Communal brand associations as drivers of team identity and consumer behavior

Increasingly, sport management scholars have been examining sport fans and teams through a brand community lens, where fans are viewed as a community of identified consumers. However, there remains a need to further examine the role that sport team brands play in creating a sense of community and the behavioral outcomes this may catalyze. The purpose of this research was twofold: (1) to investigate how communal brand associations influence team identity; and (2) to examine whether team identity mediated the relationship between communal brand associations and behavioral intentions. Utilizing an adapted brand association instrument and multidimensional team identity instrument, we found that communal brand associations significantly influenced team identification. Further, team identity mediated the relationship between communal brand associations and consumer behavior.