Examining the antecedents and consequences of ritualized fan behavior [Abstract]

One of the features of the sporting industry is the ritualized way in which it is consumed across the world. Fans of every sport have rituals and superstitions to help them enjoy the spectacle, socialize with other like-minded fans, and reduce some of the anxiety of watching their team play. These rituals include dress, barracking styles and pre and post match behaviors. What is not known are the factors that lead fans to engage in ritual behaviors and what relationship rituals have with desirable outcomes such as increased attendance, attitudinal loyalty or satisfaction. Given that some ritual behaviors are clearly undesirable, (e.g., hooliganism), understanding these relationships is important to managers who may be questioning whether rituals should be encouraged. Although ritualized behavior amongst fans is clearly visible, the symbolic and emotional nature of ritual poses challenges to researchers. Most previous ritual research is exploratory and qualitative in nature. This study, however, uses a behavior-based scale to measure fan ritual and relates it to desirable outcomes such as commitment and attendance. Over 2,000 season ticket holders of a football (soccer) team in Australia’s professional A-League competition were surveyed to investigate the antecedents and consequences of fan ritual behavior. Cluster analysis was used to explore the characteristics of respondents, and it revealed that those fans that engage in ritual behavior also differed on many other demographic and attitudinal dimensions. The associations between ritual and psychological commitment, and ritual and attendance are positive and significant. When used in conjunction with other constructs, fan ritual also improves the explanation of attendance behavior. The findings support previous research that found a significant and positive relationship between team identification, involvement and attendance, and extend previous research by finding a significant and positive relationship between rituals and attendance. For sports marketing practitioners, the results indicate the importance of developing and managing consumption rituals tied to game day attendance, with a view to generating uncommon loyalty.

Sport marketing on Fortune Global 500 websites

This research investigates how the world’s leading companies, the Fortune Global 500, use sportsrelated terms and phrases on their Web site. An automated process mirrored leading transnational corporations’ Web presence and then searched their sites. Analysis of about four gigabytes of Webbased text revealed regional and industry differences in how the world’s largest corporations use sports terms on their sites.

The relationship between construction firm strategies and innovation outcomes

Survey results provide a preliminary assessment of the relative contribution of a range of tactical business strategies to innovation performance by firms in the Australian construction industry. Over 1,300 firms were surveyed in 2004, resulting in a response rate of 29%. Respondents were classified as high, medium or low innovators according to an innovation index based on the novelty and impact of their innovations and their adoption of listed technological and organizational advances. The relative significance of 23 business strategies concerning (1) employees, (2) marketing, (3) technology, (4) knowledge and (5) relationships was examined by determining the extent to which they distinguished high innovators from low innovators. The individual business strategies that most strongly distinguished high innovators were (1) ‘investing in R&D’, (2) ‘participating in partnering and alliances on projects’, (3) ‘ensuring project learnings are transferred into continuous business processes’, (4) ‘monitoring international best practice’, and (5) ‘recruiting new graduates’. Of the five types of strategies assessed, marketing strategies were the least significant in supporting innovation. The results provide practical guidance to managers in project-based industries wishing to improve their innovation performance.

The relationship between clinical outcomes and quality of life for residents of aged care facilities

Objectives It is widely assumed improving care in residential facilities will improve quality of life (QoL), but little research has explored this relationship. The Clinical Care Indicators (CCI) Tool was developed to fill an existing gap in quality assessment within Australian residential aged care facilities and it was used to explore potential links between clinical outcomes and QoL. Design and Setting Clinical outcome and QoL data were collected within four residential facilities from the same aged care provider. Subjects Subjects were 82 residents of four facilities. Outcome Measures Clinical outcomes were measured using the CCI Tool and QoL data was obtained using the Australian WHOQOL‑100. Results Independent t‑test analyses were calculated to compare individual CCIs with each domain of the WHOQOL‑100, while Pearson’s product moment coefficients (r) were calculated between the total number of problem indicators and QoL scores. Significant results suggested poorer clinical outcomes adversely affected QoL. Social and spiritual QoL were particularly affected by clinical outcomes and poorer status in hydration, falls and depression were most strongly associated with lower QoL scores. Poorer clinical status as a whole was also significantly correlated with poorer QoL. Conclusions Hydration, falls and depression were most often associated with poorer resident QoL and as such appear to be key areas for clinical management in residential aged care. However, poor clinical outcomes overall also adversely affected QoL, which suggests maintaining optimum clinical status through high quality nursing care, would not only be important for resident health but also for enhancing general life quality.

