IJSM Contents & Abstracts Volume 15 (2014)

NUMBER 1, JANUARY, 2014
ISBN 978-0-89641-534-8

  • A Multi-Dimensional Study of National and Olympic Team Identity in the United States and Australia — Priscila Alfaro-Barrantes, David P. Hedlund, Michael E. Naylor, Sheila Nguyen — Sport management researchers have long been interested in understanding how consumers identify with sport objects. Little research to date, however, has examined sport-based identities using multi-dimensional measures (c.f., Heere & James, 2007a). The current study moves beyond a uni-dimensional approach to measuring identity and further examines the conceptualization of identity originally proposed by Heere and James. In this study, national identity was measured for the purpose of assessing the psychological connection between individuals and their home country. Team identity was measured in the context of a country’s Olympic team, comprising athletes from all Olympic sports. Data were collected in the United States and Australia in order to examine the utility of a multi-dimensional measure of group identity scales across nations. The study utilized factor analysis procedures to assess the structure of the national and team identity scales. (1-24)

  • An Examination of Increased NCAA Division I Athletic Department Budgets: A Case Study Perceptions of Fee Allocations for Athletics— Michael Chapman, B. David Ridpath, Matthew Denhart — The cost of a college education specifically in the United States is rapidly rising even catching the attention of President Obama who made reducing college costs a priority for his administration in his 2012 State of the Union Address. The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the student perspective on student fee subsidies as part of the total cost of college attendance. Rising costs of managing athletic departments at universities nationwide has led to increased subsidization of athletic departments through additional student fees, usually at a rate much higher than any other program on campus which impacts overall costs. This research is a preliminary case study to assess the impact of student fees, specifically athletic subsidies, on the affordability of college at a mid-major (as defined by its athletic success) U.S. Midwestern university, affiliated with NCAA Division I athletics, and the NCAA Division 1-A football (Football Bowl Subdivision). 19,843 surveys were distributed electronically to currently enrolled students at the baccalaureate, graduate, and doctoral levels on the main campus. Almost 1000 completed surveys were returned. Preliminary data indicate that most students do not know how much of an athletic fee they pay, nor is it neither clear nor spelled out in their overall tuition bill. Almost 1000 currently enrolled students stated they are not willing to pay more for athletics and higher costs in the form of athletic subsidies could impact their ability to complete a college education. (25-48)

  • The Effect of a Sportsmanship Education Module on Student-Athletes’ Sportsmanship Perceptions and Behaviors in NCAA Division I for Athletics — Colby B. Jubenville, Bruce L. Lund, Michael B. Phillips, J. Michael Martinez — The purpose of this study was to provide insight on how a sportsmanship platform affected on- and off-field sportsmanship perceptions and behaviors of student-athletes as related to their playing experiences. The study utilized the Sportsmanship Assessment Scale for Student-Athletes (SAS-SA) to collect data for 3,476 student-athletes. The SAS-SA consisted of a 10-item survey that focused on how each participant rated his/her sportsmanship perceptions and behaviors related to both in-sport and out-of-sport activities. Psychometric testing (i.e., content validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency) was conducted on the instrument to provide validity and reliability evidence. (49-70)

  • Sport Sales Personnel Perceptions of Factors Impacting Job Performance: A Factor Analysis of Sport Sales Activities — David Pierce, Donghun Lee, Jeffrey Petersen — This study sought to develop an inventory of selling activities in sport sales and to identify the fundamental factors impacting job performance as perceived by a sample of North American sport sales personnel (N = 529). A seven-factor model was derived from a 56-item sport sales activity inventory utilizing exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Maintaining customer relationships was the top-rated sales activity (M = 6.69). Leveraging post-sale opportunities was identified as the most important grouped factor (M = 5.92), while professional development was the least important (M = 4.01). Each factor was defined and specifically related to sport industry practices. (71-90)

  • Who Gets to Play? Coaches’ Perceptions of the Role of Socioeconomic Status in the Division I Recruitment Process — Amanda L. Paule-Koba — It has been said that recruiting is the lifeblood of any college athletic program (Donnan, 2007; Feldman, 2007; Paule, 2008). Twenty-five Division I coaches were interviewed about their perceptions and experiences surrounding the recruitment process. The findings illuminated that the main arena from which coaches identify athletes they intend to recruit is the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and club team system. However, these teams require participation fees in order to be on the team. Who has access to these teams and the possibility of being identified for recruitment and why do coaches choose to primarily identify and recruit athletes out of these systems? (91-104)

