EXAMINING TEAM-DIRECTED CONFIDENCE AND
BIRGING/CORFING TENDENCIES OF TAIWANESE
PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL FANS
CHIH-I J. CHIEN, PH.D.
YI-TING HUANG, PH.D.
NATIONAL TAIPEI UNIVERSITY
Introduction
Sport marketers put much efforts on developing a
strong fan base
– The constant revenues generated from game attendance and
merchadise sales (Koenigstorfer, Groeppel-Klein & Schmitt, 2010)
Sport fandom has been largely addressed in the past
– Heavily focused on motives, team identification and loyalty
(Wann & Grieve, 2005; Jacobson, 2003; Funk & James, 2001; Kolbe &
James, 2000; Murray & Dietz, 1992; Wann & Branscombe, 1993, 1990)
Introduction (cont’d)
Past research has largely focused on the correlation
between fan identity and psychological wellbeing (Wann,
2006; Zillmann, Bryant, & Sapolsky, 1989; Curtis, Loy, & Karnilowicz, 1986).
– Sport fandom and spectator behavior can enhance
psychological wellbeing (Curtis et al., 1986; Giamatti, 1989; Grove, Prapavessis,
& Dodder, 1982; Iso-Ahola & Hatfield, 1986; Smith, 1989; Smith, Patterson, Williams, &
.
Hogg, 1981)
– Little research has focused on the psychological reactions of
loyal fans towards a sporting event (Banyard & Shevlin, 2001; Wann,
Daniel, Schrader, Michael, & Adamson, 1998)
Introduction (cont’d)
Previous research suggested the similarity in
psychological reactions between athletes and
sport fans (Wann, Schrader & Adamson, 1998; Wann, Inman, Ensor, Gates & Caldwell,
1999)
– Sport fans may also display similar patterns of
confidence towards the team they support (Wann & Wiggins,
1999)
Introduction (cont’d)
Confidence
– A state of assurance or a belief in one’s power
(Zinsser, Bunker & Williams, 2006)
– Effects of explanation (Sherman, Zehner, John & Hirt, 1983)
• People with detailed, factual information about an upcoming
event tend to have more confident on predicting the outcome
Introduction (cont’d)
Internalization process(Kolbe & James, 2003)
– Initial stage
– Identification stage
– Optimal internalization stage
Psychological continuum model (Funk & James, 2001)
– Awareness, attraction, attachment & allegiance stage
– The allegiance stage is at the higher end of the
internalization continuum
• Persistence, resistance to change, biases in cognition, guides to
behavior
Introduction (cont’d)
BIRGing and CORFing (Cialdini et al., 1976)
– Ego enhancement
– The defense mechanism to protect an individual’s
self-esteem (Cialdini, Borden, Thorne, Walker, Freeman, & Sloan, 1976; Wann,
Hamlet, Wilson, & Hodges, 1995; Snyder, Lassegard, & Ford, 1986)
– Fans BIRG when the team is successful
– Highly identified fans do not decrease their
association with a team they support even when the
team is unsuccessful (Sloan, 1979; Wann & Branscombe, 1990)
Purpose of the Study
To examine the relationships of team-directed
confidence and identify BIRGing and CORFing tendencies
across different levels of internalized Taiwanese
professional baseball fans during an upcoming important
game series
Research Questions
1. How did team- directed confidence levels differ
across different levels of internalization?
2. How did the BIRGing/CORFing tendencies
differ across different levels of internalization?
