Digital Commons Network^™

College Football Revival: Analyzing The Impact Of Marketing Efforts On Key Stakeholders At A Division I Fcs Commuter School, Lucas A. Christiansen, Amanda Greene, Charles W. Jones

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The current study examined the impact of a recently restarted football program and a new on-campus stadium on the alumni and students of a Division I FCS commuter school. Results showed that alumni felt more connected to the university because of the new football program, they were more satisfied with their overall game-day experience, and the new football stadium was more likely to increase their game attendance when compared to students. Supplementary analysis highlights key differences in how each group rated individual elements of the game-day experience and the mediums used by each group for obtaining team-related information. Subscribe to …

The Retention Of Adult Sport Participants: The Challenge Of Player Ratings, Edward Horne, Matthew Brown

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The current study investigates the retention of competitive tennis players in the United States Tennis Association’s (USTA’s) adult league system to answer the following questions: What factors do participants identify as impactful to their participation in adult league tennis? How do participants believe these factors impact their retention? Results suggest participants believe the current system fails to incentivize development as competitors fail to transition successfully to a higher rating and struggle socializing into a new team. Competitors therefore seek to cheat the system. The current study illustrates the importance for league policymakers to consider unintended consequences and provides recommendations. Subscribe …

Athletic Administrators Report Of Emergency Action Plan Adoption In Secondary School Athletics: The Influence Of Athletic Training Services, Samantha E. Scarneo-Miller, Lindsay J. Distefano, Johna K. Register-Mihalik, Rebecca L. Stearns, Craig R. Denegar, Douglas J. Casa

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This study describes the emergency action plan (EAP) adoption in secondary school athletics reported by athletic administrators in the United States. Utilizing best-practice criteria, a questionnaire assessed athletic administrators’ knowledge and adoption of an EAP in their athletics program. A majority of athletic administrators reported having an EAP; however, the EAP often lacked the necessary components to be compliant with best-practice guidelines. Further, access to an athletic trainer was associated with increased EAP adoption and adopting a venue specific EAP. Athletic administrators should utilize these data to facilitate improved policy adoption and management of athletics programs.

Supporter Ownership As Entrepreneurship In American Soccer, Zachary T. Smith, R. Ethan Smith

Journal of Applied Sport Management

Entrepreneurship has been touted as a crucial lens for the future of sports management scholarship (Hardy, 1996; Ratten, 2011). Ratten (2011a) specifically proposed sport entrepreneurship “as a category of entrepreneurship that fosters economic development in the sports management field” (p. 60). Yet, to date, no scholarly literature has applied the sports-entrepreneurship lens to local football (soccer) clubs in the United States. Thus, the purpose of this article is to use the lens of sport entrepreneurship to introduce the phenomenon of supporter owned football clubs in the United States (U.S.). Through the course of this article, sport entrepreneurship will be used …

Sport Momsumers: A Modern Reexamination Of The Role That Mothers Play In Their Families’ Professional Sport Consumption, Jessica R. Braunstein-Minkove, Jennifer L. Metz

Journal of Applied Sport Management

As the role of women and, therefore, mothers has changed, so too, has their place in their families’ professional sport consumption experience. This qualitative assessment, including a demographic and consumption snapshot, provides insight into the perspective of mothers in their families’ professional sport consumption habits and intentions. Primary findings fall under the themes of Personal Priorities and Constraints. While Constraints drove the conversation, this group of women was interested in maintaining and sharing the role of sport in their lives. As such, minimal- investment recommendations are made to address the concerns that mothers have with many of these items. Subscribe …

A Descriptive Analysis Of Corporate Environmental Responsibility In Major League Professional Sport, Martin Barrett, Kyle S. Bunds, Jonathan M. Casper, Michael B. Edwards

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This article explores corporate environmentalism across North American major league professional sport through a webpage content analysis of disclosed business practices and programs. The results of the content analysis reify previous academic work, which suggests corporate environmental responsibility in professional sport is varied. Yet, the results also point to an increasingly standardized approach to integrated/operational business practices focusing on materials and resources, and energy and atmosphere, as well as campaign-based programs focusing on corporate social marketing. The findings identify an opportunity for professional team sport organizations to innovate new cause-related marketing and cause promotion programs, and point to a key …

Education Through Athletics: Interest In An Athletics Performance Curriculum, Harry Molly, Erianne A. Weight