  • Children’s Sport Team Identification: Social Psychological Processes and Developmental Perspectives — Antonis Gardikiotis, Nikolaos Tsigilis, Nicholas D. Theodorakis, Paris Kyriakopoulos — The present study examined the role of social psychological and developmental processes in predicting children’s sport team identification. Although there is previous research on the factors that predict adults’ sport team identification and research on children’s social (mainly ethnic) identification, there is no research on examining children’s team identification. One hundred and fifty pupils first reported their favorite sport team, the degree of their team identification and their need to belong to a social group. Multiple regression analyses using bootstrapping approach showed that both need of belongingness and age significantly predicted team identification. Practical implications of the findings are discussed. (105-117)

  • Assessing the Effectiveness of a College Sport Event Risk Management Training Program: A Pilot Study — Stacey A. Hall, Walter Cooper, Lou Marciani, Thomas J. Cieslak II — The purpose of this pilot study was to assess a college sport event risk management training program’s effectiveness and impact on participant learning. A total of 52 participants completed the two-day training program. Descriptive statistics indicated participants pre-training strengths were risk assessment (3.30 +/- .75) and security measures (3.18 +/- .55), while their weaknesses were threat assessment (1.75 +/- 1.00) and multi-agency collaboration (2.42 +/- 1.00). Paired sample T-tests indicated significant difference in pre-test and post-test scores with an improvement in six out of 8-modules (p < .001) and total score (p < .001). Post-test scores indicated improvement in the level of preparedness of the 52-participants with scores of all modules ranging from 3.33 (.44) to 3.82 (.51). The results of this study suggest that the training program can help college sport event security personnel improve their risk management capabilities and multi-agency collaboration. (118-128)

NUMBER 2, APRIL, 2014
ISBN 978-0-89641-535-5

  • Making the Millennial Mark: Lessons Learned by the Youth Olympic Games — Lawrence W. Judge, Karin D. Surber, Jeffrey Petersen, Don Lee, David Bellar, Laura Simon — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) desired to increase interest in Olympic sports within a generation of adolescents who are becoming increasingly overweight and inactive. With the approval of the IOC General Assembly in 2007, President Jacques Rogge led development of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) first hosted in Singapore in the summer of 2010. However, the awareness and interest of the youth in the YOG as a global sporting event remains unclear. The purpose of this research study was to collect data from undergraduate physical education students in the United States (n = 215) regarding their awareness and perceptions of the YOG. A survey instrument was developed to assess personal and perceived public awareness, event logo identification, social and traditional media use, and intention to attend or watch the YOG. These findings are described and evaluated in order to provide further insight into the development of both attendance and television following of this new international sport festival.(129-150)

  • The Leader-Value Continuum: NCAA Division I Core Values and Transformational Leadership — Coyte G. Cooper, Erianna A. Weight, David Pierce — Reports of malpractice in intercollegiate athletics have become an ever-present part of the American lexicon (Frey, 1982; Rader, 1999). As the debate ensues, potential progress seems to be overshadowed by discussion of violations rather than a more fundamental pursuit examining the goals of the enterprise (Trail & Chelladurai, 2002). The purpose of the study was to examine the aspirational values National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I administrators (N = 356) aspire to integrate within their athletics departments. Study findings include a discussion of aspirational values with the highest priority in addition to unique variations between different levels of administrators. (151-171)

  • An Explanation on a Prediction Level of Sport Commitment from Motivation, Constraints and Service Quality in Academic Sports — Krinanthi Gdonteli, Andreas Gavriilidis — The aim of the present study is to explore particular psychological dimensions such as motivation, commitment, and constraints that affect sport participation among sport intramural students and the relation of those properties to the University service quality. The sample of the study consisted of 972 students, all sport intramural participants. The results showed that the most significant motivations were the intrinsic ones. In addition, sport enjoyment was the most powerful predictor of commitment. In contrast, findings showed that psychological constraints cannot contribute toward the prediction of students’ sport participation. Service quality was evaluated by the students as satisfactory. The results of the latent variable modeling indicated a high relationship among all the dimensions that were analyzed according to their structures, and that commitments can be explained/predicted by the motivations, constraints, and service quality. These results have practical implications not only concerning the exploration of these theoretical structures, but also regarding the understanding of the mechanisms which consist of commitment to sport participation among Greek university students. (172-192)

  • An Exploration of a Niche Sport Event’s Role in Visitors’ Perception of a Rural Destination: The Case of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup — Martin Robertson, Brianna L. Newland, Phillip Darby — This article investigates whether a niche sport event in a rural location influences visitor perceptions of a destination. The work explores how rural sport events can affect tourism. To better understand rural sport tourism, a case study of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William, Scotland was used. The investigation explored the ways in which mountain bike tourists construct perceptions of both the event and the destination. The findings suggest that the initial creation of meanings is helpful to establish the destination as a mountain bike destination. (193-218)

