How differences between a sport club’s public portrayal of fan centricity and fans’ perceptions relate to fan engagement
研究了职业体育俱乐部公开宣称的球迷中心度与球迷实际感知之间的差距（高估、低估或一致）如何通过管理可信度影响球迷参与，基于德国和英格兰足球联赛的数据。
Research question Fan centricity is a key performance indicator for professional sport clubs. However, there may be discrepancies between a club’s public portrayal of fan centricity and the fans’ perceptions. Drawing on the theory of self-other rating agreement, we examine the comparative effects of overrating, underrating, and in-agreement rating of fan centricity on management credibility and fan engagement.Research methods In Study 1, we examined German Bundesliga soccer clubs using a correlational design, with data collected from both managers (n = 53) and fans (n = 1590). In Study 2, we focused on English Premier League soccer clubs, employing an experimental design with a sample of 776 fans. In both studies, we administered surveys and conducted regression-based analyses to test our hypotheses.Results and findings When a club’s public portrayal is more fan-centric than fans perceive it to be (i.e. overrating), fan engagement is lower than in cases of in-agreement rating and underrating. Management credibility serves as a mediator in the relationship between fan centricity self-other agreement rating and fan engagement. These results are consistent across both studies. In Study 1, underrating relates more positively to management credibility compared with in-agreement rating, whereas in Study 2, there is no significant difference between underrating and in-agreement rating.Implications We have applied self-other rating agreement theory to organizations rather than individuals and discuss potential cultural and league-specific variables that may account for the observed contextual differences between the German Bundesliga and the English Premier League.