How to progress forward in improving safety outcomes in the work-related driving field : a review of work-related driving research and development of an intervention framework [Extended abstract]

Road crashes are now the most common cause of work-related injury, death and absence in a number of countries. Given the impact of workrelated driving crashes on social and economic aspects of business and the community, workrelated road safety and risk management has received increasing attention in recent years. However, limited academic research has progressed on improving safety within the work-related driving sector. The aim of this paper is to present a review of work-related driving safety research to date, and provide an intervention framework for the future development and implementation of workrelated driving safety intervention strategies.

Health outcomes of adults 3 months after injury

Background: Injury is a leading cause of preventable mortality and morbidity in Australia and the world. Despite this there is little research examining the health related quality of life of adults following general trauma. Methods: A prospective cohort design was used to study adults who presented to hospital following injury. Data regarding injury and demographic details was collected through the routine operation of the Queensland Trauma Registry (QTR). In addition, the short form 36 (SF-36) was mailed to patients approximately 3 months following injury. Results: Participants included 339 injured patients who were hospitalised for ≥24 h in March-June 2003. A secondary group of 145 patients completed the SF-36, but did not have QTR data collected due to hospitalisation being <24 h. Both groups of participants reported significantly lower scores on all subscales of the SF-36 when compared to Australian norms. Conclusions: Health related quality of life of injured survivors is markedly reduced 3 months after injury. Ongoing treatment and support is necessary to improve these health outcomes.

Implementation of an integrated, technology-based, discovery mode assessment item involving an incubation period to enhance learning outcomes for engineering maths students

In this paper we discuss our current efforts to develop and implement an exploratory, discovery mode assessment item into the total learning and assessment profile for a target group of about 100 second level engineering mathematics students. The assessment item under development is composed of 2 parts, namely, a set of "pre-lab" homework problems (which focus on relevant prior mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills), and complementary computing laboratory exercises which are undertaken within a fixed (1 hour) time frame. In particular, the computing exercises exploit the algebraic manipulation and visualisation capabilities of the symbolic algebra package MAPLE, with the aim of promoting understanding of certain mathematical concepts and skills via visual and intuitive reasoning, rather than a formal or rigorous approach. The assessment task we are developing is aimed at providing students with a significant learning experience, in addition to providing feedback on their individual knowledge and skills. To this end, a noteworthy feature of the scheme is that marks awarded for the laboratory work are primarily based on the extent to which reflective, critical thinking is demonstrated, rather than the amount of CBE-style tasks completed by the student within the allowed time. With regard to student learning outcomes, a novel and potentially critical feature of our scheme is that the assessment task is designed to be intimately linked to the overall course content, in that it aims to introduce important concepts and skills (via individual student exploration) which will be revisited somewhat later in the pedagogically more restrictive formal lecture component of the course (typically a large group plenary format). Furthermore, the time delay involved, or "incubation period", is also a deliberate design feature: it is intended to allow students the opportunity to undergo potentially important internal re-adjustments in their understanding, before being exposed to lectures on related course content which are invariably delivered in a more condensed, formal and mathematically rigorous manner. In our presentation, we will discuss in more detail our motivation and rationale for trailing such a scheme for the targeted student group. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of our approach (as we perceived them at the initial stages) will also be enumerated. In a companion paper, the theoretical framework for our approach will be more fully elaborated, and measures of student learning outcomes (as obtained from eg. student provided feedback) will be discussed.

