The Shape of the Nation Report (2010) concluded that at least 22 states allow required physical education credits to be earned through online physical education courses. Moreover, Florida Virtual School's (FLVS) Personal Fitness course is now used in over 25 states and at least14 countries. While there are incredible growth rates and projected increased enrollments, there is a healthy skepticism among the physical education profession about virtual physical education (VPE). Current literature does not shed much light into VPE, and until more is known the skeptics will continue to have reason to doubt this method of learning. If designed and implemented appropriately, VPE may serve as an alternative appropriate method of instruction. It may promote relevance and positive attitudes for students. This method could match one's learning style that prefers independent and self-paced curriculum combined with the flexibility to achieve appropriate physical education learning tasks (NAPSE, 2007). This study explored the characteristics of VPE students (n=19,994) enrolled in FLVS physical education for the school year 2008-2009. Archived student records and surveys provided for a description of characteristics, demographics, learning preferences, learning experiences, and achievement levels of bo 05 for each test. Results for this study provided initial findings with regard to the students of VPE at FLVS and revealed significant differences between completers and noncompleters. This research continued to build the groundwork for this understudied area. Areas of interest were illuminated and directions for future studies are given for empirical design-based research. Moreover, administrators and practitioners of VPE will be more equipped with data driven information for guidance in programmatic decisions. / 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 25, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references. / Susan Lynn, Professor Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth Jakubowski, University Representative; Thomas Ratliffe, Committee Member; Stacey Rutledge, Committee Member.

Fans often derive great personal value from having a connection with a particular sports team, joining with other fans in that connection, and being able to share connections readily with outsiders. Whether the connection is spatial/geographic, digital, or social, displaying a team logo can communicate many qualities about the wearer of team apparel. With most cases in sport, a team logo symbolizes the exclusive image or identity of the sport organization. A team logo as a symbol is a form of semiotics. For the consumer, an image is a visual global evaluation that depicts or triggers a response based on experiences or other perceptions of meaning (Keller, 2003). Semiotics in advertising is frequently used to signify the message of the advertiser through the use of signs or symbols to relay a basic message. At a higher level of intensity and recognition, the team logo can be understood as a signifier of the exact representation of the good or service based on characteristics in the logo perceived by consumers as genuine and authentic to the overall brand. A logo can be defined as a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations, and individuals to promote public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (i.e. symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (i.e. a logotype or wordmark) (Wheeler, 2006). If a sport organization decided to change their organizational identity (for a variety of reasons), some may see this as diluting the distinctiveness of the overall brand. Components of the overall brand are created by the team through continuous operations in all aspects of the industry. Organizational identity is just a part of the overall brand and communicates the way in which a team wants consumers to perceive (not necessarily how it is actually perceived) the mission, values, and strategy of the team. Fans may collectively experience a change in organizational identity as a loss because it would undercut the ability for them to identify with the team. The organization may want to change or modify their identity within the industry but loyal fans, in this case, would have a collective interest in maintaining the distinctiveness of the team identity because of a strong connection with the team. Would established fans reject the efforts of the organization to modify or change their identity while the organization attempts to attract the interest of new fans? This study includes an analysis of sport team identity following a logo change and an assessment of how the characteristics of a logo are perceived by sport fans as they engage in the purchasing process. Fan perceptions about the representation of a team logo are explored through semi-structured interviews and an analysis of the attributes, values, and ideals teams want to portray through a team logo is provided. During the process of purchasing sport merchandise, the individual perceives themselves as a legitimate part of the team based on a desire to associate with positive elements of the organization (Janssen & Huang, 2008). Through the purchasing decision, fans can view the team as an entity with greater personal meaning and establish an allegiance gained from the team – fan relationship. The interviews were used to examine the impact of a logo change on fan perceptions and intentions to consume licensed team merchandise. One-on-one interviews were used to gather data from sport fans. The purpose of the interviews was to help understand how logos are perceived by fans, or what the logos are perceived to represent. The interviews included questions pertaining to how sport fans feel about changes in the team logo, and the impact of the logo change on intentions to consume. Understanding what the logo should mean and how that message can be properly communicated to fans is important when examining fan preferences towards the action of consumption. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 21, 2015. / Consumption, Identity, Management, Marketing, Psychology, Sales / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey D. James, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jeannine E. Turner, University Representative; Joshua I. Newman, Committee Member; Gerald R. Ferris, Committee Member.

