Evaluation of Operational Quality of Youth Sport Clubs: Application of the Importance-Performance Analysis

Given economic downturns and environmental concerns, promoting innovative consumption patterns is urgently needed. Swap is a promising collaborative consumption pattern that redistributes ownership of goods without using money. In the past, no research has focused on swap platform quality due to a lack of empirical resources. Therefore, this study aims to construct theoretical methods for evaluating and optimizing the quality of swap platforms. Analyzing consumer characteristics and motivations, the study creates a user profile that guides swap platforms’ market positioning. Then a quality evaluation model for swap platforms is constructed to identify areas for improvement. Data were collected from core users of a start-up swap platform in Shanghai, including 20 in-depth interviews and 180 survey questionnaires. The findings reveal that the main consumers in Shanghai’s swap market are highly educated women aged 20 to 40, with upper-middle incomes. They are motivated by functional, charitable, economic, and hedonic factors. Using grounded theory and the IPA method, this study developed a quality evaluation model for swap platforms, consisting of 18 indicators that clearly distinguish areas of weakness and strengths. This study provides valuable insights into the methodological research of quality evaluation for swap platforms and offers practical suggestions for their optimization.

The mental health of young people in youth sport has received growing academic attention and sporting clubs are identified as important settings for prevention and early intervention. Despite this, very few studies have explored the perceptions of multiple stakeholders about youth sporting clubs as spaces for mental health awareness, education, and training. The purpose of the study was to understand the capacity of youth sporting clubs 1 to become a site for general mental health support and explore parents, coaches, club leaders and youth participants perceptions about their sporting club’s readiness for mental health awareness, education, and training initiatives. Using an Interpretive Description (ID) research methodology, 26 participants (parents, youth, club leaders/coaches) involved in community-level youth sport participated in a qualitative telephone interview. Data was analyzed thematically, leading to the construction of three themes about the barriers for building and maintaining a culture of mental health support in youth sport: (a) initial resistance, (b) teething issues and (c) turbulence. The themes reflected perceptions about varying levels of club readiness for meaningfully supporting positive mental health and indicated that many youth sporting clubs may find it difficult to sustain long-term, positive change. The study suggests that while sport can be a promising avenue to promote positive mental health, it is not without multiple forms of resistance, which if not navigated, may discourage efforts to establish and maintain club settings as sites for mental health, education, awareness, and first aid training. Implications for the field are discussed. Lay Summary: Parents, youth sport participants and club leaders/coaches were interviewed for the purpose of understanding their views of youth sporting clubs’ capacity to become a site for mental health support. The thematic findings suggest that clubs are differentially equipped to support meaningful cultural change surrounding mental health and sport. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Clubs seeking to become a site for mental health support encounter various barriers and therefore display differential levels of “readiness” for change. To meaningfully and sustainably create clubs that support mental health, additional intervention methods are necessary to support mental health education, awareness-raising activities and first aid training in youth sport.

The aims of this study were to identify effective teaching attributes using the Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) questionnaire and evaluate students' level of satisfaction using the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) technique. Data were collected from three groups of students enrolled in three different courses i.e. Business Ethics (BE), Business Presentation Skills (BPS) and Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) at a Malaysian polytechnic. The total number of students involved were sixty seven and each course was taught by a different lecturer. A shorter version of the SEEQ questionnaire (22 items) was used to assess the teaching attributes according to students' perceived satisfaction and importance. A five-point Likert-type scale ranging from "very dissatisfied" to "very satisfied" was used to measure students' perceived satisfaction. Similarly, a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from "not important at all" to "very important" was used to measure students' perceived importance. By plotting the importance-performance rating of each lecturer in the four quadrants of the Importance-Performance Matrix, for the BE course, gaps were found in nine attributes related to motivational and pedagogical factors. Similarly, gaps were also found for BPS and IMC courses where these gaps were related to instructor's friendliness, accessibility and instructor-student interaction. For all three courses, students were satisfied with the given assignments which they agreed facilitated their learning. The majority of the students also expressed satisfaction on the lecturers' knowledge of the courses. The findings of this study have identified the less satisfactory teaching attributes and these could be used to modify teaching strategies to enhance students' learning. Thus it is recommended that Malaysian polytechnics use the dual approach i.e. the SEEQ questionnaire and the IPA technique to assess teaching effectiveness. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n3p33

