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awareness of diversity differences. Eventually, the reduced social cohesion then hinders team processes that negatively impact performance (Timmerman, 2000).
Among various factors that may influence diversity’s negative effects on performance, task characteristics is a possible influence on diversity not directly related to social factors (Knouse, 2006). Hence, task interdependence and task cohesion have both played moderating the relationship between diversity and performance (Jehn & Neale, 1999; Kankanhalli et al., 2006; Timmerman, 2000).
Another latent issue related to these inconsistent findings is mismatching the conceptualization and operationalization of cultural diversity (Harrison & Klein, 2007; Godfrey et al., 2020). In other words, there is a chance of using cultural diversity as an umbrella term to represent other related types of diversity such as meta-analysis for the effects of cultural diversity on performance but included studies that examined national diversity (Earley & Mosakowski, 2000), racial diversity (Timmerman, 2000), and ethnic diversity (Paletz, Peng, Erez, & Maslach, 2004; Phinney, 1996). Hence, it is important to keep in mind that these related terms (nationality and ethnicity) are slightly different in terms of how they are assessed in a team as indicators of cultural diversity.
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Moreno, 2018). Since the late 20th century, experts and owners had to recognize the international presence in the U.S. professional sports and even the need for sports to orient themselves toward a global fan base (Leifer, 2009). MLB became ethnically diversified while trying to scout more players internationally. An example of internationalizing the league by targeting larger markets has been the recruitment of Asian players. The intention was to uncover and develop foreign sources of new talent (Klein, 2006). This would attract fans by strengthening the imagining and articulation of their ethnic identity (Shin, Welty, & Park, 2019). At the same time, it is necessary to focus on fan/customer preferences which is one of the three potential sources that may lead to discrimination (Becker, 2010). However, the influence of nationality has not been fully studied even though foreign participation in MLB is chronologically deep and geographically wide (Osborne, 2006).
Most of the past publications in the field of multicultural teams were focused on the effects of racism and discrimination (Kahn, 2000; Kahn & Sherer, 1988;
Preston & Szymanski, 2000; Scully, 1974; Szymanski, 2000; Wilson & Ying, 2003).
Only a limited number of past studies deal with the performance effects of multicultural team composition mostly using samples of German Bundesliga (Maderer, 2014). There were previous publications also devoted to the effects of racism and discrimination using the data of NBA (Burdekin, Hossfeld, & Smith, 2005; Hoang & Rascher, 1999; McCormick & Tollison, 2001; Bodvarsson &
Brastow, 1999). Schollaert and Smith (1987) examined the racial composition of NBA teams to see if race element is a significant factor explaining sports game attendance variability. For the determinants of attendance, it includes the percentage of black players on the NBA teams from 1969 to 1983. There was not
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any pattern that team racial composition has an impact upon NBA attendance.
In the English professional soccer league, Pedace (2008) used a market test approach to evaluate nationality discrimination by estimating the effect of team nationality composition on attendance. The results showed that having more South American players increased attendance. Similar study has been undertaken to assess the presence of MLB fan discrimination relating to nationality (Tainsky &
Winfree, 2010). The overall result showed that foreign players had a negative effect on demand for the period of almost half the era, but the effect evolved steadily over time and turned positive in 1992. Customer prejudice in MLB was first published in the 1970s (Gwartney & Haworth, 1974; Scully, 1973) and followed subsequently by other publications (Desser, Monks, & Robinson, 1999; Hanssen, 2001; Tainsky & Winfree, 2010).
One of the aims of this study is to analyze whether race can still affect fan preference. Previous publications showed that matching the racial profile of their players with their market’s racial profile can boost their attendance and revenue (Burdekin & Idson, 1991; Burdekin, Hossfeld, & Smith, 2005). In the case of NBA teams, using data from the 1980s, Burdekin and Idson (1991) showed that the link between racial structure of teams and racial structure of team market areas may support profit maximization. Hence, Burdekin et al. (2005) confirmed that the teams effectively increased their attendance and revenue by matching the racial profiles between the team players and its market again. Matching the racial demographics of their market not only applied to game attendance, but the teams also enjoyed greater market attendance gains. Based on the results, we can assume that people prefer to watch athletes of their own race and that satisfying their preferences leads to attendance gains. In addition, more skilled white players tend
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to end up with teams located in markets with relatively larger white populations. It is complicated to conclusively determine whether the findings are attributable to fan discrimination alone or as well as the quality effect of a player. Given the decreased number of black player participation in MLB, it seems necessary to evaluate the relationship between MLB team racial composition and metropolitan area racial composition.
Each MLB team plays 81 home games during one regular season, which is almost twice the number of home games in both the NBA and the NHL, and 10 times the amount played in the NFL. Due to this unusual MLB business situation, various studies have focused on MLB attendance in the context of factors such as star players and payroll distribution (Rivers & DeSchriver, 2002), team success (Davis, 2008), location (Winfree, McCluskey, Mittelhammer, & Fort, 2004). The results of these studies have revealed several variables such as average team payroll, number of previous championships, season rank, and distance between home and visiting teams significantly affecting the team attendance.
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