Qualitative Research in Sport Management

Allan Edwards, James Skinner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781138147492, 9781138147492
• eBook ISBN: 9781136436369
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Qualitative Research in Sport Management is the first book of its kind to bring together valuable research designs based on extensive research in qualitative research methods across a number of different fields. Research designs from the fields of business, education, cultural studies, media studies, queer studies, sociology and psychology are applied specifically to sport management, taking into account the special features and nuances of this field.

In each research design the text provides a concise guide to how each model can first be applied to sport management issues and problems, second, strengthen the research design, and finally, enhance the research process.

Each chapter is carefully structured to ensure that key information is easy to locate and remember and includes: Introduction, Objectives, Key Concepts and Terms, and Review and research questions. International case studies, "In Profile" sections with leading sport management researchers and research briefs are used to illustrate how theory is put into practice.

An accompanying website provides powerpoint summaries of each chapter. Please visit: www.textbooks.elsevier.com/9780750685986.

PART 1

The Context of Sport
Management Research

	CHAPTER 1
	Introduction to Sport Management Research

INTRODUCTION

Costa (2005) suggests that sport management defined itself as a discipline in the mid-1980s “as signaled by the founding of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) in 1985” (p. 117), and the subsequent formation of the European Association of Sport Management (EASM) in 1993 and the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand (SMAANZ) in 1995.

A key element in a discipline's growth and development is the publication of scholarly works (Chelladurai, 2005). As Pitts (2001) suggests, “a field of study cannot exist without a body of knowledge and literature” (p. 2) that has been formed through the process of research. Historically, positivistic, quantitative methodologies have served as the dominant approaches for research exploration in the field of sport management (Amis & Silk, 2005). Recently, however, an increasing number of scholars have acknowledged the need to consider and embrace alternative worldviews and eclectic methodological approaches to examine questions about the social world (Quatman, 2006). Quatman (2006) identified how these issues have been raised by a number of sport management researchers (e.g., Chalip, 2006; Pitts, 2001; Slack, 1996, 1998). Concerns have also been expressed about the lack of domain diversity and limited range of topics being explored (Pitts, 2001; Slack, 1998).

Wendy Frisby in her acceptance speech of the 2004 Earle F. Zeigler award challenged the sport management research community to embrace multiple research paradigms. Frisby (2005) writes:

The paradigm we operate from as researchers, whether it be positivism, pragmatism, interpretivism, critical social science, postmodernism or a combination of these paradigms, shape the questions we ask, the methods we use, and the degree to which our findings will have an impact on society. (p. 2)

Frisby (2005) while not making judgments concerning certain paradigms, speaks of the importance in writing with paradigmatic lenses in mind. Although this can be a complex undertaking, it is the foundation of qualitative research.

Others have supported Frisby's contentions (Amis & Silk, 2005; Skinner & Edwards, 2005) that the field of sport management tends to be overly focused on the same theories and paradigms (Quatman, 2006). Drawing on the work of Amis and Silk (2005), Quatman (2006) suggests there is a trend “toward “expanding the horizons” and extending the idea space of a scientific discipline through the promotion of alternative approaches to inquiry has made its way into the sport management literature” (p. 14). Quatman, however, suggests that the rate at which these approaches have been embraced implies “a culture of guarded optimism at best toward these new approaches” (p. 14). As Amis and Silk (2005) articulated:

There is little doubt that some related disciplines – such as education, cultural studies, leisure studies, and the sociology of sport – have progressed more rapidly than sport management in their acknowledgment of the value of different ideological, epistemological, and methodological approaches. (cited in Quatman, 2006, p. 14)

Quatman (2006) indicates that the 2005 special issue in the Journal of Sport Management reflected on the “constrained idea space (i.e., content and diversity of knowledge circulating) in the field and focused on “expanding the horizons” of sport management research through critical and innovative approaches” (p. 2). The special edition raised hopes that future sport management research would lead to a range of counter-hegemonic approaches. By recognizing, and in essence advocating for the alternative methods presented, Amis and Silk (2005) sought to “aid the power of those in the academy to apply research so that it impacts, and is meaningful to, the various communities that sport management has the potential to touch” (cited in Quatman, 2006, p. 2). Quatman goes on to suggest that the core theme of the special edition clearly suggests there is a need to move beyond current research practices and embrace socially inclusive approaches to understanding the lived experiences of sport managers in order to promote a more inclusive culture for the generation of knowledge in the field. This book takes up this challenge by presenting research paradigms that can provide new and innovative ways to conceptualize and investigate issues of interest to both the sport management academic and sport management practitioner. In this light, this book aims to offer potential solutions to emerging problems in the world of sport management research.

Research Brief

Title: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of the Projection of Images by Organisations Operating within the Context of a Professional Sport League

Who: Bastien, F., Concordia University

This study used an exploratory qualitative analysis of the projection of images by organizations operating within the context of a professional sport league. The research focused on a professional sport league as the organizational setting (i.e., cultural industry) for investigating and analyzing the particularities of English football (soccer) clubs’ images, operationalized as they are presented on club websites. This research established theoretical relationships between the identity of organizations, the images that these organizations project, and the environment in which they operate. In doing so, the analysis contributed to our understanding of what types of images professional sport organizations must manage in order to be perceived as attractive to different stakeholders that control the resources on which professional sport organizations are dependent on for funding.

WHY QUALITATIVE SPORT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH?