Journal of Applied Sport Management

Intellectual and life-skill benefits of collegiate athletics participation have been doc-umented in empirical research, yet athletics-centric curricula are traditionally not offered for academic credit in higher education. This pilot study employed a survey, distributed to FBS Division I college varsity athletes, coaches, athletics administra-tors, and faculty from three Atlantic Coast Conference institutions, to explore the interest in an athletics performance minor through the lens of the Integrated View of intercollegiate athletics. The results demonstrate a moderate interest in an ath-letics performance curriculum, with 66% of those surveyed voicing support. Those most supportive were varsity athletes and coaches, while faculty were …

The Rivalry Effect: The Potential To Foster (Lapsed) Donor Giving, Katherine R. N. Reifurth, Kelly M. Evans, Jeffrey D. James, Yong Jae Ko

Journal of Applied Sport Management

Prior sport rivalry researchers have failed to examine the effects of rivalry utilizing a multidimensional approach to team identification as well as the effects of rivalries in relation to the behavioral outcomes of lapsed donors. The authors worked with the official booster club of a large public university to create three distinct email campaigns targeting lapsed donors to test the effects of framing donation requests with rivalry-themed communications. The results of this study highlight the variations in these distinct identification dimensions due to the presence of a rivalry as well as the behavioral effects a rivalry has on these lapsed …

Collaborative Innovation In Professional Sport Stadium Construction: An Event History Analysis, Sungil Hong, Mar Magnusen, Dennis Coates

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This study identifies and empirically tests a variety of potentially important deter-minants influencing new stadium construction adoption from both a team and government perspective, while also accounting for the role of diffusion effects in new stadium construction. The sample consists of 28 Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises in 26 cities in the U.S. Given the longitudinal nature of the stadium con-struction process, event history analysis (EHA) was employed as the primary sta-tistical method. Overall, 48% of the variance was explained by the research model. Diffusion effects (measured as divisional diffusion and regional diffusion) were found to be the most meaningful …

Spectator Age And Periodic Changes In Game Viewership: An Application Of Positivity And Life-Span Theory In The National Football League, Scott Tainsky, Jie Xu

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This study examines the factors that influence sport broadcast viewership, exploring the relationship between spectator age, time remaining in the season, and team success. We identify the determinants of demand for two different age groups— youth and older adults—and analyze differences in the impact of team quality and playoff probability on viewership during midseason games and those during the stretch run of the season. Ordinary least squares models are used to estimate the effects and Wald tests to establish differences between groups. Our models show local team quality increased viewership by a greater margin for youth than older adults for …

Basketball Officials' Training And Development: Links To Retention, Nathan Ferdinand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The sharp decline in retention from year-to-year among sport officials is considered a “crisis” among the officiating community and research has attempted to explore the issue by identifying factors that impact retention (Warner et al. 2013). The seven-factor “Referee Retention Scale” (RRS) seeks to predict the likelihood of retention for officials one factor being officials’ ratings of their continuing education (Ridinger et al. 2017). However there is a lack of study for examining the relationships among methods and outcomes of training continuing education and referee retention across sporting contexts. A cross-sectional design was created using an online survey which combined …

Understanding The Role Of Motivation In Professional Athletes, Michelle Gacio Harrolle, Melissa Klay

Journal of Applied Sport Management

Our study examines the overall motivation of professional athletes in an effort to assist sport organizations in understanding their most important asset, the players. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences and motivations of professional athletes within a team setting. Researchers conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 13 professional American football players. Seven themes were present within the data including a love of the game, selfmotivation, sense of community, professional development, engagement with fans, assist the league, and lack of financial support, which was identified as a deterrent to motivation. Teams should increase investment in the professional …

A Conceptual Analysis Of Performance Attributes’ Influence On Nba Attendance: Why Do Consumers Choose To Attend Games?, Mark Andrew Davis, John Miller

Journal of Applied Sport Management

Fans want to capitalize on their choices when deciding whether to attend NBA games. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual analysis regarding how overall team performances as well as offensive and defensive factors may relate to consumers choosing to attend NBA games during the 2007-2008 to 2016-2017 sea-sons. Analyzing the results through the lens of the theory of choice, the results revealed significant relationships existed primarily between attendance at NBA games and offensive capabilities of the teams. As a practical matter, consumers choose to attend games that are most likely to be offensively oriented. Subscribe to …

Choice Overload And Partial Season Ticket Sales, Clinton J. Warren, Joshua M. Lupinek

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This study utilizes a consumer choice experiment to assess if choice overload exists with partial season ticket packages of a Major League Soccer (MLS) team. Individuals were randomly assigned to one of three conditions with an increasing number of partial season ticket options. Study results indicate as the number of options available increases, buyers are more likely to feel the decision-making process was difficult and regret the decision they made. However, participants were generally satisfied to be afforded so many options, and increasing the number of ticket plan options did not appear to affect purchase intent or potential purchase satisfaction.

