Nowadays, the new enterprises are recognized as the main source of job creation, innovation and development. In today's business world, new enterprises are recognized as an important source of job creation, innovation and development. Therefore, identifying influencing factors that play key roles in the start-up of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) is critical. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify critical factors for starting-up Small and Medium sized Sport Enterprises (SMSEs) companies whose business is sport and developing a conceptual model that might be used by entrepreneurs in sport business. The methodology was qualitative. Interviews were conducted with 18 individuals, selected through purposive sampling, involved in sport-related SMEs. After a careful investigation of enterprise start-up models in the literature, and based on the results of experts interviews, an integrated approach was indicated as popular models were used by SMEs scholars. Then, a model was proposed in line with integration approach.The conceptual model is based on the integrative approach and shows that three important categories of factors were indicated: Individual; 2.individual factors; Environmental; and 3.environmental factors; and Financial factors.financial factors. It should be mentioned that these factors were constitude of subdimentiones.

Background. To effectively response to environmental changes and gain a competitive advantage, sports manufacturing companies should invest in human capital. Objectives. The study aimed at examining the effects of human capital on technological innovation capabilities in Iranian sports manufacturing companies. Methods. Conducted applied research and the survey. Data were collected using standard questionnaires in human capital and technological innovation capabilities. The reliability of the questionnaires was 0.81 and 0.85, respectively. The study was conducted on 546 employees from 77 sports manufacturing companies. To evaluate the research hypotheses, structural equation modeling based on partial least-squares method was used. Results. The study results indicated a significant impact of brand associations on brand equity and brand citizenship behavior; human capital also had a significant impact on technological innovation capabilities. According to ranking results, the three main features of the human capital of sports manufacturing companies respectively were skills and expertise, knowledge, and experience. Conclusion. The main factors can significantly affect the development of human capital and technological innovation capabilities in Iranian sports manufacturing companies.

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Background. Sport spectators are an essential part of the professional sport landscape. Spectators are important economically, because they generate revenue through ticket and concession sales, and provide ambience for broadcast televisions. Problematically, spectators' attendance is declining in many professional leagues throughout the world. Objectives. The current study aimed at identifying factors affecting spectators' attendance in the Iranian Football League. Methods. Initial data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 20 participants, with expertise in the Iranian Football League. Using Q Methodology, 50 Q-expressions were sorted by the participants. Then, Q-factor analysis was performed. Results. The study identified seven broad factors: 1) Lack of desirable access and transportation services to/from the stadiums; 2) Defective implementation of strategic plans in federations and clubs; 3) The impact of low-quality plays and the superiority of TV services to stadium ones; 4) Inappropriate services in stadiums; 5) Inappropriate stadium atmosphere; 6) Economic problems of spectators; and, 7) Paying more attention to margins by media from the viewpoint of critics. Conclusions. Football officials can increase the number of spectators in stadiums by systematically removing these damages from the Iranian football body, which may solve many other problems as well.

Background. Attention is considered as a resource for storing and processing memory activities. Without attention, no perceptual processing takes place in the brain as the information (whether visual or auditory) cannot enter the brain. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the attention of individuals to sports and nonsports advertising using brain activities. Methods. It was a quasi-experimental study investigating two advertisements (sports and non-sports) of Apple Company on 30 volunteers (15 men and 15 women). The Neuroguide software was used to convert electroencephalographic data to quantitative data. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for testing hypotheses in SPSS software. Results. The results showed that there was a significant difference between watching sports and non-sports advertising on people's attention; in other words, sports advertising was able to reduce alpha in the frontal and pre-frontal brain while this decrease did not occur when viewing non-sports advertising. There was no significant difference in attention between men and women. Conclusion. Sport has the potential to attract people's attention, which is one of the main goals of companies and industry owners and can attract more attention in people to the advertised product, resulting in better brand retention and recall, and thus increasing promotional product or brand purchases.

Purpose: Evaluate the barriers to attract financial supporters in the sport industry of Khorasan Razavi has been done.Methodology: The method of this research is applied and descriptive-comparative type. The statistical population of this research includes all managers of factories and private companies, managers of sport clubs and sport authorities of Khorasan Razavi province which among these the 100 CEOs of factories, 114 club managers and sport chairmanparty have been chosen randomly in Mashhad, Sabzevar, Taybad and Kashmar. Questionnaires of sport financial supporters of Ameri and et al (2009) had been the tools under usedwhich the Cronbach's alpha has been obtained as 0.711 in this study. SPSS19 software has been used in order to evaluate data analysis. Research hypotheses has been evaluated by using independent t-test.Findings: findings showed that the both first and forth hypotheses were confirmed among 4 hypotheses that were tested means that, there is a difference between perspective of managers of private companies and sports managers in relation with barriers of financial supporters and problems related to teams.Conclusion: Obtained results have been explained and compared based on findings of pervious researches. In fact most managers of companies compared with club managers the lack of sponsor from the sports industry have mentioned as a most important factor and problems related to teams including unpopularity of teams and Lack of using players and famous coaches is important factor for lack of attracting financial supporter in Mashhad from perspective of both groups.

Background. As a component of the sports industry, professional athletes are always faced with challenges, including injury, performance loss, etc. To overcome these problems, many famous athletes have turned to build their brands, as it enables them to create and maintain a market of customers and fans. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to use the Grounded theory approach to design a model of the micro factor affecting personal brand development for Professional athletes. Methods. The present study was an applied research with a descriptive-survey method, and a library-field data collection method. This research was a qualitative research and was carried out using the Grounded Theory method. In the present study, semi-structured interviews were used as data gathering tools. Sampling was done using judgmental sampling method and followed up to theoretical saturation, which included a total of 18 interviewees. Results. Based on the findings, after three stages of open coding, selective coding, and theoretical coding, a total of 62 concepts, 11 categories, and 4 factors were obtained that showed "Athlete's Behaviors", "Athlete's Personality Traits", "Marketable Lifestyle" and "Athletic Performance" play an important role in developing the personal brand for professional athletes. Conclusion. By identifying the factors affecting the personal brand of professional athletes, athletes, managers, and marketers can create and maintain a market for their customers and fans, achieve sustainable income and maintain reputation and popularity.

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