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The purpose of this paper is to determine how an instrument – designed to assess quality, value, and satisfaction – works, and compare results obtained in female users of unisex sports services and fitness centres and female users of exclusively female sports services and fitness centres.

A total of 745 women belonging to 62 sports services and fitness centres took part in this study; 36.60 per cent were members of female-exclusive centres. The average age was 32.97±14.11 years. In total, 38.70 per cent of the women surveyed used the sports services and fitness centres twice a week for 66.37±32.87 minutes on average. The EPOD2 questionnaire was used. This instrument is made up of 25 items and measures quality, value, and satisfaction. The invariance of the factorial structure in the two groups was verified and regression coefficients were calculated for the relationships in the model.

The model is stable in both of the groups. Quality is a predecessor of value and satisfaction. Value is related to a large extent to Satisfaction. The dimensions of quality (activity, sports instructors, service personnel, and space) are directly related to value and/or satisfaction. There are significant differences in the standardised values that relate quality and its dimensions with the value and satisfaction between women users of female-exclusive centres and women users of unisex centres.

This paper is important because the findings of this study can be applicable to help sports services and fitness centres, whether unisex centres or female-exclusive centres, obtain better assessments from female users.

This study examined the relationships between service encounter, perceived value, and repurchase intention in the fitness service sector through the theoretical lens of service-dominant logic. In addition, the mediating role of perceived value and the moderating role of service innovativeness were examined.

Participants (n = 806) were drawn from fitness center customers in Taiwan using a convenience sampling technique. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses in the research model.

The results showed that service encounter had a positive impact on perceived value, which in turn affected repurchase intention. Moreover, the full mediating effect of perceived value was identified in the relationship between service encounter and repurchase intention. In addition, service innovativeness positively moderated the effect of service encounter on repurchase intention.

This study provides empirical evidence on the impact of staff-customer interactions (i.e. service encounter) on customers' perceptions and behaviors and identifies the critical role of perceived value as a mediating mechanism as well as a facilitating role of service innovativeness in enhancing repurchase intention.

In this study the authors examined the impact of employees' collaborative behaviours with colleagues and customers (i.e. employee–employee collaboration and employee–customer collaboration) on their creative self-efficacy and service innovation from the perspective of service-dominant logic. The authors also examined the differences between frontline and non-frontline fitness service employees in our research model. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

Participants were fitness-centre employees in Taiwan recruited via convenience sampling. A total of 410 participants completed our online survey, and the authors analysed the data using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The authors found that collaboration with both colleagues and customers had a positive impact on employees' creative self-efficacy. Collaboration with colleagues directly affected service innovation, while collaboration with customers indirectly affected service innovation via creative self-efficacy. In addition, there was a significant difference between frontline and non-frontline employees in our research model. Specifically, the path from collaboration with customers to creative self-efficacy was stronger for frontline employees, and the path from creative self-efficacy to service innovation was stronger for non-frontline employees.

This study improves the understanding of the way in which different collaborative behaviours promote employees' creative self-efficacy and service innovation. Further, it is the first to identify the difference between frontline and non-frontline employees and it shows how the effects of collaborative behaviours differ between them in the context of fitness services.

This study aims to develop a conceptual model to understand how customer knowledge management (CKM) affects fitness club membership renewal through the mediation of relationship quality.

Data were collected outside of fitness clubs using a systematic sampling method. A total of 224 valid responses were collected. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the relationship between the constructs of the research model.

The results indicate that both knowledge from customers and knowledge for customers have a positive influence on customer satisfaction and customer trust. Among them, knowledge for customers has a stronger influence on customer satisfaction while knowledge from customers has a greater influence on customer trust. Additionally, three dimensions of relationship quality (customer satisfaction, customer trust and customer commitment) positively influence membership renewal intention with customer commitment exhibiting the greatest influence on it.

This study combines the theories of CKM and relationship quality management to explain why members will renew their service contracts. By using fitness clubs as an example, this research extends the authors' understanding of how knowledge from and for customers can influence customers' attitudes and behavioural intentions towards service companies.

Fitness centers have become quotidian fundamentals. Consequently, center managers face escalating competitiveness to sustain their businesses. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 emphasizes quality of life and the gravitation toward healthy lifestyles. The service quality of fitness centers is an essential factor influencing customer satisfaction. Owing to the dearth of research on this topic, especially on female-only fitness centers, this study aims to investigate the factors affecting the service quality of female fitness centers in Saudi Arabia regarding satisfaction. Additionally, this study examines the moderating roles of age and income on the relationship between service quality and satisfaction.

The Service Quality Assessment Scale (SQAS) was adopted with five of the original dimensions (staff, workout facilities, physical facilities, exercise program and locker room) and two newly added dimensions (parking and social environment). This study also investigates the moderating roles of age and income on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction.

All SQAS dimensions positively affected the quality of fitness centers. Furthermore, the service quality of fitness centers increased women's satisfaction, and age and income moderated the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction.

Fitness centers are highly competitive, and this study offers insights for managers of such facilities to improve customer satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of process and outcome quality on fitness members’ delight and satisfaction. Furthermore, the relationships between delight, satisfaction and behavioural intention are investigated.

Data were obtained from a survey of 379 members of fitness centres in Malaysia and analysed using the partial least squares technique.

