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The purpose of this paper is to identify the strategies that private fitness centres implement and to evaluate their impact on financial performance.

Based upon a sample of 151 private fitness centres in Portugal, multivariate statistics report the implemented strategies and their effect on financial performance. We applied exploratory factorial analysis as our methodology to identify the types of strategy and the ANOVA in order to verify if there are differences of financial performance in the strategies.

The results obtained demonstrate how private fitness centres implement different strategies, including: cost leadership, differentiation, focus, quality of service, combined and stuck in the middle approaches. The relationship between strategies and financial performance, private fitness centres adopting a cost leadership strategy obtain the best financial performance levels in terms of the sales variable relative to any other strategy but with the combined strategy returning a better performance in terms of the return on assets when compared with the cost leadership strategy.

The originality of this paper stems from its identification of the strategies implemented by private fitness centres, thus, just what type of strategies are in effect across the fitness industry: leadership through cost, differentiation or a focused strategy. However, in addition to ascertaining just which strategies undergo implementation, it is also pertinent in determining just which strategy drives the best financial performance for private fitness centres given that private centres may only remain in the market when achieving financial sustainability. Therefore, this paper seeks to provide information for managers as regards the strategies implemented and their impacts on the financial performance of private fitness centres.

Aims to identify the aspects of service delivery deemed most important by the users of Greek fitness centers and to examine whether their desires differ according to the type of fitness center they use as well as according to certain demographic and motivation patterns.

The study was based on the QUESC instrument developed by Kim and Kim. A total of 346 individuals who were members of public and private fitness centers in Athens/Greece completed the questionnaires. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was conducted for each item of the instrument in order to examine whether different groups had different desires for service delivery. Where a difference between group means was identified, Duncan's multiple range tests were performed to determine which means were significantly different.

The aspects of service delivery desired more by sports centers users refer to the tangible elements of the facilities, the personnel attitudes and abilities, attributes related to the cost of participation and items related to the programming and scheduling of services provided. The findings also suggest that significant differences of desires exist between males and females as well as between users of public and private sports centers.

The sample of the fitness centers was convenient rather than statistical. The reason was that there is no official agency in Greece with a complete list of fitness centers.

This paper is a useful source of information for fitness centers management to identify their customers’ wants, take action to improve service delivery, and establish standards of performance to address the identified customers’ needs.

This paper sought to address questions on the way certain demographic variables and patterns of use might affect sports centers’ users’ desires, so that an information package can be applied in making marketing decisions for improving sports centers service delivery.

Customers’ innovativeness regarding services and products affects their purchase behavior. The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderation effect of fitness innovativeness (FI) (domain-specific innovativeness) and duration of stay on fitness customers’ revisit frequency.

This is a quantitative study. The purposive sampling survey method was used to obtain samples from the Taipei Nangang Fitness Center. Data were analyzed by moderated regression analysis.

The empirical results from 192 valid questionnaires that were obtained for data analysis revealed that FI has a positive impact on revisit frequency, and this impact is further increased if an individual is inclined to exercise and to stay longer at the fitness center.

A matrix of fitness innovator segments was developed to illustrate the research and managerial implications.

This study aims to identify the variables that could influence the intentions to use fitness apps based on the attractiveness of the fitness apps.

The technology acceptance model (TAM) was used in this study. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was sent to 200 sports consumers of a fitness center (117 women and 83 males) to find out their perceptions regarding attractiveness, usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, trust and intention to use of the fitness app of the fitness center. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted.

The results showed that the variables analyzed have a positive influence on the intention to use fitness apps, with the attractiveness and usefulness and the ease to use and intention to use having the strongest relationship.

These findings show the importance of these variables for the use of fitness apps in fitness centers. Furthermore, the findings represent advancement and help in the design and development of apps in fitness centers, as well as in the field of sports management.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the ways clients find out about a sport centre and the factors that lead them to enrol and influence their satisfaction with their membership. A secondary objective was to determine the reasons for continuing to attend a sport centre and how they influenced satisfaction towards achievement. Finally, the authors aimed to identify differences between reasons for enroling and reasons for continuing at a sport centre.

A specially developed 16-item questionnaire was sent to 125,000 clients and 21,043 responses were obtained.

Clients who found out about the centre through a recommendation or the internet were 25 per cent more likely to be satisfied with it than those who knew of the centre due to proximity. Similarly, clients who had a specific motive to continue using the centre, for example, to prepare for a sports competition were twice as likely to be satisfied with their membership as any other group (p<0.001).

It identifies a set of research priorities for the journal and the field.

In conclusion, the option of staying fit is established as the most effective recruitment method for retaining clients at the sport centre.

This paper intends to do is to establish the bases of information and knowledge for the treatment of high motives, as well as for managers of sports centres to remodel their strategies of marketing to attracting customers.

This study aims to adapt analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for choosing the optimal location for sport facilities. The location of a sports facility contributes significantly to its potential success or failure. Therefore, factors affecting such location-related decisions must be carefully studied and prioritized in a systematic fashion.

This study develops a seven-step framework which may be used to decide on a location from among several alternatives. Through an extensive literature review, this study first determines the factors affecting sports facility location selection and then applies AHP steps by asking several sports facility owners and managers to assess importance of the criteria.

This study determined the sport facility location selection factors as “ease of access,” “facility features,” “financial issues,” “neighborhood” and “market,” and further divided each factor into its subfactors. To illustrate the framework of using AHP as a tool to select the right location for sport facilities, we chose three candidate locations and scored them according to the calculated weight scores of the criteria, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each location.

This study provides several managerial implications that may guide sport facility investors in choosing the right location.

This study presents a method to evaluate different factors for different actors of sport industry in a systematic way. Private investors can use the method for securing sufficient number of potential customers in a well-selected location. Government institutions and public policymakers can use the method, possibly with different sets of factors, to decide on the location of public sports facilities to maximize the number of visitors or to reach disadvantaged or underserved populations.

This framework of AHP method can help private and public investors and policymakers evaluate and make the optimal decision for choosing sports facility locations. This study contributes both to sport management theory and practice as well as to operation management literature. This study also refined the scattered factors in the literature of selecting a sport facility site in a more understandable and adaptable way.