英国体育经营管理留学生硕士开题报告范文参考-Measuring service quality in the health and fitness industry: a case study of

英国体育经营管理留学生硕士开题报告范文参考-Measuring service quality in the health and fitness industry: a case study of Sheffield

Criteria for assessment

This assessment represents 10% of the overall marks for this unit and should be completed using the proposal template provided. The word limit is 1500 words. The marking criteria should be adhered to and all work should be word-processed. Please note that there will be a 10 mark penalty (absolute marks- not a percentage) for work which exceeds the expected word count by more than 10% and that you are required to indicate the word count (excluding reference list) at the end of your assignment. I should also like to bring to your attention the University regulations on plagiarism available on shuspace.

Criteria for Assessment Weighting

introduction: States working title. Defines the research problem and states its implications. Provides necessary background information. 9/25%

You have not specified a clear purpose or scope for this project.  

There is no real research problem or question.  Would it not be better to compare UK and Chinese approaches to quality management in sport to identify areas of common practice, areas of differences and any aspects where managers in the two countries could learn from each other?  In any case, I think that you should develop the Chinese element of the research because I think that conducting the kind of research necessary for this project whilst you are living in China could be very difficult.

Scope - this is very vague - which organisations (or managers in which organisations) will you be investigating?  Why is this necessary - what new insights do you hope the gain form the research and how will this contribute to:

1. knowledge in the field of academic study? AND/OR

2. improvement in the practitioner field (i.e. how would this help managers to do a better job)?

Research Aims: Clearly states the specific aims of this research project. 3.5/10%

See some of my comments above about comparing Sheffield/UK and China.  The aims do not really show that you will be adding anything new to understanding in this field.  They are very general and need to be made far more specific to this project.  Remember that your research needs to have a very clear and tight focus.

literature review: Provides an overview of the key debates, theory and literature  in the subject field.#p#分页标题#e# 9/25%

There is some good literature reviewed here, but the link between this and what you are proposing to research is not clear (this links to my comments in red at the end of your Method section).

Methods: Constructs an appropriate methodology and explains why those methods have been chosen. 8/25%

研究目的：明确本研究项目的具体目标。3.5 / 10%

看看我的上述评论比较中国和英国谢菲尔德/。这是不是真的表明你将增加在这一领域来理解新的东西。他们是很一般的，需要有更具体的项目。记住，你的研究需要有一个非常明确的和紧聚焦。

文献综述：提供的关键辩论的概述，在学科领域的理论和文献的9／25%。

有一些好的文学评论，但之间的联系，这和你所提出的研究是不明确的（这个链接到我的评论在红色的在你的方法部分的结束）。

方法：构建一个适当的方法，解释了为什么这些方法已被选定。8 / 25%

See comments in red at the end of your methods section

Plan of Work: Constructs a plan of work that is realistic and achievable in the time available. 3/10%

See comments in red at the end of your Plan of Work section

Adherence to the SHU Harvard referencing system and using good English. 5/5%

Total 30/100%

Note: If you intend for your Project to be a literature-based study (e.g. an extended literature review), the above marking criteria may not be appropriate for you. Please contact your supervisor for guidance.

Hand-In Date: 17th December 2012

PROJECT PROPOSAL 66-7787-00S Coursework Task 1 (10%)

Student Name:

Jin Chen

Supervisor:

Chris Moriarty

Working Title:

Measuring service quality in the health and fitness industry: a case study of Sheffield

Introduction:

Britain has led the field of sports industry in the world and it has a wealth of operational and management idea. Like the Premier League and Wimbledon Championships and other sporting events were held in UK every year. It has attracted sports audience from all over the world. That means British made an indelible contribution to the world sports industry.

As a city known for education, sports industry, Sheffield is not only famous for Sheffield Uni. A first formal world's football club - Sheffield United also born here. Because closing to the peak national park and compared with other part of England the life environment is more leisurely which makes the Sheffield people keen sports, while Sheffield has also become one of the most developed regions in England in sports industry.#p#分页标题#e#

In the previous study, my research topic was covering the two countries, the United Kingdom and China, and it was a huge topic for me. So by studying a more representative region like Sheffield, in order to understand the importance of service quality management in the UK fitness industry, I would like to choose the health and fitness industry in Sheffield city as my research object.

State your Research Aims:

To know what service quality is and why it is important in the service industry and how it is working in a new industry like sport industry.

As Sheffield is the subject of research to explore the service quality management in UK`s sport industry.

By previous studies, integration of data, summary of the role played by the quality of service management in the health and fitness industry.

Literature Review:

In this part of the study, the first duty is definition of service quality management, learning through literatures of previous studies. Researching the role played by the service quality in the fitness industry and exploring the impaction of service quality on customer satisfaction, customer gender and the age group of customer.

