IJSM Contents & Abstracts Volume 25, (2024)
NUMBER 1, MARCH, 2024
ISBN 978-0-89641-638-3
Sportsmanship Attitudes as a Moderator of the Relationship between Team Identification and Spectator Aggression Attitudes — Andrew Rudd, Sarah Stokowski — The National Collegiate Athletic Association has long been concerned with the practice of sportsmanship. However, frequent displays of spectator aggression at collegiate sport events demonstrates a grave contradiction. Fans level of team identification is considered a key influence on spectator aggression. Alternatively, sport marketers have found that team identification plays a vital role in fan consumption (e.g., tickets and merchandise). In the interest of reducing aggressive fan behavior without damp¬ening the sport managers’ need for highly identified college sports fans, we sought to assess how spectator sportsmanship attitudes might serve to moderate the relationship between team identification and spectator aggression attitudes such that the relationship between team identification and attitude towards aggression would be negligible for individuals scoring high in sportsmanship attitudes. Results showed that sportsmanship attitudes were not a statistically significant moderator of the relationship between team identification and attitudes towards aggression. However, there was a large negative relationship between attitudes towards aggression and spectator sportsmanship attitudes suggesting that fostering sportsmanship could help reduce aggressive fan behavior at college sporting events. Keywords: brand attributes, social media, crisis communication, nostalgia, sport organizations (1-23)
An Examination of Decision-Making Factors in the College Sport Addition Process: A Case of Esports Programs — Sloane Milstein, Youngiae Kim — This study aims to examine decision-making factors influencing the addition of esports to individual institutions and explore potential disparities across different in¬stitutional contexts. Examining data from 30 US colleges considering or implementing esports from 2018 to 2022, this study determined factors considered significant by athletic administrators and comparing these factors across diverse institutional contexts classified by the Carnegie Foundation school size categories. The findings showed key considerations such as sport popularity, competitiveness, recruiting, scholarships, fa¬cilities, gender equity, university viability, skill development, and student engage¬ment. The findings identified potential variations across different institutional contexts. Large institutions prioritize competitiveness, sport popularity, and culture/diversity; medium-sized schools focus on sport popularity and student engagement; while small and very small schools prioritize sport popularity and logistics/space availability. This study extends the knowledge base on the decision-making process in college sport contexts, shedding light on the factors influencing the adoption of esports in athletic programs. Keywords: Esports, College Sport Addition Process, Decision-making Factors (24-49)
Crime in the Nominal City: An Examination of the Relationship between Criminal Incidents and Professional Sport Venues in Dallas, Texas — Gidon Jakar, Kiernan Gordon — This study examines local crime during competitions played by the four, major, professional, sport teams in those teams’ nominal city: Dallas, Texas. Negative binomial regression analyses focus on count data for the entire city on a daily and hourly basis (n=48,824) between January 2015 and December 2019. Results indicate an apparent de¬crease in the number of incidents in Dallas when the Dallas Cowboys (NFL) play, whether home or away. In practice, this study suggests that the NFL generally, and the Cowboys specifically, may have an opportunity to engage a captive audience with messaging that promotes prosocial behaviors and denounces crime. Keywords: crime, sport events externalities (50-72)
Decision Making in Non-Profit Sport Organization Boards: Exploring the Role of Internal Board-Level Factors — Erik L. Lachance, Milena M. Parent — This study explored the role of internal board-level factors in non-profit sport organ¬ization (NPSO) boards’ decision making. Featuring six Canadian NPSO boards as cases, data were gathered from 36 observations of board meetings, 18 semi-structured interviews (Chief Executive Officers [CEO], Chairs, and individual board members), and over 900 documents, then thematically analyzed. Results identified five internal board-level factors important for NPSO board decision making: meeting practices, board size, Chair-CEO relationship, Chair collective leadership, and board competen-cies. These internal factors’ role varied depending on the decision-making constructs, namely duration, flow, interaction, and scrutiny. Results suggest NPSO boards should recruit individuals with different competencies as these represented an important internal information source. NPSO boards should be cautious when implementing virtual meetings for their decision making because it can inhibit the involvement of individual members (i.e., interaction). Theoretically, results suggest sport governance researchers should consider a multi-perspective approach when examining internal board-level factors. — Keywords: decisions, decision-making process, board of directors, not-for-profit organizations, qualitative, case study (73-99)
NUMBER 2, JUNE, 2023
ISBN 978-0-89641-640-6
The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Innovational Climates in National Sport Organizations — Kyu Ha Choi, Becca Leopkey — Transformational leadership is known to be appropriate for promoting an organization’s innovative climate. This paper studies the impact of transformational leadership on a national sport organization’s (NSO) innovation climate by examining the executive-level leadership of the Korea Ice Hockey Association (KIHA). A qualitative case study was built using 16 semi-structured interviews and related archival materials. The KIHA’s new leaders demonstrated the key attributes of transformational leadership, particularly in role modeling, intellectual stimulation, articulating a common vision, maintaining accessibility and open communications, fostering team chemistry, establishing high performance expectations, and providing individualized assistance to stimulate change. These attributes facilitated the creation of an innovation climate by developing shared goals and a collaborative environment, motivating with necessary resources, and encouraging members to be proactive and assume expanded roles. Establishing such a climate is important for NSOs with a relatively low level of experience because organizations are urged to make course-corrective decisions quickly. Keywords: leadership, innovative climate, sport governing bodies, event hosting (101-133)
