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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of the size of the board of directors and board involvement in strategy on financial performance in the private club industry.

Data were collected in a web‐based survey of chief operating officers (COOs) and general managers (GMs) who are members of the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA). Hierarchical regression analysis of data from 360 respondents was used to examine the proposed model.

The results showed that board members' involvement in strategy and the size of the board of directors have a positive influence on a private club's financial performance.

Further research is indicated to include other board‐related influences such as group composition and the quality of relationships between board members and GMs/COOs to measure a club's financial performance.

The paper contributes to the limited existing literature on the association between a board of directors and financial performance in the private club industry.

The purpose of this study was to examine the antecedents and consequences of brand prestige in the private country club industry. More specifically, it was proposed that five attributes of a private country club form brand prestige: golf course conditions, service quality during a round, food and beverage cart service, golf shop and clubhouse food and beverage service. In addition, it was also hypothesized that brand prestige can result in three managerial outcomes: social value, brand attachment and brand loyalty. During the theory-building process, it was proposed that brand consciousness moderates the relationship between brand prestige and its outcome variables.

Based on the theoretical relationships between the conceptual constructs, a model was proposed and then tested utilizing data collected from 290 amateur golfers in the USA.

Data analysis results show that four attributes of a private country club (all except for food and beverage cart service) help to enhance brand prestige and, thus, aid in the creation of social value, brand attachment and brand loyalty. Lastly, brand consciousness plays a moderating role in the relationship between brand prestige and brand loyalty.

First, private country clubs are required to consider golf course management before (e.g. hiring top golf architects) and after operating the club (e.g. hiring competent golf course managers). Second, private country clubs need golf course rangers with much experience who can properly manage pace of play. Third, the golf shop needs to prepare diverse souvenirs that well symbolize the private country club. Fourth, the clubhouse at private country clubs needs to provide services at the same level as that found in fine dining restaurants.

Despite the important role played by the prestigious image, no research has attempted to empirically test its influence on the private country club industry. Therefore, this study is the first to apply the concept of brand prestige to the private country club industry. In this regard, the study extends the existing literature on brand prestige by finding the antecedents and consequences in the private country club industry.

The purpose of this study is to examine the food and beverage revenue changes in private clubs in the USA during the economic downturn from 2008 to 2010.

Over 1,000 private club managers in the USA were surveyed to determine the impacts of two economic downturns on their financial performance.

Findings of this study indicated that most clubs experienced a decrease in their overall net food and beverage revenues and consequently experienced significant losses in their overall food and beverage operations, especially affecting private party business in 2010.

This study examined private clubs requiring sponsorship of membership candidates by existing club members in order to maintain their exclusivity, whereas many for‐profit clubs, semi‐private clubs, and non‐private clubs do not require sponsorship. Future studies should investigate if for‐profit clubs, semi‐private clubs, and non‐private clubs experienced the same negative impact on their food and beverage services as the private and exclusive clubs of CMAA explored in this study.

City/athletic clubs are severely impacted during economic downturns because most members only use their clubs for business purposes. Therefore, private club managers, particularly in city clubs, need to take into account expanded promotional strategies to retain or grow member food and beverage revenues during economic downturns.

The analysis of economic downturns and their impact on food and beverage revenues and overall profitability provides valuable information for private club managers in their quests for revenue generation, membership growth and improved profit performance.

Private club members belong to an organization where people with common interests, experiences, backgrounds and professions meet for social and recreational purposes. This study aims to examine the relationships among private club members’ perceptions of social media regarding perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, attitude toward social media involvement and behavioral intention toward social media usage.

An online survey was conducted among private club members across the USA (n = 571). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings of this study center on the perceptions of club members and their beliefs and attitudes associated with their social media usage behavior. This study extends the social media literature by supporting previous studies that suggest a causal flow from perceived ease of use to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment) based on a motivational model.

This study is meaningful for revealing the perceptions of private club members and their beliefs and attitudes associated with their social media usage behavior. It is untested whether this study’s model applies to other hospitality businesses. Future research could examine other segments and add other variables such as perceived security and trust.

This study can provide private club managers, and the members of the clubs that they lead, with a better understanding of online social media.

This study is one of a few empirical online social media studies in the area of the private club industry. This study seeks to provide baselines regarding social media perceptions and usage in the hospitality literature by providing a comprehensive model.

Explores the experience of the e´lite, private social clubs of London and suggests that they are a flourishing sector of the hospitality industry. The paper suggests that the traditional gentlemen’s club is being joined by a new type of e´lite private social club with more modern conceptions of the “clubbable”. The paper analyses the differences and similarities between the two types of clubs in the areas of gender, value for money, concepts of “e´lite” and the function of a club. The paper contends that private clubs are an increasingly‐significant sector of the hospitality industry, because of the way they fulfil the needs of the late twentieth‐century consumer. They provide high status “niches” for a fragmented social “e´lite” and they fill the space between automated work and leisure.

