ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement
A Study on the Mechanism of How Network Relationship Strength Affects the Work Development of College Sports Associations
Provisionally accepted
- Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China
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College sports culture is rooted in campus environments, with college students as the main participants, sports activities as the core content, and campus spirit as the foundational support. As a key component of college sports culture, university sports association culture contributes significantly to enhancing students' physical health and advancing the development of campus sports culture. To support students' physical growth and the promotion of campus sports culture, it is essential to increase resource investment in campus sports initiatives, ensure the rational utilization of these resources, and thereby strengthen the operational capabilities of sports associations. However, university sports associations currently face notable operational challenges, primarily reflected in low organizational performance, difficulties in motivating students' enthusiasm for sports participation, and consequent constraints on campus culture development. These issues stem from weak organizational capabilities of associations, a shortage of professional organizers, insufficient understanding of available association resources, and ineffective resource utilization. Fundamentally, the mechanism through which the network ties strength of university sports associations influences their organizational performance remains unclear, and empirical research exploring this relationship is lacking. Against this backdrop, this study focuses on investigating the influence mechanism of university sports associations' network ties strength on organizational performance. This study first conducted a literature review and synthesis, then constructed an influence model to examine the relationship between network ties strength and organizational performance—with network ties strength as the independent variable, organizational ability as the mediating variable, and organizational performance as the dependent variable. Empirical research was carried out among members of sports associations in undergraduate colleges in Urumqi, using a combination of questionnaire surveys, field investigations, and expert interviews, resulting in the collection of 2,246 valid questionnaires. Correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and regression analysis were employed to verify the research hypotheses. Finally, the study analyzed and summarized its findings, drew relevant conclusions, and put forward suggestions for improving the organizational performance of university sports associations. The results indicate that the influence mechanism of network ties strength on the organizational performance of university sports associations involves three core elements: network ties strength, organizational performance, and organizational ability.
Keywords: Colloge, Network Ties Strength, Organizational performance, OrganizationalAbility, University Sports Association
Received: 21 Dec 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhu and She. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shuai Zhu
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