Continuing to Bridge the Academic–Practitioner Divide: Development of the General Parsimonious Scale (GPS) for Spectator Sports

Abstract

The academic and practical sides of the sport industry have exhibited different preferences for measurement tools. Practitioners tend to adopt concise instruments that are economical to administer. However, many practice-oriented studies are often viewed by academics as deficient in scientific rigor. These different preferences for scale development and usage have created the so-called “academic-practitioner divide.” Following the earlier initiative to bridge this division, this present study developed the General Parsimonious Scale (GPS) to assess four components of sport events that can affect consumers' game attendance decision. An extensive literature review made it possible to select a small set of indicators measuring four dimensions of sport events without suffering theoretical rigor. The GPS indicates appropriate psychometric properties and exhibits appropriate explanatory ability, providing both academics and practitioners with a reliable and concise instrument that can be applied to measure different components of sport events.