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Exploring the Role of Social Media Communications in the Success of

Professional Sports Leagues: An Emerging Market Perspective

Article  in  Journal of Promotion Management · October 2020

DOI: 10.1080/10496491.2020.1829774

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Exploring the Role of Social MediaCommunications in the Success of ProfessionalSports Leagues: An Emerging Market Perspective

Jay Trivedi , Sigma Soni & Amit Kishore

To cite this article: Jay Trivedi , Sigma Soni & Amit Kishore (2020): Exploring the Role of SocialMedia Communications in the Success of Professional Sports Leagues: An Emerging MarketPerspective, Journal of Promotion Management, DOI: 10.1080/10496491.2020.1829774

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Exploring the Role of Social Media Communications inthe Success of Professional Sports Leagues: AnEmerging Market Perspective

Jay Trivedi, Sigma Soni, and Amit Kishore

MICA, Ahmedabad, India

ABSTRACTNon-cricket sports leagues are rapidly rising in an emergingmarket like India. With the advent of web 2.0, sports market-ers are using social media platforms to popularize these sportsleagues. However, additional research is needed to get a bet-ter understanding of using social media communications insports marketing. The pro-Kabaddi league has emerged as themost successful non-cricket sports league in India. This studyobserves the role played by social media communicationstoward increasing fans’ sports involvement and online com-munity engagement resulting in higher game attendance andpurchase intentions for sponsors’ products. The descriptiveresearch design was used to conduct this study, and datawere collected from 444 respondents. The hypotheses weretested using structural equation modeling. The results estab-lished that social media communications play a more influen-tial role in boosting fans’ online community engagement,further resulting in game attendance and sponsor’s productpurchase intention.

KEYWORDSSocial mediacommunications; sportsinvolvement; onlinecommunity engagement;game attendance;purchase intentions

Introduction

The viewership and sponsorship of non-cricket professional sports leagues(tennis, badminton, football, and kabaddi) are rising at a rapid rate inIndia (Laghate, 2015). Compared to the developed markets, the growth ofsuch sporting tournaments is a relatively new phenomenon in an emergingsports market like India (Tripathi & Kapoor, 2017). In today’s digital era,multiple sports marketers have benefited by using social media channels topopularize their tournament (Corthouts et al., 2019; Williams & Chinn,2010). However, more research is needed to help the sports marketersmake effective use of social media communications (Mahan, 2011; Menget al., 2015; Vale & Fernandes, 2018). Specifically, research determining thefactors leading to fans’ involvement and engagement in the online

CONTACT Jay Trivedi jaytrivedi2002@gmail.com Digital Platform and Strategies, MICA, Ahmedabad380058, India� 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENThttps://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2020.1829774

community is required (McCarthy et al., 2014). This because fans’ involve-ment and online community engagement are crucial for the success of thesporting event.As such, this research focuses on observing the effectiveness of social

media communications on sports involvement and online communityengagement, which is further hypothesized to result in game attendanceand sponsor’s product purchase intentions.This research is important because the success of professional non-

cricket leagues in emerging markets may lead to a shift in sponsorshipdecisions made by domestic and global brands (Trivedi, 2020). Given themore affordable sponsorship deals offered by non-cricket sports leagues inIndia (Saini, 2019), it helps brands save on sponsorship costs and spendmore on buying advertising spots on other media classes. Such a broadspectrum of media presence combined by sponsorship presence is muchdesired by brands (McClung et al., 2012). Leading global brands like Vivo,Gionee mobiles, Gillette, Tata Motors, Honda, and Adidas, to name a few,have invested in sponsoring PKL in recent years. Moreover, brands spon-soring non-cricket sports leagues desire to measure their return on invest-ment (Dhanya, 2018; Koronios et al., 2016), making this aninteresting study.Noll (2003) defined sports leagues as “a group of teams that schedules

games and develops other policies and rules for the purpose of determininga champion.” A report from India’s television ratings agency, BroadcastAudience Research Council (BARC), explains the steady growth of non-cricket professional sports leagues in India. The report states that comparedto developed sports markets where professional sports leagues have a strongmarket presence, the sports league market in India is a relatively new phe-nomenon. Banking on the Indian citizens’ rising interest in multiple sports,new professional leagues, including hockey, badminton, football, kabaddi,and tennis, to name a few, have emerged in the last few years (Tripathi &Kapoor, 2017). These advances in Indian sports are significant, givenIndia’s image of a crazy cricket country (BARC, 2016). Sponsors of thecricket league have enjoyed significant benefits owing to fans’ high involve-ment for cricket in India. Given the findings by Greenwald and Leavitt(1984), it is well-established that high involvement situations lead to favor-able consumer behavior. However, as the non-cricket sports leagues are arelatively new phenomenon in India, it is important to examine fans’involvement and the resultant benefits to the sponsor (Trivedi, 2020).The Pro-Kabaddi League (PKL) can be termed as the most successful

non-cricket sports league in India, owing to its high viewership and spon-sorship gains (Saini, 2019). Kabaddi is played by two teams comprising onseven players each. A player from one team (known as raider) enters the

