The concept of brand equity has been widely recognized as both an academic construct and an important business consideration (Aaker, 1991; 1996; Farquhar, 1989; Kamakura & Russell, 1993; Keller, 1993; Gladden et al., 1998; Ross, 2006). The concept has been defined as the added value associated with a particular product that is accrued by a brand beyond the utilitarian or functional value of the product (Ambler, 2003; Simon & Sullivan, 1993; Keller, 1993). Despite general agreement about the definition of brand equity, the measurement of it is not well established (Christodoulides & de Chernatony, 2010; Keller & Lehmann, 2006). A critical challenge in this regard is developing the means necessary to assess the intangible elements that comprise a consumer's determination of brand equity. By using the CVM--a stated preference technique for estimating and assigning non-pecuniary values that are contingent on a specific hypothetical scenario or description of the products-- to measure an individual's willingness to pay for tangible and intangible elements from sports products, the brand equity of both spectator sports and participant sports can be estimated. A primary goal of the current study was to examine the willingness to pay Price Premiums for a sporting event, and estimate the brand equity of the sport product based on the Price Premiums by utilizing the CVM. Three research questions were examined: (1) Whether there is a difference between customers' willingness to pay for a branded event (i.e., IRONMAN triathlon event) compared to corresponding unbranded events (i.e., hypothetical non-IRONMAN triathlon event), (2) What the customer-based brand equity of a branded sporting event is, and (3) What factors significantly influence the Price Premium of a sporting event. To examine the equity of the IRONMAN brand and a consumer's determination of brand equity, data were collected at two triathlon events. The sample size was 349 combining responses from the Half and Full distance events. I asked two sets of questions for a consumer's willingness to pay a Price Premium: one for the branded sporting event (i.e., IRONMAN triathlon event) and the other for the unbranded hypothetical sporting event (i.e., non-IRONMAN triathlon event). The difference between a branded and an unbranded sporting event represents a Price Premium. I concluded from the results of an analysis of variance assessment indicated there was a statistically significant difference in willingness to pay for IRONMAN branded events compared to non-IRONMAN branded events. That is, triathletes were willing to pay additional Price Premiums for IRONMAN branded events. The aggregated Price Premiums for the target population were calculated to estimate the brand equity values based on the sport consumer perceptions. The equity of brand IRONMAN was approximately $102 million (Half distance) and $123 million (Full distance). To identify determinants that influence sport consumers' willingness to pay for one brand over the other, I proposed three potential regression models and tested them with through multiple regression analysis. Among ten Price Premium Determinants, Price-quality Inference, Brand Uniqueness, and Gender significantly influenced an individual consumer's willingness to pay a Price Premium. As the brand stands out, consumers were willing to pay a higher Price Premium. Also, as the degree that consumers believe an association between price and quality increases, their willingness to pay a Price Premium increases. Males tend to pay a higher Price Premium than Females. A significant contribution of the study is that this is a first attempt to estimate customer-based brand equity with the CVM, and an initial attempt to identify Price Premium determinants in the service-oriented product context. The dollar value of actual brand equity that is based on consumers' perceptions and evaluations may provide marketers and practitioners with several benefits such as a selling point for developing relationships with business partners, a starting point for business negotiations, and for leveraging partnerships (e.g., sponsors, media). / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2014. / June 24, 2014. / Contingent Valuation Method, IRONMAN Triathlon, Price Premium, Sport Brand Equity / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey D. James, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, University Representative; Yu Kyoum Kim, Committee Member; Janelle E. Wells, Committee Member.

