The effect of joy on the behaviour of cricket spectators: The mediating role of satisfaction

The effect of joy on the behaviour of cricketspectators: The mediating role of satisfaction

Sven Kuenzel� and Mazia Yassim

University of Greenwich Business School, University of Greenwich, London, UK

Loyalty of fans is of vital importance for any sports team. This article examines the influence of

experience of the game on satisfaction, word-of-mouth and intention to attend. For this research

one distinct emotional experience, joy of cricket spectators in England, was investigated. Qualitative

interviews with cricket club management and spectators, coupled with previous literature are used

to identify three dimensions of joy, namely: social facilitation, quality of game and auditory. A

survey was conducted to test the relationship between joy, satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

The resulting findings and their implications are discussed, and it is suggested that distinct emotions

and their consequences need greater attention from researchers and managers.

INTRODUCTION

Cricket is regarded as the national summer

game in the United Kingdom and was the

country’s fourth most popular sport in

2004, with Football and Rugby and Snooker

being the first, second and third most

popular respectively (Mintel, 2005). Recent

research conducted by the England and

Wales Cricket Board (2002) claims that

there are nearly 20 million people in the UK

that are interested in cricket.

Over the past few years measures have

been taken to restructure the domestic

games so as to increase attendance. These

measures include the introduction of floodlit

domestic games, assigning names such as

Glamorgan Dragons, Kent Spitfires and Lan-

cashire Lightning to county teams in order

to create a contemporary image and the suc-

cessful launch of the shortened version of 1-

day game known as the Twenty20 in 2003

(Mintel, 2003). These new initiatives have

been successful in attracting a wider audi-

ence to the sport. However, is this interest

long lasting? How can the management

convert these first time attendees and new

spectators into becoming committed specta-

tors? Although the above mentioned

measures can help increase the appeal of

the game to some extent, a deeper under-

standing of cricket spectators is needed to

ensure that the right mix of elements are pro-

vided to influence positive game experience

and enhance their level of satisfaction.

Once the spectators enter the grounds,

their experience at the game would lead

them to build a relationship with the game

and/or team resulting in revisiting the game

and recommending the game to others

(e.g., Matsuoka et al., 2003). Hence, by fulfill-

ing their expectations, sport marketers must

ensure that the spectators are satisfied with

their game experience which in turn would

assist in spectator retention. This study

investigates the factors that create positive

game experience for cricket spectators and

tests their effects on satisfaction and future

behavioural intentions. The findings would

assist management in better understanding

what satisfies their audience and thereby

Managing Leisure ISSN 1360-6719 print/ISSN 1466-450X online # 2007 Taylor & Francis

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

DOI: 10.1080/13606710601056497

Managing Leisure 12, 43–57 (January 2007)

helping to increase the appeal of the game to

a wider audience. The main purpose of this

study therefore, is to gain a better under-

standing of sport spectators’ experience at

the game by proposing and testing a model

that explains the relationship between the

emotion of joy, satisfaction and word-of-

mouth and revisit intentions.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Relationship marketing and customer reten-

tion has become the focal point of many

organizations’ marketing activities. Why has

this paradigm reached such popularity?

According to Caruana (2002), loyal custo-

mers are the foundation of any successful

organization. Organizations find customer

retention profitable as–retaining customers

cost much less than acquiring new custo-

mers; customers generate more profits

each year they remain with an organization

and also loyal customers provide free adver-

tising through word-of-mouth recommen-

dations (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Oliver

(1997, p. 392) defines loyalty as ‘a deeply

held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize

a preferred product or service consistently

in the future, despite situational influences

and marketing efforts having the potential

to cause switching behaviour’.

However, not all customers would be

inclined towards building and maintaining

an ongoing relationship with an organization

(Chiou et al., 2002). In order for customers to

be committed to a relationship, they need to

perceive certain benefits which accrue from

such a relationship. Applying this to the

sporting context, various research has

found that spectators attend games to meet

certain motivational needs including group

affiliation and entertainment value, and

meeting these needs would impact upon

overall satisfaction from attending the game

(e.g., Wann et al., 2002; Lough and Kim, 2004).

Various authors have suggested that

satisfaction is key to customer retention

and loyalty both in leisure management lite-

rature (e.g., Tomas et al., 2002; Baker and

Crompton, 2000; Madrigal, 1995; Wakefield

and Blodgett, 1996) and relationship market-

ing literature (e.g., Caruana, 2002; Chiou

et al., 2002; Gummesson, 1998; Reichheld

and Sasser, 1990). It is claimed that custo-

mers may express their loyalty in various

ways such as word-of-mouth and repurchase

and many studies have investigated the link

between satisfaction and word-of-mouth

and repurchase (e.g., Chiou et al., 2002). In

the context of sport spectators, Wakefield

and Blodgett (1996) found that spectators’

satisfaction had a significant impact on

revisit intentions.

