Managing sport for social change: The state of play

Sport-for-development (SFD) provides a platform for sport to be used as a tool or “hook” to contribute to positive outcomes in areas including economic development, social inclusion, cultural cohesion, healthy lifestyles, education, gender equity, as well as reconciliation and peacebuilding. The area of sport for social change (SFSC) represents a sub-field of SFD that uses sport as a catalyst to build social capacity and develop socially and physically healthy communities. The Managing Sport for Social Change special issue of Sport Management Review brings together a collection of conceptual advances, empirical research papers and teaching case studies from a range of social and cultural perspectives, with a focus on managing sport for social change; aimed at engaging critically with sport management theory and praxis, and discussing associated practical and policy implications. Theoretical gaps and recommendations for future research, including: local engagement, innovative research methodology, and a broadening of the scope of research are also discussed.     

Introducing a Sport Experience Design (SX) framework for sport consumer behaviour research

Sport Management Review celebrates 20 years of publishing research, and this milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on sport consumer research and offer possible directions for scholarship. This article utilizes a panel of 17 academic scholars to examine sport consumer research published in SMR as an exemplar; and then, more broadly, how to enhance sport consumer research and identify future trends in the sport industry. This information, combined with an article analysis, revealed two key findings. First, the quality of scholarship was acknowledged with noted weaknesses related to improving and diversifying methodology, stronger attention to theoretical development, and relevance to industry. Second, traditional boundaries of sport consumer research will expand due to technology, a broadening sport landscape, and links to other academic disciplines. In order to account for industry trends and address noted theoretical limitations, a Sport Experience Design (SX) framework is introduced, which consists of three interrelated elements: (a) the sport context in which a sport consumer navigates through an experience and interacts with touchpoints, (b) the sport user, with mental processes, psychological needs, and personal characteristics, and (c) the sport organization, which produces the sport experience to achieve organizational goals. The framework provides a holistic consumer-centred approach that considers cognitive, organizational, and physical relevant design factors that enhance customer satisfaction and engagement by improving use and pleasure of sport experiences.     

Governing bodies of sport as knowledge brokers in Sport-for-All communities of practice

Delivering Sport-for-All is a major challenge for sport organizations and policy-makers worldwide. Sport-for-All is a practical activity and a knowledge intensive field, characterized by dispersed knowledge creation and sharing processes involving numerous agencies, professionals and volunteers; in other words, it is a community of practice. Communities of practice are vehicles that allow knowledge sharing and creation in intensive and dispersed settings. Learning in communities is enhanced by knowledge brokers, a role typically assumed by governing bodies of sport as part of their formal mandates. In this study, the authors use a community of practice lens to look at Sport-for-All. The authors collected and analyzed data on Sport-for-All communities on the regional (Flanders), national (Australia and England), and international (Sport and Development) level by interviewing key people in each of the communities, and by interrogating virtual knowledge repositories (websites) and public web-based data. Results indicated the existence of Sport-for-All communities of practice with governing bodies of sport acting as brokers in those communities for sharing knowledge, exploration of new ideas, and knowledge creation. However, governing bodies of sport are not strategically exploiting the full potential of online tools to enhance the communities. They ought to focus on supporting the communities by taking a more strategic approach and using new media tools, and let the community of practice standards emerge instead of determining them.     

Competition,gender and the sport experience: an exploration among college athletes

Worldwide, sport and physical activity rates of women generally lag behind those of men. One reason for this could be the way that sport cultures typically frame and value competition. This study provides an examination of the meaning and impact of ‘competition’ on the sport participation experiences of men and women. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, individual and group interviews were conducted with 76 current and former male and female collegiate athletes from both varsity and club sports regarding the impact of competition on their sport experiences. Results revealed that women and men tended to view and interpret competition differently, which strongly impacted their sport experiences. Sport programming that embraces a balance of cooperation and competition may be valuable for attracting and retaining both male and female participants.     