The paper aims at exploring the shoppers’ evaluation of service quality and its impact on shopping centre management. For shopping centre management team, understanding their customers’ perceptions of the centre’s service quality is an important issue as shoppers’ evaluations and perceptions is believed to be highly related to their patronage behaviors and purchase intention. Through a case study of a shopping centre, this research will try to offer some insights on the relationships between evaluations of service quality and the shoppers’ patronage behaviors which may derive some implications for contemporary shopping centre management.
\n
\nLiteratures tell us that people elicit behavior after cognitive processing and formation of emotions. Adopting similar concept, marketing scholars found that customer behaviors are affected by their evaluations of service quality and satisfaction level through their perceptions on product or service attributes in cognitive processing. This study will follow the direction with reference to this model of behavior formation.
\n
\nIn the case study, personal interviews had been conducted with selected shoppers at a shopping centre. They were asked to rate the performance of 36 sub-attributes of the shopping centre under 5 shopping centre attributes, namely “accessibility”, “merchandise”, “retail environment & design”, “services of centre’s staff” and “promotions”. They were also asked about their patronage behaviors at the shopping centre such as frequency of visits, duration of visits, amount of spending etc.
\n
\nIt was found that the shoppers generally had positive evaluations on the centre’s performance on the 5 shopping centre attributes as a whole, especially had high evaluations on “accessibility”, “merchandise” and “services of centre’s staff”. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) was conducted to evaluate the service quality of 36 sub-attributes by comparing shoppers’ perceived actual performance and the importance level. It was found that only 8 sub-attributes, such as “access by public transportation”, “variety of stores” and “quality of stores” were found with high perceived service quality with high perceived actual performance and high importance level to the shoppers compared with other sub-attributes.
\n
\nThese sub-attributes with high perceived service quality were tested with occurrence tendency of patronage behaviors in the correlation analysis. It was found that high perceived service quality on merchandises, facility management and organization of promotion activities to certain extend had influence on manipulating patronage behaviors. However, some results showed that sub-attributes with high perceived service quality showed minimal or even no correlation on any measure patronage behavior parameters.
\n
\nWith reference to the model of purchase behavior regarding perceptions of service quality, the study may reveal that many possible antecedents of formation of shopping centre patronage behaviors may be still unreached in the contemporary studies.

