Community-sport service provision, participant satisfaction, and participation: Experience and perspective of Guangdong, China

Abstract

Purpose

Since 2014, “sport for all” has been promoted as a new national strategy in China, which injects powerful dynamism and vitality for its development in numerous aspects. However, there has been very little feedback on sport service provision in community, and the satisfaction level of community participants is largely unmeasured. To promote physical and mental health of residents and form a stronger foundation of sport culture, more attention should be directed to community sports. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of community-sport service provisions on participants’ satisfaction and, in turn, on their sport participation behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Community-sport program participants in China (n=576) responded to a survey measuring the proposed concepts.

Findings

Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that community-sport services in the areas of sport facility, grassroots sport organizations and sport activity programs had strong influences on participant satisfaction and, in turn, their desire for participation, which highlighted the demand for high-quality sport service provision by community.

Originality/value

The study contributed to the literature by proposing two clear dimensions (core sport service and peripheral sport service) for the measurement of public sport service provision in community sports. A second theoretical contribution of the study relates to the clarification of the relationship between the two dimensions of community-sport service provision (both core and peripheral services) and community participants’ satisfaction levels.

Citation

Zhou, L., Wang, J.J., Chen, X., Cianfrone, B. and Pifer, N.D. (2020), "Community-sport service provision, participant satisfaction, and participation: Experience and perspective of Guangdong, China", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 127-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-05-2019-0048