Examining the Relationship among Acquisition of Sport Rule Knowledge, Enjoyment, and Future Consumption for Preventing CRISIS from Challenges in Sport Industry

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the importance of types of learning sport rules which could influence sport enjoyment and future consumption. This study aimed to find strategies which could prevent crisis from challenges in sports industry with saturated market and declining attendance. Secondly, the researcher could seek to examine the influence of learning sport rules on sport fan behavior. Among many factors, knowledge was considered as a significant element during the initial stage of becoming a sport fan. People that ‘know’ or ‘recognize’ a sport, team, and players by being exposed and learning the rules of play increase awareness, which was a fundamental and basic step for becoming a sport fan for enjoyment. However, learning sport rules was considered a minor aspect of knowledge and little attention has been paid to it as a factor of fan development. Based on 260 respondents, the present study explored the relationship among learning sport rules, enjoyment, and future consumption behavior of sport fans. Structural Equational Modeling(SEM) was used to test the model and examine the more meaningful relationships among learning sport rules, enjoyment, and future consumption behavior. The results showed that the proposed structural model has shown a good fit based on the result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA) and SEM which indicated that learning types of sport rules influence enjoyment of sport and enjoyment has a significant influence on future intention of sport-related consumption. This finding would aid practitioners in sport-related fields by making it possible to build efficient marketing strategies which could prevent several challenges and crisis of sports industry. Also, the findings of the current study would offer implications for academic and practical personnel by providing specific evidence of how knowledge of sport rules and learning paths impact the understanding of sport fan behavior.