The Interrelationship Between Viewership Motivation, Team Loyalty, Fan Identification and Viewership Behaviour in Cricket: A PLS-SEM Approach

Abstract

Cricket has emerged as a leading sport, with 2.5 billion fans worldwide. This study addresses the gap in the interlinkage between viewership motivation (VM), fan identification (FI), team loyalty (TL) and viewership behaviour (VB) and its implications on media and entertainment companies, cricket administrators and event organisers. The study is based on a survey research design with a sample size of 283 who watch cricket live in stadiums or other digital platforms. The data were analysed, and hypotheses were tested using partial least square-based structural equation modelling. Results establish a positive causal relationship between VM and FI, FI and VB, full mediation effect of FI between VM and VB, and the moderating effect of TL between VM and FI. The causal relationship between VM and VB is not proven in our study, which is in line with the earlier findings. The study provides insights to different cricket stakeholders to accept the importance of the second-order latent construct VM and its positive influence on FI. Promoting team identity in commercials and narratives to positively influence VB is critical, including the promotion of fandom to motivate viewership consumption. Viewers high on TL have high FI, hence the need to target the teams’ loyalists for high viewership explicitly.