Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine foreign participants’ service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention during the 2016 Shanghai International Marathon, and to gain a better understanding of the impact of service quality on their satisfaction and behavioral intention.Design/methodology/approach: An English questionnaire was originally designed on the basis of the literature review of service quality, overall satisfaction and re-participation intention to assess the purpose of the study. Data were collected from 308 foreign runners including 61.7 percent (n=190) of male and 38.3 percent (n=118) of the female. Structural equation modeling was employed to check the proposed model and to test the impact of service quality on foreign participants’ overall satisfaction and behavioral intention.Findings: A positive correlation was captured between the following: service quality and overall satisfaction (r=0.752,p<0.01), overall satisfaction and behavioral intention (r=0.876,p<0.01), and between service quality and participants’ behavioral intention (r=0.760,p<0.01). Furthermore, the service quality of Shanghai International Marathon had an indirect effect on foreign participants’ behavioral intention. The structural model fits the data well (R²=0.823).Research limitations/implications: First, the sample size was small and was just drawn from one event, which can be taken with caution in the context of the generalization of findings. Second, the results are specific to 2016 Shanghai International Marathon participants and cannot be generalized with other events in China or around the world.Practical implications: The results are practical for the marathon event organizers to better understand foreign participants’ needs and improve their services. This study has a significant importance to the sports events organizers, especially the organizers of the Shanghai International Marathon in terms of a better understanding the level of their service. This study will also help the event organizers to adapt their strategies and their efforts to increase Shanghai International Marathon foreign participants’ satisfaction and intention to repurchase or to share with others.Social implications: This study contributes to the foreign participant’s satisfaction literature. In fact, many studies were carried on event spectators’ satisfaction while rare studies were carried on event participants’ satisfaction, especially marathon foreign participants’ satisfaction, and this study will supplement studies related to sport events participation. This will be convenient for sports managers and scholars to better understand the impact of service quality on participants’ satisfaction and behavioral intention in the field of sports events management. Meanwhile, the results were extremely useful to Shanghai during the process of constructing a “world-famous sports city” and “modern international metropolis”.Originality/value: Little literature focus on foreign participants of Shanghai International Marathon, which is important in the process of shaping city image and building world-famous city. Are foreign participants satisfied with the Shanghai International Marathon? Which aspect of the service quality is of greater value for them? What are the influencing factors of their behavioral intention and word-of-mouth communication? What are the specific impact paths among the service quality, overall satisfaction and behavioral intention variables? To examine the objectives, the study was designed to target foreign participants’ service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention. Besides, structural equation model was applied in this study to explore the path relationship between service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention specifically.

The technical and tactical diagnosis of table tennis is extremely important in the preparation for competition which is complicated by an apparent nonlinear relationship between athletes’ performance and their sports quality. The neural network model provides a high nonlinear dynamic processing ability and fitting accuracy that may assist in the diagnosis of table tennis players’ technical and tactical skill. The main purpose of this study was to establish a technical and tactical diagnosis model of table tennis matches based on a neural network to analyze the influence of athletes’ techniques and tactics on the competition results. A three-layer Back Propagation (BP) neural network model for table tennis match diagnosis were established. A Double Three-Phase evaluation method produced 30 indices that were closely related to winning table tennis matches. A data sample of 100 table tennis matches was used to establish the diagnostic model (n = 70) and evaluate the predictive ability of the model (n = 30). The technical and tactical diagnosis model of table tennis matches based on BP neural network had a high-level of prediction accuracy (up to 99.997%) and highly efficient in fitting (R² = 0.99). Specifically, the technical and tactical diagnosis results indicated that the scoring rate of the fourth stroke of Harimoto had the greatest influence on the winning probability. The technical and tactical diagnosis model of table tennis matches based on BP neural network was highly accurate and efficiently fit. It appears that the use of the model can calculate athletes’ technical and tactical indices and their influence on the probability of winning table tennis matches. This, in turn, can provide a valuable tool for formulating player’s targeted training plans.

