TY - JOUR
T1 - Fair-weather liberals and loyal conservatives
T2 - The effects of political ideology on the loyalty of sports fans
AU - Soderberg, Andrew T.
AU - Zhang, Teng
AU - Lytle, Brad
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Arthur Brief and Katie Liljenquist for their helpful feedback related to this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.
PY - 2020/4/22
Y1 - 2020/4/22
N2 - Purpose: Drawing on moral foundations theory, this paper aims to investigate the moral component of loyalty, a critical determinant of long-term organisational success. Design/methodology/approach: This paper contains two studies using archival data gathered from the Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association in the USA. Findings: This paper finds empirical support for the “ideology-loyalty hypothesis” – namely, fans in more politically conservative communities are more loyal to their professional sports teams than those in more liberal ones. Originality/value: These findings contribute to a growing literature on the moral roots of organisational phenomena by providing evidence of community-level effects of political ideology on loyalty. Based on these findings, this paper suggests that when making strategic decisions (e.g. expansion into a new market), organisations need to pay attention to the political climate of the communities in which they operate (or intend to operate) to achieve and sustain organisational success.
AB - Purpose: Drawing on moral foundations theory, this paper aims to investigate the moral component of loyalty, a critical determinant of long-term organisational success. Design/methodology/approach: This paper contains two studies using archival data gathered from the Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association in the USA. Findings: This paper finds empirical support for the “ideology-loyalty hypothesis” – namely, fans in more politically conservative communities are more loyal to their professional sports teams than those in more liberal ones. Originality/value: These findings contribute to a growing literature on the moral roots of organisational phenomena by providing evidence of community-level effects of political ideology on loyalty. Based on these findings, this paper suggests that when making strategic decisions (e.g. expansion into a new market), organisations need to pay attention to the political climate of the communities in which they operate (or intend to operate) to achieve and sustain organisational success.
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U2 - 10.1108/IJOA-09-2019-1874
DO - 10.1108/IJOA-09-2019-1874
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077169571
SN - 1934-8835
VL - 28
SP - 643
EP - 654
JO - International Journal of Organizational Analysis
JF - International Journal of Organizational Analysis
IS - 3
ER -