In light of these various studies, it can be

ascertained that a positive relationship

exists between satisfaction and word-of-

mouth as well as satisfaction and revisit.

Thus, the following hypotheses are

proposed:

H1. Satisfaction positively influences word-

of-mouth

H2. Satisfaction positively influences revisit

Joy and spectator satisfaction in sports

In understanding the motive behind

customers’ future behavioural intentions,

emotions resulting from the consumption

experience have been investigated. Con-

sumption emotion, as discussed by West-

brook and Oliver (1991), refers to a set of

emotional responses elicited during a

product/service consumption experience.

In line with this view, customer satisfaction

can be classified as an emotion as it is often

defined as the reaction or attitude of the cus-

tomer to an organization’s offerings (Neely

and Schumann, 2000). However, authors

have distinguished between consumption

emotion and satisfaction. Following their

investigations, Mano and Oliver (1993)

stated that although satisfaction can be

classified as an emotion, it is also distinct

44 Kuenzel and Yassim

from consumption emotion. Emotions are

evaluated by consumers and this evaluation

results in satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Thus,

emotions are antecedents to satisfaction

(Mano and Oliver, 1993).

If emotions are necessary for satisfaction,

managers need to understand which specific

emotions can lead to satisfaction. As men-

tioned before, consumption emotion con-

sists of a set of emotions including; joy,

anger and worry. Madrigal (1995) investi-

gated the effects of BIRGing (basking in

reflected glory) and enjoyment on satisfaction

and found that enjoyment had a stronger

relationship with satisfaction than BIRGing.

Soderlund and Rosengren (2004) state that

the problem with research on emotions is

that researchers tend to aggregate various

emotions under one category where

emotions of a positive nature such as joy

are classified as positive affect (state of

mind) and negative emotions such as fear,

anger and frustration are classified as nega-

tive affect. As Damasio (2000) explains,

emotions are distinct responses whereas

affect is a general disposition that can

encompass the whole subject matter of

emotions and feelings. Soderlund and

Rosengren (2004) argue that emotions

consist of various discrete types and thus

can have different antecedents and conse-

quences. This view agrees with that of West-

brook and Oliver (1991) who found that

satisfaction can be better understood by dis-

tinguishing between various emotional

bases.

Sport spectating is a hedonic consumption

(consumption in the pursuit of personal plea-

sure) and hedonic responses are said to be

closely linked to pleasure. Hedonic con-

sumption has also been found to generate

higher levels of affect (Mano and Oliver,

1993) and joy is often included under the cat-

egory of positive affect (Soderlund and

Rosengren, 2004). This area has not been

investigated before in a sporting context

but is of great importance to managers as

by understanding what constitutes joy for

spectators, managers can create and

enhance the sense of joy experienced

during the game and thus satisfy spectators.

With specific relevance to cricket, providing

a joyful experience for spectators can assist

the management in attracting and retaining

a wider audience. Following on from the

above discussion, it is argued that joy is

not a satisfaction dimension per se; rather it

is an emotional state that leads to and

enhances satisfaction. As with previous

research that identified a link between posi-

tive affect and satisfaction (Mano and

Oliver, 1993; Soderlund and Rosengren,

2004), it is argued here that joy would have

a positive relationship with satisfaction. Con-

sequently, the following hypothesis is

proposed:

H3. Joy positively influences satisfaction

Joy at a sporting event

In their research to investigate the links

between customer joy and customer satis-

faction in a service setting, Soderlund and

Rosengren (2004) found that employees’

state of joyfulness is an antecedent to custo-

mer joy. That is, employees’ positive

emotional state will be contagious and custo-

mers will adopt this positive emotional state

as well (Soderlund and Rosengren, 2004).

The authors however point out that instead

of limiting the antecedent of joy to one stimu-

lus, various other possible stimuli to custo-

mer joy need to be investigated. With

specific relevance to sports spectating,

Madrigal (2003) argued that emotions contri-

buting to affect are attribute-dependant or in

other words they depend on various stimuli.

In the context of spectator sports, what is

an organization/club offering its spectators

that can act as stimuli to joy? Several

authors have investigated the roles played

by team identification (psychological attach-

ment to a team) and team performance in

The effect of joy on the behaviour of cricket spectators 45

spectator satisfaction (Matsuoka et al., 2003;

Wakefield and Sloan, 1995). Matsuoka et al.

(2003) considered the impact of factors

such as game score, performance of the

favourite team, quality of the contest, and

team identification, on satisfaction – which

in turn affected the intention of spectators

to attend future games.

