| Author: | Jiang, Kai Natalia |
| Title: | Antecedents and determinants of volunteering in mega sports events : a study of Universiade SHENZHEN 2011 |
| Degree: | M.Phil. |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Subject: | Volunteers -- China. Sports -- China -- Shenzhen (Guangdong Sheng : East) Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xi, 239 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Sports events nowadays are amongst the most popular forms of organized recreation and are responsible for several impacts on communities in which they occur. Mega sports events (MSEs), in particular, have attracted significant attention from media and government bodies who tend to promote volunteering commitment in order to expand public support for the success of MSEs. Volunteering in MSEs has been gaining increasing popularity. In the past two decades, China has witnessed a significant increase in both the scale and the number of MSEs, which is current with its rise as a major outbound and inbound tourist market, as well as a rapidly rising event destination. Specifically, in a matter of three years, China has successfully bidden and staged a series of MSEs, e.g., the 29th Olympic Games, the 16th Asian Games, and the 26th Universiade, in which volunteers have showcased their professionalism, enthusiasm, dedication, and have attracted world-wide media attention. The 26th Universiade SHENZHEN 2011 is the most recently hosted MSE that attracted the greatest number of volunteer participation. However, the paucity of published research into the antecedents of MSE volunteering under the Chinese context limits the understanding of sustained volunteer capital. This research therefore was designed to evaluate the antecedents and determinants of MSE volunteering and to examine the relative impacts of intrinsic motivation, altruism, and external attractiveness on constructing MSE volunteer satisfaction, which influences intention towards involvement in future MSE volunteer programs. Findings from this study confirmed that when MSE volunteers' motives and expectations are recognized and fulfilled, continuance commitment will be possible. As a pioneering attempt to explore volunteering in MSEs, this research employed a case study of the 26th Universiade SHENZHEN 2011 to address antecedents pertaining to Chinese MSE volunteering. A model of determinants of volunteer participation in MSE contexts was proposed and validated with data from 1,015 questionnaires collected in a field survey during the gaming period of the Universiade. A comprehensive analysis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed that: (1) the more volunteers' intrinsic motives are fulfilled, the higher the level of satisfaction is; (2) the relationship between fulfilled altruism and perceived satisfaction is positive; (3) volunteers' perceived external attractiveness is positively correlated with their overall level of satisfaction; and (4) volunteers who have experienced a higher level of satisfaction from volunteering commitment will express greater intention to volunteer in future MSEs. Furthermore, a comparison among the three exogenous variables in the conceptual model identified that external attractiveness is the most powerful component of MSE volunteer satisfaction. Besides, several issues were explored pertaining to volunteers' demographic backgrounds (e.g., educational level, occupation, leisure time available and length of volunteering service). It was found that there was no statistically significant correlation between length of service and perceived satisfaction, implying that the duration of volunteering service does not influence satisfaction, or vice versa. Whereas, as a category of serious leisure, volunteering is indeed influenced by leisure time, since the results in this study indicated that length of MSE volunteering service is positively associated with dispensable leisure time. This study makes several theoretical as well as practical contributions. Firstly, it adds to the growing knowledge of event volunteer motivation and intention theory by validating a new structural model for understanding determinants of MSE volunteer participation. It also expands the current research instruments on event volunteering. To the author's knowledge, this is the first research to involve motivation, altruism and external stimuli simultaneously in assessing MSE volunteer satisfaction and behavioral intention. Secondly, results of the study yield practical implications for future MSE volunteer program organizations to optimize volunteer programs and sustain volunteer participation. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b25512699.pdf | For All Users | 2.91 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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