The author of this dissertation establishes an overarching framework of spectator emotion, proposes a research design, and provides initial evidence of the framework by multiple studies. In building the spectator emotion framework, an interdisciplinary perspective is applied to scrutinize the epistemological and ontological groundings of emotion; synthesize extant literature from various disciplines; establish the taxonomy of spectator emotion elements; and identify imperative variables for the initial research design. In this, the author highlights the role of emotion by taking viewpoints of positive psychology and experiential marketing. In regards to the empirical examination, (1) both psychometric and neurophysiological measures were assessed as a cross-referenced multiple measure of emotion; (2) main effect and interaction effect of lateralization and social facilitation is evidenced by utilizing EEG ERP measures; and (3) structural equation modeling of the spectator emotion framework is supported through a cross-sectional survey. Specifically, the experimental research of lateralization and social facilitation was designed to examine the mere presence effect in a spectator sport setting. Results indicated that (1) psychometric and neurophysiological measures of positive emotion showed convergent-related validity; (2) main effect of lateralization and interaction with social facilitation was significant; and (3) mediating effect of emotion between personal internal states (extraversion; team identification) and outcomes (subjective happiness; spectator behavioral intentions) was significant. Predictors explained 35.1% of variance in subjective happiness, 56.9% in emotion, and 66.5% in spectator behavioral intentions. Deconstruction of the correlational structure showed complementary mediation for the path from extraversion to subjective happiness which implies that there is a likelihood of omitted variables in the framework. Indirect effect via emotion contributed 66.93% of the total effect from team identity to happiness, 68.91% of the total effect from extraversion to spectator intentions, and 76.63% of the total effect from team identification to spectator intentions. Indirect effect from extraversion to happiness indicated only weak partial mediation by explaining 8.48% of the total effect. Overall, the author proposes the spectator emotion framework and provides supporting evidences through a multiple studies. Together, such elaboration is expected to serve as a stepping stone research in fostering the study of emotion in a sporting context. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2014. / July 21, 2014. / EEG, Emotion, ERP, Neurophysiology, Psychometric, Spectator / Includes bibliographical references. / Yu Kyoum Kim, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald R. Ferris, University Representative; Jeffrey D. James, Committee Member; Amy R. Guerette, Committee Member; Leonard L. LaPointe, Committee Member.

The term "football school" has been disseminated in some manner or another in the popular press, by scholars, and by colleges for the past century. This label is shared and understood at a certain cultural level but research has yet to attempt to provide a detailed account of the implications of this term let alone provide a definition that takes into account the broader significance of football on college campuses. Football Saturdays on college campuses are unique to collegiate athletics in that the spectacle of sport is secondary to the experience of consuming the event. Fans and students pack in tailgating areas hours before as well as after a contest to share in the communal consumption of a football Saturday, indulging in countless hedonistic rituals that are in some cases as old as the game itself. These rituals, such as the Breakfast Club student bar crawl at Purdue University or the midnight yell practice at Texas A&M University, reflect particular community identities that have become woven into the fabric of college football programs. With the rise of the neoliberal university, football has been implicated in the branding process more than ever, with the identity of being a 'football school' actually becoming a valuable title in an increasingly competitive academic market. This has further complicated the linkage between the consumption of football culture and the academic identity of the university which supports the team. Fans actively consume football cultural forms and artifacts in the events preceding, during, and after a contest at big Football U's, but this consumption has gone largely unaddressed in defining what it means to be a "Football School" (Toma, 2003). With the intensification of football culture and the rise of the neoliberal university it is important to develop an understanding of how football fan identities exist and are co-opted as part of a branded university identity (Sperber, 2001). In this study I used comparative case studies of three different football schools to develop an understanding of what it means to be a football school at the subject institutions by addressing the following questions: Is football culture implicated in the power knowledge of the neoliberal university?; Is branded football culture consumed by members of the university community?; and does the surveillance of football culture on university campuses implicate members of the university community? I find that football within the branding of each university is utilized as the "front porch" of the institution at each school and this causes football culture, as well as the logics inherent in the football culture at each institution to overshadow the brand of the institutions themselves. Through the promotion of football culture, each university becomes complicit in reproducing the logics of neoliberalism as well as power knowledges of militarization, paleoconservative religious identity, and the image of "beer and circus". For each institution I visited, I find that the unique combination of power logics of each individual space are located within the football identity of the institution and that football becomes the site of manufactured consent for power logics that are often anathema to the stated goals of each institutions brand. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2014. / April 3, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Giardina, Professor Directing Thesis; Joshua Newman, Committee Member; Jeffery James, Committee Member.

