"We cannot shy away from a defeat" - Examining How Sports Organizations and Fans Communicate After a Defeat on Social Media in the Swedish Hockey League

Abstract: This dissertation explored how sports organizations approach the communication of a defeat on social media from the perspective of organizational image management. Furthermore, this study sought to identify how sports fans react to a defeat on social media and what kind of implications fan reactions have on the organizational image management process. The sports industry has some unique characteristics compared to other commercial industries. The overall success of sports organizations is to a great extent dependent on the on-field performances of the team and the coherence of the fan community. The image of sports organizations is likewise dependent on the combination of on-field performances and how the fan community perceives the organization. Sports fans have a strong psychological connection to their favorite team. The strong attachment to a sports organization results commonly in biased evaluations of their favorite team. This dissertation examines how this dynamic unfolds in an online media environment using a customized theoretical framework that combines organizational image management theory and social identity theory. The research strategy in this dissertation consisted of a case study of six sports organizations in the Swedish Hockey League and their fans. Empirical data was collected through six interviews with communication specialists employed by the teams and by sampling comments written by fans on the teams’ Facebook pages on posts about defeats. The findings show that sports organizations in the SHL have a desire to appear honest in their approach to communicating a defeat on social media. This desire encompasses a straightforward approach to communicating a defeat on social media to their fans, making the organization to resemble a credible disseminator of information to key stakeholders in online environments. Furthermore, through the strong psychological connection to their favorite team, fans were found to have a role in the image maintenance process on social media after a defeat. Fans took mainly two different stances on social media after a defeat and were found to both hinder and aid the image management process after a defeat.