07.04.2017 – Nowadays licensed sports products not only help strengthening the (emotional) ties between professional sport teams and fans, but also generate significant revenues for sport clubs around the world. Licensed sports products are usually offered via the vertically-integrated stores of the clubs (fan shops) or by third-party operators (retailers) both online and offline.

Although there is a rather rich literature addressing this issue in more general settings, it remains unclear as to whether such findings also apply to a setting where consumers enter into strong, committed and meaningful relationships with certain companies, such as in the market for licensed sports.

Based on representative survey data of sports club members, researchers of our department analysed the statistical association between consumers’ characteristics and their PC choice for licensed products. The findings offer several implications for both theory and method development as well for practitioners working in this field. The research paper was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Sport Management.

Nalbantis, G., Fahrner, M., & Pawlowski, T. (2017). The demand for licensed merchandise in sports – on the purchase channel choice. Journal of Sport Management, forthcoming.