Measure the validity and reliability of the curiosity of sports fans

Abstract
One of the most important components that make the sports industry appear important and valuable is sports fans because they play an important role in this industry. Sports fans are defined as people who have special attention and interest in sports, broadcasting it or following their favorite team (Wann, 2002). In recent years, sports fans have had an increasing influence on the sports industry, because they are no longer passive consumers, but are becoming forward-looking consumers. Despite this fact, there are a significant number of researches on the social, personal, and psychological factors affecting the types of fan behavior related to sports, sports teams, and players, and most of the existing literature emphasizes the loyal and well-known fan. Since the current sports market has become highly competitive (Mahony &. Howard, 2001), sports marketers need loyal sports fans and a fan base to generate new fans. Therefore, both researchers and marketers working in this profession need to understand why consumers are attracted to sports in the first place. One of the factors that have a high potential to explain the cognitive, sensory, psychological, and situational effects on the behaviors of sports fans is curiosity (Mahony et al., 2001). Curiosity is defined as "the desire to acquire new knowledge and new sensory experience that stimulates exploratory behavior". One of the most important early researches in the field of curiosity was done by Berlyne. He believes that curiosity is a strong motivation that leads people to behave and discover different environments. In their research, Park et al (2015) found that increasing understanding of the impact of curiosity and knowledge gaps in sports consumers may be beneficial. Mehmet & Oktay (2019) pointed out in their research that statistically significant differences were found between the specific curiosity levels of students in sports in terms of gender, department, family participation in sports, and monthly expenses in the university. The purpose of this research is to create a valid and reliable measurement scale for the specific curiosities of sports fans. This research has developed the special curiosity scale of sports fans in two studies. Study 1 included four steps for scale development. In particular, the structural dimension of specific curiosity was used for the use of research literature at this stage. In the second stage, sample questions that reflected the structure were developed. In the third step, the data (sample one) was collected through an online questionnaire and among sports enthusiasts (303 people), which included physical education students of different educational levels, sports teachers, and physical education graduates. In the fourth step, the validity and reliability of the questions were tested using exploratory factor analysis. Study two included two stages (stages five and six). In stage five, the second set of data (sample two) was collected from 250 physical education experts. Since the authors carefully measured the curiosity of sports fans in this study, they tried to check the questionnaire of people who are currently sports fans. The sports fan questionnaire, which is a valid and reliable scale, includes five questions (for example, being a sports fan is very important to me) and was used based on a seven-point Likert scale to evaluate the level of fandom of the participants. In the sixth step, various statistical analyzes were performed to check the reliability and validity of the SFSCS questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to analyze the data using Amos software. Finally, three factors; Specific information (9 questions), general information (3 questions), and information on sports facilities and facilities (3 questions) were obtained for the final scale. There are several implications based on recent research findings. First, developing the level of curiosity of sports fans is an important step in this research and can be used in various sports topics. According to the findings of Churchill (1979) and Netemeyer et al (2003), to have a theoretical background and generate new knowledge, the existence of a valid and reliable measurement scale is necessary. However, the work of Park et al (2010) has provided insights into understanding fan exploratory curiosity behavior, a measure previously lacking in sports fan-specific curiosity. The SFSCS scale provides sport management researchers with a summary and fluid measure to explore this concept in the future. Due to the unique nature of sports, using the SFSCS scale is a much more effective tool than other specific curiosity scales. Additionally, since previous research on curiosity in sports has focused on new sport-based behaviors, it has broader applications. The special curiosity of sports fans has the potential to understand why and how fans become loyal sports fans. Specific curiosity can affect different fans and non-fans and can be combined with previous research and help us to better understand the behavior of sports fans. The existing study is an important step to better understanding fan-specific curiosity and its impact, but more work is still needed to achieve a full understanding.