Background/Purpose Despite the growth of the martial arts industry, many small martial arts clubs have faced various financial challenges. In order to be competitive within the industry, it is crucial to understand the service environment at the club level. Although research on service quality has received considerable attention in various industries, no study has conducted to investigate consumers' perceived service quality and their repurchase intentions of club memberships. The purpose of this study was to investigate martial arts club members' perception of service quality and their intentions to repurchase memberships.
Method Participants for this study were 290 martial arts club members from a metropolitan area of the United States. The data collection instrument for this study was survey, which consists of 33 questions adopted from several service quality measurement scales. Through a factor analysis of Varimax rotation, five service factors have emerged: staff, facilities, fees, location, and martial arts programs. The reliability of each factor was ranged from .80 to .86.
Analysis/Results Multiple regression analyses indicated that the quality of staff, facilities, and membership fees played major roles in the consumers' intentions to repurchase club memberships. The findings can provide several recommendations for owners and marketers of martial arts clubs.
Conclusions First, owners and marketers of martial arts clubs should consistently train and educate the staff to provide courtesy and quality instructions to members. Second, owners and marketers should regularly inspect and improve the quality of the facilities such as cleanliness and safety. Lastly, owners and marketers should provide reasonable and flexible fee programs.
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