مجله رویکردهای نوین در مدیریت ورزشی
پیاپی 6 (پاییز 1393)

Athlete Brand Image (ABI) consists of three main dimensions: athletic performance, attractive appearance and marketable lifestyle. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of ABI on fan-player identification. 250 university students completed Scale of Athlete Brand Image (SABI) developed by Arai et al. (2013), and modified Cohen & Perse (2003) Identification Scale. The methodology was descriptive-correlation based on Structural Equation Model (SEM). SEM showed that among ABI dimensions, only marketable lifestyle had a significant path loading on fan-player level of identification. This dimension reflected the personality of an athlete and social perception towards athletes which could be achieved by behaving ethically inside and outside the field, sensitivity to sociocultural issues, being a good role model and a good leader for fans, social responsibility, and showing appreciation for fans/ spectators. Therefore, athletes and their managers are recommended to invest a substantial part of their activities on athletes' marketable lifestyle to enhance fan-player level of identification.

This study aimed at offering those indicators required to evaluate the path of sport development in Fars province. According to the existing resources, the methods of collecting the required indicators were examined. Then, given the available resources and data, potential indicators for the evaluation of sport development in Fars province were offered using descriptive methods and review of related literature. Then through qualitative method and a survey of sport development document of Fars province, 20 indicators were selected to evaluate the process of sport development in this province by an investigation of the macro goals and objectives of Sport and Youth general office of Fars province. Through analyzing the obtained data, it was clear that the policy makers of this province emphasized social participation more than other indicators. Other components were informing, accessibility, women participation, volunteering, educational-scientific and structural-political respectively.

Organizational commitment is one of the important factors in the relationships between individuals and organizations in management and literature of behavioral sciences and plays an important role in general growth and development of organizations. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship of media stress and resilience with organizational commitment in the referees of Iran premier league. The methodology was descriptive-correlative. The statistical population consisted of all referees in premier football league. The whole population was considered as the sample (N=n=95).  Media Stressors in Football Questionnaire (Kristiansen, Halvari, and Roberts, 2012), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (2003) and Allen and Meyer's Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (1990) were used to measure the variables. Results showed that media stress and resilience could predict organizational commitment of Iran premier league referees. These results contribute to more attention to proper strategies in order to decrease referees' faults and raise sport judgment quality.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between sport participation motives and sport commitment in disabled athletes. The population consisted of all disabled athletes participating in national championship track and field tournament (N= 250) and 122 athletes were randomly selected as the sample. Demographic characteristics, Sport Participation Motives (Gill et al., 1983) and Sport Commitment (Scanlan et al., 1993) were used to collect data. Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, independent t test were used to analyze data and structural equation modeling was applied to determine the relationships of variable within the casual framework. The results showed a significant and positive relationship between all subscales of sport participation motives and sport commitment. 'Fitness and health' and 'popularity' motives were the most powerful predictors of sport commitment. Also, sport participation motives had a positive and significant effect on sport commitment and could predict 34% of sport commitment variance. The model showed a good fit to the data. Totally, the results stated that officials and coaches should pay more attention to motives of the disabled, particularly health motive in order to strengthen their sport commitment.

The aim of this study was the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of sporting success indicators questionnaire. The statistical population consisted of coaches, athletes and executive directors of four selected federations as well as the managers of the National Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sport and Youth who were selected non-randomly and purposively. 153 subjects were selected as the sample by Morgan table. After examining the face validity, confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity. Cronbach's alpha was used to investigate the reliability which ranged between 0.74 and 0.89 for the ten factors which showed the suitable reliability of the questionnaire. Results of CFA showed that the structure of the ten factors was fair with regard to item discrimination and adaptation to theories. These results also showed that the 10-factor model of sporting success questionnaire, including financial support, structure and policy making, sport participation, talent identification system, career-sport support, educational and training facilities, coaching system, national and international competitions, scientific researches and championship, had good fit. It is suggested that this questionnaire should be applied to other fields and samples in future researches in order to assure its validity and reliability.

The current study aimed at evaluating the reliability and validity of the Persian version of 'Participation Constraints in Ski' questionnaire in Tehrani skiers. The population of the study consisted of all skiers in Tehran and as the total population exceeded 10000 subjects, 370 skiers were selected as the sample using Morgan Table and 362 reliable questionnaires were analyzed. Wei (2008) questionnaire was used to assess the questionnaire. The items of this questionnaire reduced to 17 after the questionnaire was translated, retranslated and localized according to Iran culture and they were classified into four general factors )intrapersonal constraints, interpersonal constraints, relatives and friends constraints, structural constraints). Face and content validities were verified by 11 sport management professors in sport tourism field and experts of psychometry. Cronbach's alpha was used to obtain the reliability of the questionnaire (α=0.95). The results from the t-value and correlations showed that there was a significant relationship between all items and the factors they described. Moreover, the results from the second-order factor analysis indicated a significant relationship between 4 main factors and the concept of 'skiers’ constraints'. Besides, all 17 items supported these factors and confirmed the instrument’s factor structure and validity.

The aim of this study was the factor analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the elite sport development in Iran. The statistical population included 850 managers and the elite sport experts and physical education faculty members in Iran universities. In the qualitative section, the viewpoints of 25 elite sport experts were used and in the quantitative section, 265 subjects were selected as the sample using cluster random sampling method based on Morgan Table. To achieve the study objectives, a list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the elite sport development in Iran was provided. Then based on the provided list, a researcher-made questionnaire with 61 items was distributed among the subjects. For data analysis, a Delphi method was used for the qualitative section and descriptive and inferential statistics including confirmatory factor analysis by AMOS and SPSS were used in the quantitative section. The results indicated that there were 10 strengths, 15 weaknesses, 6 opportunities, and 16 threats for the elite sport development in Iran. Finally, it is recommended that sport responsibilities pay attention to these findings and recommendations in order to develop the elite sport.

The aim of this study was to validate and determine the reliability of questionnaires of appropriate level of communication and 6-fold effective communication skills determination. Method was descriptive with regard to strategy, survey in terms of performance and development with regard to aim. The statistical population consisted of all master students in different fields of sport management in 2014 and 2015. The statistical sample consisted of 384 subjects based on the population. The reliability and validity of two researcher-made questionnaires were determined: appropriate level of communication and communication skills. Their face, content and structure validity was determined and their reliability was determined as 0.89 by Cronbach's alpha. The results showed that writing skills, speaking skills, listening skills, reading skills, body language skills, and modern daily communication tools were identified as 6 factors of 6-fold communication skills. The implementation of the confirmatory model of communication questionnaire showed that all factors had high validity and best reflected the level of intrapersonal communication.