Sport websites have become an important communication tools for companies and business, such as sport organizations, to deliver information, connect with sport consumers, generate profits, and much more. It is important for sport marketers to understand why and how consumers use sport websites. Based on uses and gratifications theory, a conceptual model of attitude toward the sport website including antecedents (user motives and interactivity) and consequence (revisit intention) was proposed. A pilot study (n = 106) was completed in order to test the scales that would be used in the test of the proposed model. A main study was completed (N = 530) in two stages. The total sample was split and a calibration sample (n1 = 265) was used to test the measurement model. A validation sample (n2 = 265) was used to cross-validate the measurement model from the pilot study, and test the proposed structural model. The results indicate that user motives and interactivity are significant predictors of attitude toward the sport website, which consequently influence intention to revisit a sport website. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport and Recreation Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2010. / December 11, 2009. / Sports marketing, Internet marketing / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey James, Professor Directing Dissertation; Leisa R. Flynn, University Representative; Andy Rudd, Committee Member; Robert Eklund, Committee Member.

Spectator attendance is a popular topic in the sport management literature. However, the primary focus of work done in this area has been examining professional sports, with collegiate sports lagging far behind. The impetus behind the focus on spectator attendance in collegiate sports is the potential impact it can have on increasing revenue in athletic programs. However, there still is a lack of research in the area of sport management with regards to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine selected determinants in explaining the variation in spectator attendance at selected NCAA HBCU's football games. Forty-seven NCAA Division I-AA and Division II institutions participated in this study. The data was collected using the Spectator Attendance Survey (DeSchriver, 1996) and the home institution's individual football game boxscores. An economic demand model served as the basis for the study. The data were analyzed using regression and correlation analyses. The most interesting finding in this study was that 30.6% of the variance (F(4,216) = 23.82, p <.05) in spectator attendance at HBCUs football games was accounted for by the following determinants: over six home games, homecoming games, promotional activities, and general admission prices. Winning percentage did not appear to be an important factor. The results of this study imply that special promotions are a significant factor in spectator attendance, yet few special promotions were found. Athletic administrators of these institutions should re-evaluate their marketing practices in order to attract spectators and to incorporate timely promotions to draw more spectators from the general public / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport and Recreation Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 15, 2011. / Marketing, Economics, Attendance, Special Promotios, Football Attendance, Football / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Mondello, Professor Directing Dissertation; Patrice Iatarola, University Representative; Andy Rudd, Committee Member; Tom Ratliffe, Committee Member.

Florida State University was thrust into the spotlight after quarterback Adrian McPherson was dismissed from the football team following allegations that included sports gambling. In the era of big-time college athletics, it is vital for institutions to respond effectively when issues arise that could negatively affect the school's image. The increase of sports-related scandals plaguing universities in recent years has led to the application of crisis communication theories to many athletic department crises. The purpose of this thesis is to utilize archived primary source documents, newspaper articles, and Foucauldian discourse analysis of crisis communications strategies to summarize and analyze the comparative discourses of those involved in the McPherson case. By studying the variations in individual accounts of the events in this case, it is possible to gain insight into the complex relationship between athletic departments, the NCAA, student-athletes, and the media. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2014. / April 2, 2014. / Adrian McPherson, Crisis communications, Florida State University, Sports gambling / Includes bibliographical references. / Ryan Rodenberg, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael Giardina, Committee Member; Davis Houck, Committee Member.

Sport organizations rely on volunteers to accomplish their missions. Volunteers are a finite resource whose supply may not keep up with the ever increasing demand (Bussell & Forbes, 2002; Cuskelly, 2004). The number of organizations dependent on volunteer workers is increasing, while the number of individuals willing to volunteer is decreasing. While recruiting volunteers is important to sport organizations, retention of volunteers may be more important in order to remain viable in the competitive arena of volunteer services. Retention of volunteers should be a priority for reasons of efficiency since organizations would save time, effort, and money they would otherwise spend on recruitment and training. To assist practitioner's efforts to retain volunteers, researchers should investigate avenues to advance our understanding of volunteer retention. Toward this end the purpose of this study was three-fold: 1) to present a conceptual model illustrating the relationship between job demands and job resources as they relate to work engagement of sport volunteers leading to sport volunteer performance, commitment, satisfaction, and retention, 2) to investigate whether there were differences in volunteer engagement based on whether individuals were volunteering to work at sporting versus non-sporting events, and 3) exploring if there were differences based on a volunteer's generational cohort. A questionnaire was constructed incorporating measurements scales drawn from the literature which were