Abstract
The purpose of the study was to explore differences in perceived importance among factors of motives for participating in outdoor sports, product selection criteria of outdoor sportswear and store selection criteria, and in buying frequencies among store types and store locations. Another purpose was to find differences in importance of product selection criteria of outdoor sportswear and store selection criteria and in buying frequencies according to store types and store locations among groups according to motives for participation in outdoor sports. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher and was collected by 221 women aged between 40 and 59. The questionnaire was composed of four parts including participation motives, store selection criteria, and product selection criteria measured by Likert type scale, and demographic characteristics measured by nominal scale. Data were analyzed by frequency test, factor analysis, repeated measure ANOVA, Bonferroni adjusted t-test, cluster analysis by Ward method, ANOVA and Tukey's test as a post-hoc test. The results of the study showed that middle-aged women rated health improvement motive as the most important factor for participating in outdoor sports. Among product selection criteria, comfort was the most important, and among store selection, personal selling was the most important. Among store types, buying frequency in off-price store was the highest and among store locations, buying frequency in stores in a residential area was the highest. Moreover, three groups were classified according to motives for participation in outdoor sports: the health improvement motive group, the conspicuous/sociable motive group, the lower motive group The health improvement motive group rated comfort as the most important factor for product selection criteria, and showed the highest buying frequency in downtown stores. Conspicuous/sociable motive groups valued design and utilization for an everyday wear and shopped more frequently in specialty store and/or in downtown stores.