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competing team’s side of the playground and tries to win points by tagging(touching) as many players of that team without losing the rhythm ofchanting the word “Kabaddi.” The competing team wins points by avoidingthe tagging efforts and holding the raider in their side of the court. PKLlaunched its first edition in 2014. In its first season eight teams had partici-pated in the tournament. Owing to its growing popularity, twelve teamsparticipated in the last season in 2019. Its viewership has grown from itsfirst edition viewership of 435 million. Hence, it stands next to the cricketleague (552 million) in terms of viewership. 56% of PKL’s viewers are male,while the balance 44% are female viewers.Along with TV commercials, social media communications have played a

significant role in marketing the PKL (KPMG, 2016). Social media gainedimportance in popularizing PKL owing to its high youth viewership. TheKPMG reports states that through online practices like live streaming,social media score updates, and player endorsements on the online com-munities, the league marketers have managed to leverage the power ofsocial media. League marketers are investing in social media communica-tions to boost fans’ involvement and online engagement and expect thesemetrics to result in game attendance and benefits to the sponsorer (KPMG,2016). Long existing sports leagues like the NBA in the developed marketshave leveraged the power of social media communications to increase faninvolvement and game attendance. However, as sports leagues in India area new phenomenon and that multiple sports organizations are launchingtheir leagues simultaneously, it becomes important to get their social mediacommunications right (KPMG, 2016; Tripathi & Kapoor, 2017).Social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and You-Tube, to name a

few, play a significant role in engaging and boosting fans’ commitment tothe sporting event (Meng et al., 2015). The increased commitment becomespossible as multiple fans contribute to the activity on social media plat-forms by liking, commenting, tweeting, or sharing information related tothat sporting event, athletes, teams, and even about the sponsor of thatevent (Hazari, 2018). As the sports market gets competitive, it is imperativefor sports league marketers (hereafter referred to as "league marketers") toleverage the power of this relatively new communication platform in theiroutreach plans (Stavros et al.). Enoch (2020) posited that social media com-munications could be used as sports marketing tool in various ways likelive streaming, live-tweeting, using augmented reality and chatbots to boostfans’ experience, and also by including the athletes in the social media cam-paigns. It is notable that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube arethe famous platforms used by sports enthusiasts and that there is a need toexplore the efficacy of these platforms in order to leverage them better(Enoch, 2020; Paruthi & Kaur, 2017; Santini et al., 2020).

JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT 3

However, extant research has more studies focused on observing the usageof social media communications (SMC) by fans, athletes, and sponsors(Agrawal et al., 2018; Meng et al., 2015). This limited focus has resulted infewer studies observing the usage of SMC by sports organizations and theireffect on fan involvement and engagement (Meng et al., 2015). From the per-spective of emerging sports market like India, non-cricket sports leagues area new phenomenon and hence observing the role of SMC in boosting fans’sports involvement, online community engagement, game attendance, andpurchase intention for sponsors’ product is even more critical.Fans’ sports involvement is important for the success of any sporting

event (KPMG, 2016; Trivedi, 2020). Sports involvement leads to favorableattitudinal and behavioral outcomes like commitment, attachment, andincreased participation levels (Alexandris, 2012). Web 2.0 has enabled mar-keters to use social media channels to boost fans’ involvement in the sport(Hazari, 2018). However, extant literature has limited studies focused onexamining the effect of social media communications on fans’ onlineengagement and behavior (Meng et al., 2015; Vale & Fernandes, 2018).Hence, it becomes imperative for league marketers to unravel the role ofsocial media communications in boosting fans’ sports involvement.The advent of web 2.0 has also resulted in fans interacting directly with

the sports league managers and other fans. This frequent and regular inter-action has resulted in the formation of social relations among the fans,leading to the formation of online communities (Alonso-Dos-Santos et al.,2018). Online communities are useful and profitable from a business per-spective (Algesheimer et al., 2005). In this study, the researchers also aimto test the association between social media communications and fans’engagement in the online league community.Higher fan involvement and engagement in online league communities

offer multiple benefits to the league marketers. Extant literature posits thatthe outcome of involvement will be either cognitive or behavioral (Beatonet al., 2011). From the sports league perspective fans’ game attendance (Parket al., 2019; Wu & Cheng, 2018), and intent to purchase sponsor’s products(Ko et al., 2008), are the most desirable outcomes owing to their direct cor-relation with the overall success of that league. Hence, this study examinesthe effect of sports involvement and online community engagement on fans’game attendance and sponsor’s product purchase intention. The outcome ofthis study helps unravel the role of social media communications toward thesuccess of the sports leagues in an emerging market like India.

Literature review and hypotheses development

The stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory proposed by Mehrabianand Russell (1974) emerges as the founding theory for this study. This

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because the S-O-R model is suitable for studies aiming to gain insight intovarious dimensions of consumer behavior (Kim &Lennon, 2013;Rodr�ıguez-Torrico et al., 2019). Also, the S-0-R theory is widely used tostudy the effect of online cues on consumer behavior (Kamboj et al., 2018;Loureiro & Ribeiro, 2014). The theory posits that certain stimuli, whenadministered to an individual, lead to a cognitive and affective reaction(organism), which further results in a behavioral response (R) fromthat individual.In this study, social media communications by the marketers of the pro-

kabaddi league are the stimuli administered to the fans of the game, resultingin affective reactions like involvement and online community engagement,finally leading to a response in the form of game attendance and purchaseintention for sponsor’s products. These variables are elaborated in the discus-sion below.