  • Adjustment of American Athletes Abroad: Multi-Theoretic Perspective — Lyn Bell, Gangarum Singh, Theo Addo — Using a multi-theoretic perspective, we examined the adjustment of American professional basketball players in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Data from 96 players and hierarchical regression analysis indicated that adjustment is negatively related to cultural distance and frequent communication with friends and family in the home country. Adjustment, on the other hand, is positively related to prior knowledge about the move as well as prior research on, and enjoyment of, the host country. Implications of the results are discussed. (219-238)

  • Sponsorship Activation: Best Practices in North American Professional Team Sport — Peter Titlebaum, Andy Gillentine, Matthew T. Brown, John Miller, Todd C. Koesters, Jamie D’Amico — The purpose of this article was to examine sponsorship activation methods and strategies and the perceived effectiveness of each from the perspective of professional sports teams. Participants included teams for the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS. The five most effective tools in activating corporate sponsorship were relationship building with clients/prospects, clearly defining strategy-goals of sponsorship, creating a unique positioning by feeling part of the event, pre-research and sponsorship fit, and differentiation from competitors. This study offers exploration into the different perceptions found among sponsorship program participants that may lay the foundation of a best practices sport sponsorship model. (239-256)

NUMBER THREE, JULY 2014
ISBN 978-0-89641-539-3

  • Title IX Literacy among NCAA Administrators and Coaches: A Critical Communications Approach — Erianne A. Weight, Ellen J. Staurowsky — In the four decades since the passage of Title IX in 1972, a mass societal shift in attitude toward women in every aspect of the U.S. educational system has been realized. Despite ensuing progress, broad national trends suggest a vast majority of institutions of higher learning remain out of compliance. Additionally, current research identifies significant shortfalls that exist among educators and the general public regarding Title IX itself and what it requires. Given these deficits, this study examined NCAA senior athletics administrators and coaches in an effort to gain insight into levels of understanding within these populations that directly interact with the legislation. Results reveal moderate administrator knowledge with significantly less knowledge demonstrated by the coach sample. Through a theoretical lens of corporate colonization, we conclude the very inconsistencies between stated ideals and marginalizing attitudes that led this country to adopt Title IX as federal law appears to be the same type of hurdle that is impeding its success in implementation within college and university athletic departments today.(257-285)

  • Comparative Analysis of Sport Consumer Motivation Affecting Sport Consumption Behavior between American and Asian International Students — Chanho Kan, Jaedeock Lee, Gregg Bennett — This study is an exploratory research to compare spectator behaviors, sport consumption motives, and intentions to attend or watch college football games between Asian international students and American students. Moreover, this study examines the impact of motives on future behaviors for each of the two groups. Through this research, sport marketers in intercollegiate sport programs could understand their established target market, American students, as well as a rapidly growing market, Asian international students. Further, the findings of this study provide several implications for effective marketing strategies to attract these market segments. (286-310)

  • The Effectiveness of Sponsoring an International Sports Event on Consumer Response in Foreign Markets: The Case of Turkey— Berrin Guner, Talha Harcar, M. Hakan Altintas — Although sponsorship of an international event can be a very effective marketing tool, its impact in foreign markets is rarely explored in the literature. The purpose of this research is to understand how sponsoring a major international event affects the consumer recognition of and preference for the sponsoring brands in foreign markets. The article builds on the classical conditioning and attribution theories. We used the FIFA World Cup 2010 as a research platform and examined the responses of 448 individuals to sponsoring brands in Turkey. A series of statistical procedures revealed that, on average, 43.23% of the respondents correctly identified the sponsors. Higher brand preference based on sponsorship was more evident in the sporting goods, soft drink, credit cards, and electronics industries. Further, the results indicated consumer recognition of and preference for sponsoring brand is affected by the level of involvement with the event as well as the respondents’ demographic characteristics. (311-331)

  • The Conceptual Development of the Sport Brand Love Model — Alyssa Tavormina, Kevin Byon, Thomas Baker, James Zhang — Brand love is a marketing construct that has been developed over the past decade, and it refers to the degree of passionate emotional attachment consumers feel towards a brand (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006). Sport may be one of the industries in which this brand love is evident; however, minimal research has been conducted on this concept in sport marketing. Moreover, the sport product is unique when compared to traditional products due to its intangibility and unpredictability (Gladden & Funk, 2002; Mullin, Hardy, & Sutton, 2007). Therefore, we developed a conceptual model of sport brand love that is grounded in Sternberg's (1986) triangular theory of interpersonal love and the previously established and empirically tested brand love models (Albert, Merunka, & Valette-Florence, 2008; Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012; Bergkvist & Bech-Larsen, 2010; Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006). By identifying the sport related dimensions, antecedents, and moderators, this model may offer sport marketers a richer understanding of how consumers form sport brand love. (332-366)

