Does fan discrimination exist? Mixed-method investigation of customer discrimination in Chinese professional baseball league

Jye-Shyan Wang (), Wen-jhan Jane, Yu-Hung Cheng () and Pei-Hsin Fang ()
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Jye-Shyan Wang: National Taiwan Normal University
Yu-Hung Cheng: National Taiwan University
Pei-Hsin Fang: Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Eurasian Business Review, 2021, vol. 11, issue 3, No 5, 477-496

Abstract: Abstract This paper focuses on customer discrimination in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Using the 2005–2017 annual spectator attendance data, we first show that inverse customer discrimination exists for international players. We next explore the roots of customer discrimination from the perspective of economics alongside social psychology. We find customer discrimination in the CPBL a combined outcome of taste-based and statistical discrimination, and can be explained by reference group theory. This study thus aims to develop a sports fans’ customer discrimination scale, which is demonstrated to consist of three major elements: players’ characteristics, prestige and experience, and spectators’ confidence.

Keywords: Professional sports; Taste-based discrimination; Statistical discrimination; Reference group theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J33 J71 L83 Z28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s40821-019-00147-4

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