Gaining and maintaining membership, and social identity in recreational groups: An investigation on motorcycle groups.

Participation in recreational activities increases day by day. People participate in recreational activities individually or as a group. Traveling with a motorcycle is one of the recreational activities carried out both individually and as a group. Motorcycle users can travel alone with a motorcycle, and they can also travel with a motorcycle as a member of motorcycle groups. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to investigate the reasons of traveling with a motorcycle, and becoming a member and maintaining membership. Another purpose of the research is to define the social identities of motorcycle users as a result of group membership. In accordance with this purpose, this research aims to develop a number of scales, as research tools, on the reasons of traveling with a motorcycle, becoming a group member and maintaining group membership, and the impact of membership on social identity. The primary data of the research was collected in four stages. In the first stage, 27 motorcycle users were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. Secondly, 33 motorcycle users were interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Based on the analysis of the initial findings, three focus group studies were, then, conducted with selected motorcycle users. Content analysis was performed on the data obtained from these three data collection stages, which resulted in the creation of a pool of items for the development of a new scale. The new scale form constitutes 125 items. At the four stage, the survey was tested on 486 motorcycle users. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on the data obtained from the new scale form. As a result, traveling with a motorcycle scale was finalized with four factors and 19 items, group membership scale with five factors and 18 items, maintaining group membership scale with five factors and 25 items, and social identity scale with seven factors and 25 items. According to the research, it is found that motorcycle users consider their motorcylces as a passion. Among the main motivation items for motorcycle use include the feelings of pleasure such as freedom and being in nature. They consider that motorcycle is more comfortable than other transportation vehicles. Becoming a member of motorcycle groups is often associated with safety, benefiting from other members' experiences and socialization. Maintaining membership and staying in groups, in the meantime, are related to strong emotional bonds with other members and belonging to the group. Similarly, members of the motorcycle groups wear the band's vest and adopt group rituals to identify themselves as a group member. In other words, the social identity determinants of motorcycle users are highly associated with a strong emotional bond, feelings of safety and freedom. In addition, social identities of motorcycle users influenced by the travel with a motorcycle, group membership and maintaining group membership.