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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of member identity and its dimensions of power, urgency, external legitimacy, internal legitimacy and interest, on satisfaction and behavioural intentions in fitness centres.

Two studies were designed. In Study 1, data were collected from fitness centre members (n = 225) and structural equation modelling used to examine the dimensions of fitness centre member identity and its subsequent effect on satisfaction and behavioural intentions. In Study 2, interviews exploring member identity were conducted with members (n = 9) and managers (n = 7) and a content analysis contrasted their perceptions of power, urgency, internal legitimacy, external legitimacy and interest.

The results of Study 1 support the multidimensional construct of member identity and its positive influence on both satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Satisfaction mediated the relationship between member identity and behavioural intentions. In Study 2, managers and members expressed similar perceptions of the member identity dimensions: low power; urgency is issue-dependent; external legitimacy is recognized; members are perceived as legitimate; and most members exhibit high interest in their membership.

This study provides a deeper understanding of how member identity contributes to long-term relationships between members and fitness centres. It extends the body of consumer behaviour literature in the context of fitness centres.

This study aims to analyze the precursors of high and low intrapreneurial intentions among fitness center employees, considering various variables (gender, age, organization size and job satisfaction).

The study involved 166 fitness center employees of the Portuguese fitness center. The study used a two-part questionnaire to gather sociodemographic data and assess variables related to intrapreneurial intentions and job satisfaction among fitness employees. The first part collected basic demographic information, while the second used validated scales to measure intrapreneurial intentions (innovation and risk-taking) and job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic).

This study underscores intrapreneurship as key for the evolving global fitness sector, highlighting job satisfaction as critical for fostering intrapreneurial intentions. Age, organizational size and gender diversity are also significant, suggesting that fostering a diverse and satisfied workforce under transformational leadership can enhance fitness organizations’ adaptability and growth.

This research supports the growth of the fitness sector by demonstrating how intrapreneurship, propelled by job satisfaction, can resolve challenges, benefiting fitness centers regardless of size, age or gender diversity.

The study highlights the vital role of intrapreneurs in the fitness industry, advocating a nongender-biased approach to intrapreneurship and identifying job satisfaction as key to fostering intrapreneurial intentions, beneficial for all fitness centers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the intention of using fitness app made available by the fitness centre to its members and their relationship with overall customer satisfaction.

The present study uses the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) as the base model. All the hypothesised relationships were tested through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), in a quantitative study with data from 1,676 fitness consumers from Portugal.

The results support the ability of UTAUT2 in predicting the customer´s intention to use the fitness app. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and habit have a positive impact on behavioural intentions to use the fitness app. Performance expectancy and habit have the strongest relationships. Behavioural intentions are positively related both to the usage behaviour of the fitness app and to overall customer satisfaction.

The results of this study present a strong contribution for fitness centre managers, since it highlights the importance of using these apps as a way to increase customer satisfaction, increasing retention levels.

This study is paramount as regards to examine the behavioural intention to use the fitness apps that the fitness centres make available to their members using UTAUT2 model.

This study aims to explore the impact of athlete brand image on fans’ social media engagement, purchase intentions, and also examines the mediating role of emotional attachment on these relationships, as well as the moderating role of perceived price value between emotional attachment and purchase intentions.

The data are based on an online survey conducted in China (N = 572). The PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation model) and regression-based estimation method (PROCESS) are employed to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate a positive relationship between athletes’ athletic performance and fans’ social media engagement as well as purchase intentions. The impact of athletes’ attractive appearance and marketable lifestyle on fans’ purchase intentions is sequentially mediated by emotional attachment and social media engagement. Moreover, the mediation effect of athletes’ off-field image and purchase intentions is contingent upon fans’ perceived price value.

Athletes and marketers could integrate and leverage both the on-field and off-field attributes to cultivate emotional connections with fans. Sports organizations and managers need to pay attention to fans’ social media engagement and provide content that increases engagement and converts into transactional behavioural intentions.

The study provides empirical evidence of the mediating role of emotional attachment between athlete brand image and fans’ purchase intentions. The explanatory mechanisms involving emotional attachment and social media engagement (non-transactional behavioural intentions) are anticipated to be a noteworthy addition to the traditional fan transactional behavioural intentions framework. Moreover, the research introduces and confirms perceived price value as a crucial moderating factor influencing the relationship between emotional attachment and purchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the strategies that private fitness centres implement and to evaluate their impact on financial performance.

Based upon a sample of 151 private fitness centres in Portugal, multivariate statistics report the implemented strategies and their effect on financial performance. We applied exploratory factorial analysis as our methodology to identify the types of strategy and the ANOVA in order to verify if there are differences of financial performance in the strategies.

The results obtained demonstrate how private fitness centres implement different strategies, including: cost leadership, differentiation, focus, quality of service, combined and stuck in the middle approaches. The relationship between strategies and financial performance, private fitness centres adopting a cost leadership strategy obtain the best financial performance levels in terms of the sales variable relative to any other strategy but with the combined strategy returning a better performance in terms of the return on assets when compared with the cost leadership strategy.

The originality of this paper stems from its identification of the strategies implemented by private fitness centres, thus, just what type of strategies are in effect across the fitness industry: leadership through cost, differentiation or a focused strategy. However, in addition to ascertaining just which strategies undergo implementation, it is also pertinent in determining just which strategy drives the best financial performance for private fitness centres given that private centres may only remain in the market when achieving financial sustainability. Therefore, this paper seeks to provide information for managers as regards the strategies implemented and their impacts on the financial performance of private fitness centres.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of process and outcome quality on fitness members’ delight and satisfaction. Furthermore, the relationships between delight, satisfaction and behavioural intention are investigated.

Data were obtained from a survey of 379 members of fitness centres in Malaysia and analysed using the partial least squares technique.

The results indicated that process quality and outcome quality had a significant effect on customer delight and satisfaction. Furthermore, customer delight influenced customers’ satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

The findings of this study will help fitness centre managers to understand the importance of outcome quality and delight in addition to process quality and satisfaction in shaping the members’ behavioural intentions, thereby allowing them to differentiate their service from their customers.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the importance of outcome quality and customer delight in the fitness industry.