eSport management: Embracing eSport education and research opportunities

Consumer demand for eSport and the growth of organized video game competitions has generated considerable attention from the sport, event, and entertainment industries. eSport therefore represents a novel and popular area for sport management academics to conduct research, educate students, and service industry. However, despite growth and acceptance by consumers and practitioners, academics debate eSport’s position within the domain of sport management, their debates largely concentrated around the question of whether eSport can be classified as sport. In this article, the authors argue for the inclusion of organized eSport events and competitions within sport management vis-à-vis eSport’s meeting certain defining criteria of sport in general. eSport’s connection to traditional sport and defining characteristics are addressed to support eSport’s role as a sport entertainment product recognized by industry as representing a substantial growth opportunity for sport and related organizations. As eSport continues to evolve, practitioners face managerial challenges that are similar to those in traditional sport, particularly in areas of governance and diversity. Sport management academics should embrace the potential of eSport in order to examine this evolution and provide guidance to industry through education and research.     

世界大众体育大会的演进及启示

通过文献资料、专家访谈、历史分析等方法,对国际大众体育兴起的社会背景进行深入分析。在此基础上分析并阐述了国际奥委会为推进大众体育在全球的开展,在国际奥委会中设立了大众体育委员会专门机构,考察了世界大众体育大会及世界大众体育运动会的创立和发展,并对世界大众体育大会对国际大众体育的影响进行回顾。最后,以历届世界大众体育大会的主题为线索,探寻促进我国大众体育发展的科学路径。     

A Hole in One: Sport and Environment

Abstract

Sport history is a subfield well positioned to involve and benefit from an interdisciplinary approach to historical actors and spaces. Through the use of personal research and teaching experiences that focuses on the intersection between environmental history and those of sport, this piece explores the value in such an interdisciplinary structure through the examples of researching golf courses as transnational sporting landscapes and of teaching sport and leisure cultures to a diverse student body with high levels of engagement.     

Exploring PERMA in spectator sport: Applying positive psychology to examine the individual-level benefits of sport consumption

Sport spectating provides numerous benefits for sport organisations and individuals. In this paper we use a positive psychology approach to examine the individual-level benefits of sport consumption in order to investigate the activation of five domains of well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment (PERMA). Using a two-study panel research design, we collected qualitative data from a sample of Australian Rules Football consumers. In the first study, we explored how the PERMA domains were activated during the season. Study two included a follow-up interview with eight initial respondents in the off-season. We found evidence of four PERMA domains that were activated in the sport spectator context by a variety of consumer experiences. The emergence of these domains in both studies suggests sport marketers would benefit from actions including: creating more social spaces within their stadiums, hosting regular off-season events, and creating social-media based competitions which promote fan engagement and interactions throughout the calendar year.     

Towards a critical sport heritage: implications for sport tourism

ABSTRACT

This paper reflects upon the development and increased acceptance for heritage becoming a key component of sport tourism research. The original sport heritage typology, as posited by Ramshaw and Gammon [2005, More than just Nostalgia? Exploring the heritage/sport tourism nexus. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 10(4), 229–241], is re-examined through a more critical lens, revealing additional dimensions that help augment its key components. More specifically, it is argued that future studies should consider the more intangible features of sport heritage, as well as acknowledging the expanding global nature of sport and its impact upon fandom. Also, the case is made for research to explore the dissonance inherent in much of sports heritage, as well as determining where the power lies in allocating and championing current sport heritages. Lastly, the more general implications to the field of sport tourism are offered with particular regard to motivation, place, and consumption.     

‘You look like a machito!’: a decolonial analysis of the social in/exclusion of female participants in a Colombian sport for development and peace organization

Abstract

This article critically explores the relationship between the gendered nature of sport in Colombia and girls and young women’s social in/exclusion in football (soccer) through the lived experiences of female participants involved in a local Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) organization. Building on 6 months of ethnographic fieldwork and Lave and Wenger’s theory of Community of Practice (CoP), I explore the complex and connected gendered social elements that constrain girls and young women’s participation. Analyzing these processes and mechanisms through a decolonial lens, I reveal the existence of colonial residues that perpetuate and reinforce females positioning as peripheral actors in sport. The findings demonstrate how female participants are required to negotiate spaces with contradictory gendered meanings and confirm that social transformation within masculine structures is difficult to achieve. This research encourages SDP researchers to further engage with decolonial theory.     