Social media communications (SMC)

Social networking sites are explained as an online platform offering peoplean option to create their profile and establish a peer-to-peer connection,leading to a network of connected individuals (Barnes et al., 2012). Thethree dimensions of social media communications are user-generated con-tent (UGC), firm-generated content (FGC), and social media advertising(SMAds) (Godes & Mayzlin, 2009; Trivedi & Rozia, 2019).User-generated content is defined as “content that is publicly available

over the internet reflecting a certain amount of creative input and createdoutside the professional routines and practices” (OECD, 2007). Consumersparticipate in the creation of content owing to their desire for self-promo-tion, enjoyment, and an intent to influence their peers’ perceptions(Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2015). Consumers’ trust on social media plat-forms is reported to be higher compared to that on traditional communica-tion platforms (Karakaya & Barnes, 2010). From a marketing perspective,the content created by social networking site users is centered on brandand products, overarching the role of a firm as the only primary source ofinformation (Berthon et al., 2012).The firm generated content (FGC) is defined as "a fusion between trad-

itional advertising and consumer word of mouth, characterized as firm ini-tiated but consumer implemented" (Godes & Mayzlin, 2009). This form ofcommunication offers marketers a precision-targeted audience, wider reach,cost efficiency, leading to higher efficacy of marketing messages (Godes &Mayzlin, 2004; Trivedi & Rozia, 2019). The fundamental difference betweenUGC and FGC lies in the fact that the former is out of the firm’s control(Vanden Bergh et al., 2011).

JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT 5

Advertising on social media platforms is a popular marketing practice(Chu & Kamal, 2011). Social media advertising (SMAds) offers marketers aplatform to disseminate brand-related communication, which can be con-veniently used by consumers (Chu et al., 2013; Gustin, 2012; Lee & Hong,2016). Multiple studies have reported a significant effect of SMAds on con-sumer attitudes and intentions (Chu et al., 2013; Kim & Ko, 2012; Messieh,2012; Trivedi & Rozia, 2019). Extant literature has characterized advertisingvalue as the cumulative effect of its informativeness, entertainment, andcredibility (Blanco et al., 2010; Chu et al., 2013; Ducoffe, 1995; Pavlou &Stewart, 2000; Trivedi, 2017; Tsang et al., 2004).Literature has established brand awareness, brand loyalty (Schivinski &

Dabrowski, 2015), and brand attitude (Trivedi & Rozia, 2019) as the out-comes of social media communications. However, from a sports marketingperspective, few studies have attempted to empirically investigate the effectof social media communications on sports fan behavior (Meng et al., 2015;Vale & Fernandes, 2018). Specifically, in case of new sports leagues, mar-keters aim to boost fans sports involvement (Beaton et al., 2011; Trivedi,2020) and engagement in the leagues’ online community (Katz & Heere,2013; Yoshida et al., 2015).

Sports involvement (SINV)

Zaichkowsky (1985) has defined the term involvement as "a person’s per-ceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and inter-ests." Sports involvement can be defined as " an unobservable state ofmotivation, arousal, or interest, in viewing a game or participating in asport-related activity that results in searching, information-processing, anddecision-making” (Laurent & Kapferer, 1985). Kunkel et al. (2013) definedsports involvement as "a psychological state that can influence consumers’loyalty toward the team and the league."Fans’ sports involvement is central to the success of any sports event

(Kim et al., 2020). Higher sports involvement leads to success for the spon-sor (Meenaghan, 2001; Pham, 1992; Trivedi, 2020), better perception ofcorporate image (Ko et al., 2008, Trivedi, 2020), purchase intention forsponsor’s products (Ko et al., 2008; Trivedi, 2020; Yoshida et al., 2015),community engagement (Dickson et al., 2017), game attendance (Madrigal,1995; Silveira et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 1996). Further, higher sportsinvolvement also leads to higher word of mouth for the sports league (Filoet al., 2015; Popp & Woratschek, 2016). These critical consequences ofsports involvement make it a crucial variable in sports marketing literature.Although the consequences of sports involvement are well-documented

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(Alexandris, 2012), its antecedents are yet to be fully explored (Alexandris,2012; Beaton et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2020; Kyle et al., 2006).Social media communications have been identified as one of the key

drivers of consumer involvement (Alalwan et al., 2017; Filo et al., 2015).However, from a sports marketing perspective, antecedents to involvementremain under-studied, specifically for rising sports organizations (Kimet al., 2020). Also, the effect of social media communications on fans onlineengagement is under-explored in the sports marketing literature (Menget al., 2015; Vale & Fernandes, 2018), leading to the formation of the fol-lowing hypothesis:

H1: Social media communications are positively associated with fans’ sportsinvolvement

Online community engagement (OCE)

As the idea of consumer-brand relationship gained prominence, consumers’started participatingin brand communities (Park & McMillan, 2017). Munizand O’guinn (2001) defined the concept of brand community as "a special-ized, non-geographically bound community based on a structured set ofsocial relations among brand admirers." Researchers have proposed brandcommunities as a possible way to “the holy grail of brand loyalty”(McAlexander et al., 2002, p. 38).The proliferation of social media platforms has led to the development

of online brand communities (Hollebeek et al., 2014). An online brandcommunity can be defined as "a specialized, non-geographically boundonline community, based on social communications and relationshipsamong a brand’s consumers (De Valck et al., 2009) to create, enhance, andsustain social ties among community members (Hollebeek et al., 2017).”Engagement in the online brand community is an important outcome ofsocial media marketing (Hollebeek et al., 2014; Santini et al., 2020).Consumer engagement can be explained as the “overall psychologicalexperience of consumer interactions with the focal brand, as well as otherrelevant objects including the company, employees, and other consumers(Hollebeek, 2011).” Sports marketers endeavor to create online sports com-munities and engage fans’ by posting league related content, inviting theircomments, and motivating them to share their content on the leagues’ page(McClung et al., 2012; Vale & Fernandes, 2018). Even though brand com-munity engagement is stated as an important indicator of marketing effect-iveness, it continues to remain understudied (Kumar & Kumar, 2019;Kumar & Nayak, 2018; Zhou et al., 2012).Sports marketing literature has tabled a few benefits of online commu-

