Interactive roles of social identity and evaluative attitudes in sports events participation

Abstract

The impacts of sense of place and place-based social identity have been widely discussed in tourism literature. Both identity theorists and planned behavior researchers suggested that identity and evaluative attitudes exert influence on consumers’ behavioral intent. Yet, few studies have ever examined how one’s social identity and evaluative attitudes interact on consumers’ behavioral intent. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the role of one’s social identity in the process of planned behavior in the context of sports events participation. Based on a survey on college students, this study verifies that social identity significantly influences one’s behavioral intention of attending sports events, directly and indirectly via the mediating effects of evaluative attitudes. Notably, the influential roles are mainly implemented by affective social identity, not cognitive social identity. This study indicates that the inclusion of one’s social identity in the conceptual framework of planned behavior helps better understand people’ involvement in sports events. Both theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.