试论职业联赛表演业产业链的构成要素特点

随着我国提出从＂体育大国＂迈向＂体育强国＂的发展方针,联赛表演业的发展已成为引领我国迈向＂体育强国＂的关键之一。本文从联赛表演业的产业链视角出发,在找准其产业链构成要素的基础上,重点对产业链构成要素的特点进行分析,以求为联赛表演业产业链的良好运转提供理论依据。     

Effects of different policy approaches on sport facility utilisation strategies

The consequences of subsidising sport facilities have so far not been a focus of sport facilities research. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework for assessing the effects that different public subsidies have on the utilisation of private non-profit sport facilities. Based on theories drawn from the public administration literature three different subsidy schemes are introduced: New Public Management, Governance and Budget. How they will influence the utilisation of a sport facility is assessed using insights from institutional and motivational theory from political science along with the role the voluntary sport organisations play in sport facilities. The resulting conceptual framework consists of twelve different strategies. It is argued that it is likely that a sport facility will choose one or more of these, and which strategies it chooses will impact the level of utilisation. The aim of the article is to show plausible conjectures for future empirical research into how to increase sport facility utilisation via different policies and thus inform future research into the complex interplay between the public sector, sport facilities and voluntary sport organisations.     

Managing sport for health: An introduction to the special issue

Sport is often viewed as vehicle to achieve positive health outcomes. While sport's potential to contribute to health is rarely disputed, sport is not always managed in ways that specifically prioritise health objectives, and evidence regarding sport's contribution to health has been inconsistent to date. This special issue was designed to advance a research agenda in relation to the management of sport for health. Articles published in the special issue examine sport management practices that impact health, both positively and negatively. The authors identified three overarching themes, with respect to how sport can be managed towards the achievement of health outcomes: sport should be aligned with community needs and should be empowering; sport should be adaptable and evolving to ensure sport culture values health; and, sport organisations should leverage partnership for health to promote organisational sustainability. In future research, scholars are encouraged to further examine the three identified themes and expand on other findings presented in the special issue, towards a stronger evidence base in relation to the management of sport for health. Opportunities exist to continue to advance knowledge regarding the potential for management strategies, models, and practices to lead to positive-and importantly, negatives-health outcomes through sport. If sport management scholars and practitioners are to meaningfully contribute to health agendas, health objectives must play a central role in reshaping sport systems and strategies toward the achievement of such outcomes.     

The uniqueness of sport: Testing against marketing's empirical laws

Two key law-like patterns – the double jeopardy and duplication of purchase laws – have consistently been found to explain and predict consumer behavior across a wide range of industries. There has been speculation that these empirical generalisations may not hold in the case of professional team sport brands. The reasons given include the passionate loyalty of sport fans, the fact that two sport teams must be consumed at once in any contest, and the strong geographic dominance of sport brands. In this study, we examine the applicability of these two law-like generalisations to professional team sport. With a few caveats, these law-like patterns hold, suggesting that sport team brands operate in line with what is known about other consumer markets. Results suggest the unique aspects of the sport market do not meaningfully impact consumer behavior and therefore sport brands should be managed in fundamentally the same way as most consumer markets.     

