• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.99-110
• /
• 2016

This study examined the factors affecting the team identification of professional baseball fans. The factors were divided into the fan factor, game factors, and other factors. For the analysis, two investigators visited stadium three times in total and a total number of 297 spectators were sampled using a convenience sampling method from three baseball teams. For the fan factor, a fan who began supporting his/her team from childhood or after childhood was used as a dummy variable. The interaction effects between the fan factor and other variables were investigated to offer a stereoscopic understanding about the role of kids marketing. In addition, three game factors and four non-game factors were analyzed. The results regarding fan variable and interaction effects were obtained. Fans from their childhood have much stronger team identification, and show interaction effects with the players. Regression analysis revealed player, promotion and fan service, price, and regional connection to have positive relations with team identification. This study is especially meaningful in a sense that it has proposed positive results regarding marketing to children, and the results will contribute to both the academic field and the industry.