Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Internship Preparedness: A Look Into The Internship Experience At St. John Fisher College, Mcquade T. Milligan

Sport Management Undergraduate

In the field of sport management, internships have been shown to be an important factor in the initial placement in the sport industry. Previous work has cited both design elements and the experience itself as being critical to internship success or failure. As the SJFC program requires two distinct required experiences, the purpose of this study was to explore the impact of these experiences on recent graduate’s confidence levels. Through survey data it was uncovered that participants who indicated a higher satisfaction with their final internship were more likely to end up in a career similar that of their last …

Perceptions Of Division I Athletic Director Career Paths, Eric A. Wood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is increased information about the profile of current collegiate athletic directors as it relates to education, age, race, and gender. However, there is a gap in the knowledge of the career paths of the modern day Division I collegiate athletic director position compared to the athletic directors studied over 20 years ago. There is also a gap in the knowledge of the skills necessary to be an effective athletic director from the perspective of Division I athletic directors. The purpose of this study was to use the Perceptions of Division I Athletic Director Career Paths (PADCP) scale to determine …

A Comprehensive Study Of Leadership Styles And Various Factors Contributing To The Success Of Athletic Teams, Christopher P. Intoppa

Selected Honors Theses

This paper involved a study of leadership styles in the realm of athletics. Using literature that had been written on the subject and examinations of particularly successful coaches over time, an accurate determination of leadership styles, qualities, and characteristics that contribute to success was able to be achieved. It was concluded that transformational leadership styles are explicitly profitable when dealing with athletes at any level of athletic competition. However, it was also discovered through research that these qualities are even more valuable if paired with an authoritative style of delivering instruction, mutual respect between coaches and players, and discipline by …

Sport, Twitter Hashtags And The Public Sphere, Brendan O'Hallarn

Human Movement Sciences & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Sport and social media researchers have been challenged to go beyond simply analyzing the content of public social media posts, and to incorporate different critical frameworks to seek more meaningful findings about these relatively new online phenomena. This three-paper format dissertation attempts to frame interactions through sport-themed Twitter hashtags sociologically by incorporating a critical theory rarely deployed in the study of sport—the public sphere. In paper one, the study introduces a theoretical model which suggests sport consumption patterns and the unique architecture of Twitter can promote public sphere-like discourse in hashtags connected to sport. The model suggests amplifiers and barriers …

Recruiting: An Act Of Trust, Krystal Evette Beachum

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The realization for incoming freshmen to be able to balance education and participate in athletics at the college level takes complete dedication. Participation in athletics has been linked with reports of growth in the individual's personality and leadership skills and with their overall satisfaction with the college experience (Ryan, 1989). Using former student-athletes as participants, the study aims to look at college athletics through the eyes of the student-athletes.

The purpose of this study offers an inside look at former Division I football student-athletes perception of the recruiting process, along with the perception of the financial agreement and the National …

Leveling The Playing Field? A Content Analysis Of Espn.Com And Espnw.Com’S Online Coverage, Rachael Caldwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare sports coverage provided by the male-centric website ESPN.com and its affiliated female-centric website ESPNW.com. The amount and type of coverage provided for female athletes was the primary focus of this study. Results suggest that ESPNW.com provides an outlet for increased coverage of women’s sports, but the type of coverage provided to female athletes is not equivalent to that of their male counterparts. These results supported findings in previous studies on mass media coverage of women’s sports, specifically coverage on the emerging field of Internet coverage.

Why We Follow: Exploring How Culture Shapes Users’ Motivation For Following Sport Organizations On Twitter And Weibo, Bo Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how culture shapes Social media users’ usage as they follow sport organizations on two similar microblogging services - Twitter and Weibo. In particular, the study attempted to measure whether Social media users exhibited different usage pattern, points of attachment, and usage motivations within two different cultural environments known as individualism and collectivism.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Social media followers were selected and invited to participant in this study. There were 839 the Lakers’ Weibo followers and 334 Twitter followers who completed an online survey facilitated on Qualtrics. The results of Multivariate analysis …

Factors Contributing To Consumer’S Buying Habits In The Online Ticketing Industry, Joe D'Agostino

Sport Management Undergraduate

Ticket scalping is a growing epidemic that has become more specialized in the online market. The online secondary ticket market thrives on consumer demand. It has been discovered that this demand in the online market is driven by factors such as trust, risk, time (availability), and popularity of the website. A cross sectional survey, using St. John Fisher students, faculty, and staff, uncovered what online secondary ticketing platform consumers use most, and why. Being able to understand what causes consumers to buy online is coveted by businesses’ and marketers. The results showed that consumers had more trust and less presumed …

The Relationship Between The Behaviors Of The Top 50 Most Endorsed Athletes In The World And The Monetary Value Of Their Endorsement Deals, Rogerio B. Ribeiro

