IJSM Contents & Abstracts Volume 26, (2025)
NUMBER 1, MARCH, 2025
ISBN 978-0-89641-645-1
Examining the Support Systems Necessary for High School Sport Practitioners to Manage the Athletic Director-Head Coach Dual Role — Tyler Ratts — 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:role conflict, role overload, support system, high school athletics, athletic director, head coach (1-22)
An Toxicity within the Women’s Sport Social Media Discourse — Megan C. Piché, Michael L. Naraine — Social media (SM) has become an important pillar of sport marketing communication, offering a unique proposition for women’s sport, a historically marginalized sporting vertical, to grow. However, the increased use of SM also poses the risk of toxic behaviors rising that harm inclusive and supportive discussion between fans. This study explored toxicity within the women’s sport discourse. Twitter and Reddit posts from the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) were collected on over four periods (i.e., the pre-season, in-season, playoff, and off-season), and were juxtaposed to the analogous men’s league, including the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Soccer (MLS). Using Communalytic and Perspective Application Programming Interface, toxicity analyses suggest that toxicity does indeed exist within the women’s sport online discourse, with Reddit exhibiting slightly more toxicity than Twitter. Given these findings, women’s sport organizations should adopt proactive strategies on SM to assist in the moderation of toxic discussion. Keywords: women’s sport, social media, fan engagement, digital imagined communities (23-50)
The Influence of the Market-Driven Private Youth Sport Setting on Sport Delivery: A Multi-Level Approach to Understanding the Coaches’ Perspective — Edward Horne, Luke Mao, Matthew Bowers, Gemma Miller — The authors explore the influence of the private youth sport setting’s market-driven environment on the delivery of sport from the coaches’ perspective. The context of tennis was used to recruit a sample of 20 private sport program coaches based in the United States. Semi-structured interviews and one focus group, guided by a multilevel framework were used to understand coaches’ perspective of how the private sport setting influences coaches and sport delivery. Findings show coaches contend with an environment where revenue generation is the overwhelming priority. Coaches believe it necessary to conform to the expectations of their environment and sport program for the sake of their livelihoods, while acknowledging the detrimental effect their conformity has on the quality of sport they deliver. Suggestions for addressing suboptimal sport delivery include rethinking how sport programs incentivize coaches and alternative youth competition formats. Keywords: youth sport; coaches; multilevel framework; sport delivery (51-78)
Perceptions of Leader Character for Sport Performance: The Athlete-Coach Dyadic Relationship — Corey Crossan, Karen Danylchuk — This study examined perceptions of character dimensions for sport performance through the athlete-coach relationship using quantitative methodology. Intercollegiate athletes from an Ontario university were the focus of the study. The leader character framework (LCF) was employed consisting of 11 interconnected and equally important dimensions of character that work together to support excellence (Crossan et al., 2017). Whereas management research has established the importance of all leader character (LC) dimensions to ensure potential virtues do not operate as vices, the findings revealed that athletes perceived courage and drive to be more beneficial than integrity, transcendence, and justice for sport performance. Further, athletes valued the LC dimensions similarly to how they perceived their coaches to value the dimensions, indicating a relationship between athlete-coach perspectives. Overall, it appears perceptions of LC may be undermining sport performance and coaches play a role in those perceptions. Keywords: leader character, sport performance, coaching, leadership development (79-106)
Stand Up and Ball: Fan Perceptions and Reactions to Activism by NBA Teams — Jesus Tamayo, Farzaneh Kosari, Natasha T. Brison — Amid a global pandemic and a halted NBA season, worldwide focus shifted to the broadly shared death of George Floyd. It was not long until the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its affiliates publicly supported the Black Lives Matter movement on social media. Utilizing thematic analysis, this study, within the corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework, assessed how NBA team activism influenced fan support and purchase intention. Applying Balance Theory, perceptions of NBA fans were analyzed through interactions with NBA team accounts from May 26 to June 26, 2020. Results showed that a positive balance enhanced fan perceptions, support for the league and teams, and purchase intent. However, CSR conflicts related to a negative balance emerged, including themes like race-related comments. These findings underscore the significance and complexities of CSR initiatives in sports organizations, emphasizing the alignment of these efforts with fan values to shape responses effectively. Keywords: activism, purchase intention, fan support, black lives matter, corporate social responsibility (107-132)
NUMBER 2, JUNE, 2025
ISBN 978-0-89641-646-8E-mail americanpress@flash.net to order PDFs of any article.
Perceived Quality Differences between Minor League Baseball Classes— David Bojanic, Rajiv Kashyap — This paper examines three main dimensions of sporting event quality (physical environment, game experience, and social experience) and their impact on spectator satisfaction. The paper also compares perceived quality and objective quality in minor league baseball. A survey was conducted on fans and spectators for a minor league baseball team that included scales for the components of the means end value chain. A structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships between the components. Social experience and game experience are both directly related to spectator satisfaction as well as having an indirect effect through perceived quality. The physical environment only impacts satisfaction indirectly through perceive quality. There is no difference in perceived quality when objective quality changes. Minor league baseball teams and other non-major league sporting events should focus on the social experience when designing the service and its accompanying activities.Keywords: perceived quality, minor league baseball, social experience, game experience (137-161)
Great Resignation in Sports? Examining Post-Pandemic Changes in Employee Attitudes toward Sport Employment — Lauren C. Hindman, Elizabeth Taylor, Martha D. McGrath-Brown, Elizabeth Knapp — The COVID-19 pandemic triggered changes to sport employment, including fur¬loughs, layoffs, and remote work arrangements. The long-term effects of these changes on industry workers are not yet fully understood. The purpose of this study was to examine how employee attitudes toward professional and collegiate sport organiza¬tions have changed since March 2020 and what role changes in work-life interface and employees’ identification with their work play in these attitudes. Findings demon¬strate that pre-pandemic, sport employees exhibited strong identification with the in¬dustry, which contributed to overwork behaviors, burnout, and an unbalanced work-life interface. The pandemic led participants to re-evaluate priorities and seek greater flexibility from their jobs, attitudes which persisted after the pandemic subsided. Such findings reveal how external events can change sport employees’ career orientations, the potential downsides of highly identified employees, the impact of burnout on em¬ployee well-being, and the expectation for more flexible work arrangements in the sport industry. Keywords: Work-Life Interface, Sport Employee Identification, Burnout, Employee Well-Being, Career Shocks, Career Orientations (162-192)
Rock Climbing to New Heights: Developing Active Sport Tourism in Saudi Arabia — Richard J. Buning, Faisal Alessa, Milly Chen — Active sport tourism sees tourists travel globally to participate in sport in stunning natural areas (e.g., mountain biking, surfing), of which developing counties have abundantly and are interested in the economic and social benefits. But developing countries typically lack resources beyond the natural areas to develop active sport tourism with the local community and sustainability in mind. Thus, this study inves¬tigated the processes, including challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) from the supply side of developing rock-climbing based tourism in Saudi Arabia. In-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders (N = 14) from the climbing national governing body, tourism ministry, climbing business owners, and the climbing community. The findings revealed three key elements, (1) sport-based community and pioneers as the driving forces, (2) tourism and sport infrastructure and assets as en¬ablers, and (3) regulations and policy setting as stabilizers, of which numerous con¬nected challenges and CSFs were identified. Keywords: tourism development, developing countries, stakeholders, critical success factors, sustainability, community (193-221)
Don’t Turn Your Back: Revisiting the nWo Hollywood vs. Wolfpac Rivalry through the Lens of Social Identity Theory — Hayden Coombs,, Braden Bagley, Bill Kershisnik, Skyler Coombs — This article utilizes Social Identity Theory (SIT) to analyze the internal rivalry between nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac within World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Initially presented as a cohesive unit aimed at disrupting the status quo, the New World Order (nWo)—led by Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash—fractured into two factions: nWo Hollywood, maintaining the original black-and-white identity un¬der Hogan, and nWo Wolfpac, adopting a distinct red-and-black brand led by Nash. By applying SIT, this study explores how social categorization, group identification, and intergroup comparisons shaped the behaviors of both wrestlers and fans, leading to a pronounced in-group versus out-group dynamic. Drawing on televised matches, promotional content, and fan interactions, this analysis highlights the strategic use of identity markers and rivalry to drive engagement and loyalty. The findings illustrate how principles of SIT can be applied to sport organizations to enhance fan engagement strategies and manage internal team dynamics, suggesting new avenues for research and offering practical insights for sport managers and educators. Keywords: Social identity theory, Professional wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, Group dynamics, Identity formation (222-230)
Expanding the Landscape of Commitment Research in Sport Management: A Case of Multi-Foci Commitment Research — J. Michael Martinez, Molly Harry, Mandy Barefoot — Commitment research in sport management has been a focal point of organizational behavior for quite some time. From an employee perspective, these targets of commit¬ment have generally been aimed toward the organization or career. This present commentary argues that while organizational/occupational commitment focus has been on singular or dual targets mentioned above, there is a growing body of literature that suggests commitments are more inline as part of an overall commitment system or incorporate multiple foci of those commitments. These multiple foci, however, has been relatively under-explored within sport management literature. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to build a case for expanding on the current landscape of commitment-related research in sport management, specifically introducing multi-foci commitment and commitment systems theory and how this can be applied in sport management. Keywords: organizational commitment, career commitment, sport commitment (231-241)
Manuscript Guidelines for Authors (242)