Stakeholder influence strategies in bidding for a professional sport franchise license

This paper examines an application for a franchise license in Australia's professional rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Frooman's (1999) typology of stakeholder influence strategies is used to analyse the negotiation of resource relationships between a Gold Coast franchise bid team and its key stakeholders. Primary data came from 12 interviews with nine key actors in the bid process; these were buttressed by secondary data. Frooman's typology provided a useful heuristic, but did not fully account for the critical role of firm legitimacy in stakeholders’ choice of influence strategies. The bid team negotiated stakeholders’ initial direct withholding strategies by creating access to the intangible resource of legitimacy. This subsequently provided access to material resources such as finance, a new stadium, and, ultimately, a franchise license. The findings are of note to practitioners and scholars interested professional sport and stakeholder theory.     

Gender representation in Japanese EFL textbooks – a corpus study

This paper seeks to investigate whether the Japanese government’s attempt to promote a ‘gender-equal’ society in recent decades and the improved status of women are reflected in patterns of gender representation in Japanese English as a foreign language textbooks. The study made an analysis of four popular series of English language textbooks published in 2011 for local Japanese students with corpus linguistic tools (e.g. concordancing, keyword in context) to investigate the ratio of female-to-male appearances, the extent of use of gender-neutral and gender-marked constructions, the common adjectives associated with women and men, the common address titles for reference to women, and the order of appearance of women and men. The findings revealed some evidence of gender equity, including common use of gender-inclusive vocabulary (e.g. salesclerk, waitperson) and the neutral address title Ms for women. The ‘male-first’ phenomenon, however, is still prevalent in contemporary Japanese textbooks, suggesting the secondary status of women. Variations were found in different series of textbooks pertaining to the representation of women and men in the domains of quantitative balance and gender stereotyping. It is suggested that specific guidelines be compiled by the education authorities to help textbook authors write educational materials that help promote a gender-fair society in Japan.     

Bitcoin research across disciplines

Over the last few years, research on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has snowballed across many disciplines: technical fields, economics, law, public policy, finance, accounting, and others. As the uses of blockchain technology behind Bitcoin expand, more disciplines will be drawn to its study and the research will greatly expand. This paper provides an assessment of the current state of the literature. From a comprehensive search of the literature that resulted in an original sample of 13,507 results, a final sample of 1,206 papers on Bitcoin are categorised and mapped across six disciplines.     

Validating a shortened form of the ARC for special populations

Autonomy describes cognition or behavior that is self-directed, according to personal interests, and free from external influence. This construct is of importance to students who are deaf because it has been shown to be positively related to their post-school transition outcomes, and this population faces unique challenges in this area. To conduct research with this construct, it is necessary to use measures that are valid and reliable for the population of interest. Therefore, a set of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses validated the unidimensionality of a shortened form of the ARC Self-Determination Scale’s autonomy dimension. A three-factor solution, including a social skills dimension, was measurement-invariant across many groups of students, including those with learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, speech and language impairments, and other health impairments. Although the shortened form of this scale was not unidimensional, as hypothesized, the generalizability of its measurement properties may prove useful. Discussion highlights the differences between these three dimensions and Wehmeyer's theory of self-determination.     

Evaluation of the Redesign of an Undergraduate Cell Biology Course

This article offers a case study of the evaluation of a redesigned and redeveloped laboratory-based cell biology course. The course was a compulsory element of the biology program, but the laboratory had become outdated and was inadequately equipped. With the support of a faculty-based teaching improvement project, the teaching team redesigned the course and re-equipped the laboratory, using a more learner-centered, constructivist approach. The focus of the article is on the project-supported evaluation of the redesign rather than the redesign per se. The evaluation involved aspects well beyond standard course assessments, including the gathering of self-reported data from the students concerning both the laboratory component and the technical skills associated with the course. The comparison of pre- and postdata gave valuable information to the teaching team on course design issues and skill acquisition. It is argued that the evaluation process was an effective use of the scarce resources of the teaching improvement project.     

