Citation/Abstract

The general purpose of this study was to determine students, staff, and volunteers attitudes towards sports sponsorship at Srinakharinwirot University in Thailand. The subjects for this study consisted of 523 students from thirteen academic programs at Srinakharinwirot University (SWU), 8 staff and 34 volunteers of Sirindhorn Sports Center (SSC) at SWU. In selecting the subjects for this study, the researcher used a convenience sampling of students from 13 academic programs at SWU and all staff and volunteers at SSC of SWU. A questionnaire was designed and used for data collection. After the data was collected, it was entered into the SPSS program for computation. Several statistical procedures were utilized to accomplish the purposes of this study. First, descriptive statistics (the frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation) were calculated to present the basic demographic and attitudes towards sports sponsorship. Secondly, a Chi square analysis sought to determine if attitudes were affected by gender, and one way ANOVA analysis was carried out to compare sports sponsorship attitudes between students, staff, and volunteers. In case there were differences among the subjects, Least-Significant Difference (LSD) was used to contrast them in pairs.

The analysis of the results indicated that the students, staff, and volunteers of Srinakharinwirot University perceived current sponsorship as positive and considered sports sponsorship a necessity. They were generally more in favor of sports sponsorship, than against it. However, the level of neutral responses (nearly a quarter) suggests that many of them are still not sure how they feel about sports sponsorship. Moreover, attitudes towards sports sponsorship were not affected by gender, but there were differences in attitudes toward sports sponsorship between students, staff, and volunteers. Finally, the researcher hopes that the various findings of the research may be used to help influence other similar studies, and perhaps be used in other sports associations as a means of assessing the need for sports sponsorship.