How differences between a sport club’s public portrayal of fan centricity and fans’ perceptions relate to fan engagement

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.