nity engagement. Fans’ engagement with the leagues’ online community

JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT 7

plays a key role in its success. Some of the established motivations of fansto join an online sports community include receiving live updates of thematch, interacting with other fans (Clavio & Walsh, 2014; Gibbs et al.,2014), and developing friendships with peers (Witkemper et al., 2012).Fans’ engagement in online sports communities also lead to game attend-ance (Yoshida et al., 2015), and an increase in commercial profits(McCarthy et al., 2014). These factors are significant determinants of theleagues’ success.The pro-Kabaddi league has initiated multiple social media communica-

tion activities like posting live game updates, uploading thrilling visuals ofthe game, and promoting the next game lined up. The league marketersalso permit content created by fans on the leagues’ official page. Further,the league also advertises its games in order to engage the fans on itsFacebook community page. However, not all marketers have reportedhigher engagement on their social media content, and it remains to bestudied if social media communications lead to fans’ increased engagementon its community page (Dolan et al., 2019).Hence, the researchers intend to observe the effect of SMC on online fan

engagement, leading to the formation of the following hypotheses:

H2: Social Media Communications are positively associated with fans’ onlinecommunity engagement

Game attendance (GA)

Professional sport is one of the most important streams contributing to thesports industry’s prosperity. Ticket sales and fans stadium attendance arerecognized as the primary revenue resources followed by merchandise sales,commercial and broadcasting rights for any professional sport (Cha et al.,2015). Given that attendance is responsible for the revenue generation,increasing attendance has become the prime objective of any sports organ-ization in order to generate profit (Park et al., 2019; Wu & Cheng, 2018).Extant studies have identified multiple antecedents to game attendance.

Demographic and economic factors (Bovd & Krehbiel, 2003), the thrill ofthe outcome (Schreyer et al., 2016), game atmospherics (Karakaya et al.,2016), perceived game quality and fans’ identification with the team(Madrigal, 1995) are among the noted factors leading to higher gameattendance. However, game attendance is a complex phenomenon and canbe influenced by multiple other variables (Silveira et al., 2019). It is alsoimportant to note that ticket sales have gradually reduced across sportingevents (KPMG, 2016). Hence, sports marketers need to identify the antece-dents to game attendance.

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Sports involvement has been linked to game attendance (Funk et al.,2004). Individuals with a higher level of involvement are prone to attendingmore games compared to those with a lower involvement (Funk et al.,2004; Meir, 2000). Pro-Kabaddi is a relatively new league in India. Hence,it is important to examine if the fans’ involvement brings them to the sta-dium (Silveira et al., 2019), leading to the formation of the follow-ing hypothesis:

H3a: Fans’ sports involvement is positively associated with game attendance

Yoshida et al. (2015) established a significant relationship between fans’online community engagement and game attendance. However, more stud-ies are needed to explore the outcomes of online community engagement(Kumar & Kumar, 2019). Even from the sports marketing perspective, theoutcomes of online sports community engagement are under-explored(Vale & Fernandes, 2018).Hence, the researchers intend to observe if fans’ online community

engagement brings them to the stadium, leading to the formation of thefollowing hypothesis:

H3b: Fans’ online community engagement is positively associated withgame attendance

Sponsor’s product purchase intention (PI)

Sponsorship can be defined as "cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property(typically a sports, entertainment, nonprofit event or organization) inreturn for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated withthat property’’ (Cornwell et al., 2005). Critical sports sponsorship goals,such as boosting the sponsor’s brand image, awareness, loyalty, andincrease in market share, can be achieved by effectively implementingsponsorship strategy (Apostolopoulou & Papadimitriou, 2004; Byon et al.,2014). Sponsors look at multiple advantages, including boosting their salesby sponsoring popular sports. Literature has accepted purchase intention asa strong determinant of actual purchase. The theory of reasoned action(Fishbein & Ajzen, 1980) established behavioral intention as an antecedentto actual action. Drawing from this theory, MacKenzie and Lutz (1989)posited that behavioral intention provides an overview of the actual marketacceptance of the product or service.From the sports event sponsor perspective, purchase intention has been

defined as "the degree of perceptual conviction an individual holds towardtheir decision to buy sponsor’s product or services such as merchandise,ticket attendance, and media consumption" (Kim et al., 2011). Crompton(2004) suggested that consumers’ purchase intention for the sponsor’s

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product is an ideal measure to determine the effectiveness of sponsorshipon revenue generation. Koronios et al. (2016) suggested that sponsors placea high value on measuring purchase intention for their products as an out-come of the sponsorship.Social media channels increase the pace and spread of the sponsors’ mes-

sage (Hazari, 2018) compared to traditional channels like print and televi-sion. From the perspective of sports marketing, fans’ sports involvement(Alexandris et al., 2007; Bachleda et al., 2016) and online communityengagement (Agrawal et al., 2018; Alonso-Dos-Santos et al., 2018) areestablished as antecedents to sponsor’s product purchase intention.However, few studies in the sports marketing domain have focused on ris-ing sports leagues in emerging markets (Tripathi & Kapoor, 2017).Moreover, it is interesting to observe if fans’ involvement in the non-cricketsports leagues results in sponsor’s product purchase intention, given therelative recency of fans involvement in these new leagues (Trivedi, 2020).Hence, the authors propose the following hypotheses:

H4a: Fans’ sports involvement is positively associated with sponsors’ productpurchase intentions

H4b: Fans’ online community engagement is positively associated with sponsors’product purchase intention

Trivedi and Rozia (2019) observed that the relationship between socialmedia communications and behavioral intentions is mediated by consum-ers’ message involvement and attitude toward the brand. However, Arli(2017) established a positive and direct effect of social media on consumers’behavioral intentions and also highlighted the need to observe this relation-ship in different contexts. Hence, in this study, the researchers examined ifsocial media communications have a positive and direct effect on thesponsor’s product purchase intention or if that relationship was mediatedby sports involvement and online community engagement. Hence, the fol-lowing hypotheses are proposed:

H5a: Sports involvement mediates the relationship between social mediacommunications and sponsors’ product purchase intention

H5b: Sports involvement mediates the relationship between social mediacommunications and game attendance

H6a: Online community engagement mediates the relationship between social mediacommunications and sponsors’ product purchase intention

H6b: Online community engagement mediates the relationship between social mediacommunications and game attendance

On the basis of the above discussion, the authors’ have proposed thebelow model:

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Methodology

Data and sample

This study was conducted using a descriptive research design. The study wascross-sectional in nature. On these lines, an online structured questionnaire(using Google forms) was created and administered to respondents usingFacebook (FB). Facebook was chosen for collecting responses as it is home tomost Gen Y respondents and that PKL had the highest social media followingon Facebook (Statista, 2019). The questionnaire was administered in English.Gen Y members were chosen as respondents as this cohort forms the largestbase of viewers for PKL (BARC, 2016). Participation in the survey was bychoice, and respondents were not given any incentive. The respondents weregiven sufficient time to answer the survey.Three filter questions were used to ensure that respondents were suitable

for meeting the research objectives. The first filter question ensured thatthe respondents belonged to the Gen Y cohort; the second question estab-lished the respondents’ interest and awareness for the PKL. The third filterquestion ensured that the respondents followed the latest version of thePKL on Facebook. Respondents who did not satisfy all these three filterquestions were not permitted to take the survey.Four hundred and sixty-seven responses were obtained between

November 2019 and January 2020. The latest version of the PKL had justconcluded in October 2019. Of the 467 responses, 23 responses were partiallyfilled and incomplete. Hence, the final analysis was conducted with 444responses. Of these respondents, 236 were male, and the balance of 208members were female. All the respondents belonged to the Gen Y age group,i.e., born between 1981–1995 (Solka et al., 2011). Eighty-one percent of therespondents were married, and the balance members chose not to discusstheir relationship status. From the household income perspective, 78 mem-bers reported their income up to USD 7000 per annum. 187 respondentsdeclared their income between USD 7001 to USD 14,000. The balance of 179respondents reported an income above USD 14,001 per annum.The number of responses obtained (n¼ 444) was found suitable for the

study, according to Slovin’s formula (Chakraborty & Bhat, 2018). Followingthe Slovin’s formula, this number is sufficient to conduct the study.

Slovin’s formula n ¼ N= 1 þ N � E2ð ÞHere, n¼ sample size, N¼ total population, and e¼margin of error. The

current research determines the sample size with 95% confidence level, thusallowing only 5% margin of error. The total number of PKL fans on FB is1.5 million. Hence, the necessary sample size was calculated to be 385.Moreover, recent studies focused on sports marketing have used a similar

JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT 11

sample size (Alexandris, 2012; Alonso-Dos-Santos et al., 2018; Silveira et al.,2019). Hence, the current number of responses was found to be suitable.

Measures, face validity, and statistical software

Seven-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree"were adapted from previous studies for all the variables but sports involve-ment (SINV). The adaption of the existing scales was done in order to cus-tomize them for the context of this study. A seven-point semanticdifferential scale was used to measure SINV. All the survey items wereadapted from previous studies. For instance, the scale for measuring socialmedia communication was adapted from Trivedi and Rozia (2019). Thescale to measure leagues’ online community engagement was adapted froma study conducted by Kumar and Kumar (2019). The scale for ticket pur-chase was adapted from the studies of Cho et al. (2019). The scales forSponsors’ product purchase intention and sports involvement were adaptedfrom the work of Ko et al. (2008).The first draft of the questionnaire was sent to three academic experts

and two sports marketing professionals for determining face validity. Basedon their inputs, a couple of minor revisions were made in the wording ofthe survey items to make it lucid. In the final instrument, there were 34items in addition to the demographics and three filter questions. The dataanalysis was conducted using SPSS, Smart-PLS, and MS-Excel.

