TABLE
OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
1.2
Statement
of the Problem
1.3
Purpose
of the Study
1.4
Research
Questions
1.5 Research Hypotheses
1.6 Significance of the Study
1.7 Delimitation of the Study
1.8 Limitation of the Study
1.9 Operational Definition of Terms
CHAPTER
TWO
LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 Origin and Development of Dual Racket
Sports
2.2 Decline of Racket Sports in Schools
2.3 Sport Development Policy
2.4 Concept of Sponsorship in Sports
2.5 Sponsorship and racket Sports development
2.6 Problems of Sport
Sponsorship in Nigeria
2.7 Sports Marketing and Promotion
2.8 Factors stimulating Sponsorship of sports
by corporate organizations
2.9 Sponsorship Effectiveness
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research design
3.2 Population of the study
3.3 Sample
3.4 Sampling Technique
3.5 Research Instrument
3.6 Validity of Instruments
3.7 Reliability of Instrument
3.8 Method of Data Collection
3.9 Method of Data Analysis
3.10 Pilot Study
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF
FINDINGS
4.1 Descriptive Analysis of Data
4.2 Testing of Hypothesis
4.3 Discussion of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
of Findings
5.2 Summary
of the Study
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Recommendations
References
Appendix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study
The significance of sports for society is
unquestionable. It engenders humanity’s most important values — fairness,
equality, teamwork. Sports foster citizenship and promote a healthy lifestyle.
It is about emotions, passion, prestige and power. In many respects, sports
sponsorship and sports development requires a significant investment. Sports
can therefore be a powerful tool to foster universal values and promote
transformative social change. Sports are an institutionalised physical activity
in which the rules and regulations are fixed. It embraces athletics,
gymnastics, games and activities of individual and team varieties. It could be
engaged in competitively or for recreative purpose. Sport was differently
characterized as a “game occurrence,
as an institution and a social situation or secular system”. Asagba,
(2008) opined that sport is getting more popular worldwide with its attendant
huge financial investments. Sports in all dimensions is big business, this
explains therefore that in this millennium, it is a symbol of wealth, fame and
recognition which dictates, the social, political and economic growth in many
countries. There is a wide variety of sports programmes that need to be
financed, hence different avenues must be explored to source fund. Some of the
ways are fund raising, fees or charges and tax support. Others are through
government, individuals and corporate bodies.
Akarah (2009)
defined sports as competitive physical activity utilizing specialized equipment
and facilities with unique dimension of time and space in which the quest for
record is of high significance, sports is highly competitive human physical
activity that is governed by institutional rules. Sports has taken a centre
stage in the conduct of diplomacy and the evolution of development and change
in the world system. In the same vein, Elendu and Ogujiofor (2012) opines that sports are
education, sports are life and sports bring people together. Also sports was
considered by Cunningham and Benefort, (2005) as any activity, experience or
business enterprise focused on fitness, athletics, recreation or leisure. In
their view, sports do not have to be competitive nor does it always require
specialized equipment or rules. Sports include activities such as working out,
running and dancing. Sports are more than ever before, commanding global
attention. Its influence on world peace, economy and the development of social
relationships cannot be underestimated. It is against this background that most
nations have come to appreciate the need to invest heavily on it. Sports as a
social factor has over time assumed an influential status. Sports tend to exert
more influence on people’s behaviour than religion or politics.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria sports development
policy (2009) defined sports development as the process of continuous
improvement of the sports structure, institutions and programmes in order to
create a societal condition conducive to physical fitness for all and the
effective functioning and self-actualization. However, despite National Sports Policy of
Nigeria (2009) vision; to establish and develop a technically efficient
institutions equipped with the desired professional manpower, resources, right
equipment and well maintained facilities for sports development and
participation; promoting school and institutional sports development and
competitions at all three tiers of government school, this vision is yet to be
achieved as sports are yet to take its right place in most secondary schools in
Nigeria.