A core product of sport is the contest itself

(Westerbeek and Shilbury, 2003). It can be

argued that entertainment value can be

derived mainly from the quality of the

contest and team performance. The manage-

ment themselves can only influence the per-

formance of the team to a certain extent.

With respect to cricket, Schofield (1988)

claimed that management can influence the

team’s performance by providing com-

ponents such as coaching and training facili-

ties and player selection for particular

games. The author also acknowledges that

the actual performance can be affected by

factors such as opponent’s performance,

fitness of the players and weather conditions

– which cannot be controlled by manage-

ment. Hence, if team victory cannot be guar-

anteed by the management, they would need

to focus their attention on elements that are

within their control and which can help

enhance spectator experience and joy. Evi-

dence has also been provided to show that

fans become loyal to a particular team due

to the enjoyment associated with spectating

(Laverie and Arnett, 2000). Wakefield and

Sloan (1995) argue that attendance at a

sporting event is not a mere function of

team performance but involves the entire

experience spectators have at the event. It

is clear therefore that a ‘holistic’ approach

to understanding what constitutes an enjoy-

able experience is needed. With relevance

to cricket, based on existing literature and

the results of the qualitative data collected

for this study, the following variables are

put forward as dimensions of joy; quality of

game, social facilitation and auditory, as

explained below.

QUALITATIVE STUDY

The purpose of the qualitative study was to

explore spectators’ experience while attend-

ing the game, from both management and

spectator perspectives. Seven management

interviews of cricket club chief executives

and marketing managers and fifteen specta-

tor interviews of both members and non-

members of cricket clubs were carried out.

Both the management and spectator inter-

views took a semi-structured format in

order to ensure that key issues are explored

and at the same time ensure flexibility to

explore emerging issues. All the interviews

were tape recorded, transcribed and ana-

lysed manually. The manual data analysis

consisted of re-reading the transcripts and

identifying recurrent themes.

Results

The results of the qualitative study

combined with existing literature were used

to identify three variables of joy with rel-

evance to cricket spectators. These are dis-

cussed below.

Quality of game

The overall performance of the two teams

and the level of competitiveness portrayed

by the teams during a contest constitute

the quality of game. This has also been

referred to by terms such as game experience

(Kelley and Turley, 2001) and entertainment

value (Lough and Kim, 2004; Madrigal, 1995).

Quality of game has been identified as a

factor influencing satisfaction and future

attendance. Matsuoka et al. (2003) identified

that excellence of the contest was one factor

influencing future attendance at games.

Madrigal (2003) agrees with Matsuoka et al.

(2003) by saying that the greatest entertain-

ment value is derived from watching a close

game. According to Kelley and Turley

(2001) the athletic contest is a principal

factor affecting the quality of the service

encounter and game experience.


The importance of quality of game was

also highlighted during the cricket manage-

ment and spectator interviews. A majority

of the county cricket club management inter-

viewed felt that the primary concern of spec-

tators was quality of the cricket played. As

one manager mentioned, ‘people like to see

their team performing well’. This was sup-

ported by the spectators as the majority of

them stated that seeing high quality perform-

ance from both teams would satisfy them.

‘Good cricket’ and ‘a competitive match’,

were the sentiments expressed and victory

was seen as an added bonus or as a spectator

put it, ‘the final edge’. Another spectator

explained, when attending a 4-day game,

the result is only known on the last day and

most spectators will not be in attendance

during all 4 days. Thus for those attending

this form of the game, they would expect a

close competition as opposed to victory.

However, even during spectator interviews

conducted on the day of a 1-day competition,

it was the quality of the contest and strength

of the opposition which took precedence

over victory. It was also interesting to note

that some spectators compared cricket

with football with regards to team victory.

Spectators mentioned that whereas football

is more passionate and the team expected

to win, in cricket a good game and a close

finish are very much appreciated. Based on

these views, we propose the following:

H4a. Quality of game is caused by the second-

order construct of joy.

Social facilitation

Although quality of game has been identified

as a key factor effecting spectator attend-

ance and satisfaction (Lough and Kim,

2004); Deighton (1994) stated that spectators

can have a good time in the stands even if the

game is not on the whole rewarding. It can be

argued that spending an enjoyable time with

friends and family is one of the key reasons

why spectators may enjoy themselves

despite the game outcome.

The interaction of spectators with other

spectators including their friends, family as

well as people they have just met during a

particular game, and sharing the experience

of the game with others is referred to as

social facilitation (McDonald et al., 2002;

Westerbeek, 1999). Several authors have

adopted the view put forth by Melnick

(1993) and identified social facilitation as a

motivation for spectators attending a

sports event (McDonald et al., 2002; Mullin

et al., 1993; Zhang et al., 2001).