Significance of the Study
Cross cultural
– Past research (Wann & Wiggins, 1999) was conducted in the US
– No similar research conducted in Taiwan
Different target game from past research
– Collegiate basketball games vs. professional baseball
championship game series
To help understand how the team-directed confidence
level changes throughout an entire game series
Methods
Data collection method
– Convenient sampling method
Data collection procedure
– Recruited from 14 universities in Taiwan
– Asked to fill out the surveys according to the
administration periods
Sample
– 181 useable sets of complete surveys
Methods (cont’d)
Research design
– Measuring
• team-directed confidence
• internalization levels
• BIRGing/CORFing tendencies
– Four survey administration periods
• 3 days before Taiwanese Professional Baseball Series
• 15 minutes prior to the fourth game of the series
• After the fourth inning of game 4
• 3 days after Taiwanese Professional Baseball Series ended
Methods (cont’d)
Instrumentation
– Internalization scale
• Baseball Survey Form (James & Ross, 2002)
• Four 7-point Likert type scale items ranging from Strongly Disagree (1)
to Strongly Agree (7)
– Team-directed confidence inventory
• Developed and adapted from CSAI-2 (Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump &
Smith, 1990)
• Nine four-point Likert-type scale questions ranging from Not at All (1) to
Very Much (4)
– BIRGing/CORFing tendencies
• Adapted from Wann, Schrader, Michael, Adamson, and Danny (1995)
Methods (cont’d)
Subscales
Trial 1
Demographics
X
Internalization
X
Team-directed confidence
X
Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4
X
X
BIRGing/CORFing tendencies
Note: an X indicates the specific subscale was administered
X
X
X
Analysis
Reliability assessed through Cronbach’s alpha
tests
– Internalization & team-directed confidence
constructs
GLM repeated measures
– Team-directed confidence
Chi-square tests
– BIRGing/CORFing tendencies
All analyses were conducted using SAS
Analysis (cont’d)
Cronbach’s alpha values
Internalization
Confidence
Time 1
.89
.82
Time 2
-
.83
Time 3
-
.84
Time 4
.92
.83
Analysis (cont’d)
Examine internalization scores
– Categorized respondents based upon mean scores
• Low = below 3.49
• Neutral = 3.5 - 4.5
• High = above 4.51
Only examined those respondents who remained
constant across Time 1 and Time 4 (N=181)
– Low: N = 60, 33.15%
– Neutral: N = 50, 27.62%
– High: N = 71, 39.23%
Analysis (cont’d)
Marginal mean for confidence from repeated measures
Time 1
Internalization
Time 2
Time 3
Time 4
mean
SD
mean
SD
mean
SD
mean
SD
Low
2.75
.061
2.66
.061
2.58
.064
2.59
.063
Neutral
2.82
.066
2.72
.066
2.64
.069
2.65
.068
High
3.19
.056
3.09
.057
3.01
.060
3.02
.058
Me an fo r te am -d ire cte d co n fid e n ce scale
Analysis (cont’d)
3.3
3.2
3.1
High
3.0
2.9
2.8
2.7
Neutral
2.6
Low
2.5
2.4
0
1
2
3
4
Tim e
Groupe d inte rnalization
Lo w inte rnalizatio n
Ne utral
High inte rnalizatio n
5
Analysis (cont’d)
Parameter estimates for team-directed confidence
from repeated measure
Variables
Intercept
Internalization
Low
Neutral
High
Time
Time4
Time3
Time2
Time1
Estimates
3.187
SE
0.056
p-value
<.0001
-0.433
-0.368
-
0.077
0.081
<.0001
<.0001
-0.167
-0.178
-0.097
-
0.042
0.045
0.039
0.0001
0.0001
0.0154
Analysis (cont’d)
BIRGing/CORFing
– Chi-square tests were used to assess the differences
– Significant differences were found among different levels for
both tendencies (p<.01)
– BIRGing tendencies increased as internalization level increased
– Comparing to fans with low and neutral internalization levels
(34.55%, 29.17%, respectively), fans with high internalization
(57.14%) enjoyed being the supporters when the team was
not successful
Conclusions & Discussion
Team-directed confidence
– The higher internalization level, the higher teamdirected confidence at any given time point of the
game
– Highly internalized fans had a significantly higher
level of team-directed confidence than other groups
– Consistent with past research
• Loyal fans tend to display stronger psychological
reactions toward a sport event than other groups
Conclusions & Discussion (cont’d)
BIRGing tendencies
– Increased as internalization increased
– Supports literature that committed fans want to
express themselves (Wann, Hamlet, Wilson, & Hodges, 1995; Snyder,
Lassegard, & Ford, 1986)
CORFing tendencies
– Highly internalized fans tended to enjoy the games
more than other two groups despite of team success
– Supports the literature committed fans do not shy
away during times of poor performance (Sloan, 1979; Wann &
Branscombe, 1990)
Implications
The importance of the “core product”
– The BIRGing tendencies of all levels of internalized fans
Add to the understanding of attitudinal outcomes of
fans at all confidence levels
– Sport marketers can react to the outcome of the games
• If the team wins
• If the team loses
Future Research
Comparing team-directed confidence levels &
BIRGing/CORFing tendencies between different teams
of fans
Examining the differences based on demographic
variables
Examining how importance of the games play a role
– Regular season vs. post season games