Challenges for sport development: Women's entry level cycling participation

Sport participation is an issue of relevance to sport managers, yet it is an often-neglected area of sport management research. Cycling is a particularly complex form of participation to examine given its many formats, including sport, recreational and commuter cycling, and the multifaceted nature of the cycling landscape involving a broad range of stakeholders. In Australia, women are underrepresented in cycling participation and membership (ABS, 2012, CA, 2014), yet women show an interest in cycling training courses. The present paper explores motivations, supports and constraints reported by a group of entry-level female cyclists who participated in a training programme accredited by AustCycle, an initiative led by Cycling Australia. We draw on a health and sport development driven framework, informed by social ecological theory (Rowe et al., 2013), and suited to examining the issue of women's cycling participation in Australia. Results show that a range of individual characteristics, and factors within the social and physical environment, were perceived by study participants as barriers to participation. Of these, skill level, confidence, traffic/road conditions, and social support networks held particular relevance. Participants also discussed specific cycling barriers and supports of relevance to certain forms of cycling. Preliminary insights into perceptions held by a group of entry-level female cyclists highlight overlaps between cycling formats and indicate that conceptual advancements in the development of sport, and development through sport could be collectively considered in the context of women's cycling participation. Further research opportunities were also identified.     

新时代我国《体育法》修改的理念重构与路径研究

《体育法》作为指导、规范体育事业发展的部门法,在推动体育事业发展,加快法治进程中有着重要的地位。中国现行的《体育法》颁布于1995年,已经严重滞后于时代发展的需求,存在着不少的问题。因此,新时代体育事业的发展必然要倒退《体育法》的修改与完善。文章从此出发,首先介绍了中国《体育法》立法历程与现状,继而从依宪立法、法治理念、多元法治、良法善治四个角度阐述了《体育法》的修改理念,最后就如何修改《体育法》提出了对策建议,包括加强《体育法》基本内容修改、加大群众体育立法保障、增设体育产业章节内容、增设"体育纠纷解决"章节内容等。     

Leader prototypicality in sport: The implicit leadership theories of women and men entering sport management careers

Implicit leadership theories (ILTs) matter because they are used as the benchmark against which people determine who is a leader and who is not. This assessment informs their behavioral responses. People are thought to have a superordinate-level ILT representing their prototypical mental model of leadership and a series of basic-level ILTs. Each of these represents how people conceptualize leadership in particular domains (e.g., sport, politics, and popular culture). In this study, the authors generate the structures of basic-level sport management ILTs for women and men who are about to enter this industry. These form the baseline from which socialization to work, organizational cultures, and the sport management industry begins. The ILTs of women entering sport management careers have a 35-item, 6-factor structure (Sensitivity, Knowledgeable, Physical Attractiveness, Inspirational, Dedication, and Focused), whereas men entering the industry have a 32-item, 7-factor structure (Sensitivity, Dedication, Physical Attractiveness, Focused, Creativity, Inspirational, Courageous). The resulting sport management ILT profiles differ from superordinate ones by emphasizing physical and vitality attributes, incorporating emotional elements, and by eschewing antiprototypical elements. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications for leadership research in sport management.     

我国体育产业立法的完善

体育产业在我国兴起的时间较晚，发展时间较短，体育产业立法在内容和形式方面存在不少缺陷，必须予以完善。在完善我国体育产业立法时应遵循适应社会与体育产业发展的原则、完整统一的原则和协调均衡的原则，并对体育中介服务业、竞赛表演业、健身娱乐业、咨询培训业方面的立法完善等予以阐述。     

Sport Education as a pedagogical application for ethical development in physical education and youth sport

The purpose of this paper is to consider four pedagogical applications within the Sport Education model to examine the ways in which a young person can become a literate sports person and develop ethical behaviour through engagement in physical education and youth sport. Through a systematic review of the Sport Education research literature we present evidence to suggest that although notions such as inclusion, responsibility and ownership, personal and social development and social justice are part of the architecture of this pedagogical model, our findings show that rather than simply being caught, ethical conduct must be taught. Consequently, in the final part of the paper, we present four pedagogical applications within Sport Education that physical education teachers as well as youth sport practitioners and administrators may find useful to promote ethical development: (1) ethical contracts; (2) sports panels; (3) modified games; and (4) awards and rewards.