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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Management, Marketing, and Economics
Volume 7 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1519003
Sport Fans Curiosity and Impulsive Buying: Mediation of Social Media Use Intensity
Provisionally accepted- 1 National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
- 2 National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
This study aims to investigate the impact of sports fans' curiosity and Social Media Use Intensity on impulsive buying tendencies. While prior research has rarely explored the mediating role of social media in linking sports fans' curiosity with impulsive buying behavior, this study addresses this research gap. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, this research analyzes how Social Media Use Intensity indirectly drives impulsive buying tendencies among fans of professional sports teams in Taiwan. The research sample consists of 623 Taiwanese sports fans, including both baseball and basketball fans. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses, the results reveal that Social Media Use Intensity fully mediates the relationship between sports fans' curiosity and impulsive buying tendencies. These findings underscore the critical role of digital engagement in shaping consumer behavior. This study introduces the innovative concept of sports fans' curiosity into the sports marketing domain, offering both theoretical and practical contributions to understanding fan behavior. The findings provide valuable insights for sports marketers by expanding theoretical perspectives and delivering actionable recommendations for marketing strategies within the sports industry. Specifically, the study highlights the importance of fostering social media engagement to transform fans' curiosity into tangible purchasing behavior, thereby contributing to effective sports marketing strategies.
Keywords: Sports Fans' Curiosity, Social media use intensity, Impulsive buying, Mediation analysis, SEM
Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 17 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Chou, Lin and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chen-Yueh Chen, National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
Ya-Lun Chou, National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
Yi-Hsiu Lin, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan
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