IJSM Contents & Abstracts Volume 19 (2018)
NUMBER 1, JANUARY, 2018
ISBN 978-0-89641-567-8
The Pursuit of Legitimacy: Expanding Conceptions of Escalation of Commitment within Sport — Calvin Nite, Michael Hutchinson — The impact of social determinants in escalation of commitment (EC) remains fairly understudied within the sport management literature. Within the setting of intercollegiate athletics, we extend understanding of social determinants of EC theory by investigating the role of institutionalism in sport organizations’ decisions to escalate their commitments to programs that have shown to yield questionable returns on investments. Data were collected from 35 administrators at 10 universities that had decided to transition to higher levels of athletic competition and/or had added football to their campuses. The findings suggested that the desire to be perceived as legitimate and reaping the benefits of legitimacy were the primary motivations for EC. From this study, we propose a model explaining the role of legitimacy in EC. New questions are raised regarding conceptualizations of escalation of commitment and future considerations for research of this framework are offered. Keywords: Escalation of commitment, institutional theory, legitimacy, intercollegiate athletics. (1-26)
Emotional Labor and Team Commitment for Part-time Employees of Public Assembly Facilities — Michael A. Odio, Andrew Goldsmith, Kimberly Mahoney — Paid, part-time employees are a large source of labor for public assembly facilities and often the first people patrons interact with. The present study examines the unique intersection of part-time work, service work, and work in sports that these individuals occupy. Questionnaires were collected from 172 part-time workers at two public assembly facilities assessing the levels of emotional labor (i.e., surface acting and deep acting) and fandom (i.e., team commitment) as well as variables to categorize participants into previously established subgroups of part-time workers (i.e., primaries, supplementers, moonlighters, retirees, and students). The results suggest the emotional weight of fandom (i.e., team commitment) influences surface acting, or how often employees fake emotions when dealing with patrons, but does not influence deep acting, or how often employees attempt to change their internal emotions to interact with patrons. Moreover, no major differences were found between the subgroups of part-time employees. This study furthers the research focusing on the role of fandom and emotions in the sports workplace by involving a concept relevant to an important segment of the workforce that is often overlooked by the literature. Further research is needed but this may offer evidence to support the uniqueness of the sports work environment and have implications for managing part-time employees. (27-43)
Optimizing Health and Wellness Outcomes of College Recreational Sports Program — Leeann M. Lower, Scott A. Forrester, Daniel J. Elkins, Brent A. Beggs — Collegiate recreational sports (CRS) provide an avenue for students to engage in diverse sport programs. While research has confirmed the health benefits associ¬ated with participation in CRS activities, an optimal degree of involvement is unknown. The current study examined the point of diminishing returns with respect to health and wellness outcomes associated with CRS involvement. A secondary analysis of data from the 2013 NASPA Assessment and Knowledge Consortium was conducted, including 33,522 college students from 38 institutions across the United States. Findings indicate that students experienced significant increases in health and wellness outcomes from CRS involvement up to four times per week (depth of involvement). Additionally, health and wellness outcomes significantly increased from CRS involvement up to six activities per week (breadth of involvement). Results from this study support the notion of a point of diminishing returns in CRS, which has implications for research, policy devel¬opment, and sport management. Keywords: campus recreational sports, involvement, diminishing returns, health.(44-56)
Developing Sport Communities via Social Media: A Conceptual Framework — Beth A.Ciafrone, Stacy Warner — Building and managing online communities continues to be a growing challenge among sport social media managers and marketers. With the growth of various social media platforms and an exponential increase in users, an opportunity exists to strategically use these platforms for developing and strengthening an online community among fans. Recent scholars have pointed out the limited theory in and related to sport and social media research. This work responds to that call by proposing how the Sport and Sense of Community theory can be used as a guide for strategically planning and building community in an online setting. In doing so, a new Online Sport Community Building conceptual model is offered. The model suggests that sport managers and marketers can strategically benefit from placing an emphasis on: Conscientious Outreach, Emphasis on Shared Goals, Equitable Policies, Contests and Rivalries, Fan Leadership Opportunities, and Social Spaces. Practical applications for each factor are discussed. Keywords: Sport online community, strategic marketing management, Facebook, Twitter. (57-81)
Advanced Leadership in Sport Management: Revealing the Significance of Emotional Intelligence — Katie Dee, Gaye Bryham, Lesley Ferkins — In this study, we investigated individual perspectives of leadership within the New Zealand sport sector. We situated our study within a constructivist-interpretive paradigm and drew on a social constructionist view of leadership. Our method involved narrative inquiry embedded within a multiple case approach. Data were gathered from three highly experienced sport sector individuals through in-depth interviews, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Our findings highlight the social, relational nature of leadership in sport man-agement. They identify the significance of emotional intelligence in leadership, revealing the importance of relationships and knowing self. From this research, we promote a social constructionist stance and highlight significant scope for future research to focus on emotional intelligence in advancing leadership in sport management. Keywords: Emotional intelligence, social constructionist, sport leadership. (82-109)
