This is a past event
Children as football fans: An exploratory study of team and player connections.
Abstract:
Purpose: To explore children’s relationships with football teams and players and the influences on these. Design/methodology:A child-centric (Bannister and Booth 2005), inductive, qualitative approach was utilised to capture children’s voices. The children were asked to take photographs around the theme of ‘football in my life’ and these served as interview prompts when talking to friendship pairs. Findings:Football played a central role in children’s lives in terms of interest, activity and consumption. The children articulated a portfolio of team (club) and player connections of varying strength. This contrasts with the existing adult fandom literature which focuses on individuals supporting a single team. Another strong theme emerging from the data was the children’s market-centred relationships with football clubs. Children’s connections were shaped by a complex web of influences including family and family history, friends, media and geography. Research implications/practical implications:Existing fan literature has an adult focus which does not appear to fully explain the child fan. This research provides impetus for developing new theory that better captures child fandom. The findings reinforce the idea that children are an important current and future football market. Their different consumption behaviour suggests marketers need to better understand this group if they are to design more effective marketing programmes. Originality/value: This paper presents the first child-centred football fan study.
- Speaker
- Dr. Elizabeth Thomson (University of Aberdeen) and Mr. Russell Williams (University of Aberdeen)
- Hosted by
- Dr Tim Stone
- Venue
- MacRobert Building
- Contact
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Dr Tim Stone, Management Studies