Consumer behavior researchers have found that satisfaction is a key predictor of repeat purchase, positive word-of-mouth, loyalty, and ultimately profitability of a firm. While researchers have worked to better understand the relationship between consumer retention variables and satisfaction, there are few studies examining the determinants and consequences of consumer satisfaction within the spectator sport context. Traditional approaches to consumer satisfaction research have emphasized the theory of expectancy disconfirmation for explaining consumer satisfaction. This approach, however, is not without limitations. Therefore, counterfactual thinking is proposed as an alternative comparison standard of sport consumer satisfaction, which is a useful framework to explain how satisfaction is formed based on a "what might have been" heuristic. In addition to counterfactual thinking, it is also important to better understand the effect of emotion on counterfactual thinking. A substantial body of satisfaction research focuses on the role of emotion in predicting consumer satisfaction. Little is known, however, about whether happiness and sadness, two opposite-valence emotions, can be experienced simultaneously, and whether mixed emotions result in downward or upward counterfactual thinking. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sport consumers can experience mixed emotions and to test the reaction of a sport consumer contemplating different counterfactual alternatives influenced by emotions. This study also includes an examination of whether consideration of an upward counterfactual comparison reduces sport consumer satisfaction, and whether consideration of a downward counterfactual comparison enhances sport consumer satisfaction. Finally, I sought to provide insight into the effect of counterfactual direction on sport consumer behavioral intentions. The results of Study 1 provide information from which to assess H1a through H1d. The highest level of positive emotion was reported from viewing a straight win game, whereas the highest level of negative emotion was reported from those viewing a straight loss. Importantly, sport consumers could experience positive and negative emotions concurrently while watching a conflicting game outcome such as disappointing win and relieving loss. Regarding the relationship between emotions and counterfactual directions (H2a through H3b), the results of Study 2 provide evidence that positive emotion is a strong antecedent to downward counterfactual thinking, and negative emotion is a significant predictor of upward counterfactual thinking. However, no significant interaction effect of mixed emotions and dialectical thinking in predicting counterfactual directions was found. To test the direct impacts of counterfactual directions on sport consumer satisfaction and behavioral intentions (H4a through H6), Study 3 was conducted. The results of Study 3 provide evidence that sport consumers who generated downward counterfactual thinking had a significantly higher level of satisfaction than those who generated upward counterfactual thinking. We may infer from these results that sport consumers who engaged in "what might have been worse" mental simulation of alternative possible outcomes were satisfied to a greater extent with team performance than those who engaged in "what might have been better" mental simulation. Another finding from Study 3 was that downward counterfactual thinking was a significant predictor of behavioral intentions. Finally, satisfaction was a strong antecedent of behavioral intentions, account for approximately 29% of the variance. This study is a first attempt to empirically test and conceptualize counterfactual thinking as an alternative comparison standard in sport consumer satisfaction formation. The study contributes to the literature on sport consumer satisfaction by examining how sport consumers use a "what might have been" heuristic in the formation of satisfaction. From a broader perspective, this study adds to a growing interest in experiences of emotional ambivalence in the spectator sports setting and what impact such experience might have on counterfactual thinking. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 11, 2013. / Consumer behavior, Counterfactual thinking, Mixed emotion, Satisfaction / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey D. James, Professor Directing Dissertation; Pamela L. Perrewe, University Representative; Yu Kyoum Kim, Committee Member; Alysia D. Roehrig, Committee Member.

Water is a natural resource with which the Global North is familiar with, but unfamiliar - conscious of its importance, but unconscious of its complexity. People with access to clean water know that they receive water in their hands or glass when they turn on the faucet, but how it reaches that point is really unimportant over the course of their day. Yet, the battle for access to and control of water has been burgeoning for centuries: the Nile River Wars have raged on for centuries and continue today (Waterbury, 1979); access to clean drinking water was determined by social class in the middle ages resulting in impressive aqueduct systems and social division (Magnusson, 2001); cholera spread throughout India during the colonization period as the caste system was introduced and clean water was a privilege strictly for the colonizers and elite (Arnold, 1986); conservation of water through times of drought plagued the Southwestern United States through the early to middle twentieth centuries leading to large dam projects and governmental subsidies for farmers (Glennon, 2009); and, water is currently a resource interwoven within a larger discussion involving environmental marketization (Bakker, 2007). There has been a plethora of solutions proposed, greed exposed, and bodies decomposed, but the problem exists as much now as ever. The era we enter into now is one of new media and technology that helps to expose individuals to the human body in need. This media exposure has led to the widespread adoption of the phrase "water crisis" and has involved a growth in the number of non-profits involved with water problems. First entering the public lexicon in 1991, "'crisis' over environmental issues have been presented by well-intentioned activists and organisations promoting the changes needed to bring about sustainable development" (Newson, 2009, p. 17). This crisis can be in large part accredited to failed government initiatives and privatization efforts that continue to create problems (Bakker, 2010). The non-profit era born from a turn in economic policies away from social welfare programming (King, 2000; Specht & Courtney, 1994; Trattner, 1999), has seemingly come to the rescue of the failures between the state and the private entity. This turn toward an era dominated by non-profits and a discourse of the good, philanthropic American citizen has witnessed the rise of the social marketing conglomerate. These social marketing groups are comprised of non-profit organizations, multinational corporations, local communities, and governments all working towards behavioral changes (Kotler & Lee, 2009) on the part of the Global North consumer of their message or the Global South receiver of their aid. One avenue the social marketing groups have chosen to utilize is sport. It is on this idea of sport and the human body as a site for the development and reproduction of historical struggles for life, power, and control that this project focuses. To this end, I followed the water as it flows quite literally as a resource, to a commodity, to money, to commodity, and back again through multi-method qualitative inquiry. This interpretive ethnography (Denzin, 1997) consisted of three qualitative methods of inquiry. The first is a descriptive content analysis of the discourse of water and the implementation of programs providing clean drinking water to those in the Global South. The second type of analysis is semi-structured and reflexive interviews (Denzin, 2001) with participants in events raising money for water and members of social marketing groups. The final part of the analysis is a critical ethnography of water charities in the Global North. Through this method, I understood who gets to speak for whom and what type of bodies matter in the search for the answer to the world's water crisis. / 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. / March 27, 2014. / Crisis, Organizational Ethnography, Political Economy, Social Marketing, Sport for Development, Water Charity / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael D. Giardina, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jennifer M. Proffitt, University Representative; Joshua I. Newman, Committee Member; Jeffrey D. James, Committee Member.

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.