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COPYRIGHT 2001 University of South Alabama
Galen T. Trial Iowa State University
Jeffrey D. James University of Illinois [a]
The purpose of this study was to develop the Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC) to measure the motivations behind sport spectator consumption behavior. Previous efforts to develop scales to measure spectator motives have demonstrated weaknesses in content, criterion, and construct validity. Accordingly the content validity criterion validity construct validity and internal consistency of the MSSC were examined to determine whether the instrument accurately and appropriately measures the motivations of sport spectators. The weaknesses of previous scales are presented and then the psychometric properties of the MSSC are assessed. The results indicate that the MSSC does possess the psychometric properties requisite for accurately and reliably measuring the motivations of sport spectator consumption behavior.
Watching sporting events has a long tradition dating back to the first Olympics in 776 BC. Sport spectating also represents a predominant form of leisure behavior in contemporary society. In 1996, attendance at professional baseball, basketball, football and hockey games in America exceeded 110 million, generating over $2.74 billion in gate receipts alone (Badenhausen, Nikolov, Alkin, & Ozanian, 1997). America's largest corporations have also recognized the interest people have in watching and following sports. Sports represent a unique advertising vehicle through which companies can deliver a message to a specific target market. Consumer interest in sports has driven rights fees for sporting events up dramatically in recent years. For example, sports programming on national and regional broadcasts generated approximately $3.5 billion in advertising revenue in 1995, which is about 10% of television's annual sales ("TV Sports," 1996).
Despite the prominence of sport, little is known about the motives of individuals who are willing to invest financial, emotional, and temporal resources in following and watching sports. Individuals who invest their leisure time following sports may be thought of as sport spectators. Sport spectators may be further categorized along a continuum ranging from mere observers of a sporting event to highly committed fans (Sloan, 1989). Pooley (1978) suggested that observers watch a sporting event and then quickly forget what they have seen. Highly committed fans, however, continue their interest in the event or a team to the point that parts of every day are devoted to either the team or the sport itself. Observers enjoy the entertainment of a sporting event, while sport is an important part of the highly committed fan's life.
Previous research on sport consumption has focused primarily on the topic of sport demand. Studies have examined the effect of economic factors, promotions, and residual preference factors (e.g. scheduling of games, new stadia, accessibility, weather) on attendance at sporting events, and have studied the relationship between sociodemographic variables and watching sports (Baade & Tiehen, 1990; Greenstein & Marcum, 1981; Hansen & Gauthier, 1989; Schofield, 1983; Zhang, Pease, Hui, & Michaud, 1995; Zhang, Smith, Pease & Jambor, 1997).
Demand-based research contributes to an understanding of short-term, variable factors that influence decisions to attend or watch sporting events. Distinguishing between individuals who merely enjoy watching an event and those who think of sport as an important part of their life requires understanding the psychological motivations that influence sport consumption. A number of authors have hypothesized a wide array of motives to explain such behavior (Sloan, 1989; Zillmann, Bryant, & Sapolsky, 1989; Zillmann & Paulus, 1993), including aesthetics, catharsis, drama, entertainment, escape, social interaction, and vicarious achievement (see Trail, Anderson, & Fink, 2000, for a review of spectator motives). As Trail et al. suggested, most of the hypothesized motives are based on social and psychological needs. The next step in understanding the motives of sport spectators is to design an instrument that accurately assesses the motives of sport spectators.
Wann (1995), Milne and McDonald (1999), and Kahle, Kambara, and Rose (1996) have developed scales to measure the underlying motives of sports fans. Based on the existing conceptual literature within sport sociology (Sloan, 1989; Zillmann et al., 1989; Zillmann & Paulus, 1993), Wann (1995) developed the Sport Fan Motivation Scale (SFMS). Milne and McDonald developed an instrument to measure spectator and participant motives based on the work of Sloan (1989) and Maslow (1943), and Kahle et al. proposed a scale based on Kelman's (1958) functional theory of attitudinal influence. Before any scale may be utilized, however, it is imperative to establish the validity and reliability of such an instrument. An examination of the three scales reveals several psychometric limitations. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to create an instrument with the content validity, construct validity, reliability and criterion validity that measures the motives underlying sport spectator consumption behavior.
Limitations of Existing Scales
The development of measurement instruments is an important step in examining the motives behind why people watch or follow sports. Each of these three scales was proposed as a measure of sport spectator motives, but is limited in some aspect of their validity or reliability.
Sport Fan Motivation Scale
Wann's (1995) Sport Fan Motivation Scale (SFMS) was designed to "document empirically the motives [of sports fans] and establish the relative importance of each" (p. 378). Eight underlying factors, represented by 23 items that motivate fan behavior, were identified from the conceptual literature: eustress, self-esteem benefits, escape, entertainment, economic factors, aesthetic qualities, group affiliation, and family needs.
There are several validity problems within the SFMS. One concern is the scale's content validity, the extent to which the items in the scale accurately represent the designated concepts. Wann identified the possible "motivations" of sport fans from previous research, but gave no indication as to how the scale items were generated, whether or not a panel of experts was used, or how the final list of items was selected. Another concern with the content validity of the SFMS lies in the wording of items. For example, one statement asks about "getting pumped up when watching a favorite team," but the question also included the terms "read" and "discuss." With several of the items it is unclear what was being measured -- watching, discussing, or reading about the favorite team. Wann also used the label "Economic" for one factor, when the items clearly ask solely about betting or wagering on sports not about economic influence. Labels should be used which accurately represent a factor and the items that make up a f actor.
In regard to construct validity, Wann claimed good convergent validity based on the goodness of fit index (GFI). There are, however, concerns about the processes that were used to generate the fit. Responses to the SFMS were initially submitted to a principal components analysis with rotation (type of rotation was not specified). The results yielded a seven-factor solution. Items from the Eustress and Self-esteem subscales loaded on the same factor in the initial analysis but were separated in subsequent analyses. Wann then submitted the same data set to a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)...
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