, we also examine how an introspective focus on particular affective states impacts this phenomenon. The results of two online studies (one cross-sectional survey, one experiment) indicate fans display emotional eating, implicit preferences toward high-calorie, indulgent foods, and higher body mass index (BMI) numbers when they identify highly with a sport team. Further, fans' introspective focuses on anger and happiness (vs. hope) lead team identification to have a more positive (vs. more negative) relationship with indulgent food consumption. We contribute to the literature by highlighting how sport fans' goal-directed food consumption is driven by their affective states. After presenting findings, we unpack implications of this project for population health and promotional practices for policy-makers and managers.

Team identity is periodically disrupted by identity threat, yet minimal research has addressed how life-disrupting threats impact team identity. In the current study, the authors employed a case study design to examine the effects of a life-disrupting threat (i.e., the start of the COVID-19 pandemic) on team identity. The authors, leveraging interviews and participant journaling, examined individuals who identify with at least one sport team, finding that team identity was mostly "inactive" as this life-disrupting threat set in. Further, although participants recognized the importance of their fandom in terms of social connectivity (i.e., relationships with fellow fans) and opportunity for escape, they emphasized that, overall, being a fan was unimportant during the early months of the pandemic. Collectively, these findings highlight the need to study team identity (and identity threat) from a more "macro" perspective - that is, considering fandom in conjunction with other salient factors in fans' lives.

Despite a wealth of team identification research, little scholarship has focused on how considerable changes to a team’s performance may impact the meaning of the team identity (as such a meaning is understood/exposited by in-group members). To this end, we examined fans of a historically poor-performing team that had reversed course, becoming a winner. We conducted semi-structured interviews with supporters of Major League Baseball’s (MLB’s) Chicago Cubs to explore how the team’s 2016 World Series (i.e., championship) win had impacted supporters’ identification with the team. We noted two primary themes defining how the team identity had changed: (1) different expectations for performance following the championship; and (2) the team’s new success representing a threat to interviewees’ understanding of the team identity meaning. We also observed constants in the composition of the team identity, factors unchanged by the success. We make our primary contribution by addressing the role of considerable team performance changes in the meaning of team identity.

Scholars have begun to explore the interplay between the multiple identities within a sport fan’s salience hierarchy, noting fandom may compete with other central roles. Researchers have also recently emphasized well-being outcomes for fans, with increasing focus on physical health. Though sport consumer behavior and health consciousness have concurrently emerged, the social psychological connection between the two is unclear. Thus, we aim to clarify this relationship. We leverage an emerging quantitative approach: polynomial regression and response surface methodology. Our findings indicate individuals who value both fandom and health consciousness (i.e., demonstrate high fan identity and health consciousness congruence) experience identity conflict, with men reporting higher levels of identity conflict than women. Thus, we contribute to literature on the potential negative sides (or challenges) of fan identity. The food and sedentarism common to fan culture appear to prompt psychological turmoil for health-conscious individuals. Fan identity may naturally integrate with other social roles, yet our results indicate fandom and health consciousness are often viewed in conflict.

Simultaneous to the sport industry’s economic surge, physical health has become an issue of growing societal concern. Fandom and health consciousness have concurrently emerged, yet scholars have not explored the social–psychological relationship between the two. To this end, we conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews with 17 self-identified health-conscious sport fans. We leverage identity theory to highlight these individuals’ “identity work.” Participants’ experiences were reflective of both identity conflict and identity integration. The outcome that manifested—conflict or integration—appeared to hinge on psychological and sociological variables. In sharing their stories, we contribute to a growing literature on role identity negotiation in sport fandom, in addition to providing insights on health-minded sport fans.

Sport management researchers have increasingly noted a relationship between sport spectatorship and well-being, with the line of inquiry predicated on transformative sport service research. In this study, the authors contribute to transformative sport service research by utilizing multilevel egocentric network analysis to examine the consumption networks of National Football League fans over the course of one season. The authors utilized a network theory approach to explore how emotional support is created and embedded within sport fans' networks of interpersonal ties and social relationships. Through multilevel modeling, the authors highlighted how attributes of both the ego (i.e., focal actor) and alter (i.e., individual with whom ego shares a tie) affect emotional support. Previous studies of transformative sport service research and the link between well-being outcomes and sport spectatorship have implicitly examined only ego-level attributes (i.e., team identification), yet the present work suggests that emotional support depends on the interpersonal ties and network structures within which sport fans are embedded.

Team identity threat is an area of growing interest in sport consumer behaviour. Despite scholars' calls for examinations of prolonged threat in the context of sustained team performance failure, researchers have not yet answered the call. In the current study, the authors use social identity as a theoretical lens, interviewing fans of a historically poor-performing team. Results indicate such fans cope with prolonged threat through social creativity and competition; they also perceive their social identity as distinct. More critically, the authors find that the identity threat experienced by these fans is not just unique due to the duration of threat, but also the threat's salience and overall impact on the identity meaning. In light of findings and existing literature, the authors introduce spectrums that illustrate the different types of threat fans may experience. Because identity threat differs contextually, these spectrums are understood as blurry. (C) 2019 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scholars have begun exploring how parenthood impacts individuals’ sport fandom. Limited work to date, however, has considered such a question in light of new parenthood. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine how new parent sport fans negotiate their multiple identities. To this end, I completed semi-structured long interviews with 27 sport fans with young children (i.e., individuals presently raising children of age 0–6 years). Drawing on the social–psychological foundations of identity theory, I examined these new parents’ salience hierarchy negotiation. I identified and analyzed two consumer groups: Maintainers (who have sustained the centrality of their fan identity despite a change in life circumstances) and Modifiers (who have “de-escalated” their fandom). These new parents’ voices are used to guide the findings. This study advances the theoretical understanding of how parenthood impacts fandom and illuminates how the sport industry can optimally serve new parent sport fans.