Bio

I am currently a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Sport and Health Management, at Department of Physical Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Prior to this, I studied in Munich, Philadelphia, Copenhagen, Cologne, and Shanghai.

I received my PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) in Sport and Health Management at TUM School of Management of Technical University of Munich in 2023, with the highest distinction (summa cum laude). My PhD advisor was Professor Jörg Königstorfer. During my time at TUM, I was also employed as Research Associate at Chair of Sport and Health Management of TUM School of Medicine and Health, where I taught and supervised sport- and health-related courses and theses for both undergraduates and postgraduates. In 2022, I stayed at Department of Sport & Recreation Management of Temple University in Philadelphia USA for 6 months, granted by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Mobility fellowship. Here is my alumniPage@TUM, where I crossed over the spring, summer, autumn, and winter of Olympiapark to my office at Georg-Brauchle-Ring.

I earned my master’s degree in Sport Science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2019, advised by Professor Shulin Cheng. During my master’s, I spent 3 months at German Sport University Cologne, fully granted by DAAD. I also spent 6 months at Centre for Physical Activity Research of University of Copenhagen, fully granted by CSC and Danish Government Scholarship. Prior to that, I received my bachelor in Management at School of Management of Shanghai University.

I am passionate about sport, particularly evening🏃 and 🎾. I am a certified tennis referee and pickleball instructor.

Updates

• 03/2025: our paper entitled “Fan Attitude toward Athlete Activism for Black Lives Matter” was accepted by Journal of Sport & Social Issues.
• 01/2025: our paper entitled “A machine learning approach to understanding performance of Canadian nonprofit sport organizations” was accepted by Nonprofit Management & Leadership.
• 12/2024: my research was funded by the Pujiang Program.
• 12/2024: our paper entitled “The curvilinear effects of relative positions in smartphone App leaderboards on physical activity” was accepted by Computers in Human Behavior.
• 01/2024: I started as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Sport and Health Management at SJTU, I am excited about this new adventure.
• 11/2023: I received certificate of the “dvs-Mentoring Programm for Young Scientists” of the German Society of Sport Science.
• 10/2023: I received the Gewährung einer Leistungsprämie, Präsident, at TUM.
• 10/2023: I successfully defend my PhD dissertation (disputatio) with highest distinction (summa cum laude).
• 09/2023: I presented at the 31st European Sport Management Conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• 03/2023: our paper entitled “The State of Play between Managing Major Sport Events and Human Rights: A Scoping Review” was accepted by Event Management.
• 12/2022: I received the Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education of Bavarian Universities.
• 11/2022: I received the Certificate of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship.
• 11/2022: our paper entitled “Predicting transfer fees in professional European football before and during COVID-19 using machine learning” was accepted by European Sport Management Quarterly.
• 06/2022: I presented at the 2022 North American Society for Sport Management Conference in Atlanta, USA.
• 08/2022: I was funded by TUM School of Management as a two-year Academic Training Program Fellow, Technical University of Munich.
• 04/2022: I have been staying as a visiting PhD student for 6 months at the Sport Industry Research Center, Department of Sport and Recreation Management, Temple University, USA.
• 03/2022: our paper entitled “The effects of a lifestyle intervention supported by the InterWalk smart-phone application on increasing physical activity among persons with type 2 diabetes: A parallel-group, randomized trial” was accepted by JMIR mHealth and uHealth.
• 01/2022: I joined the “dvs-Mentoring Programm for Young Scientists” of the German Society of Sport Science, with Prof. Sebastian Uhrich from German Sport University as my mentor.
• 10/2021: our paper entitled “Effects of Gamified Smartphone Applications on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” was accepted by American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
• 09/2021: I received the Gewährung einer Leistungsprämie, Präsident, at TUM.
• 04/2021: our paper entitled “Keeping it Real or Bridging the Gap? Brand Positioning of US Sport Teams in Germany and China” was accepted by Journal of Sport Management.
• 05/2021: our paper entitled “Determinants of Fitness App Usage and Moderating Impacts of Education-, Motivation-, and Gamification-Related App Features on Physical Activity Intentions: Cross-sectional Survey Study” was accepted by Journal of Medical Internet Research.
• 08/2020: our paper entitled “Determinants of physical activity maintenance during the Covid-19 pandemic: A focus on fitness apps” was accepted by Translational Behavioral Medicine.
• 11/2019: I started as a PhD student at TUM School of Management and research associate at Chair of Sport and Health Management of TUM.
• 08/2019: I have received fully-funded PhD positions from U of Deakin, Queensland, Jyväskylä, and TUM.
• 10/2018: our paper entitled “Reliability and validity of a new accelerometer-based device for detecting physical activities and energy expenditure” was accepted by PeerJ.
• 09/2018: I have been staying as a joint master’s student for 6 months at Center for Physical Activity Research, Copenhagen University, Denmark.
• 05/2018: I have been staying as a visiting master’s student for 3 months at German Sport University Cologne, Germany.
• 09/2016: I started as a master’s student at Department of Physical Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Contact

📧 y@sjtu.edu.cn, y@tum.de, y=yanxiang.yang