The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of professional athletes’ scandal types and its crisis communication strategies on sport fan’s various behaviors and attitudes. To achieve this objective, experimental study has be conducted. Data were collected from 400 professional baseball fans living in Gyeongnam province. Of the 400 questionnaires, a total of 363 questionnaires were employed for final data analysis after excluding 37 incomplete questionnaires.
For instruments, a total of 29 items were adopted from the review of literature on consumption behavior to measure various fan attitudes and behaviors (e.g., team attitude, athlete attitude, brand attitude, strategy acceptance). Almost all of these items were measured on either a 7 point Likert-type scale (Strongly Disagree: 1 ? Strongly Agree: 7) or 7 point sementic differential scale. Statistical techniques for data analysis were frequent analysis, descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factory analysis (CFA), and two-way Analysis of Covariance: ANCOVA) using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. Through these analyses, the following results were derived.
First, the interaction effect of scandal type and crisis communication strategy on team attitude was significant. Further, while the main effect of scandal type on team attitude was not significant, the main effect of crisis communication strategy on team attitude was significant.
Second, the interaction effect of scandal type and crisis communication strategy on brand attitude was significant. However, both the main effects of scandal type and crisis communication strategy on brand attitude was not significant.
Third, the interaction effect of scandal type and crisis communication strategy on athlete attitude was not significant. Further, both the main effects of scandal type and crisis communication strategy on athlete attitude was not significant.
Fourth, the interaction effect of scandal type and crisis communication strategy on strategy acceptance was significant at .10 aphal level. Further, while the main effect of scandal type on strategy acceptance was not significant, the main effect of crisis communication strategy on strategy acceptance was significant.
The results of this study would provide various meaningful and practical implications for those working in the areas of public relation and communication at professional sport teams. In addition, this study would contribute to the literature on sport consumption behavior by providing empirical evidence on how the types of scandal and its crisis communication strateges on various sport fan behaviors and attitudes.