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Given the high unemployment rates being experienced by graduates, the importance of small business start-up has increased significantly, with greater priority being placed upon the development of entrepreneurial skills across the educational sector. However, there is a limited literature considering the student experience and issues involved with supporting non-Business discipline students attaining entrepreneurial competencies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes and experience of Sports Development and Sports Management students towards entrepreneurship education, highlighting best practice from a pedagogical perspective.

Over 120 Sports Development and Sports Management students on an undergraduate degree were interviewed over a two year period using a semi-structured research instrument. The focus and content of the questionnaire was developed from prior studies undertaken in the field, measuring the impact and value of entrepreneurship education upon attitudes, knowledge and career choice.

The results found that Sports Development and Sports Management students were typically enterprising by nature due to their prior experience in coaching and training within their respective sports disciplines. The majority of students indicated that they were attracted to a future entrepreneurial career in a sports-related discipline. This was driven by the potential of an entrepreneurial career option and the limited alternative choices. Sports Development and Sports Management students were characterised by their mature attitudes towards their career development and future inclination regarding an entrepreneurial career choice.

The results will inform the teaching of entrepreneurship education to non-Business discipline specialist students in terms of the effective construction of entrepreneurship curriculum. Best practice in terms of customised subject informed teaching material, guest talks and interactive pedagogical practice are highlighted.

This study will be of interest to entrepreneurship education providers delivering content to non-Business disciplines at all levels and aid them in the construction of their curriculum to provide fit for purpose provision.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the position of sport management education (SME) in relation to employment in the sport fitness industry and if a shift towards a greater emphasis on business and management module teaching is justified or conversely a greater utilisation of the rich data being generated by sport management researchers can be applied to the vocational development of sport management students.

The study was conducted in two parts. Part 1 consisted of interviews with the author by an interviewer to explore their industry experiences, the author’s experience of entrepreneurial sport industry business and intrapreneurial sport teaching. The resultant data have been distilled into a series of paradigms, including employing sport industry staff and teaching sport management. Part 2 triangulates part 1 with the managerial experience of sports and leisure centre managers to develop a qualitative study. Sports and leisure centre managers were interviewed regarding candidate and employee competences judged as extreme examples of sport management knowledge and understanding.

Four themes emerged, such as alignment, underpinning subject-specific knowledge, a voice from the sport industry in developing SME and postgraduate opportunities for work-based learning.

A small-scale study that requires further research in each of the three areas: sport spectator, sport participation and elite performer management.

The sport centre interview instrument, with some refinements, could form the basis of an improved system to gain rich data from industry members of higher education business advisory groups. The developed data collection tool could increase the effective collection of data from a wider cohort.

The approach has produced an adapted category of pedagogy. Employability inspired teaching (EiT) is an original terminology describing the subject-specific content that leads to improved opportunities for subject (sport) industry employment.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the environmental values, beliefs, norms and behaviors of students in higher education institutions across North America, more specifically, undergraduate and graduate students in sport management programs.

The research was framed around Stern et al.’s (1999) value-belief-norm theory, which provides an explanation of the causes of the broad predisposition toward pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, it was an extension of the work conducted by Casper and Pfahl (2012). Data collection was based on an online survey, comprising questions related to the students’ values, beliefs, norms and behaviors in relation to the natural environment.

Results indicated strong agreeance with the biospheric environmental statements that reflect the individuals’ personal ecological values, illustrating a moderate agreement with the degree of responsibility and obligation felt by the student to take environmental action. Findings also suggested that students hold sport organizations to a higher level of environmentalism than their personal environmental sustainability practices. Both groups, undergraduate and graduate students, have values, beliefs and norms moderately connected to pro-environmental stances.

It would be beneficial for educators to use this information as baseline from which to build and re-design their classes.

It would be beneficial for educators to use this information as baseline from which to build and re-design their classes. This study provides valuable information for faculty to create and frame curricula to better prepare future professionals for a career in the sports industry.

Researchers have discovered that service learning affects students’ academic, personal, and social development. However, currently there is a gap in literature analyzing ways in which service learning affects students’ perceived leadership skills. This study examined the effectiveness of service learning on the perceived leadership skills of 74 sport management undergraduate students at a mid-sized, Midwestern, public university using Kouzes’ and Posner’s Student Leadership Practices Inventory instrument, which examines leadership practices in five areas: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. The results of this study may help faculty members and administrators to better understand the potential of utilizing service learning projects in their classrooms as a vehicle for their students to develop quality leadership practices. Recommendations for further research and practice are also discussed.

The aim of this paper is to explore the development of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) and to map the foundation that specific individuals, historical works, and historians provided the founders of that organization and the field of sport management in general. The paper also aims to track the early beginnings of sport management and present sport as a viable area for business and management historians to conduct their research and discuss theory.

Following the initial work started by deWilde et al., this study drew on a wide range of primary and secondary sources and took an antiquarian and reconstructionist approach. Specifically, time-specific sport-related/focused dissertations, research articles, and archives from NASSM, along with published books and archives, were used to work toward the purpose of the study.

This paper illustrates that some of the critical founding members of sport management and NASSM drew upon the training of historians, with special emphasis from business history, and reacted to specific prompts to create the field (i.e. sport management). “History” and trained historians directly impacted the field of sport management by helping to establish NASSM, the Journal of Sport Management, and graduate study programs, in addition to fashioning the first field accreditation standards and seminal textbooks needed to educate the generalist or specialist sport management student.