Definitions of service quality revolve around the idea that it is the result of the comparison that customers make between their expectations about a service and their perception ofthe way the service has been performed (Caruana et al., 2000; 

Lehtinen&Lehtinen, 1991;Parasuaman et al., 1985, 1988; Gro&uML;nroos, 1984). Service quality is an important issue inthe marketing literature, since service quality perceptions are related to customer satisfactionand customer retention (Alexandris et al., 2004; Zeithaml&Bitner, 2003; Zeithamlet al., 1996). A similar tend is also evident in the sport-related literature, which wasprominently manifested by the initiative of the European Association for Sport Managementto devote its sixth annual congress to ‘Service quality in sports’.

According to Zeithaml et al. (1990), the difference between customer’s desires, expectations and their perceptions of service quality is known as a service gap. The four mainservice quality gaps identified by these researchers are: not knowing what customers areexpecting from a service; using the incorrect service quality standards; service performance(gap); and promises regarding the service which do not match delivery.

With the proliferation of sport and fitness centres in many countries over the last decade, sport service providers increasingly place emphasis on quality services and efficient operation, in order to remain profitable (Papadimitriou &Karteliotis, 2000). At the same time, sport participants and spectators raise their expectations for more benefits from participation in sport and for quality in sport products and services (Howat et al., 1996; Mawson, 1993). In this philosophy, organizational success is inherently lined with the ability of the sport and fitness service provider to identify and respond to needs but also to influence what is perceived as service quality by the targeted segment of the market (Papadimitriou &Karteliotis, 2000).#p#分页标题#e#

Chelladurai et al. (1987) identified five dimensions of fitness services as measured by their Scale of Attributes of Fitness Services (SAFS). These dimensions are: primary-professional, primary-consumer, primary-peripheral, primary-facilitating goods and secondary goods and services. The first dimensions reflect the core services while the rest reflect the context.

Hartshorn (1990) investigated differences in the way fitness industry managersdefine service quality. Service quality was measured using the SERVQUAL instrument.The results suggested that although managers of the leisure fitness industry from threesectors (public, private and voluntary sector) agree on the definition of service quality,the private sector showed more concern with service quality than the public sector, withthe voluntary sector being most similar to the private sector.

Based on literature review and focus group results, Kim & Kim (1995) generated 45 items to assess service quality in sport and fitness centers in South Korea. They measuredthe desirability of the items as well as the delivery of the service indicated by the items.They derived an 11-factor 33-item measure entitled Quality Excellence of Sport Centers(QUESC). The 11 dimensions were labeled: ambience, employee attitude, reliability,information, programming, personal consideration, privileges, price, and ease of mind,stimulation and convenience.

Rintjema (1998) explored the measurement of service quality of a private recreation organizationusing a questionnaire with modified questions from a SERVQUAL-based instrument.The researcher underlined the importance of conducting service quality researches, as thecustomers are looking for personalized service from the business with which they deal andthey want this service to be of high quality and value for the price they pay.

Chelladurai& Chang (2000) proposed a framework for the analysis ofquality in fitness clubs. Their scheme consists of three dimensions in the input stage:managementcommitment to service quality; developing service climate and designing core services;five dimensions in the throughput stage: interpersonal interacting with employees, task interactionswith employees, physical environment, contact with other customers, and servicefailure and recovery; and one dimension at the output stage: perceived service quality.

Finally, Lam (2000) developed the Service Quality Assessment Scale (SQAS) in orderto determine the dimension of service quality of health-fitness clubs. The researcher foundout that there are five factors that affect customers’ perceptions of the provided servicequality of a fitness club: staff, programme, locker rooms, physical facility and workoutfacility.

 Furthermore, locating the status quo of fitness industry in the private sector and the public sector. Exploring the effect of service quality management in fitness industry as well as the attitude of two different departments.#p#分页标题#e#

Methods:

Qualitative research is the main research method. Data collection was collected by mail or online interview (Skype).

 Aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the reasons that govern such behaviour. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed than large samples. It will be benefit for this project research.

As a case study, this project has a typical qualitative studies characteristic. In the conventional view, qualitative methods produce information only on the particular cases studied, and any more general conclusions are only propositions (informed assertions). All these factors are necessary to use in the research. 

Who will you be interviewing?  Why will you be interviewing them (i.e. how will they allow you to capture data that will allow you to meet your research aims).

Your Introduction and Methodology sections do not make clear what it is you are intending to study - you need to do more work on this to really clarify your research.

The approach outlined here (qualitative research collected by Skype interviews) does not match with the literature you mention in your Literature Review section.  Previous studies have clearly used a customer exit survey which uses the SERVQUAL methodology to collect data on satisfaction AND importance ratings for a range of service attributes.  You do not appear to be proposing to replicate this methodology, so you need to make very clear why not and justify why and how your proposed method will allow you to collect better or different information.  As it stands, your proposal does not provide enough information on this.  

