PRESENTING AN ONLINE CUSTOMER ORIENTATION TRANSFORMATION MODEL AMONG FOOTBALL BRAND FANS

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a framework for presenting an online customer orientation transformation model among football fans with a mixed design approach. The research method was a two-stage exploratory mixed instrument-making type. The qualitative research method was a qualitative case study, and the potential participants included 19 fans of sports teams. The sampling approach was purposive and the sampling method was key experts. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. The research tool was a semi-structured interview. In the quantitative part, the research method was a descriptive-survey. Also, the statistical population of the present study in the quantitative part is all fans of sports teams in the country. And due to the uncertainty of the exact number of the statistical population and considering the Cochran sample size in uncertain conditions, 384 people were considered as a statistical sample. And the available sampling method was used. The data collection tools in the present study were in-depth interviews and a researcher-made questionnaire. Thematic analysis and grounded theory were used to examine the qualitative part of the research, and the structural equation method was used to examine the quantitative part. All analyses of the present research were conducted in maxqda, SPSS, and amos software. In this research, four categories of improving ideas, fan decision-making, improving communication, and improving knowledge are considered as causal conditions, empowering audiences, improving commitment, sociability, improving the platform, creating comfort, and creating ownership as background conditions, and two categories of individual and environmental turbulence factors are considered as intervening categories. The central category resulting from the causal conditions is considered to be creating self-confidence, psychological factors, incentives, and creating tangible income for the club. Also, the researcher named the subcategory creating information transactions based on the set of concepts extracted from the interviews and final codes. And the last section includes the consequences of social dynamics, creating social vitality, developing stereotypes and audience recognition, and developing growth orientation. Also, the overall evaluation indicators of the structural equation model, considering the desired range of these indicators, indicate that the proposed model is supported by the research data.