NUMBER 2, APRIL, 2018
ISBN 978-0-89641-579-9
Improving Fitness through Interaction on Facebook: Does Interaction Increase Workout Frequency, Membership Length, Relationship Quality or Renewal Intentions? — Rebecca M. Achen — Social media channels provided additional marketing channels for fitness facili¬ties, who operate in a competitive marketplace. The purpose of this study was to explore how Facebook interaction affects business outcomes in the fitness indus¬try, including membership tenure, frequency of facility use, renewal intentions, and relationship quality. A survey was sent out on Amazon MTurk and 467 re¬sponses were recorded. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was used to examine these relationships. The final model indicated interaction on Facebook significantly increased relationship quality and fre¬quency of workouts. The indirect effect of Facebook interaction on renewal in¬tentions as mediated by relationship quality was also positive and significant. Fitness facility owners and managers should recognize the usefulness of engag¬ing members via Facebook to increase frequency of attendance, relationship quality, and renewal intentions. Increased attendance could lead to higher reten¬tion rates and increased ancillary purchases. (111-136)
Occupational Measures of Former NCAA Athletes and Traditional Students — Erianne Weight, Amy Bonfiglio, J.D. DeFreese, Zachary Kerr, Barbara Osborne — The impact of sport on the education and development of athlete participants is an area of inquiry rich in anecdotes and assumptions, but limited in empirical quantification. Addressing these limits, a body of literature is emerging documenting differences in athlete and non-athlete measures, with an underlying assumption that these differences could in part be due to sport participation. Within this study, salary, job satisfaction, and work engagement of former athlete and non-athlete graduates from a large southeastern public university was collected to extend and address holes in the literature related to athlete occupational measures. A sample of n = 472 athletes and random sample of n = 550 non-athletes working full time from cohorts 10, 20, 30, and 40 years post-graduation completed an occupational measures questionnaire including the Spector Job Satisfaction Survey, and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Athletes reported significantly higher levels of job satisfaction, salary, and work engagement, than their non-athlete peers in nearly each demographic category of comparison. This study adds to the literature examining the association between intercollegiate athletics participation and occupational measures. (137-162)
Exploring Perceptions of Fan-Family Conflict: New Insights into Typologies, Directionality and Contributors — Jason Simmons, Heidi Grappendorf, Meg Hancock — Fan-family conflict occurs when individuals struggle to navigate the simul¬taneous pull of demands from their sport fan and family roles (Simmons & Greenwell, 2014). The current study offers the first qualitative exploration of this phenomenon. Interviews were conducted with 21 participants self-identified as highly involved with both their sport fan and family roles. Several themes emerged from the data analysis regarding types of fan-family conflict experienced, directionality of conflict, as well as factors contributing to perceptions of conflict. Specifically, three types of fan-family conflict occurred: time-, strain-, and economic-based. Participants also experienced both fan-to-family conflict and family-to-fan conflict. Contributors to conflict included the presence of family support, gender roles, and age of children. Keywords: Fan-family conflict, inter-role conflict, sport fan, family, serious leisure. (163-185)
An Examination of Activism and NCAA Division III Black Male Athletes — Rhema Fuller, Kwame Agyemang — After a period of silence (Agyemang et al., 2010), recent years have seen an increase in Black athletes addressing social and political issues. However, most scholarly inquiry and media coverage on black athlete activism tends to focus on high-profile Olympic, professional, and college athletes (e.g., Schmittel & Sand-erson, 2015). Consequently, the role of activism in less-visible black athletes re¬mains under-examined. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 NCAA Division III black male athletes to begin to understand their perceptions related to activism. Results revealed that participants believed athletes had a responsibility to be involved in activism, yet most were not. Furthermore, some participants believed their coaches and administrators would not be sup¬portive of their involvement in social and political causes due to concerns about the “image” it would portray. Theoretical and practical implications are dis¬cussed and avenues for future research are provided. Keywords: activism, college athletics, black athletes, social change, activist (186-206)
An Exploration of International Language Offerings of Professional Sport Websites in the United States — Chia-Chen Yu, John Bae — The Internet has played a critical role in the globalization of sport. The provision of multilingual content exists as one way professional sport organizations have attempted to strengthen their appeal among ethnic or international sport con¬sumers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore international language offerings on the websites of professional sport leagues and teams in the United States. The researchers used the cultural dimensions theory and the key compo¬nents of effective communication for websites as the theoretical foundation to analyze 167 U.S. professional sport websites. The results showed only approximately 30% of sport league or team websites provided multi-language options on their sites. Fisher’s exact test indicated significant differences in three cultural dimensions and two attributes between English- and Chinese- or Korean-language pages. The results of this study suggest sport organizations offer multilingual options on sport websites with complete information and integrate this initiative into the organizations’ global marketing strategies. Keywords: Multilin¬gual, cross-cultural, websites, international fans (207-234)
NUMBER 3, JULY, 2018
ISBN 978-0-89641-581-2
