Sports Management – Page 3 – The Sport Journal

BOOK REVIEW: Playing through the pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever

Authors: Barrett Snyder

West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA

Corresponding Author:

Barrett Snyder
PO Box 128
West Chester, PA 484-889-7321
jbarrettsnyder@veriszon.net

Barrett Snyder is a WCUPA graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Exercise Science with a specialization in Sports Psychology

BOOK REVIEW: Playing through the pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever

Good, D. (2022). Playing through the pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever. Abrams Press.

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Vandy Pacetti-Donelson2024-01-19T13:34:41-06:00December 15th, 2023|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Management|Comments Off

Assessing the Impact of Gender and Expertise in Athletic Product Endorsement in China

Authors: Jiayao Chee Qi¹, Marshall J. Magnusen², Jun Woo Kim³, and Jeffrey C. Petersen²

¹Department of Sport and Entertainment Management, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
²Department of Educational Leadership, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA
³School of Global Business, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Marshall J. Magnusen, PhD
Marrs McLean Science
One Bear Place #97312
Waco, TX 76798
Marshall_Magnusen@baylor.edu
254-710-4019

Jiayao Chee Qi, MSEd, is a doctoral candidate at the University of South Carolina. His advisor is Dr. Sam Todd, the associate dean for faculty, operations, and international partnerships. His current research interests focus on sport organization behavior, realistic job previews, and personnel selection.

Marshall J. Magnusen, PhD, is an associate professor of sport management at Baylor University. Magnusen’s research interests include leadership, recruiting and personnel selection, and wellbeing.
Jun Woo Kim, PhD, is an associate professor of sport management at Arcadia University. His research interests are in the areas of sport consumer behavior, marketing, and sports analytics.
Jeffrey C. Petersen, PhD, is a professor of sport management at Baylor University. He has research interests in the areas of sport consumer behavior as well as facility and event management.

Assessing the Impact of Gender and Expertise in Athletic Product Endorsement in China

ABSTRACT

Product-endorser relationships are critical to the success of marketing campaigns involving the sponsorship of an individual to promote a product or service. The significance of such relationships can be understood in part through the “match-up hypothesis.” This theory suggests endorsers are more effective when “fit” is stronger between a product and the endorser of the product. In this study, Chinese consumers’ perceptions of gender-sport fit, expertise, and endorser-product fit were evaluated. Images of two sets of athletes participating in different sports, with one being mixed martial arts (MMA) and the other one being gymnastics, were compared in a two-part study by 649 sport consumers from Shanghai, China. In Study 1, a 2 (male athlete and female athlete) × 2 (MMA and gymnastics) model compared Chinese consumers’ perceptions of gender-sport fit on endorser-product fit. In Study 2, a 2 (gender-sport fit: high and low) × 2 (expertise: highly skilled and less skilled) model evaluated whether consumers’ perceptions of endorser-product fit were more strongly influenced by athlete gender-sport fit or sport expertise. Gender-sport fit was shown to outperform expertise. Though expertise is important, an endorsement lacking sufficient gender-sport fit may not maximize the effectiveness of the endorsement relationship.

Key Words: consumer behavior; culture; endorsers; international; marketing; MMA; sponsorship; sport management

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Vandy Pacetti-Donelson2023-12-08T10:17:32-06:00December 8th, 2023|Research, Sports Management|Comments Off

An analysis of weight and fighting styles as predictors of winning outcomes of elite mixed martial arts athletes

Authors: Chenghao Ma

¹School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China

Corresponding Author:

Chenghao Ma
2001 Longxiang Blvd.,
Shenzhen, China 518172
machenghao@cuhk.edu.cn

Chenghao Ma is now at the School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

An analysis of weight and fighting styles as predictors of winning outcomes of elite mixed martial arts athletes

ABSTRACT

This study analyzed weight and fighting styles as predictors of the methods used by 174 top-ranking Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) elite athletes to victory, thus providing valuable information to help coaches and athletes formulate their training plans and competition strategies. A total of 174 athletes (male: 127; female: 47) who are champions and rank in the top 15 were involved in the sample data. The backward multiple regression test was applied to test the effective predictors (weight and fighting styles) for the outcomes (KO/TKO, Decision, and Submission) of winning MMA athletes in each gender group. One-way ANOVAs were also performed to examine the significance of the regression models. The study indicates that weight and fighting styles (MMA and Striker) are significant predictors of KO/TKO victories for male athletes, whereas female athletes’ KO/TKO wins can be predicted by fighting styles (MMA and Striker). Results showed that the weight and striker style were effective predictors for Decision wins. In addition, the findings indicate that weight and fighting styles can be utilized as predictors of Submission wins for both male and female athletes. The present study aims to provide managers, coaches, and athletes with valuable references concerning weight, fighting styles, and winning outcomes, thus enabling them to optimize training plans and competition strategies to secure competitive advantages. Sports fans can make more logical predictions concerning the winning methods of their favorite athletes.

