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The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to evaluate the educational program’s training. The program used for this purpose was the Olympic Education Program, which has been implemented in Greek primary and secondary schools since 2000. First, the face validity of items was evaluated, second, the pool of the items selected was factor analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis indicated a three‐factor solution with high internal consistency. The instrument, Professional Development Evaluation Form of the Olympic Education Program, consisted of three factors containing 21 items. The three factors obtained were “training”, “study groups”, and “total impression”. The results provide adequate psychometric support for the instrument. The questionnaire seems a promising tool for the evaluation of professional development procedures. Although the results were encouraging, further research would be very helpful in order to improve the instrument.

The concept of sport team identification has been widely used as a theoretical framework in explaining sport fan behavior. However, limited attention has been devoted to the consequences of distant (i.e., foreign) team identification. The purpose of the current research was to examine the way in which fans (local and distant) can increase their levels of collective and personal self-esteem due to their team identification.

Data were accumulated from three Greek websites (N = 742). Among them, 623 subjects were grouped as local and 119 as distant football fans. A structural invariance analysis was followed.

The results revealed how team identification, enduring team-related social connections, and basking in reflected glory are interrelated to affect collective and finally personal self-esteem. Moreover, no differences were found between local and distant fans regarding the paths from eam identification to collective self-esteem and from collective self-esteem to personal self-esteem.

This is one of the first endeavors to examine the psychological consequences of distant team identification and to test the invariance across local and distant fans concerning the mechanisms that their personal self-esteem can be enhanced because their psychological connection to their favorite sport team.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interrelationships among the dimensions of sport event experience, event satisfaction and event behavioral intentions.

The sample was comprised of 186 individuals who actively participated in a mass participation sport event. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the relationships among the latent constructs.

The results indicated that the dimensions of sport event experience predicted 55% of the variance of event satisfaction and 63% of the variance of event behavioral intentions was predicted by sport event experience dimensions and event satisfaction. Specifically, the sensory, affective and relational dimensions of experience sought to have a statistically significant and positive association with event satisfaction, while event satisfaction and the relational dimension of experience were found to have a statistically significant and positive correlation with event behavioral intentions. In addition, event satisfaction was found to mediate the relationships between sensory, affective and relational experiences and event behavioral intentions.

The present study is one of the first that explores the relationships among sport event experience’s dimensions, event satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions in the context of sport event participation.

The aim of this research was to investigate fans’ responses toward a sponsor that has had a long-standing sponsorship deal with a club and decided also to sponsor the club’s rival.

A long-term sponsorship deal between a retsina wine company and a popular football club and a newly established deal between the company and the main rival club were selected as the research setting. Data were collected from a total sample of 302 participants, fans of the two teams, using an online survey and PLS-SEM was employed to test the relationships of the proposed structural model.

The results provided evidence for the importance of the inclusion of perceptions of fit for both teams to the model as it impacted the responses in the joint sponsorship. Team identification emerged significant for improving fans perceptions of fit between the sponsor and their favorite club but also led fans of the long-term sponsored club to feel betrayed from the sponsor. The sense of betrayal impacted the level of fit, the rejection of sponsorship but did not emerge significant for driving negative responses toward the sponsor’s brand. The same held for the rejection of the joint sponsorship.

This is the very first study that incorporated the effects of the perceptions of fit of two rival clubs to test the effect of sponsorship for a sponsor brand of a deal that includes a longtime sponsored football club and its rival as a newly sponsored one. It is also one of the first attempts that explores relationships between perceptions of fit, sense of betrayal and rejection of a joint sport sponsorship in a rivalry context, highlighting the importance of preventing fans' betrayal.

Given the increased competition among running events, it is important for event organizers to comprehend how they can retain a base of loyal customers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between sport event personality and loyalty intentions of runners participating in a running event. More specifically, it examined the relationship of sport event personality dimensions with the overall image of a sporting event as well as the association of event image with runners’ loyalty intentions.

Data were collected from 247 participants of an international running event. A structural equation model analysis was followed.

The results showed that three dimensions of event personality (namely, excitement, sophistication and sincerity) predicted event image, which in turn positively associated with loyalty intentions.

The study discusses how event managers can improve the image of their events in order to increase their customers’ loyalty levels.

This is one of the first endeavors that examined the role of event image, a construct that has not received much attention in the context of road races, in a model concerning event participation.

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.

The chapter relies on a variety of methods to trace the development of changing racial ideologies among Greeks. The methodologies used include: (1) historical secondary sources; (2) one hundred and ten interviews (of both immigrants and Greeks in Greece, with interviewees varying in age from 19 to 74); and (3) content analysis of poems, popular songs and electronic discussion groups. The primary aim of selecting the data was to understand the changing nature of racial classifications themselves rather than to measure rates and pervasiveness.