The aim of this study was to examine the effects of organizational climate components on unity in sports teams.
    The participants were 1,095 student athletes who were affiliated with the competitive sports clubs of 16 different sports types. Their average age was 17.85 (SD = 2.10) years. They completed questionnaires to assess the perceived team unity using the Unity Scale for Sports Teams (USST; composed of “integration for the group: IG” , “commitment: Co” and “the total of those: Uni” ) , and organizational climate with Organizational Climate Questionnaire (OCQ; composed of “discipline centered on the club: DC” , “free communication: FC” and “acceptance of innovation: AI” ) .
     In the results, the DC score of male athletes was higher than that of female athletes, whereas the FC score of female athletes was higher than that of male athletes. All the subscale scores in both USST and OCQ of high school athletes were higher than those of university athletes. All the USST subscales and the FC scores of athletes with 1-2 years or 3-4 experienced years were higher than those of athletes with 5-9 years or more than 10 years. The scores of 5 subscales with the IG removed of regular or semi-regular athletes were higher than those of non-regular athletes. Additionally, there was a positive correlation between the USST scores and the OCQ scores. Furthermore, the FC score significantly predicted the USST scores mediated by the DC and the AI.
    On the basis of above-mentioned results, we obtained the following conclusions; (1) there were significant differences in cognitions of unity or organizational climate in sports teams according to sex, school grade, the years of athletic experience and role within the team, (2) promoting free communication should enhance the sense of unity in sports teams.

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    The purpose of this study was to examine; the effect of factors of continued exercise on an elderly patient undergoing hemodialysis, applying the factors of success in continuing exercise at a fitness club by to the ‘Exercise Participation Model’ .
    Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and we extracted the factors and distinctive remarks about continued exercise, summarized them, and applied them to the ‘Exercise Participation Model’ .
    Ms. A was compelled to discontinue exercise when she started hemodialysis, but after a month she started exercise again. She had barriers such as illness and pain, and it was shown that the following factors were related to her continued exercise.
1) Acceptance of her physical condition, including illness and pain.
2) Social support from those around her.
3) Choice of exercise programs adjusted to suit her physical condition.
    These results suggested taking into consideration not only general health promotion and barriers to exercise practice, but also the acceptance of illness in the particular case of such a patient undergoing hemodialysis.

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    A hypothesized model was created to determine if the play environment for seniors participating in short tennis affected their quality of life (QOL) directly or indirectly via their self-efficacy and social networks. We evaluated this model using structural equation modeling. The target subjects were men and women aged 50 and over who participated in activities managed by 13 regional short tennis associations nationwide. We conducted an anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey and analyzed the valid responses obtained from 730 participants (response rate: 80.1%) . The results supported the hypothesized model, and our simultaneous analysis of age (<65 or ≥65) and sex differences with this model indicated a good model fit. The following differences were found for the path coefficients among the different age and sex groups. The path coefficient from the play environment to self-efficacy was significantly smaller for men under 65 and women 65 and over when compared with that of women under 65. Moreover, the path coefficient from self-efficacy to QOL was significantly smaller for women 65 and over when compared with that of men under 65. The path coefficient from the play environment to QOL was significantly larger for men and women 65 and over when compared with that of women under 65. Overall, since QOL for senior short tennis players can be affected either directly or indirectly by the play environment and, because the degree and structure of its influence regarding QOL depends on age and sex, it is essential to create play environments that consider age and sex factors.

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    The TORAY PAN PACIFIC TENNIS (TORAY PPO Tennis) is a very historic sporting event which debuted as the first Women’ s Tennis Association (WTA) tournament in Asia in 1984. TORAY Industries Inc. (TORAY) has been the title sponsor since the first tournament was held. The author, being the producer of the event for many years, wanted to clarify whether the event had contributed any additional value to TORAY through these years of sponsorship. We decided to examine the concept of “sponsor fit” ; the degree of coincidence between the image of the title sponsor and the sporting event. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of sponsor fit on the perception of sponsor’ s CSR and attitude toward the sponsor. The data was collected from 542 spectators at the TORAY PPO Tennis 2010 in Tokyo. The result of the study indicated that sponsor fit has strong impact on the perception of sponsor’ s CSR. Also, the perception of sponsor’ s CSR has strong impact on attitude toward the sponsor. The findings revealed that there was no direct impact on attitude toward the sponsor. However, the perception of sponsor’ s CSR plays an important role as a mediator, and the sponsor fit has indirect impact on attitude toward the sponsor. Therefore, if the company expects a positive effect when sponsoring a sporting event, it is necessary to consider how well the company image and the image of the sporting event fit. The more effort the company makes to improve sponsor fit for the long term, the more consumer perception of sponsor’ s CSR will increase among the spectators, and the more attitude toward the sponsor will become positive.