One of the major
challenges to achieving this objective is the issue of finance which has
consistently remained a burning issue of sports development in Nigeria. As with
all other endeavors, finance and sponsorship are vital requirements for sports
development at all levels. The relatively high overhead cost associated with
financing sports programmes, camping, training and competitions continue to
hinder its development. Sponsorship in grass root sports continues to lack
support and maintenance. Therefore corporate, commercial and government
sponsorship are needed in the development of schools sports programmes
especially racket sports as it encourages grass root development of sports in
the local community. Corporate sponsorship also motivate athletes to do better
during their games, creates opportunities for individual to earn a living,
keeps the youth out of the street from deviant behaviours and drug consumption
and delinquency while participating in sports programmes (National Sports
Policy of Nigeria, 2009). Labiba (2014) notes
that sports is the
area in which sponsorship has
developed furthest. Depending on
the year being audited. The term
sponsorship is the acquisition of rights to affiliate or directly associate
with a product or event for the purpose of deriving benefits related to that
affiliation or association. The sponsor then uses this relationship to achieve
its promotional objectives or to facilitate and support its broader marketing
objectives. Sponsorship in general and specifically sports sponsorship is a
vital part of every major company’s communication strategy in today’s business
world. Marketing professionals consider sponsorships as an important tool to
build brand equity and corporate image, especially in times of increased media
fragmentation (Aiyejuyo, & Ayoade, 2002).
Over the last two decades sports sponsorship has
gained a consistently increasing share of marketing budgets and has become a
key component of the marketing communication mix, which is on par with
traditional tools such as advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and
personal selling. On a global scale, spending on sports sponsorships
engagements has increased from $20 billion in 2004 to $29 billion in 2009 and
is expected to increase to $35 billion by 2013 (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2010).
Sponsorship deals constitute significant marketing investments for sponsoring
firms. For example, Hyundai has recently sign with the global soccer
association FIFA for a total contract value of $280 million (Fenton, 2010). In
the last two decades, sponsorship, as part of financing of venues, has helped
to improve the standard of stadiums and arenas fundamentally, thus opening
sports events to new audiences like women and families. VIP areas, such as
business seats and lounges, may also support cheaper ticket prices for the
fans. Sports sponsorship; however, do not only provide benefits for the
Sponsors and the Sports entities. Any negative incident concerning either the
direct relationship between the two parties or just one side of it can lead to
a widespread scandal with devastating impact on the potential positive goal
that originally led to the sponsorship.
School sports today is in a pathetic state. Many
schools no longer have interest in school sports in spite of the National
Policy on Education (2004) which specified the role sports should play in the
education of the Nigerian child. In schools which think about sports, it is
only during their haphazardly organized annual inter-house athletic meets that
school heads make unnecessary and heavy demands on parents and invitees in well
worded addresses. At the end of the day, whatever is realized is not ploughed
into sports development. There were series of friendly matches/contests between
schools which are extinct nowadays; where such competitions exist nowadays,
shameless sports organizers recourse to the use of non-bonafide students
otherwise known as “mercenaries”. Stressing the need for grass root sports, a
onetime national triple jumper, Chioma Ajunwa opined that it was school sports
that brought so many athletes of her generation to lime-light (Interview on
Weekend Sports programmes by NTA Channel 10 July, 18th 2014). There
is need for Nigeria to return to grassroots and school sports if we ever hope
to develop our athletes. It is against this background that this study set out
to examine the influence of sponsorship on the development of racket sports in
secondary school in Surulere Local Government Area, Lagos.
Statement
of the Problem
For a long time now, sports has been mostly sponsored
by government in Nigeria. However, economic problems made it increasingly
difficult for government to do so alone, hence, different national sports
associations have embarked on fund raising drives to complement the inadequate
funds given by government. However, in Nigeria, sports sponsorship is still at
low ebb. This work is therefore to look into the perceived impediments to
effective sports sponsorship in Nigeria
(Asagba, 2008).
