Impact of Social Media on Intention to Purchase Pay-Per-View and Event Attendance: The Case of the Ultimate Fighting Championship

in International Journal of Sport Communication

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Andrew KimDepartment of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

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Minhong KimDepartment of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

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Steven SalagaDepartment of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

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James J. ZhangDepartment of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2021-0068
Keywords:
uses and gratifications theory; mixed method; scale development; social media motivation; fan identification
First Published Online:
11 Jan 2022
In Print:
Volume 15: Issue 1
Page Range:
10–22
Restricted access

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) utilizes a unique pay-per-view (PPV) product distribution structure, and relies heavily on social media to promote its events. Yet, no research has examined how UFC fans’ social media motivation influences their consumption. Using uses and gratifications theory and a mixed-method design, this study qualitatively explored the themes of UFC fans’ social media motivations and identified five themes (i.e., information, convenience, social interaction, entertainment, and economic). Based on these themes, this study developed the Scale of Social Media Motivation through quantitative analyses and further investigated how Scale of Social Media Motivation factors would affect consumption behavior by incorporating fan identification as a mediator. The findings revealed that the factors were positively associated with purchase intentions when fan identification serves as a partial mediator. Discussions are focused on utilizing the social media motivation factors and nurturing fan identification to promote UFC consumption.

A. Kim (akim45@uga.edu) is corresponding author, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9908-6558.

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