This article examines the prevalence and characteristics of mixed methods research in the relatively new subdiscipline of sport management. A mixed methods study is undertaken to evaluate the epistemological/philosophical, methodological, and technical levels of mixed methods design in sport management research. The results indicate that mixed methods research is still rarely used, poorly legitimized and often weakly designed in this field. Our conclusions lead to the hypotheses that the more central a research field is, the higher the prevalence of mixed methods, and that mixed methods only slowly trickle down from central to more peripheral subdisciplines. Implications of the research findings for both mixed methods scholars and sport management researchers are discussed, and directions for future research are proposed.

Sports clubs are often perceived as important vehicles for social integration, but the empirical evidence to support this claim is limited. This article sets out to identify individual and organisational characteristics that are conducive to social integration of members and volunteers.Drawing on survey data from more than 8,000 members and volunteers in ten European countries, a factor analysis identified three dimensions of social integration. They match the three-fold theoretical distinctions between socio-affective (interaction and identification) and socio-cultural integration made in the article. Multilevel regression analyses examined the effects of individuallevel variables (socio-economic background, affiliation and participation) and organisational-level variables (management and structural characteristics) on the three dimensions of social integration.Emprical analyses revealed that the individual-level variables, especially affiliation and participation (e.g. the number of years connected to the club, the frequency of sports and competition participation, the team/group size and volunteering), had explanatory power, while the organisational-level variables (management and structural characteristics) mainly showed weak correlations. These findings were relatively consistent among the three dimensions of social integration, which indicates that it is mainly the same individual and organisational characteristics that are conducive to social integration in sports clubs.

This study investigates whether the shift from welfare state to participation society in the context of austerity in the Netherlands has had consequences for local sport policy. The central research questions are (1) do municipal sport budgets show evidence of a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society? and (2) do changes in local sport policy suggest a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society?First, we analysed spending on sport across all Dutch municipalities. Second, we quantitatively and qualitatively analysed 104 municipal coalition agreements for the 2014-2018 governing period. The approach used was interpretive, focusing on dominant or hegemonic discourses or storylines within local sport policy.It shows that Local sport policy in the Netherlands still hinges strongly on welfare state values and has not yet been hit by serious austerity measures. We found no evidence of a neoliberal slant or an emphasis on free-market and private entrepreneurship. Rather, the accent is on an expanded role for voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) in operating sport facilities and as policy implementer. We conclude that the shift in narrative from classical welfare state to participation society has, as yet, had limited effect on local sport policy. ARTICLE HISTORY

This article deals with the tension between the association logic and the market logic that appears in the domain of voluntary sport clubs (VSCs). We present a qualitative analysis of sport policy texts of fifteen Dutch national sport organizations (NSOs) and the national umbrella organization to examine how they discursively construct the market logic with respect to their policies towards VSCs. In this article, we argue that although there is no empirical evidence for an increasing consumerist attitude among Dutch sport participants, the policy makers of Dutch NSOs nevertheless pressure VSCs to modernize their activities according to a consumer logic that contrasts with their traditional values. We found that their policy texts construct a consumerist discourse by (1) identifying societal changes that are closely linked to consumerism as a possible threat for the future development of sport clubs and by (2) presenting the emergence of the consumer as a window of opportunity if sport clubs succeed in treating their members as such. We discuss the implications of portraying members of VSCs as consumers and conclude with a research agenda.