In recent time, it
has been reported that there is a decline in participation as well as in number
of medals won by Nigerian professional athletes participating in international
racket sports competitions such as Tennis,
Badminton, Table tennis among others Akarah, Nabofa and Iheanacho, (2011) observed that Nigeria
is still a failed venture
and that the
return of the government has not
been commensurate to Nigerian government monetary policy .
Despite National
Sports policy to establish a technically efficient institution equipped with
desired professional manpower, resources, right equipment and well maintained
facilities for sports development in schools, sports rackets have not gotten
the required attention. Part of the problem being inadequate facilities and
equipment for grassroots racket sports development resulting from poor funding.
Many sports
sponsors, who set the tone in grassroots sports development in the past have,
typically abandon grassroots sports and favour elite sports performance.
Presumably this is because any success recorded is splashed across the media
and raise their brand images. There seems to be a broader focus on commercial
partnerships and elite sports and far less consideration towards grassroots
sports like tennis, badminton among others in secondary schools, mainly because
it isn’t seen as lucrative or headline grabbing. The consequence of this
is seen on gradual decay of racket sports development at the grassroots level.
Based on the foregoing, it became necessary to investigate the influence of
sponsorship on development of racket sports in secondary schools.
Purpose
of the Study
The purpose of
this study was to examine the influence of sponsorship on the development of
racket sports in selected secondary schools in Surulere Local Government Area.
Specifically, the study was to:
1.
examine the influence of sponsorship
awareness on development of racket sponsorship in secondary schools
2.
examine the influence of corporate image
of sponsoring organization influence on racket sports development in secondary
schools
3.
examine the influence of sports fan
involvement on racket sports development
in secondary schools
4.
examine the influence of purchase
intention on racket sports development in secondary schools
Research
Questions
The following
questions were answered in this study:
1.
Will sponsorship awareness influence the
development of racket sports among secondary schools?
2.
Will corporate image influence development
of racket sports equipment in secondary schools?
3.
Will fan involvement influence the quality
of racket sports personnel in secondary schools?
4.
Will purchase intention influence racket
sports development in secondary schools
Research
Hypotheses
The following
research hypotheses were developed to guide the study.
1.
There was no significant influence of
racket sponsorship awareness on the development of racket sports in secondary
schools.
2.
There was no significant influence of
corporate image of an organization on racket sports development in secondary
schools.
3.
There was no significant influence of fans
involvement on the development of racket sports in secondary schools.
4.
There was no significant influence of
purchase intention on the development of racket sports in secondary schools.
Significance
of the Study
This study could
be useful in helping the physical education personnel, coaches, teachers and
sports administrators understand and improve the teaching of racket sports in
secondary schools at an early age. The finding of this research might also
serve as bases for further investigation in the area of evaluation of
grassroots development of racket sports in the country. Furthermore, this study
could reveal the states of racket sports among secondary schools and add to the
existing literatures on Lagos State Ministry of sports and social development
programmes in the development of racket sports in Lagos State.
Delimitation
of the Study
This study was delimited
to the following
1.
Four indices of rackets sponsorship;
sponsorship awareness, corporate Image, fans involvement and purchase intention
2.
Descriptive statistics of frequency count
and percentage.
3.
Chi-square statistical test were used to
analyse and test the hypotheses of the data collected for this study at 0.05
level of significance
4.
10 secondary school both (junior and
senior) located within Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State.
5.
Three hundred (320) participants including
students, principals, Physical Education Teachers.
Limitation
of the Study
The challenges encountered in this study include:
1. Reluctance
of respondents to disclose information,
2. Distance
and area covered within limited period of time.
Operational
Definition of Terms
Corporate
image: The perception of a corporation held by the public
based on how it is portrayed through branding.
Fans
involvement: Involvement with group members in the
social setting/sports.
Purchase
intention: A plan to purchase a particular good or
services in the future.
Sponsorship
awareness: Extend to which a brand is recognised by potential
customers.
Sponsorship:
A
transactional relationship through which commercial benefits accrue for the
sponsor partner and financial or service benefits for the sponsored sport
partner.
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