Participating in regular physical activity contributes to significant improvements of quality of life (QOL) in adults. Understanding psychosocial factors that influence physical activity and QOL in working adults may have important implications for future interventions aimed at improving their health. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial predictors of physical activity and QOL among Shanghai working adults. Participants were 238 working adults (M age = 51.6 ± 5.6) living in Shanghai communities, China. They completed previously validated questionnaires assessing their perceptions of stress, social support from friends, self-efficacy, physical activity, and QOL. Pearson correlations were computed to assess the associations among physical activity, QOL, and psychosocial variables. Path analysis was used to test the predictive strengths of psychosocial factors on physical activity and QOL among Shanghai working adults. The results indicated that stress had directly negative relationships on self-efficacy and QOL. Social support had directly positive relationships on self-efficacy, physical activity, and QOL. Physical activity had directly positive relationship on QOL. Self-efficacy and physical activity mediated the influences of stress and social support on QOL. Stress and social support from friends were two important sources of self-efficacy, all of which facilitated more physical activity participation. Lower stress, higher social support, and more physical activity may directly increase QOL among Shanghai working adults. The mediating roles of self-efficacy and physical activity should be taken into account in managing stress and social support in order to promote QOL among Shanghai working adults.

This study aimed to explore the differences in joint kinematic characteristics and stroke effect between fast and slow strokes of table tennis players. Thirty-four table tennis players were randomly selected as participants for this experiment. A high-speed infrared motion capture system was used to collect kinematic data of the right-side upper and lower limb joints during strokes. Simultaneously, a high-speed camera was used to measure the stroke effect. According to the duration of a stroke, the stroke data were classified into two types: fast-stroke and slow-stroke using a two-step clustering algorithm. The duration of the three phases of fast-stroke was shorter, with faster ball speed and stronger spin. Compared with slow-stroke, fast-stroke exhibited shorter displacements in the three lower limb joints and faster linear velocities in the three upper limb joints. In addition, the motion angles of the knee and ankle joints were smaller, while the angles of the hip, shoulder, and elbow joints were larger, with higher angular velocities. Increasing the extension speed of the lower limbs, the flexion speed of the elbow joints, and the wrist movement speed can achieve fast strokes, enhancing ball speed and spin. Small and quick hip joint movement can effectively transfer energy to the upper limbs, increasing the movement speed of the elbow and wrist joints, thus improving the ball speed and spin of the stroke.

Working women in Shanghai are a high-risk group of suffering work stress and burnout. Women have been found to be affected by work-family conflicts, which results in lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL), higher job stress, and burnout. This study evaluated the potential physical activity and counselling intervention effects on health outcomes of working women in Shanghai. Participants were randomly recruited from eight communities of Shanghai using the stratified cluster sampling method. A total of 121 female workers took part in this study, who were randomly divided into three groups: a control group and two intervention groups (individual-based and group-based intervention). The first intervention involved a moderate physical activity program and an individual based counselling intervention, while the second included the same physical activity program, but with a group counselling approach. Both interventions lasted 12 weeks. Subjective perceptions of work stress, burnout, and HRQoL were measured before and after the intervention. In the control group, the HRQoL value decreased after the intervention, with the mean value falling from 91.59 to 87.10, while there was no significant difference found between participants for stress (p = 0.752) and burnout (p = 0.622) before and after the intervention. After the intervention, the value of stress and burnout decreased, and the value of HRQoL increased in the two intervention groups. At the intervention’s completion, there were significant differences compared between the two intervention groups and the control group separately regarding changes in burnout and HRQoL (all p = 0.000). For stress, the group-based intervention group exhibited a significant difference compared to the control group (p = 0.000), while the individual-based intervention group did not (p = 0.128). A Physical activity and counselling intervention delivered either in a group or individual format could reduce stress, burnout, and improve HRQoL of working women in Shanghai, and the group interventions were potentially more effective than those targeted at individuals.

The research explored the impacts of diverse leadership styles on employee performance in Ethiopian sports organizations. It specifically examined the mediating effects of job satisfaction and the moderating impact of education level. In this study a cross-sectional survey design was employed, with 463 participants from various sports organizations. Validated scales were used for the data collection of leadership styles, job satisfaction, and employee performance. The analysis of the data was conducted using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling with software SPSS and Smart PLS4. The findings indicated that the perceived transformational leadership approach showed the strongest positive correlation with job satisfaction and employee performance, followed by the transactional leadership approach. In contrast, the laissez-faire leadership interaction with both employee job satisfaction and performance was demonstrated negatively. Job satisfaction was partially mediated in the relation between all three leadership styles and employee performance. Moreover, education level moderated the interaction between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. Drawing upon these findings, recommendations were provided for Ethiopian sports organizations to improve leadership styles and enhance employee performance, with a focus on understanding the mediating effect of job satisfaction and moderating effect of education level.