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    This study uses property rights theory to comparatively analyze the institutional design of the spectator sports business by examining both a company basketball club and a professional basketball club of Japan’ s top basketball league, whose hometowns were adjacent to each other. Then we try to clarify the possibilities and problems of the institutional transition from a company club to a professional club. To evaluate the “property” (attributes of goods and services) in the spectator sports businesses, we administered a questionnaire survey to spectators attending home games of each club, in which we asked fans if their motivation consisted of “team attachment,” “player attachment,” “sports attachment,” and/or “community pride.” Employees and stakeholders of both clubs were interviewed to identify the assignment of property rights to utilize the value corresponding to the fans’ motivation.
    Our results showed that company club fans showed significantly higher “player attachment,” while professional club fans showed significantly higher “community pride.” Moreover, despite the fans’ higher player attachment, the company clubs failed to efficiently utilize “player value” (an attribute of spectator sports that motivated fans via player attachment) because the required property rights actually belong to the parent company, which employs players as full-time employees of the main business, rather than as players. However, the economic advantage that company athletes gained from simultaneously performing a double role (top athlete and full-time employee) provided the company clubs more opportunities to recruit players than the professional clubs, whose budgets for player salaries were limited. In contrast, professional clubs had control over most of the property rights required to utilize the element “value for community resource,” (an attribute of spectator sports that motivated fans via community pride) although these rights were dispersed to stakeholders who had little incentive to engage in the community activities from a medium- and long-term perspective in the company clubs. More fans attended home games of the professional clubs than company clubs, and the utilization of the value for community resources was one factor behind this difference. Therefore, assigning property rights of the value for community resources and also the lack of human resources of business management in company club can be considered the key aspects of institutional design required by spectator sports businesses and the answer to the problem of successful institutional transition from a company club to a professional club.

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    School-based extracurricular sports activity (SBECSA) is a beneficial activity for positive youth development. However, there are some problems regarding the management of SBECSA, such as the lack of SBECSA teachers who can coach expertly and the great burden for SBECSA teachers. Although the number of external coaches has not been sufficient, recruiting external coaches into SBECSA has been focused on to help resolve these issues. For further effective recruitment of external coaches, approaching the community residents who have motivation to be external coaches is important. Nevertheless, the sociodemographics associated with the motivation still have not been explored. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to clarify the sociodemographics of community residents who have motivation to become involved in SBECSA as external coaches (potential external coaches) . An Internet-based cross-sectional survey was conducted by a social survey company with 19506 registrants aged 20-69 years. Stratified random sampling was continued till 100 potential external coaches were collected for both genders and every age group. Coaching motivation as an external coach and six sociodemographics (gender, age, occupational status, marital status, teaching credential, and coaching credential) were obtained. As a statistical analysis, logistic regression analysis was performed. Overall, 19239 participants were included in the analysis and 5.9% of them had coaching motivation. Potential external coaches were significantly less likely to be females (OR = 0.42) , people in their 30s (OR = 0.63) , 40s (OR = 0.40) , 50s (OR = 0.30) , 60s (OR = 0.24) than males and people in their 20s. In addition, workers (OR = 1.49) , students (OR = 1.52) , married people (OR = 1.32) , those who have teaching credentials (OR = 1.60) and coaching credentials (OR = 8.13) were more likely to be external coaches. In conclusion, the present study clarified the sociodemographics of potential external coaches. It is suggested in recruiting external coaches into SBECSA, providing promotion strategies which take these sociodemographic factors into account would be effective.

