Sports Marketing & Sponsorship - FIFA/CIES International University ...

Causal effectssampling technique for both retail and sports settings(Robinson & Carpenter, 2002; Wang & Heitmeyer,2006; Wesley et al, 2006; Maronick, 2007) and isused to target a specific audience, in this casespectators leaving an event (Reaves, 1992).Respondents were given the questionnaire and askedto complete it and a survey administrator collected thequestionnaire after completion. Completion of thequestionnaire was voluntary and respondents couldchoose to opt out of participating at any time duringthe administering of the questionnaire. The teamrepresentative forwarded the completed questionnairesto the researchers and 1,787 questionnaires wereused in the data analysis.MeasuresEach construct included in the study was evaluatedusing multi-item scales to analyse all relevantdimensions of the construct. The questionnaire wasconstructed in three parts.The first part of the questionnaire was designed toassess the attributes of service. The dimensions ofservice quality developed were rooted in the originaltheoretical concept of Bitner’s (1992) servicescape,and Grönroos’ (1984) technical and functional quality.The 14 items of service quality were applied toevaluate three dimensions of service quality. Forexample, statements used to measure theenvironmental attribute were: I am satisfied with a)appearance of the facility, b) comfort of the facility, c)convenience of the facility, and d) location of thefacility. In addition, statements used to measure thetechnical quality were: I am satisfied with a)competitiveness of the game, b) performance of theteam, c) team’s effort, and d) level of play. Finally,statements used to measure the functional qualitywere: I am satisfied with a) game day promotions, b)food and beverage concessions, c) merchandise thatwas available, d) service employees, e) contests thatwere held during the game, f) entertainment availableat the game. All dimensions in service quality weremeasured by 7-point Likert-type scales anchored by‘not satisfied at all’ (1) and ‘very satisfied’ (7).The second part of the survey consisted ofmeasures of cognitive and affective responses whichhave been used as assessments of service quality,such as PSQ and satisfaction. In order to measure thePSQ, Hightower et al’s (2002) 3-item scale wasslightly modified and applied to the study (e.g. thisorganisation provides excellent service; thisorganisation’s service is superior; this organisationprovides high-quality service). Satisfaction wasmeasured with a 3-item scale (e.g. I am satisfied withmy decision to visit this service provider; I am happywith my visit to this baseball game; I truly enjoyedmy visit to this facility) similar to those addressed byOliver (1980). All outcome constructs in the studywere measured by 7-point Likert-type scalesanchored by ‘strongly disagree’ (1) and ‘stronglyagree’ (7).Initial reliabilities of each latent construct rangedfrom .88 for the environmental attribute to .96 for thesatisfaction. Scale reliabilities exceeding a commontarget of .70 are shown to have an acceptable level ofreliability (Nunnally, 1978).Data analysisThe analysis of data was performed using SPSS 14.5and LISRL VIII (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1990). Aconfirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed toidentify the construct validity for all latent dimensionsvia an evaluation of convergent and discriminatevalidity. Finally, the research hypotheses examining thedirect and indirect relationships among the dimensionsof service quality, PSQ and satisfaction were analysedusing Path Analysis with Maximum LikelihoodEstimation using LISREL.RESEARCH PAPER● OCTOBER 2009 ● International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship51