The purpose of this study was to understand the relationships among brand image, loyalty of fans, and purchase intention. It also discussed the influence of different ways of watching the baseball games on the relationship. This study was based on internet and on-site questionnaire investigation. The sample of this study consists of the CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League) fans. The valid sample was 631. The results were as follows: Team¡¦s brand image affected the loyalty of fans positively. Team¡¦s brand image had positive effects on purchase intention of fans. Fans¡¦ identification with a team had the strongest influence on purchase intention for accessory products. Besides, stadium environment also had the strongest influence on purchase intention for parent company¡¦s products. Loyalty of fans affected fans¡¦ purchase intention positively. Different ways of watching baseball games had effects on fans¡¦ purchase intentions. The purchase intention of the fans who watch the games on-the-scene more often was higher than of those who watch the games on TV or internet. According to the conclusion, this study gave some suggestions to the operators of the professional baseball teams.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study examines professional Australian coach and athlete perceptions of effective coaching. Rather than assess the ability or effectiveness of the coaches and teams involved, the purpose was to gather perceptions of what professional coaches and players believe it takes to be an effective coach. Given the broad range of tasks that fit under the auspice of coaching, an important question to address was ‘what’ a coach does in order to be considered effective. In addition, an understanding of ‘why’ and ‘how’ these factors are effective was also essential. These questions formed a starting point in order to find out what professional coaches do (including how they behave), and why players and coaches perceive certain coaching strategies to be effective. This study employed a qualitative research design to identify perceptions about, and strategies of, effective coaching within the professional sport context. Interviews enabled participants to discuss their interpretations of the world in which they live, from their own point of view – a key feature of the present research. Observational data allowed me to view coaching behaviours and interactions with players in training and competition contexts. Using professional Australian coaches and players from cricket, rugby union and rugby league, 6 coaches and 25 players were interviewed while up to 16 coaches and 80 players were observed during 41 observation sessions at training and competition venues. The constant comparative method (Côté, Salmela, Baria, & Russell, 1993; Côté, Salmela, & Russell, 1995b; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to analyse the observation and interview accounts. This enabled rich descriptions of what effective coaches do as well as providing information regarding how and why they carry out certain actions. Findings from the current research indicated that an effective coach possesses specific personal characteristics, qualities and skills as well as a general philosophy or direction for the team. The effective coach uses their own unique leadership, player management, communication and planning skills to create and maintain the team environment to ensure that everyone involved with the team ‘works off the same page’. The interaction of all these features leads to the primary goal of player development, improvement in player performance and winning matches. This thesis identified key perceptions and applications of effective coaching based on Australian professional coach and player experiences.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study examines professional Australian coach and athlete perceptions of effective coaching. Rather than assess the ability or effectiveness of the coaches and teams involved, the purpose was to gather perceptions of what professional coaches and players believe it takes to be an effective coach. Given the broad range of tasks that fit under the auspice of coaching, an important question to address was ‘what’ a coach does in order to be considered effective. In addition, an understanding of ‘why’ and ‘how’ these factors are effective was also essential. These questions formed a starting point in order to find out what professional coaches do (including how they behave), and why players and coaches perceive certain coaching strategies to be effective. This study employed a qualitative research design to identify perceptions about, and strategies of, effective coaching within the professional sport context. Interviews enabled participants to discuss their interpretations of the world in which they live, from their own point of view – a key feature of the present research. Observational data allowed me to view coaching behaviours and interactions with players in training and competition contexts. Using professional Australian coaches and players from cricket, rugby union and rugby league, 6 coaches and 25 players were interviewed while up to 16 coaches and 80 players were observed during 41 observation sessions at training and competition venues. The constant comparative method (Côté, Salmela, Baria, & Russell, 1993; Côté, Salmela, & Russell, 1995b; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to analyse the observation and interview accounts. This enabled rich descriptions of what effective coaches do as well as providing information regarding how and why they carry out certain actions. Findings from the current research indicated that an effective coach possesses specific personal characteristics, qualities and skills as well as a general philosophy or direction for the team. The effective coach uses their own unique leadership, player management, communication and planning skills to create and maintain the team environment to ensure that everyone involved with the team ‘works off the same page’. The interaction of all these features leads to the primary goal of player development, improvement in player performance and winning matches. This thesis identified key perceptions and applications of effective coaching based on Australian professional coach and player experiences.

No description available.

Excerpt: Success in marketing requires creativity, and sport marketing is no different (Schwarz & Hunter, 2008).

