Development of the Motivation Scale for Sport Online Consumption

Abstract

The Internet has become a significant tool for sport marketing. Professional sport teams’ Web sites are now an important component of their marketing mix; yet, little is know about users’ consumption motives for Web sites, particularly sport teams’ Web sites. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid, reliable instrument to measure motivation for sport online consumption. The Motivation Scale for Sport Online Consumption (MSSOC) was developed in three phases. A literature review identified 102 potential motives in Phase 1. A second, qualitative phase refined and classified the potential item pool, resulting in 67 items. Exploratory factor analysis (N = 175) was used to generate a 10-factor, 40-item scale. The revised instrument was used in a second study (N = 371). Structural equation modeling was used to confirm the factor structure of the instrument and to reduce each subscale to 3 items. The final scale consisted of 10 dimensions of motivation: fanship, interpersonal communication, technical knowledge, fan expression, entertainment, economic, pass time, information, escape, and support. Subscale internal consistency ranged from .77 to .90. All 10 dimensions were positively correlated with Web commitment (.20 < r2 < .63), providing evidence of convergent validity. Potential uses of the scale are discussed.