In cricket, as the spectators usually spend

the whole day at the game, social facilitation

becomes quite important. Many managers

and spectators agreed with this view during

the interviews. Spectators claimed that

they enjoyed the ‘social side’ with a few

also mentioning that they often attend the

games during the weekends with their chil-

dren. One spectator, who travels with his

team all over UK, mentioned that it was all

about spending time with friends. When

asked for one element, which if not present

would spoil the enjoyment of the game, the

immediate reaction from a spectator was

‘my mates’. Also pointed out by a spectator

was that, as cricket is played over a longer

period, with spectators often spending the

whole day at the game; it allows for more

time with friends – as opposed to attending

a football match for only 90 minutes. Follow-

ing on from these views, we hypothesize that:

H4b. Social facilitation is caused by the

second-order construct of joy.

Auditory

The noise of the crowd within the sports

venue is referred to as auditory elements

(Westerbeek, 1999; Wakefield and Blodgett,

1996). Although Wakefield and Blodgett

(1996) recognize the importance of what

they term ‘ambient conditions’ in spectator

enjoyment, they did not measure this as it


is difficult to control by management, but

suggest it for future research. Despite

elements of ambient conditions such as

weather not being in the control of the man-

agement, it is important they understand

which of their spectator segments place

greater emphasis on it, and try to control

the elements that are within their control

such as music and noise.

Furthermore, Westerbeek and Shilbury

(2003) state that religious followers provide

‘stage and scenery’ at a game. With regards

to cricket, Parry and Malcolm (2004) state

that whereas cricket in England used to be

regarded as a quiet and serene game, the

emergence of the Barmy Army (‘a vocal and

boisterous group of England cricket suppor-

ters’, p. 75) has been a key element in increas-

ing crowd involvement during the game.

When comparing the atmosphere between

4-day and 1-day games, a spectator men-

tioned that during the 1-day games there

are more people and the crowd are generally

‘more boisterous’, which enhanced the

atmosphere. As one manager observed, ‘at

a 4-day game, peace and quiet is more

important than noise’. Many spectators also

expressed similar views. Based on these

views, we hypothesize that:

H4c. Auditory is caused by the second-order

construct of joy.

The hypotheses are also depicted in Figure 1

below:

METHOD

A pilot study was conducted with 15 respon-

dents. Based on their comments some minor

changes in wording of the items were made

before the main study. A survey was con-

ducted subsequently over 14 days of dom-

estic cricket competitions across nine

different county venues in England and

Wales. This included 8 days of 1-day/limited

over competitions and 6 days of champion-

ship games. A total number of 639 spectators

were approached for the survey, from which

584 questionnaires were collected at a very

high response rate of 91%. Spectators were

approached during the lunch interval and

requested to complete the questionnaire.

Three questionnaires were discounted due

to completion errors leaving 581 question-

naires for the final analysis.

Instrumentation

The study uses multi-item scales to measure

the constructs in the model. All items in the

questionnaire were measured on a six-point

Likert-type scale anchored from ‘strongly

disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (6). Some of

the measures were available in the literature,

though most were adapted to suit this par-

ticular context. All internal consistency

measures (assessed with Cronbach’s alpha)

in Table 1 are above the level set by Nunnally

(1978) of 0.60, therefore demonstrating,

Fig. 1. Hypothesized Model


internal reliability of the scales (please see

Table 1).

Social facilitation

Social facilitation, as discussed above, refers

to the spectators’ interaction with their

friends and family and also other spectators

during a game as well as sharing the experi-

ence with others. Four items were used to

measure social facilitation. As cricket specta-

tors spend a longer period of time at the

game, the questionnaire items needed to

reflect the overall experience spectators

have at the game. The items used were

based on Trail et al. (2003) measures for

‘social’ construct which focused mainly on

interaction and talking with other specta-

tors. As the current study focuses on spend-

ing time with family and friends as well as

other spectators, these items were adopted

here to include family and friends. As men-

tioned above, social facilitation is not only

limited to interaction but also includes

sharing the experience with others. In order

to reflect this aspect, one more item was

included here regarding sharing the experi-

ence of the game with others. Spectators

were asked about the interaction, and the

cricket game providing an opportunity to

spend time with friends and family and

Table 1 Means, standard deviation, and reliabilities

Scale and scale items Mean SD Alpha

Social facilitation 4.45 0.85 0.721. I enjoy interacting with other spectators at the game 4.38 1.332. I enjoy spending time with my family/friends at the game 4.64 1.133. My enjoyment of watching cricket is based on having other people to share the

experience with4.29 1.07

4. Visiting a game gives me a chance to spend time with like-minded people 4.50 1.08

Quality of Game 4.17 1.13 0.751. For the game to be entertaining, it is important that my team performs well 4.19 1.232. My team needs to play well in order for me to enjoy the game 4.15 1.30

