The sports ticket market is one of the most important sources of revenue for professional teams.Among other things,digital ticketing for football events provides a convenient way for users to purchase tickets.With its use as the primary ways for spectators to purchase tickets to events,it is increasingly gaining the attention of sports marketers.Given this growth,researchers need to understand what factors influence users’ purchasing behaviour in the online ticketing market.Although the English Premier League(EPL)has relatively good ticket revenues,its spectator attendance is at risk of declining.Therefore,this paper takes the EPL ticket-buying spectators as the research object and develops a conceptual model of online purchasing behaviour of EPL spectators from the consumer’s perspective,under the Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R)theory that reveals the process of behaviour formation,combining the key predictive variables that influence purchasing behaviour-service quality and perceived risk,with the classical model of consumer acceptance of information technology,the Technology Acceptance Model(TAM),in order to fully explore the purchase decision process of football league spectators through online ticketing websites.Thus,this study will not only provide a better understanding of the online ticketing process and the key factors influencing the purchase decision,but also provide valuable insights into the marketing strategies of football clubs.A valid sample of 200 EPL ticket-buying spectators was finally obtained through a questionnaire survey method using a combination of online questionnaire collection software and offline in-person questionnaire distribution at three EPL matches.The data collected were also subjected to mathematical and statistical analyses such as confirmative factor analysis,common method bias test and structural equation model test using SPSS and AMOS software to discuss the findings of the study.The findings show that:(1)the TAM has good applicability in the sports consumer context,i.e.perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use positively influence the ticket purchase intention of football league ticket buyers.Moreover,perceived ease of use indirectly influences their intention to purchase tickets through perceived usefulness.(2)The perceived usefulness of football league ticket buyers has a stronger influence on the intention to purchase tickets than the perceived ease of use.(3)Perceived risk was less explained and did not significantly affect perceived usefulness,perceived ease of use and intention to purchase tickets.(4)Service quality had a significant positive effect on perceived usefulness,perceived ease of use,and perceived intention to purchase tickets for football league spectators,while a negative effect on perceived risk was not supported.The results of this study give EPL clubs some practical advice: develop accurate marketing to improve spectators’ perception;optimise search engines to enhance usefulness and ease of use;build reliable brands to reduce risk concerns;and embrace spectators’ opinion to improve service quality. |