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Top1. Introduction
Today, social networks are indispensable tools for any organisation, as they allow consumers to interact with various companies in a single place and without much effort (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden, 2011). Like all businesses, clubs are not immune to technological change. They must therefore seek to communicate not only through traditional media, but also through digital media (O'Shea and Alonso, 2011), especially as consumers are increasingly demanding, which means that clubs must be geared towards them and their satisfaction (Paulico, 2008). For a club, both commitment and the relationship with the fans are of extreme importance, as it is they who will not only acquire the sports products and services (e.g. merchandise, financial services, and experiences) but also provide recommendations to others, acting as disseminators. Therefore, it is important that the clubs create or develop their relationship with the fans, since this relationship will have an impact on several aspects, namely on the financial one, or on the brand itself.
The intention of fans to buy is a form of income for a club, which can manifest itself from the purchase of merchandise to the purchase of a ticket, knowing that this behaviour reflects the desire of sports consumers to demonstrate their involvement and commitment to sports organisations (Bee and Kahie, 2006). Today, the word of mouth spreads rapidly and reaches a large number of consumers (Kimmel and Kitchen, 2014). The aim is to study the influence of the commitment between the fans and the club in the social networks on the relationship between the two, the intention to buy and the intention to refer. During the study, various concepts will be addressed taking into account the perspective of the fans and the perspective of the clubs. Thus, the results presented in this study will be based on the state of the art, a quantitative study, in which the club chosen was Football Club (anonymized), not only due to its national and international dimension, but also due to its geographical proximity and a qualitative study, which consists of three open interviews.
Nowadays, teams are in increasingly competitive environments, because while they have the competition of other sports clubs, they also have the competition of non-sporting entertainment. It is therefore important for clubs to find new alternatives, not only to reach potential supporters, but also to retain those they already have (Kim and Trail, 2011). In this context, it should be noted that social networks have changed marketing communication, having an impact on how consumers communicate, influencing purchasing behaviour (Hutter, et al., 2013). Clubs should therefore use social media to connect with fans, creating a commitment that can have implications for the relationship, the intent to buy and the intent to refer.
The research problem is to understand the antecedents of commitment between clubs and supporters on social networks, which may have consequences for the relationship between them, the intention to purchase and the intention to refer. Both the club's and the supporter's perspective on this issue will thus be analysed. The research question is therefore as follows: Does Facebook Engagement have a positive impact on the relationship between club and fan, on the intention to buy and on the Referral Intent? Therefore, the general objective of this study is to verify whether the commitment between fans and the team in Facebook has a positive influence on the level of relationship, the intention to purchase and the intention to refer.
Due to the complexity and novelty of the research problem, a deeper methodological approach is need to obtain relevant insights. As such, two methods of data collection will be conducted: a quantitative one, which will consist of a questionnaire, and a qualitative one, which will consist of an interview. To achieve the specific objectives, i.e. those related to the hypotheses, a model will be used which contemplates 26 items, divided into four scales which relate to social networks, relational marketing, sports marketing, purchase intention and reference intention, and an interview will be carried out with three professionals related to the theme of the study.