Professional Sport Teams and Fan Loyalty Programs: A Perceived Value Perspective — Masayuki Yoshida, David P. Hedlund, Brian S. Gordon — Fan loyalty programs are common among professional sport teams. A growing concern shared by researchers and practitioners is to understand the various value dimensions that constitute the overall value of relationship-building tactics. We introduce a multidimensional conceptualization of the perceived value of fan loyalty programs, develop a measurement model for the proposed dimensions, and examine the impact of perceived value on both program loyalty and team loyalty. The results from Study 1 provided evidence supporting the convergent and discriminant validity of the proposed measurement model of perceived value. In Study 2, the findings provided further evidence for the construct validity of the measurement model and supported the notion that the perceived value dimensions of fan loyalty programs were not only directly predictive of program loyalty, but it also had direct and indirect effects on attitudinal team loyalty. Keywords: fan loyalty programs, perceived value, team loyalty, program loyalty, professional sport. (235-261)
Understanding Conations in the Organizations: Multi-Level Approach and Seasonality of French Sport Tourism Non-Profits — Nicholas G.A. Lorgnier, Che-Jen Su, Shawn M. O’Rourke, Gillaume Penel — In order to face turbulences inherent to modern society, sport tourism non-profits may rely on a better understanding of typologies at the organizational and network levels in order to guide organizational changes. In this paper, we argue that, although the theoretical justifications and practical implications of Mintzberg’s and Greiner’s typologies may differ, the ideal-types proposed by the authors reveal similar impetuses or conations. The reflection leads to the idea of conative change, studied from seasonal and multilevel perspectives, in the context of a cluster of sport tourism non-profits. The variety of organizational levels is used to discuss the role of agency in the emergence of the ideal-type while the seasonality of the demand is used to discuss the role of the factors of contingency. This case study reveals four observed types of organization which allowed us to discuss our working hypotheses and propositions. In addition to the theoretical discussions surrounding the concepts, the results encourage leaders to use the typologies as a guide to anticipate and react to critical crises requiring organizational changes in sport tourism non-profits. Keywords: Conation; Configuration; Stage Theory; Contingency; Seasonality; Multi-level approach; Typology. (262-288)
Perceived Fan Associations with Teams across NFL, NBA MLB, and MLS — Ho Yeol Yu, DongHun Lee, Bily Hawkins, Michale Cottingham, Myungwoo Lee — Previous research has established the significance of applying the concept of fan associations with sport teams for better team management (Gladden & Funk, 2002; Ross, James, & Vargas, 2006). However, studies of fan associations have often indicated that there are differences among fans’ perceived associations with teams across different sports (Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer, & Exler, 2008; Biscaia et al., 2016). Likewise, grounded in social identity theory, the current study examined potential similarities/differences in fan association types across four spectator sports (i.e., basketball, baseball, football, and soccer). Using a sample of 990 spectators who claimed to be a fan of major league teams (i.e., NBA, MLB, NFL, and MLS), this study conducted a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to explore between- and within-subject effects. Briefly, the results revealed across-sports variation as well as non-variation in fan’s perceived association types as discussed in the text. Keywords: fan associations, major league sports, team brand management. (289-314)
Examining Relationship between Managerial Career Advancement and Centrality, Race, and the Rooney Rule — Jeremy Foreman, Brian Soebbing, Chad Seifried, Kwame Agyemang — Previous research regarding the relationship between managerial career advancement in the National Football League (NFL) and race, the Rooney Rule, and centrality (i.e., central position experience) was mixed or limited. The present study is designed to examine the aforementioned relationships in the NFL from 1984 through 2016. Using logistic regression models, evidence of racial disparities and centrality preferences are found; however, the implementation of the Rooney Rule does not significantly increase coaching diversity. Other determinants of promotions are also examined, such as individual and organizational performance, coaching experience, and age. Implications for sport and non-sport managers and organizations are discussed. Keywords: promotion, labor, discrimination, diversity, policy. (315-338)
The Effects of Perceived Autonomy on Affect and Burnout among Sport Coaches — Frode Moen, Kenneth Kyhre, Istvan Moldovan — Research suggests that the numbers of coaches who are suffering from burnout symptoms are considerable among coaches in sport. In this study, authors explore the effects of autonomy on positive and negative affect and burnout in a group of Norwegian coaches. A sample of 510 coaches (100 females and 410 males) from different sports such as athletics, cross-country skiing and handball participated in an online survey that documented the Work Climate, Positive- and Negative Affect and Maslach Burnout Inventory. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling. The model explained 43% of the variance in cynicism, 33% of the variance in reduced accomplishments, and 16% of the variance in exhaustion. Overall, the results supported that the framework of the self-determination theory can contribute to explaining the coach burnout syndrome through positive and negative affect. Of interest, higher levels of perceived autonomy support and positive affect seemed to be particularly negatively associated with burnout, while lower levels of perceived autonomy support and negative affect were found to be positively associated with burnout. Findings are discussed in relation to theory with an emphasis on applied suggestions to prevent coach burnout. Keywords: Sport, autonomy, coaches, burnout. (339-359)
NUMBER 4, OCTOBER, 2018
ISBN 978-0-89641-582-9E-mail americanpress@flash.net to order PDFs of any article.