Quality Management in Sports Clubs

BACKGROUND: A recent focus of the literature that has bridged the sports medicine and sport psychology domains relates to the topic of youth sport specialization. Previous work has identified specializing in one sport – particularly at an early age – to be associated with increased risks of negative physical (i.e., overuse injuries, lower extremity injuries) and psychosocial outcomes. As a result, medical organizations have advocated for a more diversified, multisport experience. Despite these recommendations, concerns regarding the rising prevalence of sport specialization have been a continued fixture of the literature, with little known regarding how underlying attitudes, beliefs, and values of sport stakeholders may be shaping this trend. One proposed avenue for better understanding this gap between recommendations and perceived participation behaviors is to examine and compare the club and high school sport contexts. Specifically, club sports have been linked to more professionalized climates of competition, in turn suggesting that specialization may be viewed more favorably than in the high school setting. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the perceptions of coaches in the high school and club sport contexts related to youth sport specialization to better understand how these youth sport leaders compare in their endorsement of attitudes and behaviors promoting this phenomenon. METHODS: This cross-sectional study examined 769 currently-practicing coaches (497 high school, 272 club; 533 male, 266 female). Participants completed a novel perceptual measure which surveyed their attitudes, values, and beliefs related to various aspects of youth sport specialization (e.g., effectiveness in developing talent, likelihood of leading to an enjoyable experience, likelihood that their competition specializes). The participant’s mean rating across the 25 items denoted their global perception of sport specialization (i.e., higher scores indicated a more favorable view of specializing). Additionally, each coach completed a questionnaire detailing their relevant demographic and sport background information. To analyze the data, an independent samples t-test was conducted between the two groups while using their perceptual score of specialization as the dependent variable. Finally, a multiple linear regression was calculated separately for each coach group to predict participants’ perceptual scores of specialization based on their demographic and sport background responses (i.e., age of athletes coached, years of experience as a coach, post-secondary education in sport, additional coaching certifications, self-rating of coaching quality). RESULTS: High school coaches (M = 2.31; SD = 0.21) and club coaches (M = 2.43; SD = 0.25) differed in their average perceptions of sport specialization (t(767) = 1.412; p < .001), meaning that the club sport coaches were more likely to rate specialization as a positive, adaptive practice in comparison to their high school counterparts. For high school coaches, the overall regression equation was significant, but explained only a small amount of variance (F(5, 491) = 2.542, p = .028, R2 = .025); however, no demographic characteristics were strong independent predictors. The multiple linear regression for the club coaches did not yield a significant equation to predict perceptual scores of specialization based on their sport background characteristics (F(5, 256) = .224, p = .952, R2 = .004). SIGNIFICANCE: This study was the first to examine sport specialization by comparing the high school and club sport contexts. These findings indicate that club sport athletes are more likely to be exposed to messaging and attitudes that posit sport specialization as favorable, despite the proliferating base of evidence detailing the physical and psychosocial risks of this pattern. Additionally, the multiple linear regression analyses specify that elements of coach education, experience, and demographic characteristics do not strongly predict perceptions of specialization, suggesting that the competitive contexts themselves (high school vs. club) may be the most salient influencer of these perceptions. Therefore, club sports appear to be a critical point-of-impact for a cultural shift to better account for the potential drawbacks of specializing in one sport stemming from previous sports medicine literature. Athletes in these contexts should also be aware of the heightened expectation of specialized participation by those leading their teams. Pediatric sport researchers and practitioners should continue to explore how these differing group perceptions manifest in terms of participation behaviors, as well as their link to overall athlete health, well-being, and development.

It is often to solve complex decision-making problems in the marine transportation environment, such as the evaluation of service quality and the location choice of ports. In this paper, an integrated model with multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) and importance-performance analysis (IPA) is presented and then is applied to solve the problem of service quality evaluation of transshipment port. The MCDM approach can be used to deal with both quantitative data and qualitative ratings simultaneously. The IPA approach can be applied to realize the shortcomings of service quality of ports and rank the ranking of strategies for improving service quality of transshipment port. Finally, some useful suggestions for improving the service quality of ports are given in the paper.

Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights DIY organizes a variety of public services using information technology, including correctional services, immigration services, general legal administration services, intellectual property services, communication services, data and information services, and other administrative services. None of these services can be separated from the role of information technology to provide services that are fast, cheap, effective and reliable to the public. This study was conducted to assess the quality Ministry of Law and Human Rights DIY e-Government service using e-GovQual dimensional framework as a best practice. This study includes quantitative research involving a number of respondents for the survey. Research questions are based on the dimensions of e-Govqual and represent the attributes of each dimension of e-GovQual to assess the quality of Ministry of Law and Human Rights DIY e-Government service. The question must pass the validation test using Cronbach’s α. The processing of data using confirmatory factor analysis to obtain the main factors that affect each of the dimensions of e-GovQual. The Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) method helps e-GovQual to measure the level of importance and level of performance of each e-GovQual attribute by classifying it in the Cartesian quadrants, which can help ensure the quality of e-Government services according to the needs and expectations of citizens as service user. Values in IPA (concentrating here, keeping up the good work, low priority, and possible overkill) will be the value of quality e-Government services. The results of this study are expected to give priority as a recommendation for Information and Communication Technology to the development of e-Government services in order to improve service quality.