Key Words: combat sports; UFC; athletic performance; training plan; competition strategy

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Vandy Pacetti-Donelson2023-10-11T14:55:50-05:00October 13th, 2023|Research, Sports Management|Comments Off

Impact of statistical significance and sample size on conclusions in sports science research – an analysis on the example of the relative age effect

Authors: Ib K. Keune

¹Department of Sport Science, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GER

Corresponding Author:

Ib K. Keune, M.Ed., PT
Philippstraße 13
10115 Berlin
ib.keune@hu-berlin.de
017681194891

Ib K. Keune is sport sociology doctoral student at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His areas of research interest include the relative age effect in sports and its interaction with factors of social inequality, statistics and methods in sport research, and applied ethics in sports.

Impact of statistical significance and sample size on conclusions in sports science research – an analysis on the example of the relative age effect

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The null hypothesis significance test (NHST) is a commonly applied statistical method for detecting effects in science, despite it being repeatedly criticized. Detractors argue that by focusing exclusively on NHST results, scientists fail to consider descriptive results, potentially leading to misinformed policy makers. They also point out that the influence of sample size on statistical power is often overlooked. This paper investigates whether this critique holds true in sport science research by analyzing the conclusions in publications about the relative age effect (RAE) – an effect manifested in biased birth date patterns. Method: In an extensive content analysis, 7,247 samples listed in 647 sources were recorded and analyzed using binary logistic regression. Results: Findings show discrepancies between NHST results and birth patterns. Authors in RAE research rely more heavily on NHST results than on birth patterns to draw their conclusions regarding the presence of a RAE. In addition, findings indicate that NHST results are influenced by sample size, birth pattern, and the interaction of both. This interaction leads to a RAE more often being suspected in large samples than small samples, even though birth patterns are more evenly distributed in large samples. Conclusion: As large samples are more likely to represent recreational sport and small samples are more likely to represent elite sport, the strong orientation towards NHST results for conclusions can lead to misinformation about the location of substantial RAEs. Applications in Sport: Similar reliance on NHST results and potential misinformation are also to be expected in other topics in sport research, where characteristics like elite status tend to accumulate in certain sample sizes. Decision-makers in sport should contextualize research findings. Researchers should use NHST appropriately and carefully and combine it with other statistical measures.Key Words: null hypothesis significance testing, birthdate effect, metascience

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Vandy Pacetti-Donelson2023-10-03T13:40:10-05:00October 6th, 2023|Research, Sports Management|Comments Off

Which global tennis rating better measures player skill? Evidence from the 2022 USTA Junior National Championships

Authors: Rebecca L. Mayew¹ and William J. Mayew²

¹USPTA Tennis Coach, Cary, NC, USA
²Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

William J. Mayew
Fuqua School of Business
Duke University
100 Fuqua Drive
Durham, NC 27708
919-660-7781
wmayew@duke.edu

Rebecca L. Mayew, MS is a tennis coach certified by the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) with interests in player development and player performance measurement.

William J. Mayew, MS, PhD is a Professor of Business Administration at Duke University. His research focuses on performance measurement of financial analysts and public corporations as well as the prediction of financial reporting fraud.

Which global tennis rating better measures player skill? Evidence from the 2022 USTA Junior National Championships

ABSTRACT

Assessing relative player skill is important in many aspects of tennis. In 2008, the Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) was introduced as a global tennis player skill rating that put all players, regardless of gender, age or geographic location, on a common scale. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) recently launched a competitor rating called the World Tennis Number (WTN). The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on which rating is a superior measure of player skill. We assume better skilled players are more likely to win tennis matches and examine whether UTR or WTN ratings better predict head-to-head match success using 1,532 matches played by 870 participants at the 2022 United States Tennis Association (USTA) Junior National Championships. We observe classification accuracy of 73.9% and 70.4% for UTR and WTN ratings, respectively. Both classification accuracy levels are statistically greater than chance and approximate the accuracy level observed for bookmakers at the professional level. UTR and WTN rating classification accuracy does not statistically differ between ratings in the sample overall, by age division, by gender, by match format, or by the magnitude of player rating differences. We conclude that UTR and WTN ratings are equivalent measures of player skill based upon their ability to predict match outcomes. These findings provide initial empirical evidence important to tennis organizations making rating adoption decisions, tennis coaches seeking play parity, tournament directors seeding players and college coaches screening potential recruits. We provide mapping functions between UTR and WTN ratings for situations where players have one rating but not the other.

Keywords: Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), World Tennis Number (WTN), junior tennis, match forecasting, classification accuracy

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Vandy Pacetti-Donelson2023-09-14T16:02:49-05:00August 25th, 2023|Research, Sports Management|Comments Off