The Role of Pride Feelings in the Team and Fan Community Identification Processes: An Empirical Examination in Professional Sport

Sport consumers’ pride in their teams is displayed in numerous ways. While marketers can capitalize on these pride feelings, the general business literature is devoid of extensive examinations of sport consumers’ pride feelings. The purposes of this study are to develop a conceptualization of sport consumers’ pride feelings toward both tangible and intangible sport consumption objects and examine the relationship between sport consumers’ feelings of pride and identification toward their favorite team as well as their fan community. Study 1 (n = 352) confirmed a typology of sport consumers’ pride feelings with four consumptive vehicles (home stadium, logo, glory of the past, fight songs) in the professional football and baseball contexts. The findings of Study 2 (n = 356) indicated the four pride constructs not only had a direct effect on team and fan community identification, but they also had an indirect effect on team and fan community identification through the respective prestige and distinctiveness dimensions of a sport team and its fan community.