The purpose of this study was to survey participation status of foreign migrant worker`s sports activity and seek the way to revitalize sport club by identifing the recognition of sport club using IPA (Importance-Performance Analysis). The results were as follows. The quadrant Ⅰ is “the keep up the good work” part. And the quadrant Ⅰ includes “health Promotion”, “improvement in exercise ability”, “communication with the other sport club”, “communication with sport club operator and director”, “contracture of sport club promotion and information system” and “network correlated between organization and corporation”. The quadrant Ⅱ is “the concentrate here” part. And the quadrant Ⅱ includes “regional community”, “accessible sports facilities”, “sport club program management” and “financial inducement for sport club”. The quadrant Ⅲ is “the low priority” part. And the quadrant Ⅲ includes “worthy leisure”, “sport facility surroundings”, “the regulations and the procedure about sport club join”, “accident insurance”, “tax benefit” and “communication between members”. The quadrant Ⅳ is “the possible overkill” part. And the quadrant Ⅳ includes “sport facility scale”, “sport club dues”. The revitalization of sport club for foreign migrant worker was “communication with the other korean sport club”, “sports club registration system implementation”, “sports club facilities secured”.

Purpose The research aim is to explore the relationship between parental stress and athlete dropout. The study examines how different parental behaviors (supportive, controlling and performance pressure) and environmental factors (conflicts, injuries and other hobbies) influence the retention of young handball players in the sport. The research aims to map parental behavior patterns and stress factors using validated questionnaires and, through their analysis, uncover practical and theoretical connections to support athlete retention. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the role of parental stress and its relationship with athlete dropout in youth sports, focusing on the impact of parental behaviors and environmental factors. The research uses validated questionnaires (Parental Involvement Sport Questionnaire, PISQ and Parental Stressors Scale in Sport, PSSS) to assess parental stress levels and behavioral patterns, examining their effect on the sport commitment of young athletes. The theoretical framework draws on Stakeholder Theory, Leisure Constraints Theory, Family Systems Theory and the Heuristic Model of the Youth Sport System. The findings reveal that internal team conflicts and injuries are the primary stressors for parents, especially as athletes age. Notably, parents of athletes with severe injuries experienced higher stress levels, particularly in the areas of feedback and club relations. Supportive parental behaviors reduced stress, while controlling and pressuring behaviors increased it. The study further indicates that parental involvement, particularly when it is active but not pressuring, is crucial for long-term athlete retention. The research highlights the systemic nature of youth sports dropout, driven by factors such as parental expectations, time constraints and communication gaps within sports clubs. It underscores the need for better communication between parents and sports organizations to reduce stress and improve retention rates. The study's implications suggest several strategies for enhancing parental involvement, such as fostering effective communication, balancing sports with other interests and offering workshops to help parents manage stress. By improving governance structures and ensuring clearer communication, sports organizations can create a more supportive environment for athletes and their families, leading to higher athlete retention and healthier participation in youth sports. Findings The study highlights how conflicts and injuries increase with age in athletes, with the highest levels of parental stress occurring when parents report team conflicts or injuries. Parents of athletes aged 17 experienced the most stress, particularly in feedback and club relations. Parental involvement, especially empathy and understanding, was negatively correlated with stress, while pressure to perform was positively correlated with stress. Injuries and prolonged team conflicts led to higher stress levels in parents, underlining the importance of club support and communication in managing parental stress. Research limitations/implications While the study's large sample size enhances generalizability, limitations include non-random sampling, reliance on self-reported data and a lack of demographic variables like gender, which affects the interpretation of parental involvement and stress. Future research should adopt random sampling, include gender-specific data and consider parents' prior experience in sports. Additionally, exploring the type of sports injuries and conducting longitudinal studies could provide deeper insights into parental involvement and its impact on youth sport participation and dropout rates. Practical implications The development of athletes is influenced by the relationship between parents and sports clubs. Clubs must support parental involvement, reduce stress and improve communication. Recommendations include empathy training for coaches, balancing sports and personal growth, post-injury support and workshops for parents. Clubs should focus on retention strategies, loyalty programs and effective communication. Additionally, emotional intelligence training for coaches and responsiveness to family needs are key. Implementing retention metrics helps track dropout rates and improves athlete experience, fostering long-term commitment and engagement. Social implications Clubs must focus not only on athlete recruitment but also on long-term retention to ensure sustainable growth. Parental workshops, personalized communication and logistical support can strengthen family-athlete ties. Future research should explore how such strategies affect long-term commitment and how they align with psychological and sociological theories. Strengthening the relationship between families, coaches and clubs is key to sustaining participation and promoting athlete well-being within a healthier sports ecosystem. Originality/value Our research shows that many parents find their child's sports participation stressful, largely due to poor governance, weak communication and a lack of support in sports clubs. Although clubs prioritize athlete development, they often overlook parents as key stakeholders. Strengthening governance, including transparency and parent-focused strategies, can reduce stress and improve youth athlete retention. A more inclusive and supportive approach fosters sustainable participation and enhances both athlete and family well-being, contributing to broader societal benefits such as community engagement and mental health promotion.

