Re-enchanting the Chinese Sport Spectator - A Postmodern perspective on Sport Marketing in China

The cultural and philosophical heritage of modernism underpinning general marketing management theory imparts profound implications for organisations operating in professional sport. This theoretical paper uses the context of China’s professional football industry to argue that marketing may benefit from a more postmodern approach to marketing management

Liberating the modern Chinese football fan: a theoretical perspective

The cultural and philosophical heritage of modernism underpinning general marketing management theory imparts profound implications for organisations operating in professional sport. This theoretical paper uses the context of China’s professional football industry to argue that marketing may benefit from a more postmodern approach to marketing management

Redefining B2B Relationship Marketing: Insight from postmodern Alibaba

The cultural and philosophical movement of modernism has defined contemporary marketing knowledge, constructing a powerful narrative that has conceptually bound, yet semantically separated business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) marketing knowledge. Perceived paradigm shifts towards relationships, and the birth of relationship marketing are argued to be no more than an evolution of modern marketing, yet at the heart of relational constructs sit the very features modernism seeks to marginalise in the search for truth and establishment of power structures. Indeed, while B2C marketing has embraced postmodern thinking in consumer culture theory recently, relationship marketing at the B2B level remains conceptually hinged to modern marketing. Using the lens of the postmodern marketing literature, this conceptual paper investigates the rise of China’s Alibaba, and uses this case as a vehicle to argue for relationship marketing knowledge to embrace postmodern thinking and redefine how it should advance in the future

Common Worship

People of faith, particularly in the Judeo-Christian tradition, worship corporately at least as often, if not more so, than they do individually. Why do they do this? There are, of course, many reasons, some having to do with personal preference and others having to do with the theology of worship. But, in this paper, we explore one reason, a philosophical reason, which, despite recent work on the philosophy of liturgy, has gone under-appreciated. In particular, we argue that corporate worship enables a person to come to know God better than they would otherwise know him in individual worship

Shattered Faith: The Social Epistemology of Deconversion by Spiritually Violent Religious Trauma

In this chapter, we argue that it’s possible to lose your faith in God by the actions of other people. In particular, we argue that spiritually violent religious trauma, where religious texts are used to shame a person into thinking themselves unworthy of God’s love, can cause a person to stop engaging in activities that sustain their faith in God, such as engaging in the worship of God. To do this, we provide an analysis of faith, worship, and love on which to have faith in God is to have an attitude of worship to him; to have such an attitude of worship to God is to love him; and to love God is to desire union with him. We apply this analysis particularly to the case of LGBT Christians and their experience in the church today

On the algorithmic complexity of twelve covering and independence parameters of graphs

The definitions of four previously studied parameters related to total coverings and total matchings of graphs can be restricted, thereby obtaining eight parameters related to covering and independence, each of which has been studied previously in some form. Here we survey briefly results concerning total coverings and total matchings of graphs, and consider the aforementioned 12 covering and independence parameters with regard to algorithmic complexity. We survey briefly known results for several graph classes, and obtain new NP-completeness results for the minimum total cover and maximum minimal total cover problems in planar graphs, the minimum maximal total matching problem in bipartite and chordal graphs, and the minimum independent dominating set problem in planar cubic graphs

Submission of Evidence on the Disproportionate Impact of Covid-19 on Grassroots Football: An agenda to protect our game and communities.:Submitted to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee

In this submission, we discuss why grassroots football (and particularly the vulnerable communities that rely on it) will be negatively affected by COVID-19. The centrality of football – in terms of the both professional football clubs and grassroots football – to people’s everyday lives has been brought into focus by the pandemic. But, to date, the response by government and the football authorities has privileged the narrow stratum of the elite professional game (i.e. the English Premier League [EPL]) to the detriment of other levels, notably grassroots football. In the short-term, the pandemic is likely to have a disproportionately negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of those adults and children in the most deprived communities in England

An evaluation of a personalised text message reminder compared to a standard text message on postal questionnaire response rates: an embedded randomised controlled trial

Abstract Background: Research outcome data is commonly collected using postal questionnaires; however, poor response can introduce bias and reduce statistical power. Text messaging is simple, cost-effective, and can be customised to the individual. Personalised, reminder text messages may improve response rates. Methods: A two-arm, parallel group ‘Study within a Trial’ (SWAT) was embedded within the Occupational Therapist Intervention Study (OTIS), a randomised controlled trial of a home assessment for falls prevention in older people. OTIS participants who provided a mobile phone number were randomly allocated (1:1) to receive either a personalised text message (Title, Surname, plus York Trials Unit (YTU) text) or the standard YTU text alone, prior to receiving their four-month post-randomisation follow-up postal questionnaire. The primary outcome measure was the proportion of participants who returned the questionnaire. Secondary outcomes were: time to response, completeness of response, requirement of a reminder letter, and cost-effectiveness. Binary data were compared using logistic regression and time to response by Cox Proportional Hazards regression. Results: A total of 403 participants were randomised: 201 to the personalised text and 202 to the standard text. Of the 283 participants included in the final analysis, 278 (98.2%) returned their questionnaire; 136 (97.8%) for the personalised text versus 142 (98.6%) for the standard text (adjusted odds ratio 0.64, 95% CI 0.10 to 3.88, p=0.63). The median time to response was nine days in both groups. In total, 271 (97.5%) participants returned a complete questionnaire; 133 (97.8%) in the personalised text versus 138 (97.2%) for the standard text. In total, 21 reminder letters were sent. The additional cost of personalised text messages was £0.04 per participant retained. Conclusions: Personalised texts were not superior to standard texts in any outcome assessed in our study. Further SWATs are needed to perform a meta-analysis and obtain more evidence. Registration: ISRCTN22202133; SWAT 35 Keywords: SWAT, Randomised Controlled Trial, personalised, SMS text, postal questionnaire, reminde