| The constructs of involvement and motivation are both noted in the consumer behavior and sport marketing literature as being significant contributors to the revenue generating abilities of sport entities. Although mixed martial arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) have experienced an exponential growth in consumer interest over the past several years, an inquiry examining how involved and what motivates consumers to watch the league's pay-per-view (PPV) events had yet to be conducted prior to the current study. Noting the status of PPV sales serving as the UFC's primary revenue stream, an inquiry examining these constructs in this context was deemed necessary. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the involvement, motives, and consumption of UFC PPV consumers.;To measure involvement, Funk's (2008) Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) was used to segment consumers into one of four stages: awareness, attraction, attachment, and allegiance. Preceding the current study, a preliminary qualitative inquiry by the researcher combined with a thorough review of the literature on this subject (MMA consumers) found the following salient motives to be measured in this study: fighter attachment, drama, socialization, skill/technique appreciation, escape, vicarious achievement, and sport interest. In addition, the researcher generated four items related to UFC PPV television marketing.;In total, consumers responded to a sixty-four item survey that was disseminated online via sherdog.com, mmajunkie.com, facebook.com, and twitter.com. A total of 454 surveys were deemed usable for an overall response rate of 62.9%.;A one-way MANOVA was conducted to determine if motivational differences existed among the consumers at the varying stages of the PCM. Results indicated that there were significant motivational differences among the consumers on the following motivational variables: drama, sport interest, escape, skill/technique appreciation, and vicarious achievement. Overall it was determined that the higher the stage of consumer involvement, the more they were motivated on each motivational construct.;Next, another one-way MANOVA was run to determine if consumers at the varying stages differed in their 2011 and anticipated 2012 UFC PPV consumption. As with research question one, it was determined that the higher the stage of involvement, the more consumers reported consuming and anticipated consuming in the future. Consumers across each stage reported an increase in their anticipated consumption in 2012 over 2011.;Utilizing the nine items of the PCM, an overall involvement score was calculated for each respondent. Using primary location of consumption as the independent variable (home, sports bar or other establishment, online via UFC streaming, and other) and the involvement score as the dependent variable, a one-way ANOVA was run. Results indicated that consumers who primarily watch at home are more involved than those consumers who selected `other' as their primary location of consumption.;For the last research question, an EFA was run to determine the factorial validity of four researcher generated items related to UFC PPV television marketing. After determining that one underlying factor was being measured along with good internal consistency, the construct was used to determine the relationship between annual UFC PPV consumption and UFC PPV television marketing. No relationship was found between the two variables.;In conclusion, involvement appears to have a significant influence on motivation to consume UFC PPV events. Theoretically this result is congruent with previous works in terms of the relationship between involvement and an attitudinal variable (motivation). Consumer involvement also appears to be influenced by where a person decides to primarily consume their UFC PPV events. To the researcher's best abilities, locating an inquiry examining the relationship between involvement and primary location of consumption had yet to be conducted, thereby making this a significant examination and finding. Finally, UFC PPV television marketing had no relationship with UFC PPV event consumption. Understanding how well received the league's pre-fight marketing efforts generally are, this construct should be revisited in a future study of UFC PPV consumers. |