Pharmaceutical installations have an important role in improving and providing effective services to achieve patient satisfaction. Patients' complaints occur if they receive a service that does not meet expectations. The hospital management must investigate the causes of patients' complaints. Solving the patients' complaints indicates that the hospital can fulfill their expectations. The purpose of this study is to examine the results of servqual on service quality, customer satisfaction index, and importance-performance analysis on service quality and complaint handling. This research employed a descriptive design with qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study was conducted by distributing questionnaires to 100 outpatients. The respondents' answers were then analyzed using the Cartesian diagram to obtain quadrants A, B, C, and D. Interviews were directly conducted with the complaint management and pharmaceutical installation staff to explore the attributes included in quadrant A (top priority). The patients were selected using the purposive sampling method. Finally, the data were analyzed using the servqual analysis, importance-performance analysis, and customer satisfaction index. The result shows that the service quality dimension has a negative gap value. The reliability dimension has the smallest gap while the responsiveness dimension has the largest gap. The result of the customer satisfaction index shows that outpatient satisfaction with the service quality and complaint handling has a value of 56.53%. Thus, this dimension is categorized as quite satisfying. The result of the importance-performance analysis shows that the dimensions included in quadrant A are the tangible evidence dimension, including poor physical facilities, and the responsiveness dimension, including patients' long waiting time to manage prescriptions and complaint handling.

BackgroundPregnant women's evaluation of service quality is crucial for optimizing prenatal and delivery care and is one of the key indicators for assessing service performance. However, at present, there is a lack of systematic tools to assess the perception of service quality among pregnant women. This study aimed to assess the gap between pregnant women's expected expected and perceived service quality using a modified SERVQUAL model, identify influencing factors of the gap, and provide evidence for optimizing "Mother and Baby-Friendly Hospital" (MBFH) services.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted at a medical center in Beijing, from April to September 2024, involving 454 pregnant women. Data were collected using a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire, which included 34 items across 6 dimensions and measured both "expectations" and "perceptions". Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 22.0, descriptive statistics characterized overall service quality scores, multiple regression identified factors influencing the gap, and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) determined priority areas for service improvement.ResultsThe average score of pregnant women’s perceived service quality ranged from 3.91 to 4.97. Significant gaps between expectations and perceptions were observed in 2 items of the Assurance dimension and 3 items of the Tangibility dimension. IPA confirmed these items as "high-priority improvement areas". Multiple regression analysis showed that educational level, income, type of medical insurance, parity and presence of pregnancy complications were the main factors influencing the gap.ConclusionThe integration of SERVQUAL and IPA provides valuable insights for improving the service experience of pregnant women. Based on the findings, the medical center has taken targeted measures to enhance service quality across all dimensions, with particular emphasis on Assurance and Tangibility. These improvements have contributed positively to the center’s application for "MBFH" certification.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-025-08252-1.

