Fans' Attention to, Involvement in, and Satisfaction with Professional Soccer in China

Gong, Bo; Pifer, N. David; Wang, Jerry Junqi; Kim, Minhong; Kim, Minkil; Qian, Tyreal Yizhou; Zhang, James J.

doi:10.2224/sbp.2015.43.10.1667

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Previously, the CFA, consistent with other national or local sport associations in China, was a shadow organisation of the government whose 'systematic and mechanical power was centralised' (Yu, et al 2015(Yu, et al p. 1279. The problem now confronting the CFA was how to meet the insatiable public appetite for football and leverage the commercial opportunities that were emerging from this (Gong, et al 2015).…”

Section: Plan)mentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of the Chinese Football Reform of 2015: why then and not earlier?

Peng

Skinner

Houlihan

2018

International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics

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In March 2015, the Chinese government issued the Overall Plan for Chinese Football Reform and Development, which aimed to develop football in China from the grassroots level to the elite level. The salient element of the plan was to separate the Chinese Football Association (CFA) from direct government control. Considering the previous failed attempts to reform the CFA, this paper asks the question 'why the reform occurred in 2015 and not earlier?' and aims to: 1) identify the potential sources of the policy change through the lens of the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF)；and 2) examine the timing and conditions under which the Chinese government initiated the football reform. Public policy documents and media reports from 1993 to 2017 were collected and analysed; 17 interviews were conducted with key policy actors within the CFA and professional football clubs in varying tiers of Chinese football leagues. The findings suggest that the failure of previous policy attempts at improving Chinese football (policy stream), match-fixing scandals and the continuing under-performance of the national men's team (problem stream), the increasingly critical national mood towards football and the turnover of Presidency (political stream) combined in the mid-2010s opened a 'policy window' which facilitated this significant change. This research is the first paper to apply the MSF theory to explain the Chinese football reform that occurred in 2015. It extends the application of MSF to a different political and cultural environment and has implications for the policy-making in China.

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Section: Plan)mentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of the Chinese Football Reform of 2015: why then and not earlier?

Peng

Skinner

Houlihan

2018

International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics

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“…In contrast, recent quantitative studies are more specific but focused on the demand side of the CSL. For instance, Gong et al (2015) and 6 SBM 9,1 Qian et al (2017) show that Chinese football fans still do not trust the governance of the CSL, since they have previously been disappointed by the organisation's inefficiency and corruption scandals. In their econometric study of the aggregate attendance of the CSL, Watanabe and Soebbing (2017) find that pricing is not effective and that matches between rival teams and matches with strong opponents increase stadium demand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governance of the Chinese Super League

Kurscheidt

2019

SBM

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Purpose In 2017, the Chinese Super League (CSL), the first professional football division in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), became the highest-spending league in the international players’ transfer market, with a total spending of €377m. Moreover, the government of the PRC is backing the CSL with an ambitious football plan. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the governance of the CSL by questioning the organisational viability of the league. Design/methodology/approach In addition to the relevant international literature, this study is based on 14 recent scholarly articles published in Mandarin from 2013 to 2018 to reflect the national academic debate. Moreover, website research on all CSL clubs has been conducted. The institutional analysis follows the integrative change model of Cunningham (2002) complemented by agency and bureaucracy theory. Findings The CSL still faces substantial governance problems caused by the divergence of goal setting, organisational inefficiencies and compliance issues. The organisational change is notably constrained by internal competitive value commitments and external power dependency. Research limitations/implications The institutional findings on the CSL provide a starting point for empirical studies. The approach contributes to the theory of sport governance processes. Practical implications The material and insights are informative for decision makers to evaluate the competitiveness of the CSL. Originality/value This paper is the first international in-depth analysis of the governance of the CSL using the body of knowledge published in Mandarin.

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“…Indeed, in the extremely competitive European soccer market, with comparatively limited financial resources, it is instrumental for French soccer clubs to maintain a high level of customer awareness, build a strong brand and generate revenue beyond the sports arena to protect themselves from the contingencies of on-field performances during less successful times. Interestingly, however, contrary to the common belief that consumer' attention positively influences their affective evaluations, Gong et al (2015) revealed a negative relationship between Chinese soccer consumers' attention and their satisfaction as a result of ineffective administration, corruption, errors and scandals in the operations and management of the CSL. As they suggested, the attention of soccer fans in China derived from their anticipation and passion for the development of soccer in China; however, they were often discouraged and disappointed by the incompetent administration and performance of CSL and general growth of soccer in China and gradually lost their trust in CSL administration, which likely led to their relapse and even refusal to consume soccer products.…”

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confidence: 62%

“…Despite a large number of Chinese fans who are keen for European soccer leagues such as the English Premier League (EPL), the love for China's own soccer is dwindling in the planet's most populous nation, especially among youngsters (Dooley, 2016;Gibson, 2015). Various inquiries into the sorry state of Chinese soccer have been conducted (Gong, 2012;Gong et al, 2015;Jinxia and Mangan, 2001;You, 2004), but few have examined the perspective of Chinese youths, a vital ingredient that is critical for reviving Chinese soccer. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Chinese youth's attention to and involvement with Chinese soccer and its professional league, the Chinese Super League (CSL), regarding their level of satisfaction.…”

Section: Executive Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, given the diversity of the approaches to understanding consumer satisfaction, no consensus exists with respect to its definition as an abundance of frameworks addresses consumer satisfaction, which gives rise to as many definitions of the term. Among all the definitions, Moorradian and Oliver's (1997, p. 13) definition of consumer satisfaction, "a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfilment," turns out to be one of the most widely accepted definitions in both the marketing context in general and sport management in particular (Gong et al, 2015;Van Leeuwen et al, 2002;Yoshida et al, 2015). Consumer satisfaction is associated with positive outcomes for an organization in many respects.…”

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confidence: 99%

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When the future of Chinese soccer is at stake

Qian

Wang

Chou

et al. 2017

IJSMS

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Chinese youth’s attention to and involvement with Chinese soccer and its professional league, the Chinese Super League (CSL), on their level of satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A survey study was employed to test the hypotheses. Research participants (n=948) were students from five major universities that represented each of the five main geographic regions of China. Data were randomly assigned into two halves: one half for CFA (n=474) and the other half for structural equation modeling (SEM) (n=474). Mplus 7.0 was used to conduct both the CFA and SEM. Findings The findings of this study indicated an overall lack of attention to and involvement with Chinese soccer and CSL among Chinese youths. Discussions have been presented on the causes of the lack of youth passion for Chinese soccer and suggestions have been articulated to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of policy formulation, business operation and marketing strategy. Originality/value The present study built on the extant sport management literature, demonstrated the complexity of consumers’ cognition and conation in the professional soccer setting, and revealed counter-intuitive relationship between attitudinal traits and behavioral patterns, which in turn provided unique insights for Chinese professional soccer marketers, managers and administrators.

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Fans' Attention to, Involvement in, and Satisfaction with Professional Soccer in China

Cited by 13 publications

References 40 publications

An analysis of the Chinese Football Reform of 2015: why then and not earlier?

An analysis of the Chinese Football Reform of 2015: why then and not earlier?

Governance of the Chinese Super League

When the future of Chinese soccer is at stake

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