Moderating Role of Using Instagram in Relationship between Involvement with the Team, Attachment and Fan Loyalty (Case Study: Persepolis football team)

The purpose of the present study was to examine moderating role of using Instagram in relationship between involvement with the team, Attachment and the fans loyalty ) Case Study: Persepolis football team). The research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population consisted of all students of Persepolis fans football team in University of Kurdistan, that 420 of them were selected as statistical sample. The questionnaires of sports involvement dimensions by Kyle et al. (2003), attachment from Funk and James (2006), loyalty by Baer et al. (2008) were used, that its formal and content validity was by experts and their internal consistency was confirmed through alpha Cronbach, and structural equations and linear regression were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the involvement with the team, with a regression coefficient of 0.24, had a positive effect on the team's dependency variable, and also dependency variable of the team with a 0.50 regression coeficient, had a positive and meaningful effect on fans’ loyalty. Also, the team involvement variable without the use of the Instagram, predicts 14% of the variance of the team's attachment, which increases by 3.5% in the presence of Instagram, that is, 17.5% of increasing. Theoretically, the results of this research highlight the importance and application of the social media platform and the production of optimal content in the team marketing strategies. Scientifically, it is suggested to the sport team managers, by strengthening their relationships with fans through Instagram, increase the likelihood of involvement, dependence and loyalty of their