The present study applied importance-performance analysis (IPA) to investigate the relationship between the importance level and satisfaction of port service quality and to enable port authorities to draw port managerial and operational policies for improving service quality. This IPA approach is based on the port service quality characteristics drawn by the Kano two-dimensional quality model, and examines the Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Busan, and Kaohsiung ports from the viewpoints of 15 container shipping lines deploying container ships at the above ports. The results demonstrate that the shipping lines were most satisfied with the Singapore port, while the Shanghai and Busan ports had a lower satisfaction level than the others. The IPA matrixes of the five ports confirm that, from the viewpoint of resource allocation efficiency, resources should be shifted from quadrant D to quadrant A to improve overall performance of service attributes. Therefore, port managers have to ‘keep up the good work’ regarding these attributes. Terminal operators can use the results to develop port strategies improving port service quality, to design better service quality control systems, and to capture more container cargoes in the fierce inter-port competition in Asia.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the improvement gap analysis (IGA), a simple method to direct improvement opportunities in services that overcomes limitations of the traditional IPA regarding excitement and basic attributes.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed method is theoretically developed and simulated. The theoretical simulation explains why IGA overcomes limitations of the traditional importance performance analysis (IPA) and how it could identify the impact of excitement innovative attributes. A case study with 287 customers of supermarkets was used to empirically test IGA and compare it to IPA.FindingsThe case study confirmed that the traditional IPA may lead to wrong improvement decisions for basic and excitement attributes. It happens because IPA is based on current attributes' performance and considers the relationship between attribute performance and customer satisfaction as a linear one. Also, it cannot identify the impact of excitement innovative attributes on customer satisfaction. Using only information about the company's customers, IGA could differentiate neutral from excitement attributes in the case study and, differently from IPA, it correctly identified improvement decisions for basic and excitement attributes.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough IGA can theoretically distinguish between excitement innovative and neutral attributes, the case study presented in the paper did not test any innovative attribute. All attributes were already experimented or known by the subjects. Future research should empirically test IGA's real capability to identify excitement innovative attributes.Practical implicationsManagers should be aware that IPA may lead to wrong improvement decisions. It may leave excitement attributes unnoticed or direct the company to the improvement of basic attributes that already have adequate performance. IGA can be a good substitute for IPA with the additional advantage that it does not need information about competitors in the analysis. Also, since service quality evaluation depends heavily on customer perception, IGA is particularly suitable to this industry, but it could also be used for product improvement.Originality/valueThe literature presents several papers discussing IPA's problems. Some papers present the possible decision errors of IPA when dealing with excitement and basic attributes. Fewer have tried to propose methods to overcome these problems. This paper confirms the problems of IPA and presents a simple method that overcomes these limitations, distinguishing between excitement and neutral attributes. Also, because it does not use information about competitors, it can be easily used by companies that have difficulties in gathering such information.

Regular involvement in organised youth sport boosts the likelihood of lifelong sport participation. However, increasing dropout rates in sport clubs and alarming levels of young people not meeting physical activity guidelines may suggest that the organised sport sector’s efforts have been insufficient to date. This situation calls for evaluation of the applicable youth sport policy to determine how organised youth sport is intended to operate and to articulate whether and how the policy achieves its stated goals. Accordingly, this paper identifies and analyses initiatives of national governing bodies (NGBs) to increase participation rates and improve the quality of youth sport in their affiliated sport clubs, using Flanders as a case study. A theory-based evaluation was applied working with qualitative data derived from extensive document analysis and five focus groups with representatives of 19 Flemish NGBs. The results reveal that the focus of NGBs is narrowed to increasing participation rates of youth members and building a sound organisational structure in sport clubs, rather than investing in the quality of provision to maximise enjoyment. Furthermore, most of the initiatives lack a clearly articulated strategy and are based on assumed mechanisms, rather than on prior understanding of effective processes. This study adds to the scarce literature on sport policy evaluation research by mapping out NGBs’ youth sport initiatives and using a theoretical lens through which to evaluate them. For practitioners, the results demonstrate the usefulness of a logic model to evaluate youth sport policy and to optimise the effectiveness of the initiatives employed.