Involvement with active leisure participation: does service quality have a role?

Abstract

Identifying the antecedents of leisure involvement is of particular interest for researchers and practitioners, since involvement is associated with positive behavioural and attitudinal consequences for leisure participants. The present study was conducted in the context of traditional recreational dancing associations in Greece, aiming to test the degree to which service quality perceptions can discriminate between low and high-involved recreational dancers. One hundred and forty (N = 140) recreational dancers, who were members of traditional recreational dancing associations in Greece, participated in the study and completed the three-dimensional leisure involvement scale (Kyle et al., 2003), and a service quality scale (Alexandris et al., 2004a). The results of the cluster analysis revealed two distinct involvement groups: high- and low-involved recreational dancers. Four of the five service quality dimensions (outcome, tangibles, reliability and responsiveness) contributed to the prediction of high- and low-involved groups, indicating that service quality plays a significant role in the development of leisure involvement. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.