Sports federations are non-profit organizations that compete for members and resources. These organizations are obliged to cooperate on the environment, nature conservation, and sustainability together with other public bodies. Given this situation and the necessity to differentiate themselves from commercial sports providers, it is essential for sports federations to create loyalty. The objective of this article is to provide an in-depth study of the variables that explain federation members’ loyalty, which is the best tool for federations to meet their sustainable and non-profit objectives. Having made an exhaustive review of the literature on loyalty, an empirical study is made of the loyalty antecedents (service quality, satisfaction, trust, and commitment), using a questionnaire of members of all of Spain’s karate federations. This empirical study has led to a model of structural equations that gives a perfect explanation of loyalty based on the relationships between the various variables, starting with service quality and considering the other variables to be mediating variables between service quality and loyalty. Furthermore, the findings show that service quality is the best option for improving member loyalty through some of the mediators proposed.

Purpose: The study of citizens' perceptions of the performance of public services and their relationship with the taxes allocated to them is of great interest in the context of public and fiscal management and the welfare state. This study has a twofold objective in defining a structural equation modeling (SEM) model: on the one hand, to measure the relationship between the perception of the performance of public services and the taxes allocated to them and on the other hand, to study the reflection of the perception of the performance of public services on the happiness and satisfaction of citizens.Design/methodology/approach: To achieve this objective, a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out based on data from the “Public opinion and fiscal policy, 2022” questionnaire of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) through a survey with a sample of 2,543 citizens representative of the Spanish population. The partial least squares (PLS) method was applied to test the following hypotheses.Findings: The result of this research allows us to know which variables in relation to citizens' perception of the functioning of public services have a positive influence on use of taxes and on citizens' happiness and satisfaction.Originality/value: One of the novelties of this study is to analyse the effect of consumer perception on the performance of public services from the perspective of the welfare state by improving citizens' happiness and satisfaction.

Purpose: The main aim of this work is to design a model in which service quality receives satisfaction and trust and they have influence on happiness and loyalty.Design/methodology/approach: A SEM-PLS model is designed to explain the happiness of athletes. This is tested through a survey of Spanish karate federates. The sample proposes 693 responses are collected.Findings: The results indicate that service quality has a strong positive influence on satisfaction and trust, and it has an indirect influence on happiness and loyalty of the Spanish karate federates.Research limitations/implications: This article contributes to the literature increasing the knowledge of the variables that have positive influence, as antecedents of happiness and loyalty in karate federations.Practical implications: The results of this study can help the decision-making of the governing boards of sports federations so they will be more aware of the strategies that promote the happiness and loyalty of the athlete.Originality/value: One of the original contributions of this work is that the model shows the loyalty, happiness, trust and satisfaction as a result of quality services.

La relación entre el deporte y la felicidad es un hecho probado en multitud de ocasiones, el ejercicio físico aporta al deportista diversas sensaciones positivas todas ellas muy relacionadas con el término felicidad. Por tanto, partiendo del hecho de que la práctica deportiva produce felicidad, el objetivo de este estudio es de averiguar qué variables influyen principalmente en la felicidad del deportista. Y en concreto del deportista federado. Una de las novedades de este estudio es que los resultados podrían ayudar a los miembros de las juntas directivas de las federaciones a tomar buenas decisiones y poder contribuir en mayor forma a la felicidad del federado. Las principales variables que encontramos en la literatura que influyen positivamente en la felicidad son la calidad percibida y la satisfacción, a su vez encontramos estudios que confirman la influencia de la confianza y las relaciones sociales sobre la felicidad. El estudio empírico se ha realizado a través de datos primarios mediante encuesta sobre una muestra de 601 individuos federados en las distintas federaciones autonómicas de España, concretamente en la modalidad deportiva de kárate. Los resultados obtenidos confirman todas las hipótesis planteadas en este estudio por lo que como indicaba la literatura revisada las cuatro variables analizadas (la calidad percibida, la satisfacción, la confianza y las relaciones sociales) influyen de forma significativa y positivamente en la felicidad.

Purpose: The main objective of the present work is first to analyze the causes of the scarce variation in the number of sports licenses in the last 10 years and consequently contribute strategies to attract and retain the affiliated member. One of the novelties of this work is that the main variables that affect consumer happiness are analyzed. Thus, organizations can correctly manage these variables in order to make their members happier. Happier people are more likely to continue in the federation and attract new members. Design/methodology: Firstly, an exploratory study was carried out with a review of the information, followed by a correlational study with primary information through a survey. For this, the variables that influence athletes´ happiness are analyzed, obtaining a sample of 601 affiliated athletes. The fieldwork was carried out in the various autonomous karate federations in Spain. Research limitations/implications: One of the main limitations is that this research has been carried out on a specific sport discipline, karate. So in future lines of research you can extrapolate to other federations that generate new perspectives. Originality/value: One of the main objectives sports federations have is the promotion and dissemination of sport in society. However, the real situation is that the number of federated athletes has increased scarcely in recent years. As a result of this situation, this study aims to contribute to explaining to the managers of sports federations how they can develop more creative and effective communication campaigns in hope of obtaining loyal consumers along with a more considerable increase in members.