Virtually the entire body of scholarly literature on professional sport focuses on athletes themselves, rarely directly considering the impact of sport on the significant others in their lives or the role these significant others play in the career path and decision-making processes of athletes. In recent years, a limited, but growing, body of scholarly literature on athlete’s wives and sport marriages has begun to emerge with respect to American sports. However, little work has been done on the role and experiences of football spouses in the Canadian context. This dissertation focuses on football spouses in the Canadian Football League (CFL). I use an ethnographic approach relying on in-depth interview with football spouses from the CFL to explore how they experience their partners’ football careers, with a focus on their identity construction. I also used participant observation (at training camp and football related events) to gather data and collected and analyzed secondary documents (newspaper articles, blogs, tweets). Working from an interactionist perspective, I offer the empirically grounded concept of a “courtesy identity” to explain how these women confront the challenges of being known through their intimate relationships. I argue that these women are active agents who negotiate how much they are willing to transform themselves to meet the demands of football life. The “football wife” identity is always emerging and changing in response to the messages women receive about being a football wife during their interactions with others (both insiders and outsiders in the social world of the CFL) and as they encounter new situations. I demonstrate this argument by exploring: (a) how these women develop the football wife identity by focusing on their day-to-day private lives; (b) how the spousal subculture helps these women to negotiate the challenges of being a football wife while at the same time creating challenges of its own; and, (c) how football spouses negotiate their husbands’ celebrity status by examining how these women manage their presentation of the football wife identity in public. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

There is no common opinion, if the final height of female artistic gymnasts is jeopardized due to excessive training from early childhood. The aim of this master thesis is to compare a trend in human height of artistic gymnasts in three consecutive generations. Auxologic and related information were obtained from 49 elite artistic gymnasts via questionnaire. All were the members of national team. We figured out that artistic gymnasts are statistically smaller than their same-age peers. However, all of them have reached their genetically determined growth potential. The final height of artistic gymnasts across generations was increasing as well as the average female population. According to growth charts, constitutional delay is typical for artistic gymnasts. The age of menarche was statistically higher in the two youngest generations in comparison with the average age of their peers. According to our results, artistic gymnasts are not smaller due to excessive training from childhood, but on the grounds of genetic predisposition for small stature, which is favorable for this sport. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The diploma thesis focuses on designing a business plan for a company organizing educational seminars for professional athletes and people interested in fitness. The business plan was prepared on the basis of a detailed literature search and marketing survey. The author of the thesis plans to implement this business plan.

[pt] Esta pesquisa examina as carreiras profissionais de atletas do iatismo por meio das suas histórias de vida. Usando como base teórica os estudos de narrativas, histórias e contação de histórias (storytelling), a pesquisa explora como velejadores e velejadoras atribuem sentido e narrativizam suas trajetórias profissionais. O estudo objetiva compreender quais histórias emergem das narrativas sobre as trajetórias de carreira de atletas de alto rendimento da Vela Esportiva. Em termos de procedimentos metodológicos, a pesquisa é qualitativa e os depoimentos foram recolhidos por meio de entrevistas. Buscou-se compreender as histórias relacionadas à construção da carreira esportiva, desde o primeiro contato com o esporte até o momento de conversão da carreira em profissional, considerando-se as transições vividas ao longo de todo o processo. Para a análise dos dados, procedeu-se a abordagem temática a partir da proposição de cinco temas explorados nas diferentes histórias narradas: (1) histórias sobre a origem; (2) histórias sobre o planejamento de carreira; (3) histórias de oportunidades; (4) histórias de desafios e superações; e (5) histórias de sucesso. Os dados apontam que a maioria dos atletas encontra dificuldades em manter a carreira profissional como meio de subsistência. Atribui-se grande importância ao contexto familiar e social como influência na introdução ao esporte. O ambiente familiar é destaque no que diz respeito à orientação e planejamento na trajetória profissional destes jovens velejadores. Observou-se que organizações e entidades, ligadas ao esporte, são presenças constantes no enfrentamento e desenvolvimento da carreira no iatismo. Este estudo revela desafios e conquistas enfrentadas na trajetória destes velejadores, e assim, contribuir para melhorias na gestão de carreira de alto rendimento no esporte. / [en] This research examines the professional careers of yachting athletes throughout their histories of life. Using as a theoretical basis the studies of narratives, stories and storytelling, the research explores how sailors attribute meaning and narrativize their professional journeys. The study aims to understand which stories emerge from the narratives about the career trajectories of high-performance sport sailing athletes. In terms of methodological procedures, the research is qualitative and the testimonies were collected through interviews. When conducting the interviews, we sought to understand the stories related to the construction of each career, from the first contact with the sport until the moment in which a professional career started, considering the transitions experienced throughout the process. For data analysis, thematic examination was carried out, based on the proposition of five themes addressed in the different narratives: (1) stories about the origin; (2) stories about career planning; (3) stories of opportunities; (4) stories of challenges and how those were met; and (5) success stories. The several pieces of data indicate that most athletes face difficulties maintaining their professional careers while having to make ends meet. Great importance is attributed to the family and social context as influence factors, regarding the introduction to the sport. The family environment is highlighted when it comes to guidance and planning in the professional trajectory of these young sailors. It was observed that organizations and entities linked to sports are constantly present on the development of their careers in yachting. This study reveals challenges and achievements faced in the trajectory of these sailors, and thus contribute to improvements in high performance career management in the sport.

