Relationships between golf range users ’ participation motivation , satisfaction , and exercise adherence intention

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the relationship between participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention of golf range users on the basis of self-determination theory. Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, the authors proposed research questions and a conceptual research model as well. Then, the authors surveyed users of golf ranges located in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi-do province. Findings – By applying convenience sampling, the authors received a total of 313 questionnaires. Results were as follows. First, among the participation motivation sub-factors, health-oriented motivation, achievement motivation, pleasure-oriented motivation and self-displayed motivation had a significant effect on emotional satisfaction, while achievement motivation and pleasure-orientation motivation had a significant effect on performance satisfaction. Second, the following participation motivation factors had a significant effect on exercise adherence intention: health-orientation motivation, achievement motivation and pleasure-orientation motivation. Third, among the satisfaction factors, emotional satisfaction and performance satisfaction both had a significant effect on exercise adherence intention. Originality/value – This is one of the first papers to examine the relationships that exist between golf range users’ participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention.


Introduction
Golf has become increasingly popular for people of all ages and skill levels.According to Seo (2013), there are more than 460 million golfers, the largest for a single event sport, around the world.Golf not only provides a means of sports and recreation but also can be a method of improving fitness and balance, especially for the old (Tsang and Hui-Chan, 2004).In the past, golf was an aristocratic sport.The costs to learn and enjoy golf were exorbitantly high to even be considered by people with an average household income.Now, however, golf has entered a period where it can be enjoyed by men and women of all ages.With drastic price bubble bursts for golf supplies, the increase in public golf courses that are more affordable than regular country clubs and the prevalence of golf driving ranges that can easily be enjoyed in urban areas, golf has fully become a leisure sport familiar to the general public.As a result, the question of why people participate in golf sports and whether they adhere to them has emerged as a research topic of interest.
Previous researches about golf exercise mainly focus on how to improve golf performance (Burden et al., 1998;Doan et al., 2006;Watanabe et al., 1998).These researches have elucidated that golf performance is influenced by golf club and swing mechanism.Several studies have investigated the effect of golf training programs, based primarily on golf theory and anecdote, and used general conditioning exercises (Doan et al., 2006;Fradkin et al., 2004;Thompson and Osness, 2004).Though these researches identify several key factors for improving golf performance, they underscore the importance of motivation in sport.
The act of participating in sports as a leisure activity and adhering to them depends on the individual's personal choices, and among them, motivation is recognized as the most fundamental area that determines sports participation (Park et al., 2010).Motivation refers to an inner driving force that causes behavior toward a certain goal (Park and Moon, 2007), and it is especially pronounced in the leisure sector, as it not only helps to understand and analyze why people participate in sports activities in their desired manner but also aids in understanding the results of sports participation (Manfredo and Driver, 1996;Park et al., 2010).
For this reason, there have been studies across a relatively wide variety of sports areas, such as swimming, skiing, yachting, triathlon, track, dance, etc., to identify the relationship between satisfaction and exercise adherence intention through the motivation for, and participation in, particular sports situations (Bu and Yang, 2005;Cho and Ji, 2013;Cho and Kim, 2010;Jeon et al., 2014;Jung and An, 2012;Kim and Ro, 2012); not only have these studies revealed that participation motivation is the reason for participating in sports but also it has a close relationship with satisfaction and exercise adherence intention (Park et al., 2010).
However, unlike other sports fields, there is not yet any research that takes an integrated view of the relationship between golf participants' participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention; thus, there is a need for analysis in this area.In particular, the need is Golf range users' participation motivation further emphasized, as the golf industry comprises the largest percentage of industrial relations as a single event in the sports sector, and if golf demand decreases, it could lead to decreases in consumption, a large part of the capital market, not to mention in the industry itself.