Notes that the private club industry is a unique segment within the broader hospitality industry and, relative to other segments of the hospitality industry, very little research has focused on it. Pannell Kerr Forster (PFK) publishes an annual publication that tracks the operating and financial performance of more than 200 private clubs. Provides a statistical analysis of data from PKF’s Clubs in Town & Country publication in order to identify top line trends emerging in the North American club market. Membership, revenue and expense trends are explored over a 20‐year time line.

This paper aims to identify systematic ways of linking club members’ behavioral and demographic characteristics to their use of mobile devices in clubs. While the traditional private club experience is characterized by intensive personalization and face-to-face interactions, clubs are increasingly deploying information technology (IT) tools to optimize some of their internal processes and offer a better value proposition to their members.

Based on data from 737 actual club members from the USA, this research used a series of logistic regressions to reveal the manner in which a series of behavioral and demographic variables can be used to predict the likelihood of use of mobile devices in clubs for specific club-related tasks.

This research revealed that there are differences between the two main types of clubs (i.e. golf/country and city/athletic), as well as differences among club members residing in different regions of the USA in the manner in which members use mobile devices for club-related tasks.

This research offers a number of notable theoretical contributions. This research uses actual mobile device use data from actual club members in the USA. In addition, this research offers a comprehensive operationalization of the actual mobile use behaviors in clubs, and offers a methodological blueprint for predicting mobile device user behavior using easily collectable variables.

This research provides specific suggestions to pinpoint the mobile technology deployment in clubs according to behavioral and demographic profile criteria.

This research could lead to feasible segmentation procedures and explicates the increasing role of mobile devices within the contemporary society.

This research addresses a novel research topic in an industry characterized by a grave lack of research on IT.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, investors have more frequently invested into professional football clubs, thereby radically changing the industry landscape. This review's purpose is to analyze and synthesize the state of research to understand motives, roles and implications of football club investors, and to provide recommendations for further research.

The paper presents an integrative literature review by identifying relevant English articles based on the search terms investor, owner, investment, ownership, shareholder and stakeholder in combination with soccer or football. Around 2,431 articles were reviewed. A total of 129 relevant articles was analyzed and synthesized within eight subject areas.

Investors in professional club football is a young research stream with a clear European focus. Investor motives and roles are diverse and implications are multidimensional. Investors mostly aim for indirect returns rather than pure profit- or win-maximization.

Football clubs comprise an own investment class for which the identified, unique specifics must be considered to develop a financially successful investment model. Thorough academic research of investors' inherent characteristics, investor-club pairings and the pillars of long-term strategies for successful investor-club liaisons are avenues of future research. Furthermore, the results illustrate the need for research outside of Europe.

The paper is the first systematic, integrative review of existing literature in the domain of equity investments into professional club football. The findings genuinely show that, depending on the investor type and ownership structure, investors have a wide impact in professional club football.

High employee turnover in hourly positions has been widely accepted, and documented, in the hospitality industry. This study examined annual turnover rates in private clubs and the reasons that employees left their jobs, as perceived by management. Members of the Club Managers Association of America were randomly selected and surveyed. The analysis compared turnover and managers’ perceptions of reasons for turnover with: manager’s years of experience in current position; years of experience in the industry; club type; club size; and whether or not the manager had a hospitality management degree. Concludes that it is crucial for team managers to develop a team environment in the workplace to increase club loyalty, ultimately reducing employee turnover. Highlights factors within a manager’s control which are strongly limited to employee turnover in private clubs.

The purpose of this study was to update previous studies conducted on important managerial competencies used by private club managers by examining the importance and frequency of use of management competencies applied to the private club industry.

A sample of 800 randomly selected private club managers was used for this study. The study included only active members of the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA).

The results indicate a change in what club managers do between 2002 and today. Except the added competency domains, results are very similar to previous studies. Accounting and finance, human resources and food and beverage competencies remain highly important as well as the most frequently used. The overall importance rating of the leadership domain was categorized as an essential competency with a mean score over 4.50. The other competency domains/clusters overall ratings were categorized as considerably important managerial competencies with mean scores between 3.50 and 4.50.

This paper will help clubs provide appropriate training programs for management staff and also provide a basis for CMAA to develop new professional development programs that would meet manager needs for developing competencies needed for the future.

Managerial competencies are viewed as a snapshot in time in a sense that these studies must be updated over time to incorporate new roles and trends within the industry. The results of this study were compared to previous studies conducted on club manager competencies to see if important managerial competencies changed over time.