Auditory 4.22 0.92 0.81. The clapping/singing of the crowd helps to create a good atmosphere 4.01 1.352. Listening to the crowd is very enjoyable 4.09 1.163. To hear the crowd cheer is fun 4.40 1.104. The chatter of the crowd creates a pleasant environment 4.36 1.03

Satisfaction 5.04 0.64 0.851. I am satisfied with my decision to attend this game 5.06 0.802. I think I did the right thing by deciding to attend this game 5.07 0.753. Attending this game has been a good experience 5.01 0.754. My choice to attend this game was a good one 5.04 0.81

Word-of-mouth 5.31 0.66 0.861. I would recommend coming to a game to other people 5.43 0.682. I will encourage friends and family to attend cricket matches 5.20 0.823. I will tell other people positive things about attending a cricket match 5.30 0.75

Revisit 5.53 0.63 0.771. Attending another game is a possibility 5.39 0.932. I will attend cricket matches in the future 5.61 0.663. I would attend a game during the next season 5.60 0.68


meet ‘like-minded people’. The measures

were reliable at a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.72.

Quality of game

As with Matsuoka et al. (2003), quality of the

game was measured with relevance to the

spectators’ favourite team. Cricket consists

of various formats. Although in some of

these formats, a result (win/lose) can be

expected (e.g., 1-day/limited over compe-

titions); the 4-day and 5-day games often

end in a draw. As the study was conducted

across the various formats, items chosen

focussed on overall team performance

rather than the end result. The scale was

reliable at a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.75.

Auditory

As discussed before, only one study was

identified so far that measured the auditory

construct (Westerbeek, 1999). However, no

measurement scale was provided for this

construct. Therefore, the items for the audi-

tory construct were specifically designed

for the purpose of this current survey. A

limitation in the measurement is that the

construct consists of only crowd noise

experienced by spectators at the game.

However, in cricket the various formats

have their own atmosphere. This includes

crowd noise as well as sounds through

public announcement systems, music

played during the breaks and so on. For

example, the limited over/1-day games are

known to have a more boisterous atmos-

phere with music and higher crowd noise.

The 4-day and 5-day games on the other

hand, have a much calmer atmosphere with

only crowd noise and no music at all. In

order to increase the usability of the ques-

tionnaire across these various formats of

the game, only noise created by the crowd

such as clapping, singing and crowd chatter

were included in the current study. The

scale was reliable at a Cronbach’s alpha of

0.80.

Satisfaction, word-of-mouth and revisit

The satisfaction measure included four

items, with three of these items being

adopted from the satisfaction items rec-

ommended by Oliver (1980). An adaptation

of Oliver’s (1980) items has been used by

sports marketing researchers in previous

studies (e.g., Arnett and Laverie, 2000). The

items referred to satisfaction with the

single consumption experience and thus

asked about the spectators’ experience

with the current game. The scale proved

reliable at a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.85.

Word-of-mouth and revisit measures

included three items each. Two of the items

for word-of-mouth (‘I will encourage friends

and family to attend cricket matches’; ‘I will

tell other people positive things about

attending a cricket match’) and one item

for revisit (‘I would attend a game during

the next season’) were based on the

measures used by Hightower et al. (2002).

One item for word-of-mouth and two more

items for the revisit constructs were specifi-

cally designed for this study in order to

increase reliability and decrease measure-

ment errors (Churchill, 1979). Word-of-

mouth items focused on cricket matches in

general and revisit items asked about inten-

tions to attend games in the future as well

as attending games during the next season.

This was deemed important as attending

games during the next season can be a sign

of a specific longer term intention than a

mere statement regarding attending future

games. Both the word-of-mouth and revisit

scales were reliable at a Cronbach’s alpha

of 0.86 and 0.77 respectively.

RESULTS

To analyse the data, structural equation

modelling with LISREL 8.54 and the

maximum likelihood (ML) method (Joreskog

and Sorbom, 1999) was used. We evaluated

the measurement model and then the


structural model following the guidelines

suggested by Anderson and Gerbing (1988).

The first step of our data analysis involved

developing the measurement model. This is

a set of linear structural equations that

relate the scale items to the latent variables

that they are supposed to be measuring.