Self-belief does make a difference: A reciprocal effects model of the causal ordering of physical self-concept and gymnastics performance

Abstract

A large body of research in support of the reciprocal effects model of causal ordering demonstrates that prior academic self-concept predicts subsequent academic achievement beyond what can be explained in terms of prior achievement. Here we evaluate the generalizability of this support for the reciprocal effects model to a physical activity context in which achievement is reflected in gymnastics skills on a standardized gymnastics performance test evaluated by expert judges. Based on the responses of 376 adolescents collected at the start (T1) and end (T2) of a gymnastics training programme, there is support for a reciprocal effects model in which there are significant paths leading from both T1 gymnastics self-concept to T2 gymnastics skills and from T1 gymnastics skills to T2 self-concept. Although there were gender and age effects (girls and older participants had better gymnastics skills, boys had higher self-concepts), multiple group structural equation models indicated that support for the reciprocal effects model generalized over responses by boys and girls. In summary, self-concept and performance are both determinants and consequences of each other.     

Prediction of Basketball Skill Using Biomechanical Variables

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the use of selected biomechanical variables in the prediction of basketball skill. The subjects were college women in three mutually exclusive groups of basketball skill: an elite group of six competitors on the United States team in the World University Games, a good group of seven players on a varsity team, and a poor group of nine members of an instructional class. An accuracy test and digitized film records provided the data for 12 variables related to the process or product of free throw shooting. Discriminant analysis was employed to predict the categorical variable of skill. The most discrimination came from variables of accuracy, stability, and height of release rather than from variables of projection. Poor shooters were distinguished by instability; elite shooters were characterized by a high point of release and accuracy under pressure. Depending on the method of prediction, rates for correct classification of subjects ranged from 76–100%. Thus, it appears that discriminant analysis using biomechanical variables can be a successful tool in the prediction of basketball skill.     

Specificity of a Maximal Step Exercise Test

To adhere to the principle of “exercise specificity” exercise testing should be completed using the same physical activity that is performed during exercise training. The present study was designed to assess whether aerobic step exercisers have a greater maximal oxygen consumption (max VO₂) when tested using an activity specific, maximal step exercise test (SET; arms and legs) versus a maximal running test (legs only). Female aerobic step exercisers (N=18; 20.7 ± 1.5 years) performed three maximal graded exercise tests (GXTs): 2 SETs; 1 treadmill test (TMT). The SET consisted of six 3-min progressive stages of alternate lead, basic step, basic step with biceps curls, knee raise with pull-down, repeater knee with pull-down, lateral lunge with pull-down, and side squat with shoulder presses. Stepping rate was 32 steps· min^?1 on an 8-in (20.32 cm) step for stages 1–3, and a 10-in (25.4 cm) step for stages 4–6. Submaximal and maximal heart rate (HR) and oxygen consumption (VO₂) were recorded at the end of each stage. Test–retest reliability for the first five stages of the SET ranged from .91 to .97 for HR, and from .84 to .96 for VO₂. Maximal HR was significantly greater (p =.0001) for the SET (200 ± 6.2 beats·min^?1) as compared to the TMT (193 ± 7.9 beats·min^?1). No significant difference was found for max VO₂ (42.9 ± 8.5, 41.2 ± 5.9 ml·kg^?1·min^?1, p =.14). The SET was a valid and reliable protocol for assessing responses of these aerobic step exercisers; however, max VO₂ from a TMT did not differ significantly from the SET. Conversely, max HR obtained from the criterion TMT was 7 beats·min^?1 lower than from the SET. If a training HR for step exercise (arms and legs exercise) is prescribed based on the max HR from treadmill exercise (legs only), then the training HR should be calculated from a TMT max HR that has been increased by 7 beats·min^?1 to obtain an intensity of step exercise comparable to that of running.