While rivalries are a key aspect of the sports world, they are not well understood. It is essential to study how rivalries influence fan behavior in order to predict and identify their effect on social interaction, consumer behavior, and the entertainment industry. Understanding Rivalry and Its Influence on Sports Fans is an essential reference source that discusses what causes and influences rivalry, as well as how it impacts sport fans. Featuring research on topics such as bracketed morality, competitive sports, and social identity, this book is ideally designed for academics, students, and researchers studying the rivalry phenomenon across such disciplines as psychology, sociology, political science, sport and entertainment, consumer behavior, and marketing.

While rivalries are a key aspect of the sports world, they are not well understood. It is essential to study how rivalries influence fan behavior in order to predict and identify their effect on social interaction, consumer behavior, and the entertainment industry. Understanding Rivalry and Its Influence on Sports Fans is an essential reference source that discusses what causes and influences rivalry, as well as how it impacts sport fans. Featuring research on topics such as bracketed morality, competitive sports, and social identity, this book is ideally designed for academics, students, and researchers studying the rivalry phenomenon across such disciplines as psychology, sociology, political science, sport and entertainment, consumer behavior, and marketing.

This book focuses on how rivalry influences fan perceptions and behaviors, the role of organizations to responsibly promote rivalries, and discusses how to decrease negative and group-member deviance surrounding sport rivalry. Rivalry is a phenomenon that helps organizations and participants increase their output while also engaging fans. The author argues that the goal of rivalry should be to increase engagement and interest in the product without stepping over a sometimes invisible line resulting in fan or group member negativity, deviance, and violence. Through the introduction of two scales that specifically measure how group members react to out-groups in the sport setting, this book offers scholars deeper insights into what rivalry means and how it can be used to responsibly promote the sport product.

This interdisciplinary book extends knowledge by comparing rivalry and rival group behavior in sport within areas outside of sport, such as consumer brands, political discourse, and product/service preferences. It examines how out-group behavior differs among relevant groups. Readers are introduced to the phenomenon of rivalry, using the sport setting as an example. Then, the author offers separate quantitative and qualitative investigations to compare how rivalry and group behavior differ among sport and non-sport settings. Incorporating research from marketing, psychology, political science, and sociology, this book offers researchers in several fields a new understanding of individual and group behavior.

In previous books, the author has investigated rivalry in the context of sport and non-sport settings. This book investigates how rivalry and group member behavior manifests in the setting of politics, religion, and sport, three settings of intense group member bias. Building on the author’s Hierarchy of Out-group Derogation (HOD) and Out-group Derogation Spectrum (ODS), it discusses the potential of common interests to drive out-group cooperation. The work ends with a call for future research to better understand how to decrease out-group derogation and negativity. Incorporating research from marketing, psychology, political science, and sociology, this book offers researchers in several fields a new understanding of how setting and group membership influences the ways people view and behave toward out-groups.

This volume is a collection of works from both expert and emerging scholars with an empirical focus on case studies and ‘real-world’ examples in the sociological study of sport and alcohol that would appeal to a global audience. Implications drawn from the chapters in the book will offer new insights and critiques on the sport-alcohol nexus.

From issues of racism to the severity of concussions to celebrity endorsements, the sports industry continues to significantly impact society. With the rise of eSports and its projection as the next billion dollar industry, it is vital that a multifaceted approach to sports research be undertaken. On one side, businesses are continually offering new methods for marketing and branding and finding the best ways to enhance consumer engagement and the consumer experience. On the other side, there has been progress and new findings in the physical fitness and training of the athletes themselves along with discussions on their psychology and wellbeing. This two-tiered approach to analyzing sports and eSports from a practical business perspective, along with a lens placed on the athletes themselves, provides a comprehensive view of the current advancements, technologies, and strategies within various aspects of the sports and esports industry. Research Anthology on Business Strategies, Health Factors, and Ethical Implications in Sports and eSports covers the latest findings on all factors of sports: the branding and marketing of sports and eSports, studies on athletes and consumers, a dive into the ethics of sports, and the introduction of eSports to the industry. This wide coverage of all fields of research recently conducted leads this book to be a well-rounded view of how sports are functioning in modern times. Highlighted topics include branding tactics, consumer engagement, eSports history and technologies, ethics and law, and psychological studies of athlete wellness. This book is ideal for sports managers, athletes, trainers, marketers, brand managers, advertisers, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested working in the fields of sports medicine, law, physical education, assistive technologies, marketing, consumer behavior, and psychology.