If you are intending to survey managers of facilities in Sheffield to assess their understanding of, and approach to service quality, you need to make this very clear (this includes stating this and explaining it in some detail in your Introduction section).  If it is your intention to do this, which facilities will you interview managers at, who will you manage to arrange this from China, do you have any contact in Sheffield who could help you with this?  Can you be confident that people will be willing to take part in Skype interviews? You have to answer these questions before I would be confident that this research is viable.

If you are not intending to interview managers of facilities, then who are you going to interview?

An alternative, (and in my opinion) better solution would be to abandon the idea of studying service quality in Sheffield and focus on China using the SERVQUAL method and conducting gap analysis on your data.  I think that conducting research in Sheffield whilst living in China will be difficult.#p#分页标题#e#

Plan of Work:

Plan to complete this project in two months.This is a very short space of time, given the need to conduct an extensive literature review, design and implement an appropriate methodology and then write up your results.

The work will be divided into two parts, the preliminary work is collecting data and researching, the latter part of the work will be carried out on the basis of the pre-summarized. Specific time allocated depending on the completion of the progress of allocation.You really need a much more detailed project plan which identifies key tasks, subtasks and activities and which allocates an accurate, realistic estimate of time required to complete each of the tasks/subtasks.  Only by doing this will you be able to identify the overall time required and be able to monitor your progress throughout the project: I would urge you to complete a more detailed project plan if for no other reason than this.工作将分为两个部分，初步的工作是收集资料和研究，对后期工作将根据预先进行了总结。具体时间取决于分配的进度完成。你真的需要一个更详细的项目计划，确定关键任务，子任务和活动和分配一个准确的，需要完成每个任务/子任务的时间现实的估计。只有这样，你才能确定所需的总时间，能够在整个项目监测你的进展：我劝您完成一个更详细的项目计划，如果没有其他原因

References:

Alexandris, K. et al. (2004) An empirical investigation of the relationships among service quality, customersatisfaction and psychological commitment in a health club context, European Sport Management Quarterly, 4, pp. 36–52.

Caruana, A. et al. (2000) Assessment of the three-column format SERVQUAL: an experimental approach,Journal of Business Research, 49, pp. 57–65.

Chelladurai, P. & Chang, K. (2000) Targets and standards of quality in sport services, Sport Management Review,3, pp. 1–22.

Chelladurai, P. et al. (1987) Dimensions of fitness services: development of a model, Journal of Sport Management, 1, pp. 159–172.

Gro¨nroos, C. (1988) Service quality: the six criteria of good perceived service quality, Review of Business,9, pp. 10–13.

Hartshorn, C. S. (1990) Service quality as perceived by public, private and voluntary sector managers of theleisure fitness industry (A dissertation for the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctorof Philosophy presented to the Faculty of Recreation of Indiana University.)

Howat, G. et al. (1996) Measuring customer service quality in sports and leisure centres, Managing Leisure, 1, pp. 77–89.

Kim, D. & Kim, S. Y. (1995) QUESC: An instrument for assessing the service quality of sport centers in Korea,Journal of Sport Management, 9, pp. 208–220.#p#分页标题#e#

Lam, E. T. C. (2000) Service quality assessment scale: an instrument for evaluating service quality of www.ukthesis.org healthfitness clubs (A dissertation for the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophypresented to the Faculty of the College of Education, University of Houston.)

Lehtinen, U. &Lehtinen, J. R. (1991) Two approaches and service quality dimensions, The Service Industry Journal, 11, pp. 287–303.

Mawson, M. L. (1993) Total quality management: perspectives for sport managers, Journal of Sport Management, 7(2), pp. 101–106.

Papadimitriou, D. A. &Karteliotis, K. (2000) The service quality expectations in private sport and fitness centers:a re-examination of the factor structure, Sport Marketing Quarterly, 9(3), pp. 158–164.

Parasuraman, A. et al. (1985) A conceptual model of service quality and its implication for future research, Journal of Marketing, 49(April), pp. 41–50.

Parasuraman, A. et al. (1988) SERVQUAL: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality, Journal of Retailing, 64(Spring), pp. 12–40.

Rintjema, J. M. (1998) An evaluation of service quality at a private fitness club (A report submitted in partialfulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Sports and Recreation Administration tothe Graduate Academic Unit of Kinesiology of the University on New Brunswick.)

Zeithaml, V. A. &Bitner, M. J. (2003) Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Zeithaml, V. A. et al. (1990) Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations. New York: Free Press.

Zeithaml, V. A. et al. (1996) The behavioural consequences of service quality, Journal of Marketing, 60(April), pp. 31–46.

To be completed by supervisor when marking:

Is this project based on ‘major’ or ‘minor’ procedures? (please circle as appropriate) MAJOR MINOR UNSURE (to be discussed with student further)

If your supervisor has selected ‘major’, then you must complete ethics documentation for consideration by the Sport Department’s Ethics Committee. Consult your supervisor for guidance.