Data analysis

Data analysis was conducted using the software SmartPLS 3.0 (Ringle et al.,2015). Partial least square structural equation modeling is suitable in caseswhere the sample size is not very large, and also when the inter-variablerelationship is very complex (Hair et al., 2014).In this case, the data consists of both the formative and reflective indica-

tors of the construct, which is effectively managed by PLS as against anyother methods like AMOS (Dellande et al., 2004). All three variables meas-uring the second-order construct (social media communications) weretreated as formative measures, as can be seen in Figure 1. All three varia-bles, i.e., UGC, FGC, and SMAds, are distinct and essential for capturingthe meaning of the second-order construct (social media communications).As such, these variables are considered as causal indicators (Osei-Frimponget al., 2019; Ranaweera & Jayawardhena, 2014).SPSS was used for pilot testing the reliability (using Cronbach’s alpha) of

the survey instrument. Mediation analysis was conducted using the Hayesprocess macro configured on SPSS.

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Inner model assessment and common method bias

The reliability of the survey instrument was tested using Cronbach’s alpha,indicator reliability test, and composite reliability values. The Cronbach’salpha values for all the variables were above 0.70 and hence acceptable(Nunally & Bernstein, 1978). Further, the square of the loadings of eachindicator was observed to be above 0.4, assuring of the indicator reliability(Wong, 2013). Lastly, the composite reliability of each construct wasobserved to be above 0.7 (Hair et al., 2014). The composite reliability valuesof each construct are exhibited in Table 1.Thereafter the validity of the scale was assessed by testing the average

variance extracted (AVE) scores. The AVE scores for each construct wereobserved to be above 0.5 and hence valid (Wong, 2013). The AVE valuesfor each construct are exhibited in Table 1. The discriminant validity of theconstructs was also tested by conducting Heterotraitmonotrait (HTMT)ratio tests. The values for each of the constructs are represented in Table 2.Henseler et al. (2016) submitted that the HTMT values of each constructshould be lower than 0.90. As can be observed in Table 2, the HTMT ratiovalues were lower than 0.85, establishing the discriminant validity.A structured questionnaire was the only instrument used to conduct this

research. Hence, common method bias (CMB) could affect the study(Podsakoff et al., 2003). Harman’s single factor test was conducted to testthe possible presence of CMB. As such, the survey items of all constructswere loaded on a single factor in exploratory factor analysis (using SPSS).The single factor explained 23% of the variance negating the presence ofCMB. This because CMB can appear to be an issue only in case the per-centage of variance explained by that single factor exceeds 50% (Podsakoffet al., 2003).

Figure 1. Authors proposed model. Note: Social media communications is treated as a second-order formative construct constituted by UGC, FGC, and SMAds.

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Outer model assessment

As the constructs were found to be reliable and valid, the researchers pro-ceeded with assessing the structural model results. Table 3 exhibits the pathcoefficients as the outcome of nonparametric bootstrapping (Vinzi et al.,2010) with 444 cases and 5000 samples.

Table 1. Factor loadings, reliability, and validity.Psychometric properties of the scale Loadings AVE CR

SMC – Ads 0.604 0.924Pro Kabaddi league ads on FB influence my decision to follow the league 0.731Pro Kabaddi league ads are a reliable source of information 0.680Pro Kabaddi league ads on FB keep me updated 0.727Pro Kabaddi league ads on FB are a timely resource of information 0.738Pro Kabaddi league ads on FB provide quality information 0.780Pro Kabaddi league ads on FB are entertaining 0.841Pro Kabaddi league ads on FB are pleasing 0.857Pro Kabaddi league ads on FB are enjoyable 0.842Firm-generated content (FGC) 0.575 0.841I am satisfied with the communication on FB conducted by Pro

Kabaddi league0.851

Communication on FB by Pro Kabaddi league keeps me informed 0.721Communication on FB by Pro Kabaddi league is interesting 0.842I can differentiate between the quality of FB communication of different

sports leagues0.589

User-generated content (UGC) 0.666 0.857The communication on FB by other followers of Pro Kabaddi league furthers

my interest in the league0.849

I trust the communication on FB by other followers of Pro Kabaddi league 0.805The type of communication on FB by other followers of Pro Kabaddi league

meets my expectations0.793

Sports Involvement (SINV) 0.742 0.958Pro-Kabaddi league is Boring / Exciting 0.937Uninteresting/Interesting 0.797Worthless/Valuable 0.928Useless/Useful 0.855Not needed/needed 0.872Irrelevant/Relevant 0.817Unimportant/Important 0.886Unappealing/Appealing 0.786Online Community Engagement (OCE) 0.649 0.902Pro Kabaddi league’s FB community makes a strong positive impression on my

visual or other senses0.904

I am motivated to participate in the activities of Pro kabaddi leagues onlinecommunity because I feel good afterwards or because I like it

0.759

Pro Kabaddi league’s online community induces constructive feelingsand sentiments.

0.738

I engage in constructive actions and behaviors within the Pro Kabaddi leaguecommunity when I’m online on its page

0.799

I am motivated to participate in the Pro kabaddi leagues community’sactivities because I am able to support other members

0.817

Game Attendance (GA) 0.814 0.929I intend to purchase tickets for the Pro Kabaddi league games in the

coming season0.895

I will plan my schedule which facilitates my attending the Pro Kabaddi leaguegames in the coming season

0.896

I will surely attend the Pro Kabaddi league games in the future seasons also 0.915Sponsor’s Product Purchase Intention (PI) 0.872 0.953I am willing to try the products/services of the Pro Kabaddi league sponsor 0.938I am willing to buy the products/services of Pro Kabaddi league sponsor 0.900I seek out the products/ services of the Pro Kabaddi league sponsor 0.962Total items ¼ 34

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Social media communications exhibited a significant effect on sportsinvolvement (p¼ 0.000, b¼ 0.373) and online community engagement(p¼ 0.000, b¼ 0.776) leading to acceptance of H1 and H2.Further sports involvement had a significant effect on sponsor’s product

purchase intentions (p¼ 0.000, b¼ 0.210), and game attendance (p¼ 0.000,b¼ 0.427) leading to the acceptance of hypotheses H3a and H4a. Alsoonline community engagement had a significant effect on game attendance(p¼ 0.000, b¼ 0.539) and sponsors’ product purchase intention (p¼ 0.000,b¼ 0.594). These results help support H3b and H4b.The R2 values of the endogenous constructs were computed to observe

their predictive power. Sports involvement, online community engagement,sponsor’s product purchase intention, and game attendance, all exhibitedsignificant predictive power as exhibited in Table 3.

