Brand Management Strategy for Korean ... - Brunel University

favourite team are those most likely to seek negative interaction with fans of an
opposite team (Branscombe and Wann, 1994).
People who keep a high level of identification with their favourite team are more
susceptible to changes in emotions depending on that team‟s success or failure. That is,
they frequently feel the successes and failures of their team in person since their feelings
are closely linked with the performance of the team (Hirt, Zillman, Erickson, and
Kennedy, 1992). Cialdini et al. (1976) describe the desire of individuals as “Basking-In
Reflected-Glory (BIRGing)” in order to associate themselves with a successful team,
and mention “Cutting-Off-Reflected Failure (CORFing)” as the contrary concept of it.
This explains the reason why fans are more likely to attend matches during periods
when their fovourite team performing well, while less fans go to the stadium when the
team is on a losing streak or performing poorly (End, Dietz-Uhler, and Demakakos,
2003). Watching the success of the team is particularly effective in improving an
individual‟s ego (Cialdini et al., 1976). In fact, there is some level of psychological risk
related to team identification. As such, fans are not sufficiently able to distance
themselves from the failures of their chosen team, although they felt excited and happy
after the team‟s successful performances (Wann and Branscombe, 1990).
Wann and Branscombe (1993) maintain that F-T identification is an individual‟s
attachment to or concern for a specific sports team. Mahony (1995, p.12) describes F-T
identification as “the degree to which a fan defines him/herself by the same attribute
that defines the sport team”. F-T identification literature is mainly driven by the effort
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