  • Hypercommercialism and NCAA March Madness Broadcast — Richard Southall, Michael Brown, Mark Nagel, Crystal Southall — National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division-I Men’s Basketball Tournament (also known as March Madness) broadcasts consistently generate high television ratings and millions of dollars of advertising spending. Within this context, this paper examines (N = 23) broadcasts for evidence of a hypercommercialized, institutional media logic. Guided by institutional logics theory (Author & Author, 2008), this study analyzed 2011 NCAA Division-I men’s basketball broadcasts for evidence of commercial messaging and evidence of a hypercommercial institutional logic (McAllister, 2010), and compared 2011 broadcast data to 2006 broadcast data to determine if commercial messaging had increased. (367-383)

NUMBER FOUR, OCTOBER 2014
ISBN 978-0-89641-543-0

  • Differential Item Functioning in Subgroup Comparisons: An Example in Sport Management — Claudio Rocha, Packianathan Chelladurai — The main purpose of the current study was to highlight the need for analysis of differential functioning of items employed in inter-group comparisons in sport management studies. Toward this end a seven-item scale was proposed, based on well-established scales in the literature, for evaluating perceptions of distributive justice by coaches affiliated with different divisions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Two hundred, eighty-six coaches from Division I and 307 from Division III of the NCAA responded to the questionnaire. After carrying out the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the measurement model, a differential item functioning (DIF) analysis was conducted. Results of the CFA showed that the model fits the data reasonably well for both divisions. However, the DIF analysis showed that five out of seven items performed (functioned) differently in the two groups. Results showed that beyond CFA, whenever a scale is proposed to compare groups, DIF analysis should be conducted in order to avoid misleading results due to biased items. (385-408)

  • Evaluating the Work Experience for the Paid, Part-Time Event Staff at a Public Assembly Facility: A Tool to Assist Facility Managers — Kimberly Mahoney, Donna Pastore — In public assembly facilities, event staff members are the front line employees and the face of the organization. The purpose of the study was to develop a tool for use by facility managers in identifying which elements of the work experience influence the paid, part-time event staff in their venue. Facility managers must work within the constraints of their environment and this information may assist in prioritizing services for their employees within their means. In addition, information gleamed from the tool can assist in employee retention and may impact the operation and design of public assembly facilities. (409-437)

  • The Impact of Perceived Event Prestige on Volunteer Satisfaction and Commitment at a Major International Sporting Event — Seungmo Kim, Damon Andrew, Changha Lee, Jintaek Lee — The primary goal of this study was to examine the impact of perceived event prestige on volunteer satisfaction and commitment of volunteers at a globally prestigious sporting event. Two hundred two volunteers at the 2011 International Association of Athletics Federations Championship in Daegu, South Korea, participated in a survey. The results of two backward deletion regression analyses revealed event prestige was found to be a predictor of volunteer satisfaction and commitment; however, other variables (i.e., meaningfulness, perceived organizational support, training, and leader-member exchange for satisfaction and competence, meaningfulness, and training for commitment) play more important roles in developing volunteer satisfaction and commitment. (438-461)

  • An Assessment of the Effect of a Severe Injury on Athletic Identity — Taryn Price, Michael Phillips, Norman Weatherby, Colby B. Jubenville — The purpose of this study was to observe the effect that a severe athletic injury (e.g. ACL tear) had on an athlete’s degree of athletic identification. Surveys were collected on 125 (60 men, 65 women) participants. Age, previous years of athletic participation, severity of injury, duration of rehabilitation, gender, and degree of athletic identity were measured using the Athletic Identity Measurement (AIM) scale and demographic survey. The results from four separate multiple regression analyses were conducted and showed that gender (p < .01) was the only variable to have a consistent significant effect on athletic identity levels. (462-484)

  • The Natural Resource-Based View of the firm (NRBV): Constraints and Opportunities for a Green Team in Professional Sport — Sheila N. Nguyen, Sylvia Trendafilova, Michael Pfahl — Burgeoning expectations of the sport industry’s role in managing the environmental impact on its community are increasing. While previous research has focused on factors contributing to environmental involvement, little is known about the organization’s approach in dealing with these responsibilities. An exploratory case evaluation of a Major League Baseball team in evaluating the constraints, demands and opportunities of managing environment issues is undertaken. Specifically, the Natural-Resource-Based View of the firm (NRBV) is used to frame the assessment of the team’s capabilities and strategies with consideration of internal and external dynamics. Qualitative methods were which resulted in the identified key themes and implications. (485-517)

  • Index to IJSM Volume 15 (2014) (518-520)

  • Manuscript Guidelines for Authors (521-523)

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