Ecological approaches to cognition and action in sport and exercise : ask not only what you do, but where you do it

In recent decades, concepts and ideas from James J. Gibson’s theory of direct perception in ecological psychology have been applied to the study of how perception and action regulate sport performance. This article examines the influence of different streams of thought in ecological psychology for studying cognition and action in the diverse behavioural contexts of sport and exercise. In discussing the origins of ecological psychology it can be concluded that psychologists such as Lewin, and to some extent Heider, provided the initial impetus for the development of key ideas. We argue that the papers in this special issue clarify that the different schools of thinking in ecological psychology have much to contribute to theoretical and practical developments in sport and exercise psychology. For example, Gibson emphasized and formalized how the individual is coupled with the environment; Brunswik raised the issue of the ontology of probability in human behaviour and the problem of representative design for experimental task constraints; Barker looked carefully into extra-individual behavioural contexts and Bronfenbrenner presented insights pertinent to the relations between behaviour contexts, and macro influences on behaviour. In this overview, we highlight essential issues from the main schools of thought of relevance to the contexts of sport and exercise, and we consider some potential theoretical linkages with dynamical systems theory.

Difference-based meta-analytic procedures for between-participant and/or within-participant designs : a tutorial review for sports and exercise scientists

The aim of this paper is to provide a contemporary summary of statistical and non-statistical meta-analytic procedures that have relevance to the type of experimental designs often used by sport scientists when examining differences/change in dependent measure(s) as a result of one or more independent manipulation(s). Using worked examples from studies on observational learning in the motor behaviour literature, we adopt a random effects model and give a detailed explanation of the statistical procedures for the three types of raw score difference-based analyses applicable to between-participant, within-participant, and mixed-participant designs. Major merits and concerns associated with these quantitative procedures are identified and agreed methods are reported for minimizing biased outcomes, such as those for dealing with multiple dependent measures from single studies, design variation across studies, different metrics (i.e. raw scores and difference scores), and variations in sample size. To complement the worked examples, we summarize the general considerations required when conducting and reporting a meta-analysis, including how to deal with publication bias, what information to present regarding the primary studies, and approaches for dealing with outliers. By bringing together these statistical and non-statistical meta-analytic procedures, we provide the tools required to clarify understanding of key concepts and principles.

Long-term outcomes of seriously injured children : a study using the Child Health Questionnaire

Objective: To assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children 1-2 years after they had sustained an injury. Methods: Parents of all children who were identified by the Queensland Trauma Registry during their admission to either of the two paediatric specialty hospitals in Brisbane, Australia, for the treatment of an injury, were invited to participate in this study. Parents who consented to participation received a copy of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) that required them to provide information regarding their child’s HRQoL following injury. The CHQ scores for the study respondents were compared with those of the Australian norms. This study was approved by the relevant ethics committees. Results: Two hundred and forty-one completed questionnaires were returned. The majority of cases were male (65%) and there was even representation across all age groups. The majority of injuries were considered to be minor (81%) and were predominantly the result of falls and cycling accidents causing mainly fractures and intracranial injury. On the majority of subscales of the CHQ, study participants recorded scores that were statistically significantly below those of the Australian norms. None of the relevant variables collected by the Queensland Trauma Registry were found to predict scores on the CHQ in this study (for those children hospitalized for >24 h). Conclusion: Injured children are worse off than their Australian counterparts in terms of HRQoL even up to 2 years following an injury. Further research needs to be undertaken to identify factors that predict lower HRQoL in order to reduce the burden of injury on children and their families.

The development of decision making skill in sport : An ecological dynamics perspective

In this chapter we introduce a theoretical framework for studying decision making in sport: the ecological dynamics approach, which we integrate with key ideas from the literature on learning complex motor skills. Our analysis will include insights from Berstein (1967) on the coordination of degrees of freedom and Newell's (1985) model of motor learning. We particularly focus on the role of perceptual degrees of freedom advocated in an ecological approach to learning. In introducing this framework to readers we contrast this perspective with more traditional models of decision-making. Finally, we propose some implications to the training of decision-making skill in sport.