Small Scale Sport Events And Sustainability: A Case Study In Torres Del Paine National Park, Chile, Jennifer Valarde-Menary

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Small-scale sport events have been argued to be sustainable form of tourism development for communities (Gibson, 1999). The purpose of this study was to analyze four small-scale sport events all operated by NIGSA (Nómadas International Group SA) in the Magallanes region of Chile. The four events at the core of this study were: Patagonian Expedition Race, Patagonian International Marathon, Ultra Trail Torres del Paine, and the Ultra Fiord which operate partially or completely inside the Torres del Paine National Park. As a biosphere reserve established by the United Nations, Torres del Paine National Park requires a sustainable perspective of event …

Leadership Skills, Promoting Flow And Generating Profit: A Study Of Millennial Managers Through Gamification, Junior Badibanga

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increased number or organizations are shifting away from traditional hierarchical, command and control business strategies which focus solely on generating profit to focusing on both people and profit. In this study, Csíkszentmihályi’s flow state (1975/2000) is considered to correspond with the people side of the social enterprise model, where organizations focus on both people and profit. Csíkszentmihályi (1990) describes the flow experience as a mental state which occurs when a person is motivated and fully immersed in an activity, resulting in feelings of energized focus and profound enjoyment. The current study analyzed secondary data from 1,184 millennial managers that …

Attractive Or Aggressive? A Face Recognition And Machine Learning Approach For Estimating Returns To Visual Appearance, Guodong Guo, Brad R. Humphreys, Mohammad I. Nouyed, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

A growing literature documents the presence of appearance premia in labor markets. We analyze appearance premia in a high-profile, high-pay setting: head football coaches at bigtime college sports programs. These employees face job tasks involving repeated interpersonal interaction on multiple fronts and also act as the “face” of their program. We estimate the attractiveness of each employee using a neural network approach, a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network fine tuned for this application. This approach can eliminate biases induced by volunteer evaluators and limited numbers of photos. We also use this approach to estimate the perceived aggressiveness of each employee based …

The Impact Of Alcohol Consumption On Academic Success And Athletic Identity In Collegiate Student-Athletes, Zoe E. Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Upon entering college in the United States, students are exposed to alcohol and, relatedly, the potentially dangerous experiences and effects that come with consuming alcohol. This is especially true for collegiate student-athletes, who have been found to have the highest consumption rate among student groups on campus. The purpose of the study was to understand the relationship between how student-athletes at a focus university, a Division I member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, experience alcohol consumption, how their consumption affects their academic grade point average (GPA), and how athletic identity plays a role in their experiences. While the research …

African American Student-Athletes: Factors Influencing Choice Of Graduate School, Tanner Feterl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although support systems are in place for student-athletes, African Americans remain underrepresented in careers requiring a graduate education, including intercollegiate athletic departments (Okahana, Feaster, & Allum, 2016). The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the factors influencing an NCAA Mid-major, Division I African American student-athletes’ choice of pursuing graduate school. Researchers identified themes utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Student Involvement Theory frameworks to explain the influencing factors. The participants consisted of nine African American sophomore, junior, and senior student-athletes who participated in different sports and were chosen using purpose sampling. Each participant took part in an …

Ua3/4/9 President's Office-Downing Scrapbooks, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Scrapbooks created during Dero Downing's tenure as president of WKU.

Analysis Of Factors Influencing College Choice Decisions Of Mid-Major Ncaa Division I Swimmers, Kaden Huntrods

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student-athletes face an ever-increasing challenge of selecting a higher education institution that meets their desired criteria academically and athletically. Coaches and recruiters have sought to discover how to best recruit student-athletes over the history of college athletics. Understanding these factors can assist coaches and athletes to create athletic programs to best fit the desired student-athletes. This study examined the factors that influence the college selection process of mid-major NCAA Division I, male and female swimmers. The instrument utilized in this study was the Student Athlete College Choice Profile Survey (SACCPS). The participants included 141 student-athletes from seven mid-major NCAA Division …

Advising Student-Athletes For Success: Predicting The Academic Success And Persistence Of Collegiate Student-Athletes, April A. Brecht, Dana D. Burnett

