5. Discussion and conclusion
5.1. Implications and contributions Inspired by the ‘‘Linsanity’’ phenomenon, the current research explicated the self-categorization process for international consumers, and attempted to demonstrate how the process influences their domain involvement in sport.We describe the social psychological mechanism underlying the ‘‘Linsanity’’ phenomenon with a Taiwanese sample, in which we empirically tested a conceptual model specifying the relationships between several identity-related constructs. We further explain why they become fans of an overseas professional sport. First, international consumers (e.g., Taiwanese consumers) may become aware of a player (e.g., Jeremy Lin) with whom they share a similar external social identity (e.g., Taiwanese identification), which prompts them to develop identification with the specific player, due to his/her prototypical representation of such an identity. This development of player identification increases international consumers’ interest in, and understanding of, the team in which the player is a part of (e.g., the Houston Rockets), which then significantly contributes to team identification. As a result of the process, team identification turns international consumers into fans of the team, and also increases the extent to which they engage with an overseas professional sports league (e.g., the NBA). It is also noteworthy that player identification fully mediates the influence of the external social identity on team identification, indicating a distinguishing feature of the self-categorization process for international consumers.