Mediation analysis

The authors intended to test the mediating role of sports involvement andonline community engagement between social media communications andthe two dependent variables, i.e., game attendance and purchase intention.

Table 2. HTMT test for discriminant analysis.OCE OCE SINV SMADS SMFGC SMUGC PI GA

SINV 0.518SMADS 0.782 0.389SMFGC 0.812 0.285 0.834SMUGC 0.819 0.280 0.784 0.841PI 0.514 0.372 0.393 0.412 0.370GA 0.491 0.584 0.427 0.415 0.405 0.692 –

SINV¼ Sports Involvement, SMAds¼ Social media ads, SMFGC¼ social media firm-generated content,SMUGC¼ social media user-generated content, OCE¼ online community engagement, PI¼ Sponsor’s productpurchase intention, GA¼Game attendance.

Table 3. Results of hypothesis tests.Hypothesis IV DV p-value Beta R-squared value

H1 SMC SINV 0.000 0.373 0.340H2 SMC OCE 0.000 0.776 0.602H3a SINV GA 0.000 0.427 0.448H3b OCE GA 0.000 0.539H4a SINV PI 0.000 0.210 0.474H4b OCE PI 0.000 0.594Indirect effectsHypothesis IV Mediator DV p-value LLCI ULCIH5a SMC SINV PI 0.000 0.301 0.437H5b SMC OCE GA 0.000 0.104 0.489H6a SMC SINV PI 0.001 0.019 0.154H6b SMC OCE GA 0.000 0.245 0.703

SINV¼ Sports Involvement, SMC¼ Social media communications, OCE¼ online community engagement,PI¼ Sponsor’s product purchase intention, GA¼Game attendance.

JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT 15

Hayes bootstrapping method (2013) conducted using the process macroloaded on SPSS was used to conduct the mediation analysis. The bootstrap-ping method is accepted as a stronger method for conducting mediationanalysis (Carrillat et al., 2013; Shrout & Bolger, 2002; Trivedi, 2020). Theanalysis was conducted with a bootstrapped sample of 5000 cases at a 95%confidence interval (CI). Mediation was evaluated by observing the indirecteffects and CI values, indicated by the limits. Hayes and Scharkow (2013)established that if the CI contained a zero value between lower-level confi-dence interval (LLCI) and upper-level confidence interval (ULCI), it indi-cates the absence of mediating effect. However, if there is no zero valuebetween LLCI and ULCI and if the indirect effect is significant, then themediation is strongly established (Hayes & Scharkow, 2013).The results of the analysis are exhibited in Table 3 as indirect effects.

The direct effects were found to be insignificant. However, there is no zerovalue between the LLCI and ULCI in the relationships tested for hypothe-ses H5a, H5b and H6a, and H6b. Also, the indirect relationship is signifi-cant for all the hypotheses. Hence, the mediating effect was established,and all the above-stated hypotheses were supported.

Discussion and conclusion

This study was based on the S-O-R theory. The results exhibit that socialmedia communications (stimuli) have a significant effect on fans’ sportsinvolvement and online community engagement, further resulting in fansattending the game and purchase intention for the sponsor’s products(behavioral response- R). These results present a unique perspective asthere are few studies examining the effect of marketing stimuli like socialmedia communications (Vale & Fernandes, 2018) on the success of profes-sional sports leagues in emerging markets (Tripathi & Kapoor, 2017).Social media communications (SMC) exhibited a significant effect on

sports involvement and online community engagement, leading to accept-ance of H1 and H2. These results are unique as the antecedents to sportsinvolvement are underexplored for rising sports organizations (Kim et al.,2020). Moreover, extant research focused on examining the relationshipbetween social media communications and online community engagementremained inconclusive (Dolan et al., 2019). These results help establish theeffectiveness of social media communications on fans’ sports involvementand online community engagement for rising sports leagues in emerg-ing markets.Sports involvement exhibited a significant effect on game attendance and

sponsor’s product purchase intention, leading to acceptance of H3a andH4a. Silveira et al. (2019) stated that it is important to conduct further

16 J. TRIVEDI ET AL.

studies to examine if fans’ sports involvement always results in gameattendance. The results obtained in this study help establish a significantassociation between fans’ sports involvement and game attendance. Thepositive association observed between sports involvement and sponsor’sproduct purchase intention is in line with the results obtained by Koet al. (2008).Online community engagement (OCE) exhibited a significant effect on

fans’ game attendance and sponsor’s product purchase intentions, leadingto acceptance of H3b and H4b. Research related to the outcomes of onlinecommunity engagement is limited (Kumar & Kumar, 2019). Hence theseresults help unravel unique consequences of OCE from a sports marketingperspective. The positive association between OCE and sponsor’s productpurchase intention observed here supports a similar finding by Yoshidaet al. (2015). However, the fact that PKL is a new sports league in Indiamakes the finding interesting from an emerging market perspective.Both sports involvement and online community engagement mediated

the relationship between SMC and the dependent variables, i.e., gameattendance and sponsor’s product purchase intentions, leading to accept-ance of H5a, H5b, H6a, and H6b. These results differ from the findings byArli (2017), which established a direct relationship between SMC and con-sumers’ behavioral intentions. Given that the effectiveness of social mediacommunications is an underexplored area in the sports marketing literature(Meng et al., 2015; Vale & Fernandes, 2018), the results of this studyhelped unravel the indirect effect of SMC on fans’ game attendance andsponsor’s product purchase intentions.

