The use of negotiation strategies among recreational participants with different involvement levels: the case of recreational swimmers

Abstract

This paper is aimed to segment recreational swimmers according to their involvement level, profile the involvement groups according to demographic variables, and further test the role of negotiation strategies in the development of swimming involvement. Two hundred and sixty (N=260) recreational swimmers participated in the study and completed Kyle et al.'s three-facet involvement scale and Alexandris et al.'s five-dimension leisure negotiation scale. The results of cluster analysis revealed three distinct involvement groups: high, medium and low involved recreational swimmers. The high involved group consisted mainly of females, middle-aged and married individuals; the medium involved group did not have a clear demographic profile, while the low involved group consisted mainly of males and young individuals. The three involvement groups had statistical significant scores in all the five negotiation strategy dimensions, with the high involved individuals having the highest scores and the low involved individuals having the lowest ones. These results provide empirical support for the negotiation proposition, which was developed by Jackson, Crawford, and Godbey. They further contribute to the existing leisure literature by showing how demographic segmentation can be used in combination with psychographic variables in order to profile groups of participants.