Unlike regression analysis, structural

equation modelling has no single test that

could evaluate the ‘strength’ of a model’s

predictions. Consequently, in order to evalu-

ate the fit of the model to the data we have

used a number of fit indexes. We have

employed the most popular fit indexes

(Bentler, 1992). These are the goodness-of-

fit index (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI),

root mean square error of approximation

(RMSEA), and parsimony comparative fit

index (PCFI). All values were well above the

standards suggested by Bentler (1992): 0.95

for GFI, 0.97 for CFI, 0.04 for RMSEA and

0.75 for PCFI. These values indicate that the

model had a good fit to the data. In light of

the theoretical foundation and the values of

the overall goodness-of-fit indexes, no re-spe-

cifications were made to the model.

It is very important to establish the

construct validity of all our constructs. Con-

struct validity refers to the degree to which a

scale assesses the construct it is supposed

to assess (Peter, 1981; Gerbing and Anderson,

1988). In order to show that our measures

had construct validity we had to establish

that there were convergent and discriminant

validity in the measures (Peter, 1981). Con-

vergent validity is the degree to which the

items comprising a given scale are measur-

ing the same underlying latent variable, and

discriminant validity is the degree to which

each scale is measuring a separate latent

variable (Peter, 1981; Gerbing and Anderson,

1988). The convergent validity for all scales

was supported because all factor loadings

were significant (Gerbing and Anderson,

1988). We also found the tests for discrimi-

nant validity to be supportive. That is, no

confidence intervals of the correlations

between any of the constructs included 1.0

(Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). Furthermore,

we followed the guidelines of Bagozzi and

Phillips (1982) by comparing an uncon-

strained model (whereby the correlation

between constructs is freely estimated)

with a constrained model (whereby the cor-

relation between constructs is fixed to

unity). This test was repeated for every pair

of constructs. All tests showed significant

differences between the unconstrained and

the constrained model, indicating discrimi-

nant validity for all constructs. Additionally,

we conducted a separate second-order con-

firmatory factor analysis for joy and all fit

indexes were satisfactory (0.96 for GFI, 0.96

for CFI, 0.05 for RMSEA and 0.69 for PCFI).

This assured us that we can include the

second-order model of joy in the structural

model. Our second-order model hypoth-

esizes that the first-order factors (social

facilitation, quality of game, and auditory)

are subdimensions of joy.

To test all of the study’s hypotheses a

structural model was employed. The struc-

tural model specifies relationships between

latent variables (with multiple indicators).

All the values are better than the standards

suggested by Bentler (1992): 0.94 for GFI,

0.95 for CFI, 0.05 for RMSEA and 0.80 for

PCFI. These values reveal that the model

had a good fit to the data.

As shown in Table 2, all path coefficients

were statistically significant (t-value . 1.96),

ranging from 0.36 (medium) to 0.75 (high),

thus providing evidence to support all hypoth-

eses. This indicates that spectators not only

evaluate their cricket games on the three

dimensions, but also consider joy as a

second-order construct that consists of the

subdimensions of social facilitation, quality

of game, and auditory. An evaluation of the

second-order factor loadings shows that

social facilitation is the most important dimen-

sion of joy, followed by auditory and quality of

game. Joy influences satisfaction, which in

turn influences word-of-mouth and revisit.


It is not enough to evaluate the quality of a

hypothesized model but researchers should

always try to compare it with rival models

(Bollen and Long, 1992). Sumino and Harada

(2004) have proposed in their model a posi-

tive effect of joy on behaviour but could not

support this empirically. Additionally,

Soderlund and Rosengren (2004) state that

emotions (such as joy) have a positive influ-

ence on future behaviour. Following on

from these views, a rival model is proposed,

which hypothesizes that joy also has direct

positive effects on word-of-mouth and

revisit (please see Figure 2).

The results from the analysis of the rival

model are shown in Table 3. We compare

the hypothesized model with the rival

model on the following criteria: (1) overall

fit of the model, as measured by the GFI,

CFI, RMSEA and PCFI, and (2) the model’s sig-

nificant structural paths.

Nearly all goodness-of-fit indexes remain

the same for the rival model. The PCFI is the

only index that changed. For the rival model

the PCFI achieved a lower value (0.78) com-

pared to the hypothesized model (0.80).

This is not surprising considering that the

index takes model complexity into consider-

ation and less complex models are preferred.

Additionally, the two added paths are not sig-

nificant. These results indicate that the rival

model does not fit the data as well as the

hypothesized model. It clearly shows that sat-

isfaction is a mediating variable between joy

and behavioural outcomes.

DISCUSSION

The findings from the study clearly indicate

that social facilitation, quality of game and

auditory are dimensions of spectator joy.

