Models of Sports Management in Fitness Centres. Influence of Sex, Age and Sport Frequency. Linear Models vs. Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Knowing the perceptions of users of sports services has always been an object of analysis within sports management. This paper attempts to analyse what influences the satisfaction and future intentions of fitness centre customers, beyond management variables, by using two different methodologies. A sample of 389 users of a private sports centre was used. Both linear relationships between variables and the combination of sets were analysed using fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis fsQCA. It is concluded that management variables (service quality, satisfaction and perceived value) are very important for the prediction of management models, but that, according to the interaction methodology between variables, both frequency and sociodemographic variables play an important role in achieving satisfied and loyal users of the sports service. For the prediction of customers’ future intentions, within the analysed sets, it is observed that satisfaction and perceived value are the most predictive variables (raw coverage 0.66). Therefore, and as a consequence, a high number of satisfied and loyal users of the service will allow the economic viability of this service to be achieved.