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     In recent years, the relationship between sports teams and the local community has been gaining attention among researchers. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of sense of community and team reputation on team identity. We conducted a questionnaire survey at a stadium, targeting fans of a J-League soccer club, to collect data on team reputation and sense of community. Analyzing this data revealed that although there was no statistically significant difference in the direct effect that sense of community has on team identity, it was shown that team reputation had a significant, positive relationship with team identity. Furthermore, while there was no direct, significant relationship between sense of community and team identity, the fact that sense of community had a significant and positive effect on team reputation clearly demonstrates that team identity will increase in sports teams in local communities that have a strong reputation.

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    The purpose of this paper is to clarify the linkage between performance of the national team and that of the national youth team on football in Asia and make suggestions which should be useful from the operational viewpoint of the member associations of the Asian football confederation (AFC) .
    This paper examines the linkage between them for the 39 member associations of the AFC which participated the AFC under 19 championships between 1994 and 2008. Statistical analysis was made by means of correlation analysis and single regression analysis.
    With regard to correlation analysis, Spearman’ s rank correlation coefficient was found to be 0.763 and Kendall tau rank correlation coefficient was found to be 0.559. Both results show that there is correlation.
    With regard to single regression analysis, R-square was found to be 0.58. This shows that the performance of the national youth team was linked with the performance of the national team with regard to football in Asia to some extent.
    In the meantime, member associations of AFC were divided into four groups, based on performance of the national youth team and performance of the national team, and regression formula and practical suggestions were made for each group.

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    In our previous study, we proposed a three-dimensional movement measurement system for the club head in the golf putting stroke which was composed of a 3D gyroscope sensor and an infrared sensor. The purpose of this study was to compare the trajectory of the club head between experienced players and novice players during golf putting stroke by using the proposed system. Concretely, putting distance was changed, and trajectories of the club head, measured by the difference of each distance, were compared. As a result, in comparison between experienced players and novice players, there were the following differences in the orbit of the club head. (1) Experienced players exhibited asymmetrical movement, while novice players exhibited symmetrical movements in putting stroke. (2) Novice players exhibited different trajectories from address to impact in every condition, while experienced players exhibited straight and stable trajectories. (3) When putting distance was long, the center position of the club face at the top showed constancy for experienced players and increase for novice players. (4) When putting distance was long, experienced players exhibited an increase in the angular velocity of the rotary motion of the face direction of the putter head from top to impact, while novice players exhibited stability. (5) Stop position of the ball cannot be evaluated by trajectory of the club head.

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    This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of supporters club members and gain basic insights into how a supporters’ club should be managed in the future. Specifically, the study analyzed the Sakai Blazers Supporters’ Club and compared the annual fees, reasons for joining the club, attractions of the club, membership benefits, and team support activities by membership type and age group. The data were collected from 350 members of the Sakai Blazer Supporters’ Club. The comparison by membership type clearly showed that while “Socio” members wanted a higher-priced member category, “Friends” members wanted a lower-priced one. In addition, it seemed that one of the reasons that Socio members preferred that membership type was the range of member benefits it provided. In terms of what they liked about the fan club, Socio members wanted to support the team more than Friends members did. The same tendency was observed in regard to their intention to support the team. The results of the age group comparison showed that “players” was the keyword among members in their 20s and 30s, indicating that they valued opportunities to obtain players’ information and see them in person. On the other hand, the keyword among the members in their 60s and 70s was “connection,” suggesting that they became members through their connections to, for example, the local community, corporate sponsors, and individuals involved in the team.

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    The purpose of this study was to determine whether the primary factor of growth in the clubs of English Premier League is in the advertising rates.
    The analysis in this study was based on the data from the 1996/1997 season to 2012/2013 season. The subject of investigation was the clubs which belong to the Premier League in the aforementioned years, and we did research on the categories of business of the sponsors and the location of its head office.
    As a result, the number of main sponsors whose head office is located in Asia, especially ones from ASEAN counties, is increasing recently. Also, the number of sponsors whose business is gambling has been increasing, especially in lower ranked clubs in the league.

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  前号 (『スポーツ産業学研究』第24巻第1号) に誤りがありましたので, お詫びして, 訂正させていただきます.

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