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Stakeholders at institutions across the United States are continuously looking for ways to improve the academic success and retention of students. We used logistical regression in an examination of noncognitive, cognitive, and demographic factors as predictors of academic success and retention of Division I first-year student-athletes. The results indicated that high school GPA is the best predictor for academic success. The Transition to College Inventory index, self-confidence, institutional commitment, and independent activity focus can be used in the prediction of academic success. Retention was most accurately predicted by students' first-year cumulative GPA. University advisors can use the results of this …

Talkin' Black: African American English Usage In Professional African American Athletes, Kaela Fong

Scripps Senior Theses

Sports play an important role in the culture of the United States as does language, so the choice to use non-Standard dialects in a nation that privileges the Standard and negatively judges dialectical differences, especially those spoken by mostly people of color, is not undertaken lightly. Because of this privileging of Standard American English, it is assumed that only professional African American athletes are allowed to keep their native dialect if it is African American English (AAE) and still be successful. However, this is complicated by the historical and present increased criticisms women face in both sport and language. To …

Entertainment Design In Mixed Martial Arts: Does Cage Size Matter?, Paul Gift

Journal of Applied Sport Management

This paper investigates the effect of a change in cage size on fighter performance outcomes in Zuffa-owned mixed martial arts (MMA) promotions. Variation in cage size is observed through different events over time in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC). Results suggest that smaller cages lead to more fight finishes (knockouts and submissions) and higher rates of distance knockdowns and choke attempts, all exciting outcomes for viewers. But they also lead to a higher proportion of time with fighters pressed against the cage, a position some viewers may dislike. Since MMA promoters com-pete with other forms …

Making A Difference: Bridging The Gap Between The Ivory Tower And The Community, Dan Rascher

Journal of Applied Sport Management

Keynote address given at the 2019 ASMA Conference as part of the Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony.

Martin School Alumni Survey, Carl Sims

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Martin School of Public Policy and Administration is subject to reaccreditation from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) every seven years. To initiate the reaccreditation process, the Martin School must conduct a programmatic self-study that analyzes the program’s mission, governance, faculty, students, competencies, resources, and communication. The self-study is beneficial not only for the purpose of reaccreditation but also can better inform the school’s strategic planning process

To assist in providing the self-study relevant data, the Martin School can solicit information from its alumni. Alumni data can be used to establish how well the …

A Tale Of Two Airlines: A Comparative Case Study Of High-Road Versus Low-Road Strategies In Customer Service And Reputation Management, Donna Roberts, John C. Griffith

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Does customer service - good or bad - really matter? Customer surveys from Ryanair and Southwest Airline passengers were examined to determine their perceptions regarding customer service for the period of 2012-2013. Southwest Airlines (n=149) was rated significantly higher than Ryanair (n=165) in overall rating (p=.0228), seat comfort (p

Instant Replay As A Tool For Correcting Human Error In College Basketball: A Historical Analysis, Matthew Hammond

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Sport has grown into one of the largest and most profitable businesses in the United States. With gambling now coming onto the scene more than ever before on top of player salaries in professional leagues and collegiate head coaches’ salaries sky-rocketing, there is more pressure than ever being put on officials to get things right and ensure the integrity of games. A tool utilized in most major competition at the professional and collegiate level is instant replay. Instant replay is something officials can use to analyze a previous ruling to determine if the right call was made or if something …

Fighting Cancer With Purpose: Best Practices For Charity Event Planning, Emily Bower

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The 2017-2018 school year was the first year The University of Akron competed in the Bateman competition, a national public relations competition. The Bateman competition challenges students to research, execute, and evaluate a public relations plan within their college campus and the surrounding community. Two teams at The University of Akron successfully created and implemented a plan that benefitted the non-profit With Purpose, an organization dedicated to increasing funding and research efforts allocated toward pediatric cancer. As a member of one of those teams, the author was responsible for planning the Bateman team’s large event during the implementation period. This …

Managing The Business Of Soccer: A Conceptual Framework, Sten Söderman, James Santomier

WCBT Faculty Publications

In recent years soccer (i.e., European football) has experienced rapid globalization, primarily due to increased integration of sponsorship agreements, foreign investment, private equity, digital media technologies and effective executive leadership. Manchester United, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, and other high-level European soccer clubs are now owned or managed by investors, with the ostensible objective of generating ancillary benefits or significant profits. Historically, however, the ownership of unprofitable and often relegated soccer clubs was overwhelmingly in the hands of wealthy sport enthusiasts as sole proprietors. Given the recent and often dramatic changes in the business of soccer, the primary purpose of this chapter …