Expanding Audience
Exploring a National Sport-based Charity: Understanding the Impact of Network on the Effectiveness of a National Charitable Organization
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laura Cousens, Martha Barnes
This research used social network analysis to explore a network of over 1000 community partners of a national charitable organization that funds sport participation by linking both the sport and recreation sectors. The network operates through a highly centralized mechanism of coordination created and maintained by the host organization. While the coordination of the network is centralized, tremendous latitude for decision-making is delegated to local partners to uphold the vision and core purpose of the organization: to facilitate sport participation. Network governance aligns with a structure that combines centralized coordination with decentralized decision-making by local partners which is underpinned by shared values across the network of partners. Exploring concepts such as network density and centrality enabled us to understand the structure of the network and the nature of linkages between the partners. The results of the study uncovered the presence of regional knowledge brokers that served as hubs for information and knowledge sharing. However, overall the structure was fragmented and unable to exploit opportunities for knowledge sharing, innovation, and organizational learning. Network mapping using UCINET 6 provided illustrations that reflected reduced channels of communication between partners and across the central hubs in the network. Efforts to increase communication through technology, creating an e-newsletter that shares best practices, hosting regional or provincial conferences for network partners, providing incentives for ideas sharing and encouraging partners to form new links and connections among the people in geographically proximal locations can positively influence their motivation to collaborate.
Competitive Balance in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivisiion
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Clayton Stoldt, Martin Perline
Rottenberg's Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis, as well as, past research has suggested that without a certain degree of competitive balance, fans lose interest, and revenue from attendance, media, etc. declines. If this is true, it would seem to follow that the higher the sources of revenue, the stronger would be the desire for competitive balance, since the potential loss of revenue would be greater. This study focuses on those conferences within the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. (NCAA). Using the standard deviation to measure within-season balance, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure between-season balance, the authors of this study concluded that when measuring within-season balance there was little difference tween the "Power 5," the highest revenue conferences in the NCAA's FBS , and the "Group of 5," the lower revenue conferences int the NCAA's FBS, When measuring between-season balance, the "Group of 5" conferences actually were somewhat more balanced than the "Power 5" conferences, although in neither case was there a statistically significant difference at the .05 level. The results of this study which covered the seven year period, 2012-2018 would suggest that fans might not be as concerned with competitive balance as past research has suggested, or possibly, that the period under study was not typical.
Examination of Donor Motivation in NCAA Division II
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Soojin Kim, Yongjae Kim
Economic downturn and ongoing budget cuts poses higher education with profound challenges. Accordingly, to offset budget shortfalls and make capital improvements, collegiate athletic programs have become increasingly dependent on financial support from their alumni and boosters. Currently the majority of the donor motivation literature tend to focus on NCAA Division I athletic programs. However, considering that each athletic department functions differently in a number of different dimensions, while institutional difference can also have a huge impact on athletic donor motivations, the current study attempts to fill the gap that exist in the literature. The purpose of this study was to a) reexamine the factor structure of the Athletic Donor motivation scale; and b) identify the prominent athletic donor motives in a NCAA Division II athletic program. For the purpose of this study, a total of 232 actual donors were used for analysis. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to test construct validity and the reliability of the scale was assessed using Composite Reliability. To identify the prominent motivational factors, the means and standard deviations were examined. Results of this study will be further discussed.