modified to be applicable to the volunteer milieu, as well as items added by the researcher to assess content for which there were no items available in the existing literature. The questionnaire was vetted by an expert panel with the final version incorporated into the study. Nine hypotheses about the relationships in the proposed model were posited. Evidence from the study was found to support eight of the nine hypotheses. Based on the evidence from the data analysis, the following conclusions were drawn: the job resource with the greatest impact on volunteer engagement was social support, followed closely by feedback and supervisor support; job demands had a negative impact on volunteer engagement. There was an inverse relationship between job demands and job resources in regard to engagement in the volunteer context; sporting event volunteers did not exhibit different levels of engagement than those volunteering with non-sporting events. Volunteers representing different generations did exhibit differing preferences in regard to job resources while volunteering. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / April 10, 2014. / Engagement, Retention, Volunteers / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey D. James, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald R. Ferris, University Representative; Pamela L. Perrewé, Committee Member; Ryan M. Rodenberg, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership behaviors of coaches within the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities using the Revised Leadership Scale for Sport. A secondary purpose was to gain greater insight into the democratic and positive feedback leadership behaviors of male and female coaches in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Three hundred and ninety-six head coaches in the CCCU participated in the study; 320 (80.5%) males and 76 (19.5%) females. The participants completed the Revised Leadership Scale for Sport (Zhang, J., Jensen, B.E., & Mann, B.L., 1997). The results of the study showed that there is a significant difference in the coaching behaviors (training and instruction, situational consideration, autocratic, democratic, social support, and positive feedback) of head coaches in the CCCU when comparing the sports coached. Results of the RLSS indicated that the softball and track and field coaches perceived themselves as exhibiting the highest rates of positive feedback to their athletes. Track and field and volleyball coaches exhibited the highest rates of democratic behavior in their coaching. It was also discovered that there were no significant difference between male and female coaches in the coaching dimension when evaluating the different coaching leadership behaviors by gender. Coaches that scored high and low in the positive feedback and democratic behavior categories were asked to participate in a follow up interview. Two themes emerged from the interviews with coaches when questioned about their democratic behavior: gender differences and communication with players. Two themes also emerged related to the coaches use of positive feedback: correcting mistakes and team-building. Additional information emerged from the interviews relating to how coaches in the CCCU prioritize different aspects of their job and their relationship with God. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2010. / June 15, 2010. / Coaches, Christian, Leadership / Includes bibliographical references. / Susan Lynn, Professor Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth Jakubowski, University Representative; Thomas Ratliffe, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.

The primary goal of this textual analysis was to examine narratives and descriptors sportswriters used when covering the NCAA Division I women's and men's basketball tournaments (March Madness). Drawing principally from a masculine hegemonic framework, this research examined articles published with bylines over a 26-day period in 2006 coinciding with March Madness. Articles came from The New York Times, USA Today, ESPN Internet, and CBS SportsLine. There were two parts of this methodology: a priori coding and a qualitative data analysis. First, two individuals each coded 508 articles for descriptors from nine specific categories derived from an extensive literature review. The author later wrote theoretical memos and employed the constant comparative method to search for dominant themes. Coding results contradicted the gender-specific stereotypes found in previous research and did not support the presence of masculine hegemony. Most of the articles (76.4%) focused on men's basketball. However, sportswriters used a higher average number of descriptors on physical appearances, personal relationships, and emotional weaknesses in articles about men's basketball than women's basketball. Males authored 86% of all articles. Females wrote 65% of their articles on women's basketball, but males still wrote 61% of all articles on women's basketball. Results based on the gender of sportswriters showed notions of masculine hegemony were present in the quality of writing amongst male sportswriters. Males who covered men's basketball were more likely to use descriptors on athletic prowess than females who covered either women or men. Females covering women's basketball did not uphold masculine hegemony, as they used three times as many descriptors for athletic prowess than females who covered men's basketball. Masculine hegemony was prevalent in the five themes emerging from the qualitative analysis: (1) He was always on my mind; (2) She must have been a tomboy; (3) Women still don't have next; (4) The real hegemonic order in media coverage of college sports: football, men's basketball, and then everything else; (5) Parents are newsworthy, especially athletic fathers. References to male athletes were commonplace in stories on women's basketball, but no male athlete in any men's basketball article was compared to a female athlete. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management and Physical Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2006. / July 10, 2006. / Communications, Sport Management, Gender Studies / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Mondello, Professor Directing Dissertation; Arthur Raney, Outside Committee Member; Aubrey Kent, Committee Member; John Vincent, Committee Member.