Work versus Play: An Examination of Motivations of Collegiate eSports Athletes — Brent D. Oja, Claire C. Zvosec, Sean Hyland, Jordan R. Bass, Jonathan Mays, Kyle Krueger, Ronald Christian, Zachary Wilkerson — Due to the recent increase in the popularity of the phenomenon known as eSports, an examination of the motivations collegiate eSports athletes was undertaken, as they represent a population that has not yet seen substantial academic inquiry. In all, 15 collegiate eSports athletes were interviewed about their intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivations. In all, five themes were discovered. These themes included personal growth, competition, friends and comradery, scholarship money, and burnout. The results of this study are an indication that while some eSports athletes are motivated to participate on their collegiate team due to an internal love for the various games and fostering deep relationships with their teammates, some experience burnout and the subsequent negative consequences of burnout. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Keywords: college sport, eSports, burnout, motivation. (361-382)
Ratings of Service Quality and Satisfaction by Sport Spectators with Different Personality Traits — Ho Yeol Yu, Jeffrey James — The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of spectators’ personality traits on perceptions of service quality and satisfaction at sporting events. As such, the primary purpose of this study was to assess whether there were differences in perceptions of overall service quality and global satisfaction depending on spectators’ personality traits. The personality traits examined were dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness (DiSC). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was utilized to assess the perceptions of 352 spectators; there were statistically significant differences in overall service quality perceptions, as well as spectators’ overall satisfaction at sporting events. Insights for understanding differences relative to different personality traits and developing segmentation strategies are provided. Keywords: personality traits, overall service quality, satisfaction. (383-411)
Development Office Organizational Structure Components Affecting Football Bowl Subdivision Athletic Contributions: A Resource-Based View — Liz Wanless, J. Michael Martinez, James E. Johnson, Logan Desmond — Framed within the context of resource-based view theory (RBV; Barney, 1995), the purposes of this study were to uncover the components of intercollegiate athletic development office organizational structure that affect National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) athletic contributions; and from the results, apply RBV indicators to identify potential sources of sustained competitive advantage. The importance of fundraising to FBS athletics (Fulks, 2016) and the importance of organizational structure to the success of non-profit organizations warrant further understanding of factors associated with organizational structure and intercollegiate athletic fundraising effectiveness. Researchers utilized a three-part, fixed-question online survey to assess the perceptions of 36 FBS athletic development directors representing nine FBS conferences. Two primary themes emerged: human resource allocation and university affiliations. Six corresponding sub-themes also emerged. From the results, researchers reconsidered the status of organizational structure within RBV and developed insights into maximizing organizational structure efficacy. (412-436)
Information Seeking during Psychological Contract Development in Sport-Based Small Business Enterprises: An Examination of Front Office Employees in Minor League Baseball — Christopher R. Barnhill, J. Michael Martinez — The purpose of this study was to examine how various information sources influence psychological contract terms of employees in sport-based small business enterprises (SBEs). A total of 226 front office employees from Minor League Baseball franchises completed a questionnaire measuring psychological contract obligations and the influence of internal and external information sources. Hierarchical linear regression was used to test proposed hypotheses. Terms related to job content were influenced by information received from non-organizational social media accounts. Work-life balance terms were influenced by organizational outsiders, and information from formal job descriptions were influential over rewards related terms. Organizational mission documents contained information that influenced all psychological contract dimensions, but information from direct managers was not influential over any terms for respondents. Results suggest employees in sport-based SBEs avoid communication with managers, but instead choose to seek information from other sources both within and outside the organization. Keywords Psychological contracts, information seeking, sensemaking, internal marketing. (437-461)
Index to Volume 19 (2018) — (462-464)
Manuscript Guidelines for Authors — (465-467)