Families’ Perceptions of Value of Youth Sport and Physical Activity: Post-Pandemic Implications for Recovery, Recruitment, and Retention — Georgia Teare, Marijke Taks — The COVID-19 pandemic introduced different ways of engaging with youth sport and physical activity (SPA). These different ways of engaging might have affected perceptions of value for such experiences. As such, guided by Social Ecology Theory and the Disconfirmation Paradigm, we explore families’ anticipated post-pandemic perceptions of value from youth SPA. All data were collected with families during the pandemic, in 2021. Interviews with families and youth sport providers informed questionnaires administered to 550 families in Ontario. The survey assessed the families’ perceived value of different ways of engaging in youth SPA after the pandemic is over. Results provide insights for how youth sport providers can better recruit and retain participants in post-pandemic recovery. Keywords: Community Sport, Families, Physical Activity Participation, Sport Participation, Youth Sport (134-161)
A Hierarchical Cluster Analysis of Board Decision Making in Non-Profit Sport Organizations — Erik L. Lachance, Milena M. Parent — The purpose of this study was to explore decision making in non-profit sport organization Boards. Data were gathered from 36 non-participant overt observations of non-profit sport organization Board meetings, 18 semi-structured interviews, and over 6,000 document pages. Sixty-six decisions were identified from the observations, on which a hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted. Results indicated two clusters, Concise and Expanded decision making, whereby the former had a shorter duration and fewer information sources, interactions, and delays than the latter. A contemporary taxonomy is developed with characteristics to describe decision making related to decision length, delays, interactions, and information sources for Boards at different systemic levels. Knowing how they make decisions allows non-profit (sport) organization Boards to better navigate their decision-making endeavours.Keywords: decision-making, processes, non-profit boards, sport governance(162-196)
NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER, 2024
ISBN 978-0-89641-643-7
A Needs-Based Contextual Approach to Understanding Sport Fan Motivation during the COVID-19 Pandemic — Keegan Dalal, Michael L. Naraine — The COVID-19 global health pandemic impacted the delivery of sport, creating a condition to study whether sport fans' motivations shifted. This study explores how highly-identified sport fans' motives and behaviors changed in accordance to the pandemic by analyzing their needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Framed by uses and gratification theory and self-determination theory, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 16 highly-identified sport fans revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic created barriers in participants' abilities to satisfy their needs, especially, their relatedness. Accordingly, consumers’ consumption evolved; sport increasingly became a means to socialize and to escape the frustrating reality of the pandemic. Practically, sport organizations should continue to monitor fans’ situational factors contributing to their motivation, so that the sport product can better fulfill their sought needs. Keywords: Professional Sport; Fan Behavior, Socialization, Uses and Gratification Theory, Self-Determination Theory (197-224)
Investigating the Occupational Segregation and Wage Disparities of U.S. Spectator Sports Employees in Same-Sex Cohabitating Relationships — Jeffrey D. MacCharles, Richard J. Paulsen, Lauren C. Hindman — The U.S. spectator sports industry has long lacked diversity in its workforce, and while data regarding the gender and racial make-up of that workforce is readily available, less is known about employees from other marginalized groups, such as those with marginalized sexual identities. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine if, and how, occupational segregation of sport employees with marginalized sexual identities is manifested within the industry, and if they experience wage discrepancies compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), regression analyses were used to examine the roles and wages of employees in same-sex cohabitating relationships. Results show that women and men in same-sex cohabitating relationships are overrepresented in roles associated with the opposite gender, and while, broadly, women in same-sex cohabitating relationships experience increased earnings relative to their counterparts in opposite-sex cohabitating relationships, the earnings of men in same-sex cohabitating relationships are highly role-dependent (225-256)
The State of Research Productivity and Impact in Sport Management from a Signalling Theory Perspective — Chad Seifried, Yizhou Qian, J. Michael Martinez, Per Svensson, Claire Zvosec — The present study captures information on multiple variables that help us understand information about the state of research productivity and impact at various employment statuses and specifically within research-focused institutions in sport management. The goal is to help individual faculty and programs understand their present place in the field, prompt strategic thinking about how to improve or maintain a desired level of research productivity and scholarly impact, and expand the capacity of sport management to communicate, or signal, its achievements to others in academia. Signaling theory is employed to prompt conversation and comprehension on what informational cues sport management faculty and programs use regarding their reputation that is to relevant stakeholders, including potential students, industry partners, colleagues, and employers. The present research collected information on 227 faculty from 53 programs (i.e., Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education- Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity) in the United States. (257-286)
Establishing the Need for a Multi-Dimensional Scale for Ethical Decision-Making in Sport — Tyler Yap Young, Daniel Wigfield, Kathleen Rodenburg — Using the context of Canadian sport organizations, this study aims to demonstrate the necessity of identifying and adapting a valid and reliable ethical orientation scale to enable individuals in the sports community to recognize their heuristic ethical theories and those of others. Existing literature lacked suitable ethical orientation scales for sports. Qualitative interviews with 21 Canadian sport organizations unearthed a variety of ethical dilemmas being faced by sport organizations. Themes from interview transcripts were extracted using Leximancer™. The themes addressed sports ethics aspects like Team and High-Performance Selection; Organizational Administration and Decision Making; Health and Safety; Relationships and Power; Gamesmanship; and Race, Religion, and Culture. The authors note the need for future research to establish the reliability and validity of a new scale. By understanding these inclinations and how they may influence diverse and biased decisions during ethical dilemmas, individuals can bring objectivity and a broader range of perspectives to the decision-making process, thereby enhancing outcomes. (287-315)
NUMBER 4, DECEMBER, 2024
ISBN 978-0-89641-644-4E-mail americanpress@flash.net to order PDFs of any article.
