Sport Brand Communities: A Social Network Analysis Perspective

Abstract

This dissertation was created and bound by an “alternative format” where three separate journal articles were created in a sequence that ties brand community literature, social network analysis (SNA) literature, and an empirical case study together. Paper #1 (Chapter 2) serves as conceptual literature review paper which traces the evolution of brand community research from its beginnings in the general business literature to the current brand community research in sport marketing today. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) define brand communities as a specialized and non-geographically bound community based around a set of structured social relationships amongst admirers of a brand, and are often recognized as the most integral relationship component of consumers to brands (Muge & Ozge, 2013). An attachment to brand community (ABC) framework is proposed through variables gathered in a review of brand community literature. Paper #2 (Chapter 3) is a conceptual paper that proposes several brand community sport marketing applications for the emergent SNA methodology from a foundation of relevant literature. The conceptual direction and methodological techniques of SNA in areas such as fan identification, team success, player movement, internal marketing, marketing to the lifetime fan, and small fan groups as well as subcultural analyses were explicitly utilized. Paper #4 (Chapter 4) is an exploratory analysis of a single off-site fan group, which produced an applicable fit to the Attachment to Brand Community (ABC) framework revealing consumer brand loyalty group structure towards practical marketing implications.