Problemformulering: Idag råder en negativ trend gällande antalet åskådare för en majoritet av organisationerna inomprofessionell ishockey i Sverige. Då publiken utgör en viktig del i ett matchevenemang, både ekonomiskt och upplevelsemässigt, är detta en problematisk utveckling. Tidigare forskning visar att den del av publiken som besöker ett matchevenemang 1-3 gånger per säsong är en fördelaktig grupp att påverka för att öka dess konsumtion. Däremot har den tidigare forskningen primärt studerat besökare inom professionell idrott i generella termer alternativt fokuserat på hängivna fans samt haft en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi. Syfte och frågeställningar: Studiens syfte är att djupare förstå de sporadiska besökarna och undersöka hur varumärket kan användas för att påverka dem till att gå oftare.• Vilka faktorer som påverkar konsumtionen lyfts fram av sporadiska besökare?• Hur kan kunskapen om de identifierade faktorerna användas för att få den sporadiska besökaren att gå oftare utifrån ett varumärkesperspektiv? Metod: Med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi och en deduktiv ansats med induktiva inslag har denna studie genomfört tolv semistrukurerade intervjuer. Respondenterna i denna studie är besökare av fallorganisationens ishockeymatcher och går på 1-3 matchevenemang per säsong. Resultat: Denna studie har uppmärksammat ett antal faktorer som genom varumärket kan påverka den sporadiska besökarens konsumtion. Studien har identifierat stämning som ett konsumtionsmotiv hos en grupp av sporadiska besökare samt att studien funnit olika varianter av det socialamotivet och preferenser av matchresultatets karaktär. Vidare har studien funnit att en grupp sporadiska besökare har en hög kunskapsnivå gällande ishockey och till sist har studien ävenfunnit djupare beskrivningar av verklighetsflykt och underhållning vilka även de är faktorer som påverkar sporadiska besökares konsumtion. Forskningsbidrag: Denna studie ger detaljerade beskrivningar av sporadiska besökares konsumtionsbeteende och varumärkesassociationer inom professionell idrott. Vidare bidrar studien med kompletterande indikationer av faktorer som påverkar de sporadiska besökarnas konsumtionsfrekvens av matchevenemang. / Problem definition: Today there is a negative trend regarding the number of spectators among a majority of the organizations within professional ice hockey in Sweden. This is a problematic development since the spectators play an important part for the event of the games, both financially and experientially. Previous research shows that the customer segment which visits one to three games per season is a favorable group when it comes to increasing their consumption. Though, previous research has fore most studied spectators in general terms or have had the devoted fansas main focus. Furthermore, the previous research has primarily been quantitative regarding its research strategy. Aim and research questions: The aim of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of low frequent spectators and understand how the brand can be used in order to influence them to go more often.• Which factors, which influence the consumption, is described by the the low frequent spectators?• How can the knowledge of these identified factors be used in order to influence the low frequent spectator to visit more often from a brand perspective? Methodology: With a qualitative research strategy and a deductive, with element of inductive, research approach, this study has completed twelve semi-structured interviews. The respondents are spectators of ice hockey games of the organization which this study have studied and who visits 1-3 games per season. Results: A number of factors which can influence the low frequent spectators’ consumption through the brand have been noticed through this study. The atmosphere has been identified as a consumption motive among a group of low frequent spectators and the study has also found different versions of the social motive as well as preferences for the nature of the games results. Furthermore, the study has found a group of low frequent spectators which has a high level of knowledge about ice hockey. Finally, the study has also found deeper descriptions of escape and entertainment which also are factors which influence the consumption among a group of low frequent spectators within professional sports. Research grants: This study provides detailed descriptions of low frequent spectators’ consumer behavior and brand associations within professional sports. Furthermore, the study provides additional indications of factors which affect the low frequent spectators’ consumption regarding games.