Impact of Message Framing and Team Identification on Pro-Social Behavior in Sport Team Charity Campaigns: Insights from Facial Expression and Eye-Tracking Analysis — Yongiae Kim, Soojin Kim, Eun Yeon Kang — This research investigates the effectiveness of positive versus negative message framing in charitable messages on sport team Twitter accounts. Employing facial expression and eye-tracking analysis, the study aims to: 1) assess the influence of the emotional appeals on prosocial behaviors, 2) identify their actual viewing behaviors on the charitable messages, and 3) explore the role of team identification in responses to charity messages. The findings reveal that messages eliciting feelings of sadness result in higher levels of prosocial behavior compared to those intended to evoke happiness. Further, team-related cues in cause promotions significantly capture the attention of highly identified fans. The study enhances our understanding of emotional appeals in cause promotions and provides empirical evidence supporting the role of team identification as a key motivating factor in sport team charity campaigns. These insights are valuable for sport practitioners to develop effective charity campaigns to optimize their impact. Keywords: sport team cause promotion, message framing, emotional appeals, team identification, eye-tracking, facial expression (319-344)
Biodiversity on Golf Courses: The Role of Sustainability Certifications — Jordan P. Howell, Jordan Moore, Larah-Ann Petersen, Patrick Crumrine — In this paper we examine relationships between golf courses and biodiversity. We review existing research linking biodiversity and golf. Next, we identify key ecological principles shaping a golf course’s ability to impact biodiversity. Then, we evaluate the biodiversity dimensions of two prominent golf course sustainability certification frameworks (GEO Foundation and Audubon International). We then make a qualitative assessment of how well the certification programs incorporate ecological concepts into their rating systems. Given the inherent connections between the sport of golf and the natural landscape, there are many opportunities for course owners and operators to take biodiversity factors into consideration when designing, renovating, and managing their facilities. However, positive outcomes in this area will only be achieved through careful planning and sustained commitment on the part of course managers as well as education and outreach to the golfing public. Keywords: golf, biodiversity, sustainability certification, sport management, sport ecology (345-378)
Do Fans Care about Playoff Structure? The Impact of Playoff Format on Fan Demand in Major League Soccer — Hoyoon Jung, Bomin Paek, Yoon Tae Sung — In this study, we endeavor to estimate the degree to which Major League Soccer (MLS) fans are sensitive to the MLS playoff format and its changes while controlling for three demand determinants (i.e., designated players, soccer-specific stadiums, and the Hispanic population). Using MLS average annual team attendance data from 1996 to 2017, our panel data analysis shows that the relative number of teams advancing to the playoffs plays a significant role in explaining MLS attendance. This finding implies that lowering the threshold for clinching a playoff berth could increase fan demand in MLS. Along with this finding, MLS could benefit from having a higher number of local superstars than international superstars, because we find the number of domestic designated players to be positively associated with annual attendance. Keywords: Major League Soccer, attendance, demand, playoff format, designated players (379-406)
Enhancing Causality in Sport Management Research Vinu Selvaratnam — Despite the benefits of experimental methods in getting closer to establishing causality, cross-sectional approaches still dominate quantitative studies in sport management research. This critical commentary examines randomized experiments within sport management research, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. It reflects on the dominance of cross-sectional studies in sport management and the importance of establishing causality for research results to better influence decision-making in public policy, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. The critical commentary advances sport management scholarship by advocating for the adoption of more randomized experiments and proposing future research directions that can elevate the relevance and impact of sport management research. It also provides specific recommendations for future research, highlighting the need for more randomized experiments in sport management to enhance the field's impact and relevance. (407-416)
Manuscript Guidelines for Authors (417)