Regional Variation in Rivalry: Canadians Really are Friendlier

Spectator sports embody social group conflict, where consumers periodically interact with opposing fans, thereby providing outlets for negative brand affect in the form of acrimony toward rivals. To assess the regional nature of rivalry, this study compared 5,145 sports consumers across the four United States Census regions and Canada, including five professional leagues. Consistent with regional personality clustering, fans of Canadian teams harbor less acrimony toward rivals, and fans of teams in the Northeastern US generally exhibit the most acrimony. When developing events and promotional partnerships, sports marketers and sponsors should recognize regional differences in how consumers react to rivals.

Keywords: Rivalry, Derby, Regional, Identification, Schadenfreude, Discrimination, Prejudice

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Cobbs, Joe and Martinez del Campo del Castillo, Diego and Tyler, B. David and Ditter, Jeremy, Regional Variation in Rivalry: Canadians Really are Friendlier (January 15, 2019). Journal of International Consumer Marketing, DOI: 10.1080/08961530.2018.1531364, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3316894