The results indicated that process quality and outcome quality had a significant effect on customer delight and satisfaction. Furthermore, customer delight influenced customers’ satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

The findings of this study will help fitness centre managers to understand the importance of outcome quality and delight in addition to process quality and satisfaction in shaping the members’ behavioural intentions, thereby allowing them to differentiate their service from their customers.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the importance of outcome quality and customer delight in the fitness industry.

The purpose of this paper is to review the concept of perceived service quality in the fitness industry by considering the service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004) and examining existing service quality models in the context of sport and fitness.

The paper critically reviews generic and industry-specific models of service quality in the fitness industry. The examination of the models is intended to identify the role that the perspective of customers and the dynamics of service co-creation play in these models.

Consideration of the context in a particular industry plays an important role in the development of service quality models. If underestimated, it can result in a model being inadequate or having limited explanatory potential. The review shows that both generic and fitness industry-specific models have methodological and conceptual limitations. This requires researchers to consider developing new contextual models that acknowledge service as co-creation of experience/value between suppliers and customers; and the goal of this co-creation as fulfilment of customers’ aspirations. Such an approach brings a new light to the meaning of “a customer’s perspective” and emphasises the dynamics of service co-creation in the fitness industry.

The study provides an agenda for future research to consider perceived service quality models from the customers’ perspective. It suggests researchers to take into account various factors of consumer behaviour (e.g. motivation) which are unique to sport and fitness services. Also, managers of fitness facilities need to revisit their tools for capturing customers’ perceptions and to update the areas included in customer satisfaction surveys.

The paper provides an insight into the role of co-creation for service quality in fitness services. It contributes towards establishing revised relations between service quality in fitness and contextual industry-specific factors suggested by numerous studies previously.

This research created a theoretical framework based on theory of consumption values (TCV) and theory of perceived risk (TPR) to investigate the determinant factors behind consumers' intention to use health and fitness apps during the COVID-19-related lockdown. In addition, based on selectivity hypothesis theory (SHT), this study also explored how gender differences moderate the relationships between the determinants and consumers' behavioral intention.

A total of 613 respondents completed a self-reported online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the role of potential determinants in influencing consumers' behavioral intention. Hierarchical multiple regression was performed to examine the moderating effect of gender.

The findings of this research revealed that physical appearance, general health, enjoyment, affiliation and condition have positive influences on consumers' behavioral intention, while privacy risk and security risk exert negative impact on consumers' behavioral intention. More importantly, the moderating results indicated that only affiliation, privacy risk and security risk have stronger influences on female, while other predictors showed the same effects on both genders.

Fitness providers should embrace health and fitness apps as a new contactless tool to offer services during and after the COVID-19-related lockdown. Fitness providers and app developers need to focus more on the utility and quality of their health and fitness apps. In addition, they should add more gamification elements to health and fitness apps because these elements could increase consumers' hedonic experience especially during the lockdown. Third, the security systems in health and fitness apps should be continuously updated to decline privacy risk during and after the COVID-19-related lockdown. Lastly, when female consumers are targeted during the lockdown, fitness providers should make more efforts to imbue health and fitness apps with more social features and improve the level of security.

Although the importance of contactless technologies has been highlighted ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been very little research on the usage of health and fitness apps during the lockdown based on TCV and TPR. Meanwhile, the moderating role of gender differences in this context remains underexplored. This research is one of the early attempts to fill in these gaps. The findings of this study will enhance the theoretical framework regarding the acceptance and use of health and fitness apps; it also challenges the generalizability of SHT in the context of the COVID-19-related lockdown. Moreover, several important implications for the health and fitness industry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic were suggested.

The user experience during the use of activities and services is a fundamental aspect for sports managers and can provide a competitive advantage. The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions of experiential quality and the relationship of this construct with customer trust and customer satisfaction in achieving behavioral intention.

Using a convenience sampling technique, a total of 322 gym users in Turkey participated. A two-step approach was used to test both the model and the research hypotheses [confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM)].

The interaction quality, physical environmental quality, outcome quality and enjoyment quality were positively related to experiential quality. Similarly, the experimental quality was positively related to customer satisfaction and customer trust. Finally, customer satisfaction was related to behavioral intentions.

This study provides empirical evidence about the importance of experiential quality to gain a competitive advantage in the context of fitness centers.

The purpose of the paper is to discover quality dimensions for the health‐and‐fitness industry and to examine the salient aspects of the quality‐management practices of organisations in this industry.

The research in this paper uses a grounded‐theory approach to a multiple case study of 15 companies in the Swedish health‐and‐fitness industry. Qualitative methods in the form of in‐depth interviews and observation are utilised for data collection.

The paper finds that a framework for fitness quality management is developed and presented. The quality dimensions are found to be “pleasure”, “mental change”, and “physical change”. The main enablers are defined as “relational competence” and “technical competence”. Other indirect enablers are also identified and described.

The paper shows that because the framework is based on qualitative data collection, the relationships are not quantified. This could be an objective of further research.

The framework presented in this paper is useful for managers of fitness companies when designing and managing their activities.

The paper presents a novel framework of the salient features of quality in fitness services – an industry that has received little scholarly attention in the past. This research also contributes to the general understanding of service quality, and demonstrates the usefulness of inductive qualitative methodology in this regard.