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The top endorsed athletes in the world are most likely the ones who have the biggest impact on their sport. These athletes are usually among the best in their sport or they might have something special that creates a strong relationship between the athlete and his or her fans. It is possible to say that this relationship combined with their skills on and off of the fields, courts, or arenas is what makes these athletes special. Big companies all over the world feel attracted to these athletes and, as a result, they spend millions of dollars every year in order …

Understanding How The Southeastern Conference Football Teams Use Twitter Through A Content Analysis, Kristin Elise Pearson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The influence of Social media on intercollegiate athletic departments has been prominent in the past few years. With tight budgets, the departments are forced to find different means of marketing and promoting their brand – through embracing Social media platforms. Research on Social media and intercollegiate athletics is limited; therefore, it is necessary to research how the departments are utilizing Social media. With the agenda setting theory as a foundation, this study explores how the 14 SEC football teams are utilizing Twitter. A total of 3,176 tweets were collected from two constructed weeks. Overall, the findings show that the information …

Men Who Coach Women, Shannel Blackshear

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although Title IX helped to shape athletics in educational settings, the legislation also transformed the world of coaching. Due to the growing demand for competitive female athletics at the collegiate level, the need for qualified individuals to coach women’s sports continues to grow. As colleges and universities continue to create women’s athletic opportunities, coaching collegiate female teams has become equally competitive to coaching male athletes in terms of pay, benefits, compensation packages, and national attention (Welch & Sigelman, 2007). Despite the fact that 57% (Pilon, 2015), of female collegiate athletic teams are coached by male coaches, there is a gap …

Gendered Self-Presentation On Social Media: A Content Analysis Of Tweets From Unlv Men's And Women's Athletic Teams, Alexandra Nicole White

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines how sports teams vary by means of self-presentation on a social media

platform in relation to gender and sport. Building on Erving Goffman’s (1959) constructs of selfpresentation

and operationalizing impression management strategies, this study content analyzed

seven UNLV teams’ Tweets. The analysis spanned from August 2015 to October 2015. Every

Tweet posted, during these three months, from the seven different sporting teams was coded to

compare and contrast the men's teams accounts with the women’s teams accounts, as well as one

account that combines the men’s and women’s team on one Twitter page. The study found …

Burned Out: The Relationship Between Coaching Style And Burnout In Elite Athletes, Ethan S. Bledsoe

Sport Management Undergraduate

Sport specialization and sampling are two ways youth athletes can play sports. Athletes playing in college, at the Division III level, sample sports throughout their childhood instead of specializing in one sport. There is not a lot of specific research done for each Division in the NCAA. This study is a cross-sectional survey of students and athletes at SJFC, which is a small Division III school in Western New York. Using surveys, data was found that supports the research question that Division III athletes and students sampled sports throughout their childhoods rather than specializing. This question can help parents determine …

An Exploration Of Ticket Pricing In Intercollegiate Athletics, Craig A. Morehead

Human Movement Sciences & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Ticket sales represent a significant revenue stream for FBS athletic departments, yet little is known about how administrators determine prices for those tickets. This three-paper format dissertation is an attempt to begin filling this gap in the literature so that we may better understand ticket pricing from a managerial perspective. Paper one is conceptual in nature, and includes a review of extant ticket pricing literature and presents a research agenda for studying pricing in the unique environment of intercollegiate sport using the theoretical frameworks of stakeholder theory and institutional theory. The second and third papers are empirical examinations of ticket-pricing …

The Impact Of Dual Identities Of College Student-Athletes On Academic Performance, Stephen E. Knott

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Maintaining a balance between the dual roles of being both a student and an athlete can be challenging for many college student-athletes. While research has indicated identity conflicts exist for student-athletes because of these two roles, few investigations have analyzed the impact of having dual identities on academic performance. Using identity theory as a theoretical framework, this study sought to determine if relationships exist among athlete identity, student identity, and GPA. In addition, this study examined whether these relationships varied based on gender, race, year in school, major, and sport. A survey instrument that included the Academic and Athletic Identity …

Women's Professional Sports: A Case Study On Practices That Could Increase Their Profitability, Danielle H. Mcardle

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Women’s professional sports leagues have often been considered a risky business endeavor. Critics cite low attendance, lack of sponsorships, lack of media rights deals, and numerous other reasons for why women’s professional sports leagues are not profitable. In analyzing the current landscape of women’s professional sport leagues, this paper uses a case study approach to develop a strategy that will highlight lessons learned from past women’s professional sports leagues, current professional sports leagues, sponsorship agreements, fans, social, digital, and mobile marketing strategies, and management practices to show how the business of women’s sports could be made into a more profitable …

Aau Basketball - Participants' Perceptions Of Their Aau Experience, Hakeem R. Willis

Masters Theses

In the United States, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has become the focal point for college recruiters in searching for top talent amongst middle and high school basketball athletes. Financially, AAU basketball can be expensive, making it difficult for families to allow their children to compete. However, players feel that AAU participation is worth the investment because of the benefits, which includes collegiate exposure. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of former AAU basketball players' experience. The research question used to guide this study was: what are former AAU basketball players' perceptions of academic requirements, time/money, …