The findings can be seen to provide partial

empirical support for the conceptual argu-

ment by Westerbeek and Shilbury (2003),

who state that the core sport product

creates emotional value, which in turn

Table 2 Structural results for hypothesized model

Hypothesis supported Estimate t-value

Joy! Quality of game H4 (a) yes 0.36 5.05Joy! Social facilitation H4 (b) yes 0.75 6.60Joy! Auditory H4 (c) yes 0.58 6.80Joy! Satisfaction H3 yes 0.54 4.91Satisfaction!Word-of-mouth H1 yes 0.46 9.53Satisfaction! revisit H2 yes 0.47 9.86

Fig. 2. Rival Model


leads to satisfaction. The current research

has identified three dimensions of joy,

which sports marketers can focus on in

order to create spectator joy and thereby

spectator satisfaction. As no previous

research was identified that investigated

joy in a leisure context, the current study

provides the first insight into what can help

create spectator joy when attending a game.

Social facilitation was found to be the most

important dimension of joy. Perhaps surpris-

ingly, social facilitation was not emphasized

to any great extent during the management

interviews. Interaction between spectators

was mentioned mostly in the context of cor-

porate hospitality clients. As one manager

explained, spectators in corporate suites

were reported to have had a wonderful

time, even when the game was abandoned

due to bad weather. This was attributed to

them spending time with colleagues and

the camaraderie between them. Findings

from this research emphasizes the signifi-

cance of social facilitation and cricket man-

agement have to place greater emphasis on

providing opportunities for spectator sociali-

zation. This can include providing special

family seating areas, cricket coaching facili-

ties and bouncy castles for children as well

as competitions that involve groups of spec-

tators working together such as short spec-

tator cricket competitions during the lunch

break. Cricket club management could also

highlight the opportunities provided to

meet and make new friends in their market-

ing messages. Furthermore, social events

can be arranged such as regular dinner

parties for cricket club members to provide

additional opportunities to socialize and

meet other club members and also post-

game barbecues that all spectators can

attend. Initiatives can be put in place to

introduce new club members to existing

members and thereby helping them to get

to know others and make friends. The

concept of attending a game being a socializ-

ing opportunity can also be used to recruit

new members. Management can introduce

a member-get-member scheme whereby

current members can introduce their

friends and family to the club membership.

In order to encourage spectators to attend

the game with family and friends, family

and group tickets at discounted rates can

also be introduced. Bad weather is usually

seen as a major disadvantage in cricket and

social facilitation can be used to overcome

some of the problems caused by bad

weather. It can be frustrating for spectators

to wait around for the rain to clear and the

game to restart. Indoor social events can be

organized to facilitate socializing as well as

entertain spectators until the game restarts.

Marquees can be set up within which specta-

tors can watch recordings of a previous

game or play a virtual cricket game.

Auditory was the second most important

dimension for cricket spectators. With

Table 3 Structural results for rival model

Hypothesis supported Estimate t-value

Joy! Quality of game H4 (a) yes 0.36 4.88Joy! Social facilitation H4 (b) yes 0.78 6.46Joy! Auditory H4 (c) yes 0.55 6.62Joy! Satisfaction H3 yes 0.57 4.87Satisfaction!Word-of-mouth H1 yes 0.47 6.72Satisfaction! revisit H2 yes 0.45 7.52Joy!Word-of-mouth H5 no -0.01 20.10Joy! revisit H6 no 0.04 0.68


specific relevance to joy, Soderlund and

Rosengren (2004) state that in-store music

in a retail setting can be used to evoke custo-

mer joy. In their efforts to create joy for their

spectators, cricket management can use

strategies that actively promote auditory

elements. Public announcement systems

and big screens need to be used more effec-

tively to encourage people to applaud,

chant and sing throughout the game. At

certain periods of the game such as when a

wicket has fallen, spectators can be encour-

aged to sing the songs that are usually

played. Big screens can display the lyrics to

actively encourage participation. Manage-

ment should also explore the possibility of

using stump cameras to enhance auditory

elements. Stump cameras are used to

capture images and sounds from the pitch

area. During certain times of the game, the

sounds captured from the cameras can be

broadcast live so that spectators can experi-

ence the sounds from the centre of the

playing field as well.

The core product in the sporting context is

the game itself and the current study found

quality of the game to have the least influ-

ence on joy. This result acts as a caution to

cricket management against focusing all

their marketing efforts on the theme of

team performance. By using team perform-

ance or the quality of the game as the

central focus of their marketing communi-

cations, cricket management run the risk of

failing to attract their audience. The results

indicate that what is needed is a holistic

approach to satisfying spectators which

includes providing socializing opportunities

and auditory experience as well as a quality

contest. Marketing messages need to high-

light the overall experience that the specta-

tors can expect to have at the game.