Despite our strong endorsement of qualitative research, we suggest that there is a strong position for quantitative research within sport management; indeed some suggest (Amis & Silk, 2005; Cunningham & Mahoney, 2004; Cuskelly & Boag, 2001; Fink et al., 2003; Murray & Howat, 2002; Quatman, 2006; Shilbury, 2001; Skinner & Edwards, 2005) that quantitative approaches to sport management research continue to dominate the discipline. Despite calls to embrace new paradigms, there remains considerable institutional pressure on sport management researchers to remain within a quantitative framework approach so as to maintain an aura of academic respectability. As a consequence, much sport management research seems to have adopted a somewhat naive and unreflecting empiricism.

We strongly support both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and the notion of mixed research approaches combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Meuller's (2004) study of ‘Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Selected Stakeholder Groups in the Professional German Soccer Industry’ is an example of qualitative analysis of quantitative data. One of the major themes of this book is that there is no one best research approach, but rather that the approach most effective for the resolution of a given problem depends on a large number of variables, not least the nature of the problem itself. Research methodology is always a compromise between options in the light of tacit philosophical assumptions, and choices are frequently influenced by the availability of resources. In this book, we will advance criteria for choice of methodology by reviewing emergent approaches to sport management research and, through examples, their appropriateness to finding answers to particular research questions. The book aims to open up the unlimited possibilities for the production of new sport management knowledge through the application of qualitative approaches.

Research Brief

Title: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Selected Stakeholder Groups in the Professional German Soccer Industry

Who: Meuller, W.

Meullers’ analysis of several German Bundesliga soccer companies showed that sports managers acted instinctively. Inadequate use of modern management instruments, or in some cases even a complete lack thereof, led to deficient strategies (or no pursuance of a strategy) resulting in stagnating revenues.

Meullers’ qualitative analysis drew on quantitative data to analyze the opportunities and potentials of customer relationship management for professional soccer companies in the B2C segment. He argued that management identified the need of a long-term and future oriented strategy and recognized the key role that customers and their relation with the soccer company play was crucial to the long-term success of a soccer company. In conclusion, he argues that when formulating a CRM strategy, management needs to take both economic and non-economic side-conditions into account.

THE MIXED METHOD APPROACH TO SPORT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

In a true mixed method approach, qualitative and quantitative methods have to be combined in order to produce sound sociological explanations. If qualitative and quantitative methods are combined in this way to answer a specific research question, in principle, one of the following three outcomes may arise:

1. Qualitative and quantitative results may ‘converge’.

2. Qualitative and quantitative results may relate to different objects or phenomena, but may be ‘complementary’ to each other and thus can be used to ‘supplement’ each other.

3. Qualitative and quantitative results may be ‘divergent’ or ‘contradictory’.

The construction of a multi-method design requires that methodological tools are selected in regard to theoretical assumptions about the nature of the social reality under investigation. Quantitative and qualitative methods usually provide information on different levels of sociological description: quantitative analyses show phenomena on an aggregate level and can thereby allow the description of macro-social structures. Although qualitative data may also relate to phenomena on a macro-societal level, their specific strength lies in their ability to lift the veil on social micro-processes and to make visible unknown cultural phenomena. In order to formulate adequate sociological explanations of certain social phenomena, it will often be necessary to combine both types of information.

It is not sufficient to discuss the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods exclusively on the basis of epistemological considerations and methodological models but that methodological reflections on the integration of methods have to be based on theoretical considerations about the social processes under investigation. Thereby one must pay attention to the nature of social structures and social actions in the empirical field, and to the ways that structures and actions are related to each other.

In sport management research using more than one method to study the same phenomenon has the potential to strengthen the validity of the results. A typical design might start out with a qualitative segment such as an interview, which will alert the researcher to issues that should be explored in a survey of participants, which in turn is followed by semistructured interviews to clarify some of the survey findings. A mixed method approach may also lead sport management researchers to modify or expand the research design and/or the data collection methods.

Research Brief

Title: The Commitment of Volunteers in Junior Sport Organisations: A Mixed Methods Study

Who: Estella (Terry) Engelberg, Griffith University The purpose of this research was to examine the dimensionality and targets of the commitment of volunteers (including committee members, coaches, officials, and volunteers in various other roles) in junior sport organizations, and the links between commitment and behavioral outcomes, specifically, intention to stand down from a volunteer role, intention to cease volunteering for the club or center, and self-assessed performance. Asequential explanatory mixed methods design consisting of a quantitative (two studies) and a qualitative phase (one study) was employed. Drawing on Meyer and Herscovitch's (2001) general commitment model, the quantitative studies assessed commitment to three organizational targets: the organization (defined as the center or the club), the team of volunteers, and the volunteer role. The qualitative study explored and explained the findings of the quantitative phase in more depth and to allow volunteers to “use their own voice” in discussing their commitment. This study consisted of focus group discussions. Taken together, the results of the three studies indicate that commitment is a multidimensional construct that can be applied to various organizational targets. Volunteers held distinctive affective, normative, and, to a lesser extent, continuance commitments to their organizations, their team of vol...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
• SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
• Part 1 The Context of Sport Management Research
• Part 2 Planning the Sport Management Research Study
• Part 3 Foundations of Sport Management Research
• Part 4 Analyzing the Sport Management Data
• Part 5 Selecting a Sport Management Research Method
• Part 6 Writing the Sport Management Research Report
• INDEX