Abstract
PURPOSE: The sport-event theme songs is a crucial means to evoke consumer enthusiasm and boost the influence of sport event. This research aims to examine the effects of direct and indirect listening channels for sport-event theme songs on consumers' willingness to share. METHODS: In this research, three between-subjects experiments were conducted to measure the effect of listening channels for sport-event theme songs on the willingness to share, along with the moderating effects of fans' fanaticism and sport-event type. All participants in the experiments were social populations from China. RESULTS: Study 1 reveals that direct listening is more likely to cause consumers to share cognitive information about sport-event theme songs; indirect listening, meanwhile, makes them more willing to share the emotional value of the songs. Study 2 indicates that fans' fanaticism moderates the relationship between listening type and shared content. In the case of low fanaticism, indirect listening can increase consumers' willingness to share sport-event theme songs compared with direct listening. Study 3 reveals that sport-event type moderates the relationship between listening type and shared content. For public welfare sport events, indirect listening is more likely than direct listening to cause consumers to share the emotional value of sport-event theme songs. For commercial events, compared with indirect listening, direct listening is more likely to cause consumers to share cognitive information about sport-event theme songs. CONCLUSION: The results of this research unveiled the effect of listening channels for sport-event theme songs on the willingness to share, as well as the theoretical mechanisms behind them. In addition, this research enriches the research on listening channels in the field of psychology and provides an important basis for improving the effectiveness of sport-event theme songs.