Testimonials from those who have attended

can be used as well as actively promoting

initiatives such as family and group tickets,

children’s entertainment and competitions

and singing that the spectators can

participate in while at the game. In order to

ensure that a quality contest is staged, man-

agement need to work closely with the coach-

ing team. Providing better training facilities

and acquiring talented players will contribute

towards building a strong team that will

provide quality contests. Also, it is important

that the management effectively communi-

cate with the coaching staff and players with

regards to the new initiatives that are intro-

duced. If the players understand how the

new initiatives will help attract and retain

spectators, they will be more willing to partici-

pate in events such as post-game barbecues

and broadcasting the stump camera sounds

to the spectators.

Management can vary the social

facilitation and auditory elements mix that

they provide for different formats of the

game. For example, 4-day cricket games are

traditionally known to have a relatively

quieter atmosphere. In line with this, the

auditory elements need to be moderate and

may only require encouraging spectators to

applaud and playing music whereas at

limited-over competitions, spectators

would expect high levels of auditory

elements which can be provided through

initiatives such as active encouragement of

singing and chanting and stump cameras.

A strong relationship between joy and

satisfaction was identified, which is consis-

tent with several previous studies. For

example, Soderlund and Rosengren (2004)

found that customer joy leads to customer

satisfaction with the service experience.

Other researchers found that enjoyment

had a great effect on satisfaction (Madrigal,

1995), positive affect had a strong link to sat-

isfaction (Mano and Oliver, 1993), and

experiencing frequent joy and infrequent

negative emotion has a strong relationship

with satisfaction (Westbrook and Oliver,

1991).

A number of previous leisure management

and marketing studies reported a positive

relationship between customer satisfaction


and behavioural intentions (e.g., Tomas

et al., 2002; Baker and Crompton, 2000; Wake-

field and Blodgett, 1996). This research study

supported the previous studies because it

found that satisfaction leads to word-of-

mouth and revisit intentions.

In order to measure the effectiveness of

the stimulants of joy that are introduced,

management need to design questionnaires

that capture responses to various initiatives

that are introduced. Surveys using this ques-

tionnaire can be carried out on a regular

basis such as annually at the end of the

season across various formats of the game.

Also, data can be captured to identify how

many memberships were acquired through

the member-get-member scheme and how

many spectators purchased tickets due to

word-of-mouth recommendations. Based on

the findings from these management data,

initiatives need to be continually refined to

meet spectator’s needs.

The study also tested a rival model which

hypothesized that joy was also directly

linked to word-of-mouth and revisit;

however the link did not find empirical

support. A similar relationship was exam-

ined by Sumino and Harada (2004) who pro-

posed that affective experience (i.e., joy,

excitement, worry and love) was positively

related to intentions to attend future

games. The authors showed that joy on its

own did not have a significant positive influ-

ence on revisit, which is consistent with our

findings for the rival model. Although further

investigation is required to explore the exact

causes of the lack of a direct relationship

between joy and word-of-mouth and revisit,

a possible explanation can be put forth.

Sumino and Harada (2004) considered affec-

tive experience which, similar to satisfac-

tion, incorporates the overall experience

with attending a game whereas the focus

here was only on joy, which is one distinct

emotion that can be caused by one or more

aspects of spectating a game such as social

facilitation. Thus, when treated as an

emotion per se, joy does not influence

word-of-mouth or revisit but spectator evalu-

ation of joy which results in satisfaction influ-

ences word-of-mouth and revisit. These

findings support the argument of Soderlund

and Rosengren (2004) who stated that dis-

tinct emotions elicit different responses to

that of aggregated emotions. The findings

also verify that satisfaction is indeed a med-

iating variable between joy and behavioural

intentions and thus, it could be argued that

joy and satisfaction are indeed distinct

emotions which need to be treated

individually.

Limitations and future research

The current study was an attempt to investi-

gate the effects of one distinct emotion, joy

resulting from watching a cricket game.

Little research has been undertaken so far

to investigate the effects of distinct emotions

in various leisure consumption settings. In

order to understand fully the nature of

emotions, what stimulates them and their

relationship with satisfaction and beha-

vioural intentions – the current research

needs to be replicated with other emotions

such as excitement and worry. This would

help leisure management to stimulate posi-

tive emotions and thus satisfy customers

while avoiding negative emotional stimuli

and resulting dissatisfaction.

This study focused on joy derived from

spectating a cricket game. Future studies

need to replicate this in other sports con-

texts such as football and tennis. Does

social facilitation, auditory and quality of

game help create joy among football and

tennis spectators and does their joy impact

on satisfaction? Also, more dimensions of

joy may be identified which are specific to

different sporting contexts. Replicating this

study across other sporting contexts would

also provide great insights into the beha-

viour and consumption experience of specta-

tors of different sports.


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Documents

The effect of joy on the behaviour of cricket spectators: The mediating role of satisfaction