Antecedents and Consequences of Perceived Fan Participation in the Decision Making of Professional European Football Clubs

Research question: Several studies suggest that involving fans in the running of their favorite clubs is a relevant matter. This research defines the construct of perceived fan participation in decision making and explores the construct’s antecedents and consequences. Research methods: This research applies a sequence of exploratory and confirmatory methods and uses the German football league Bundesliga as the empirical context. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 football fans, this research defines perceived fan participation and develops a framework of the construct’s antecedents and consequences. Two studies (N = 237 and N = 834) validate the framework and examine its relationships using confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling. Results and findings: I define fan participation as a perception of the degree of collective influence that the fans have on their favorite club’s decisions and decision-making processes. The findings suggest that perceived fan recognition, perceived transparency in managerial decisions, and perceived goal congruence between fans and managers positively influence fans’ participation perceptions. The consequences of the construct include acceptance of management decisions, reduced feelings of estrangement from the club and positive extra-role behavior. Implications: I introduce the construct of perceived fan participation and initiate a theory-building process by providing a framework of the construct’s antecedents and consequences. Managers can derive both factors that influence fans’ participation perceptions and important consequences of the concept from the framework.