ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1639370
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrative Perspectives on the Student-Athlete Experience: A Multi-Disciplinary FocusView all 6 articles
Exploring the Relationship of Social Networks on Team Effectiveness: A Cross-Cultural Study of Collegiate Student-Athletes in Korea and Hong Kong
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 2Korea National Open University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 3Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States
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The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between college sports teams’ social networks (i.e., cohesion) and performance (i.e., effectiveness) within distinct sports cultures—specifically, elite sports in Korea versus recreational sports in Hong Kong. A total of 600 student-athletes participated in a survey, comprising 256 athletes from 30 teams (12 men's teams and 18 women's teams) in Korea and 344 athletes from 27 teams (14 men's teams and 13 women's teams) in Hong Kong. Based on their response regarding advice network among teammates, total 57 Teams were categorized into dense (high advice network density) and sparse (low advice network density) based on median advice density values (S. Korea: 0.388, Hongkong: 0.431), resulting in four groups: (1) dense advice network in Hong Kong, (2) sparse advice network in Hong Kong, (3) dense advice network in Korea, and (4) sparse advice network in Korea. An ANCOVA analysis was conducted on the sub-dimensions of team effectiveness (i.e., effort, ability, preparation, persistence, and unity) to compare means across these groups. The study found that teams in Korea demonstrated greater effectiveness in terms of effort, ability, and preparation compared to those in Hong Kong. Interaction effect between network and nationality affected effort and utility of team effectiveness, and overall, Korea's dense network group outperformed Hong Kong's network group in terms of team effectiveness.
Keywords: Social network, team cohesion, team effectiveness, Collegiate athletic, Cross-cultural
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kim, Park and Love. 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: Seungmo Kim, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
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