College-level physical education programs address the demand for physical activities through the use of Instructional Physical Activity Programs (IPAPs) which are still sometimes referred to as Basic Instructional Programs (BIPs). Currently, physical education is in an emerging new stage of instruction focused on model-based instruction (Metzler, 2005). One model, Personalized System of Instruction (Keller, 1968), also known as PSI, is centered on several key features: an emphasis on the written word, the teacher acting as a motivator, the use of student self-pacing, mastery-based learning, and the use of student proctors. Within physical education settings, the use of proctors is not emphasized however the remaining key features are emphasized. Fox (2004) suggests that several key features of PSI need to be redefined for the 21st century since they are not as necessary as once perceived. The most widely mentioned key feature seen as being problematic and recommended for change is an emphasis on self-pacing since students have been shown to struggle and procrastinate when no pacing contingencies have been set for students to use (Eyre, 2007). Using a quasi-experimental mixed-method design, the purpose of this study was to investigate the use of flexible-pacing vs. self-pacing by incorporating classroom-based pacing contingencies such as instructor-recommended deadlines and student-set deadlines on students' pacing rate, course completion rate, withdrawal rate, student achievement measures (golf-skills & golf-knowledge), and attitudes. Three PSI-taught, IPAP golf course sections consisting of 22 days of a PSI unit were used. Each course section represented a different pacing condition group. The three pacing condition groups used in this study included: SP = Self-pacing only group (n = 23); IRD = Instructor-recommended deadlines group (n = 24); SSD = Student-set deadlines group (n = 24). Within each of these pacing condition groups, a sub-group based on golf-skill ability-level was created from golf-skill pre-test results to determine lower-skilled, moderate-skilled, and higher-skilled golf students. Preliminary measures taken for each pacing condition group included PSI model fidelity being met along with other preliminary measures indicating no differences among the three pacing condition groups on students' initial golf-skill and golf-knowledge, students' outside-of-class golf participation and instructor's teaching behaviors. These preliminary measures were used to conclude that any differences based on pacing rate, course completion rate, withdrawal rate, attitudes, and achievement were a result of the pacing contingencies groups and not due to other extraneous variables such as prior golf-skill or golf-knowledge, outside-of-class golf participation, instructor's teaching behaviors or due to the PSI model not being faithfully implemented. The quantitative results from this study indicated that flexible-pacing is advantageous for increasing lower- and moderate-skilled pacing rates as well as increasing students' overall perception of a PSI-taught IPAP golf course. Flexible-pacing is particularly advantageous for increasing course completion rates for lower-skilled students. However, for higher-skilled students, flexible-pacing provides little advantages. Additionally, while differences were significantly different within each pacing condition group from pre- to post-test for both golf-skill and golf-knowledge achievement measures, no differences were found among the pacing condition groups for the post-test measurement. A student attitudes survey revealed that while all three pacing condition groups rated aspects of the course very highly, the two flexible-pacing contingency groups (IRD and SSD) rated aspects of the course significantly greater than the SP group on several measures such as effectiveness of the course at increasing students' golf-skill ability and overall rating of the course. Since no students withdrew from the course, this was not tested. The qualitative results indicated several key differences between students who were able to complete all course workbook tasks versus students who were unable to complete all course workbook tasks. Themes present among students who were able to complete all tasks included: able to successfully pace themselves; learned specific skills/concepts; increased preference for course workbook; used the instructor-recommended deadlines and found them helpful; and had a motivation to learn. Themes present among students were unable to complete all course workbook tasks included: decreased ability to pace themselves; misperception of golf & no mention of learning specific golf skills/concepts; decreased preference for course workbook; thought that pacing contingencies could have helped if used; and indicated no mention of motivation or determinism. These results support the use of flexible-pacing over self-pacing in PSI-taught courses in physical education settings due to significant improvements on several key measurements especially for lower- and moderate-skilled students. However, caution should be used if pacing contingencies are to be used for higher-skilled students. Future research should continue to examine flexible-pacing with different physical education content and different age levels. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 17, 2011. / Model-Based Instruction, Personalized System of Instruction, PSI, Pacing Contingencies, Self-Pacing, Flexible-pacing, Physical Education, Instructional Model / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas Ratliffe, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert Reiser, University Representative; Michael Mondello, Committee Member; Jeffrey James, Committee Member.