This research only tracks the beginnings of sport management and focuses on the contribution of “history” toward its development. This work recognizes there were other influences that were critical to the development of sport management.

Over time, sport management scholars have moved away from their small historical base and more toward true quantitative preferences. While this has helped the field gain some respectability within contemporary preferences, the re-utilization of historical methods and/or perspectives can help serve the future of sport management and business/management history research toward the study of emerging topics. Through collaboration sport management's leadership can realize the potential of the historical approach/orientation and management historians can enjoy another outlet to communicate their thoughts regarding management topics and theories.

The paper highlights that sport is rich in context and available to use for the study of management theory and behaviors.

The purpose of this research paper is to examine the effect of gender openness on female student representation within sport management preparation programs.

A questionnaire was sent to 172 undergraduate and graduate sport management preparation programs within North America and 72 completed surveys were returned. These data were used to test confirmatory factor and structural equation models at the undergraduate (n=47) and graduate levels (n=47).

Results show that gender openness progresses sequentially and is an effect of programmatic size.

The primary limitation of this research investigation was the utilization of a cross‐sectional design given the topic sensitivity. Despite its cross‐sectional focus, the study offers important insight about gender openness and inclusion for female students within sport management education.

This study utilized a non‐standard approach by examining programs relative to gender openness in sequence as they relate to women in management education. This refreshed approach should be valued by scholars and practitioners alike.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of diversity programs on female student representation within sport management preparation programs. A questionnaire was sent to 172 undergraduate and graduate sport management preparation programs at the North American Society for Sport Management member institutions and 72 completed surveys were returned. These data were used to test a confirmatory path model at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Results show that diversity programs continue to be developed, and that diversity program leads to increase female student representation within undergraduate and graduate sport management preparation programs. Based on the findings of this study, student diversity programs are assisting to eradicate barriers for women in the sport management profession.

This paper is an account of collaborative action-based research that centered on a new NCAA Division I football program at a regional southeastern university, and the positive impacts the collaboration had on the multiple stakeholders involved in the research, which were the university’s sport management faculty, the athletic department, and sport management students. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

During the action research, these stakeholders moved through a cyclical process that involved reflection, planning, action, and evaluation. Through the action-based cyclical process that was utilized, each of these stakeholders were able to learn, adapt, participate, and make positive change.

Positive change occurred with the athletic department’s marketing efforts and game day operations, opportunities for sport management students to participate and learn, and development of relationships between two departments.

The cyclical nature of this research model often leads to original hypotheses and research foci to be highly altered during various stages. Another limitation within collaborative action research can be the breakdown in communication among the many parties involved in carrying out this type of research.

While the significance of this study was initially to capture fan information surrounding a new NCAA Division I football program, the stakeholders quickly realized that the action-based research study had more to offer than producing marketing reports for the university athletic department. Inclusion of the students as equal stakeholders in this project proved vital to student learning and involvement. Having the students play such an important role throughout each cycle of the project allowed for additional networking outside the classrooms with potential employers, as well as in-depth discussions and involvement in the classroom when synthesizing and disseminating the marketing information that had been gathered.

The collaboration between two separate departments within a higher education institution was vital to the overall success of the research project. The overall intent of this paper is to provide a practical approach to collaboration among individuals working in different departments of an organization, as the findings from this research project revealed the overall success of the project was only possible through the collaborative effort and joining resources, abilities, areas of expertise, and capabilities.

Given greater awareness of environmental issues and the acceleration of climate change, universities are increasingly requiring undergraduate students to complete coursework in environmental issues. Research has shown that environmental courses hosted in science departments can be too challenging for students with no science background. Thus, new approaches to general environmental education at the undergraduate level are necessary. This paper aims to advance three transformative sustainability learning (TSL) interventions that leverage sport as the living laboratory for environmental education through examining green teams and in depth sport venue tours.

This paper details the experimental application of three TSL interventions in undergraduate sport courses.

Each intervention produced lasting benefits for several parties. Students benefit from greater exposure to sport management organizations and a hands-on learning opportunity. Sport organizations benefit from a promotional opportunity to showcase their sustainability efforts, improved sustainability practices at their facilities and the opportunity to leverage the students’ involvement for fan engagement initiatives

The interventions presented in this paper were developed in a North American sport context, however, there is a considerable opportunity to develop similar interventions in any region where sport organizations exist.

Despite being one of the most universally appreciated and visible industries, the sport industry has yet to be used as a site for meaningful sustainability learning interventions. The interventions presented herein introduce the opportunity to leverage students’ love of sport for outcomes for all parties: the students, the host organization and sport fans.

The purpose of this paper is to present a project called EmprendeSport, whose aim is to increase knowledge in entrepreneurship and sports in students, professors and professionals through seminars carried out from 2015 to 2018. This study summarises the experience and data extracted throughout these seminars with the purpose of helping to design policies that stimulate business activity of the universities that seek to promote entrepreneurial spirit within a higher educational context.

This is a descriptive paper of the experiences of the seminars done during four years, with a regularly assistance of 200 people. The profile of the assistants was, mainly males, studying a degree on sports or entrepreneurship and working.

There is a lack of knowledge and interest in entrepreneurship. The realisation of the seminar resulted to be a useful incentive for the public to develop new ideas to innovate in their daily lives, some of them also, because of the seminar through of creating their own business. From the organisation perspective, in order to increase the entrepreneurial culture between the females.

The main contribution of this document could be to help design policies that stimulate business activities of universities and, therefore, stimulate their contribution to the development of the modern knowledge economy.