Integrated technology acceptance model (TAM) of sports team smartphone application (STSA) in the stimulus organism response (SOR) framework

Background: To date, Sports Team Smartphone Application (STSA) provides quick information, score, result, and highlights for fans. Also, STSA is a useful marketing tool for professional sports teams in research and practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study is (a) to examine the relationship between information credibility, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Intention to Revisit Apps (IRA), and Actual Sport Behavior (ASB) and (b) to apply an integrated Stimulus Organism Response (SOR) framework for the STSA. Method: The sample consisted of 315 participants from four Korean professional baseball teams. Results: The result supported multiple hypotheses. First, information credibility's accuracy and attractiveness significantly influence trustworthiness, perceived ease of use (PEOU), and perceived usefulness (PU). Trustworthiness and attractiveness of information have a positive influence on customers' IRAs. The PEOU influences PU, which affects IRA and ASB. Lastly, IRA significantly influences ASB. This study highlighted the purchasing behavior of sports fans through sports teams' apps. It also provided evidence that sports teams' apps can be beneficial tools to ensure the usefulness of information and IRA. Finally, the data provide evidence that the SOR theory applies to an STSA environment in a sports context. These results suggest that the SOR theory can be used to examine online studies and smartphone apps. Conclusions: Through this study's findings, each sports team's marketers will recognize that sports apps are useful resources to provide information and can be used as mutual communication to attract fans to the teams' apps and games more frequently. Consequently, to maximize sports fans' revisiting of team apps, each team needs to provide accurate, attractive, and useful information. Also, teams must update and monitor their apps constantly for effective management.