Information for regulating action in sport : metastability and emergence of tactical solutions under ecological constraints

The aims of this chapter are twofold. First, we show how experiments related to nonlinear dynamical systems theory can bring about insights on the interconnectedness of different information sources for action. These include the amount of information as emphasised in conventional models of cognition and action in sport and the nature of perceptual information typically emphasised in the ecological approach. The second aim was to show how, through examining the interconnectedness of these information sources, one can study the emergence of novel tactical solutions in sport; and design experiments where tactical/decisional creativity can be observed. Within this approach it is proposed that perceptual and affective information can be manipulated during practice so that the athlete's cognitive and action systems can be transposed to a meta-stable dynamical performance region where the creation of novel action information may reside.

How does knowledge constrain sport performance? An ecological perspective

From an ecological perspective knowledge signifies the degree of fitness of a performer and his/her environment. From this viewpoint, the role of training is to enhance this degree of fit between a specific athlete and the performance environment, instead of the enrichment of memory in the performer. In this regard, ecological psychology distinguishes between perceptual knowledge or "knowledge of" the environment and symbolic knowledge or "knowledge about" the environment. This distinction elucidates how knowing how to act (knowing of) as well as knowing how to verbalise memorial representations (e.g., a verbal description of performance) (knowing about) are both rooted in perception. In this chapter we demonstrate these types of knowledge in decision-making behaviour and exemplify how they can be presented in 1 v 1 practice task contraints in basketball.

Increasing stochastic perturbations enhances acquisition and learning of complex sport movements

Traditionally, the aquisition of skills and sport movement has been characterised by numerous repetitions of presumed model movement pattern to be acquired by learners. This approach has been questioned by research identifying the presence of individualised movement patterns and the low probability of occurrence of two identical movements within and between individuals. In contrast, the differential learning approach claims advantage for incurring variability in the learning process by adding stochastic perturbations during practice. These ideas are exemplified by data from a high jump experiment which compared the effectiveness of classical and a differential training approach with pre-post test design. Results showed clear advantages for the group with additional stochastic perturbation during the aquisition phase in comparison to classically trained athletes. Analogies to similar phenomenological effects in the neurobiological literature are discussed.

Maternal age and paternal age are associated with distinct childhood behavioural outcomes in a general population birth cohort

Abstract Background Recent studies show that advanced paternal age (APA) is associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A body of evidence also suggests that individuals who develop schizophrenia show subtle deviations in a range of behavioural domains during their childhood. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between paternal and maternal ages and selected behavioural measures in children using a large birth cohort. Method Participants were singleton children (n = 21,753) drawn from the US Collaborative Perinatal Project. The outcome measures were assessed at 7 years. The main analyses examined the relationship between parental age and behavioural measures when adjusted for a range of potentially confounding variables, including age of the other parent, maternal race, socio-economic measures, sex, gestation length, maternal marital status, parental mental illness, and child's age-at-testing. Results Advanced paternal age was associated with a significantly increased risk of adverse ‘externalizing’ behaviours at age seven years. For every five year increase in paternal age, the odds of higher ‘externalizing’ behaviours was increased by 12% (OR = 1.12; 95% CI = 1.03, 1.21, p < 0.0001). The relationship persisted after adjusting for potential confounding factors. ‘Internalizing’ behavioural outcome was not associated with advanced paternal age. In contrast, advanced maternal age was significantly protective against adverse ‘externalizing’ behavioural outcomes, but associated with an increased risk of adverse ‘internalizing’ behavioural outcomes. Discussion The offspring of older fathers show a distinctly different pattern of behaviours compared to the offspring of older mothers. The diverse socio-cultural and biologically-mediated factors that underpin these findings remain to be clarified. In light of secular trends related to delayed parenthood, the mechanisms underlying these findings warrant closer scrutiny.