Research questions
The present study attempts to elaborate upon some hypothesized relationships in a golf range user's behavior context.Based on self-determination theory (SDT), this study aims to identify the relationship between participation motivation and satisfaction of golf range users and investigate the factors that lead to participation satisfaction and foster motivation in golf sports for continuing exercise.Golf range users were selected as research subjects because the golf driving range is the starting point of the golf market and the golf driving range business is obviously closely related to the golf course business.Furthermore, this study aims to enable the people who enjoy golf to use golf driving ranges more frequently and to provide the data required for effective management and market strategy development of the golf industry.
To achieve the study objectives, we established the following research questions: RQ1.Is there a relationship between participation motivation and satisfaction in golf range users?
RQ2.Is there a relationship between participation motivation and exercise adherence intention?
RQ3.Is there a relationship between satisfaction and exercise adherence intention?
Self-determination theory: a brief overview Self-determination theory SDT is a theory about personality development and self-motivated behavior change.
Fundamental to the theory is the principle that human beings have an innate organizational tendency toward growth, integration of the self and the resolution of psychological inconsistency (Ryan, 1995;Ryan and Deci, 2000), and this theory has been applied successfully to education and sport.SDT has shown the important role of different types of motivation factors in inducing various cognitive, behavioral and affective outcomes (Ryan and Deci, 1991;Frederick and Ryan, 1995).These researchers argue that human behavior can be broadly categorized as intrinsically motivated, extrinsically motivated or amotivated.First, intrinsic motivated behaviors can occur without external rewards and are undertaken out of interest in the activity itself rather than the outcomes of the activity (Ryan and Deci, 1991).Second, extrinsically motivated behaviors can be found when the activity is carried out as a means to an end and not for its own sake.Finally, amotivation, which refers to the situation where individuals perceive no contingencies between outcomes and their action, is evident when people are neither intrinsically nor extrinsically motivated (Vallerand et al., 1992).The current SDT has evolved from early research on the factors shaping intrinsic motivation (Deci, 1971) into different types of motivated behaviors which can be ordered along a self-determination continuum.There are seven types of self-determination from lower to higher levels: amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation and intrinsic motivation.Vallerand (1997) proposed a comprehensive model of motivation which argues that different motivational types are exerted through the satisfaction of certain psychological needs.Based on the proposed model and previous motivation literature in sport, this research integrates several intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, namely, health-oriented motivation (HOM), achievement motivation (AM), pleasure-oriented motivation (POM), selfdisplayed motivation (SDM) and relationship building motivation (RBM), and proposes the role of integrated participation motivations (Figure 1).

Research target
In this study, the authors selected users of golf ranges located in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi-do province as the research subjects.Data collection was carried out by explaining the purpose and effects of preliminary research to the responsible personnel via phone and email and by collecting data directly by visiting golf driving ranges over a span of two months after receiving approval for data collection.For sample selection, the authors collected a total of 320 questionnaires by applying a non-probability sampling method of convenience sampling.Of the collected questionnaires, the authors excluded 17 that were determined to be unreliable or to have spoiled (blank or double) responses, and 313 questionnaires were used for the actual analysis.The general characteristics of the participants in this study are shown in Table I.

Research tools
The authors used a questionnaire as the research tool for achieving the objectives of this study, and they modified and supplemented the tools that have already been used to test the reliability and validity of questionnaires in previous studies.The self-report questionnaires consisted chiefly of four categories: participation motivation, satisfaction, exercise adherence intention and general characteristics.
For participation motivation, the authors modified and supplemented questions used in Gill et al. (1983)'s study and participation motivation questions used in Kim (2005)'s study to fit the nature of this study and developed a total of 18 questions: HOM (six questions; improving physical strength, weight control, maintaining body balance, body care, alleviation of stress and emotional stability), AM (four questions; improving golf ability, acquiring new golf skill, self-fulfillment and acquiring honors), POM (four questions; fun, delight, happiness and vitality of living), SDM (two questions; self-expression and self-display) and RBM (two questions; promoting friendship and social interaction).For satisfaction, the authors modified and complemented questions used in Beard and Ragheb's (1980) study to fit the nature of this study and developed a total of six questions: emotional satisfaction (two questions) and performance satisfaction (four questions).Exercise adherence intention consisted of three questions regarding possibility of exercise adherence", "likeliness to continue exercising" and "will to adhere to exercise" based on the questions used in Yoo and Ryu's (2010) study.General characteristics of the participants consisted of five questions regarding gender, age, golfing history, driving range usage frequency and golf practice time.In the questionnaire, questions regarding participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention were measured on a five-point Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).The details of the questionnaire configuration are shown in Table II.Validity and reliability of the questionnaire In this study, factor analysis was conducted to verify the construct validity of the questionnaire.Factor analysis was performed using a principle component analysis and was analyzed using the orthogonal rotation method of varimax rotation.Factors were extracted based on a minimum eigenvalue of 1.0 and only questions with factor loadings greater than 0.60 were selected.Moreover, the reliability of each factor was verified using Cronbach's a coefficients, which assess the internal consistency of the questions.
Table III shows the results of the factor and reliability analysis for participation motivation.The factor analysis results show that with a total variance of 71.422 per cent, participation motivation consists of five sub-factors: health-oriented, achievement, pleasureoriented, self-display and relationship building, and the reliability coefficients of participation motivation were satisfactory (0.701-0.876).
Table IV shows the factor and reliability analysis results for satisfaction.According to the factor analysis results, satisfaction consists of two sub-factors, emotional satisfaction and performance satisfaction, with a total variance of 72.248 per cent.The reliability coefficients for satisfaction were relatively satisfactory (0.789-0.836).
Table V shows the factor and reliability analysis results for exercise adherence intention.The factor analysis results show that one factor was extracted with a total variance of 67.185 per cent.The reliability coefficient for exercise adherence intention was 0.751.