Contribution to theory

Given the limited extant studies examining the effectiveness of social mediacommunications (SMC) in the sports marketing literature (Meng et al.,2015; Vale & Fernandes, 2018), this study makes significant contributionsto the literature related to SMC, sports marketing, and online commu-nity engagement.Given the call to explore the antecedents of online community engage-

ment-OCE (Hollebeek et al., 2014; Kumar & Kumar, 2019), these resultsestablish a significant relationship between SMC and OCE. This result isimportant, given the inconclusive nature of the relationship between SMCand online community engagement-OCE (Dolan et al., 2019). It is also not-able that SMC exhibited a stronger effect on OCE in comparison to itseffect on fans’ sports involvement.Further, literature has called for exploring the outcomes of OCE

(Hollebeek et al., 2014; Kumar & Kumar, 2019). This study established that

JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT 17

compared to sports involvement, OCE exhibited a stronger effect on fans’game attendance and sponsor’s product purchase intention. Hence, com-pared to sports involvement, OCE can be determined as a stronger pre-dictor of fans’ behavior, bringing a unique perspective to the sportsmarketing literature.Moreover, while some research results propose a direct relationship

between SMC and behavioral intentions (Arli, 2017), others posit an indir-ect relationship between SMC and behavioral outcomes (Trivedi & Rozia,2019). The results obtained in this study establish that the relationshipbetween SMC and behavioral outcomes is mediated by involvementand attitude.Hence, by exploring the direct and indirect effect of social media com-

munications on important sports marketing variables like involvement,online community engagement, game attendance, and purchase intention,this study makes significant contributions to the area of social media com-munications and sports marketing, from an emerging market perspective.

Managerial implications

Social media communications are playing a significant role in modern-daymarketing. With the advent of web 2.0, digitization is influencing the roleof all stakeholders of the sporting ecosystem, i.e., fans, league marketers,players, broadcasters, sponsors, team owners, and governing authorities, toname a few.On these lines, the fact that social media communications influence

sports involvement and online community engagement is an importanttake away given the importance of these two variables. Social media com-munications (SMC) constituted by UGC, FGC, and SMAds impact fans’involvement and online community engagement. SMC has a stronger effecton fans’ online community engagement. In a world where fans find leagues’online community as a platform to make their presence felt among theirpeers, league marketers can make the most of it by finding innovative waysto boost engagement. This could be achieved by posting online competi-tions, creating games on social media pages, inviting posts and videos fromfans, and also boosting content in order to reach a wider audience. Suchcompetitions may lead to fans winning rewards like stadium tickets andeven an opportunity to meet and greet their favorite players. Such engage-ment is important because this study has established a stronger relationshipbetween online community engagement and game attendance.In developed sports markets, league marketers have used innovative

methods like employing chatbots through FB messenger, which pushesgame updates, player information, and builds up the game environment

18 J. TRIVEDI ET AL.

resulting in higher sports involvement among fans. Such tactics to increasefans’ involvement may result in fans’ game attendance, as exhibited inthis study.Online community engagement also influences fans’ interest to purchase

sponsors’ products. In order to boost fans’ interest in sponsors’ products,the sponsor should also be given co-branded (jointly branded by the leagueand its sponsor) activities on the online community platform. The sponsormay leverage such an opportunity by engaging fans with online competi-tions and rewarding them with their products. This will prove to be a win-win situation as the desire for rewards will attract higher fan engagementon the league’s online community page and also result in greater reach forthe sponsor. This increased reach may lead to a boost in the sponsor’sproduct sales, thus increasing the return on sponsorship investments. Assuch, if the sponsors’ investments are justified, they may continue increas-ing their spending in the league, finally enriching the league and the entireecosystem from the financial perspective.

Limitations and future scope

Like all studies, this study, too, comes with a few limitations. The data col-lection was conducted through FB only and from the perspective of thepro-kabaddi league. Further research, including other social media channelsand sports leagues, should be conducted to obtain more generalizableresults. Moreover, Indians have been quick to adopt social media platformslike FB (India ranks number 1 in terms of FB users globally). The efficacyof social media communications in other nations where it is not as big aphenomenon will make for an interesting comparative study. A qualitativestudy, although involving a smaller sample, will help unravel deeperinsights related to fan behavior on social media platforms. Future researchcan also encompass a purely sponsor-driven social media league commu-nity and study fans’ attitude and behavior therein. Also, future studies canbring in various technology related moderators like personal innovativenessin similar models involving sports involvement and online communityengagement. As sports leagues continue to gain ground in emerging mar-kets, they will gain international followers. At that stage, the usage of suchsports leagues as an international branding platform for domestic brandswill interest practitioners and academicians alike.

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