Data analysis
Of the completed questionnaires, the authors excluded those deemed to have spoiled responses or low reliability, coded the remaining questionnaires with reliable data and used the following procedure using the statistical program SPSS Win ver.18.0: a frequency analysis was performed to examine the general characteristics of the participants; a factor and reliability analysis was performed to test the reliability and validity of the research tools; and a correlation analysis and a multiple regression analysis were performed to examine the relationship between participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention.

Impact of participation motivation on emotional satisfaction
Table VII shows the results of the multiple regression analysis performed to identify the impact of golf range users' participation motivation on emotional satisfaction.According to the results, among the sub-factors of participation motivation, HOM, AM, POM and SDM were shown to have a significant effect on emotional satisfaction at the p < 0.05 level.However, RBM did not affect emotional satisfaction.The relative influence of participation motivation on emotional satisfaction was as follows: AM (b = 0.447), HOM (b = 0.171), POM (b = 0.155) and SDM (b = 0.098).Meanwhile, the explanatory power for the impact of participation motivation on emotional satisfaction was 55.1 per cent (R 2 = 0.551).

Impact of participation motivation on performance satisfaction
Table VIII shows the results of the multiple regression analysis performed to identify the impact of golf range users' participation motivation on performance satisfaction.According to the results, among the participation motivation sub-factors, AM and POM had a significant impact on performance satisfaction at the p < 0.05 level.However, HOM, SDM and RBM did not affect performance satisfaction.The relative influence of participation motivation on performance satisfaction was as follows: POM (b = 0.298) and AM (b = 0.203).Meanwhile, the explanatory power for the impact of participation motivation on emotional satisfaction was 16.4 per cent (R 2 = 0.164).comfortable athletic facilities of the driving range, sense of accomplishment, relief of stress following exercise, etc., have a positive impact on exercise adherence.However, SDM and RBM with an objective other than relationships based on friendship did not affect exercise adherence intention.Therefore, to enhance the satisfaction and exercise adherence intention of golf range users, means to induce HOM, AM and POM which should be actively sought.

Study limitations and future research suggestions
Based on the issues encountered during the implementation process of this study, study limitations and suggestions for future research directions are as follows: Major limitation pertains to the study context.As data were collected with a limited sample of golf range users in Seoul Metropolitan City and Gyeonggi-do province, it is difficult to completely rule out the possibility that the findings indicate characteristics unique to these groups.Thus, taking into consideration these potential limitations, subsequent empirical research should cover additional sport fields and countries to enhance the possibility of generalizing this study's findings.This study did not consider differences according to the general characteristics of the golf range users such as gender, age, golfing history, golf driving range usage frequency, golf practice time, etc. Therefore, follow-up studies need to analyze the differences in participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention according to the socio-demographic, psychological and behavioral characteristics of the golf range users.While this study only used a quantitative research method of using a questionnaire as the research tool to identify the relationships between golf range users' participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention, follow-up studies should conduct an in-depth analysis of the relationships between golf range users' participation motivation, satisfaction and exercise adherence intention through qualitative research methods using in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc.
Figure 1.Proposed research model