The institutionalisation of research and innovation in Swiss sports federations – Analysis of the status quo

Abstract

Introduction

The closure of the federal sport commission (ESK) in 2011 led to a decentralization of research and innovation in Swiss sport. In 2018, the federal government made a shift of responsibilities towards the sports federations with Swiss Olympic distributing a fund by CHF 1.5 million. This fund enables the federations to hire embedded scientists and project-based funding. With recent mediocre results of research and innovation in the high-performance systems (Kempf et al., 2021), the question arises how Swiss sports federations institutionalize research and innovation on an intra-organizational level.

Methods

In order to answer the research question, a qualitative content analysis was conducted on publicly available documents (website, strategy documents and annual reports) of 30 Swiss sports federations. The categories for the analysis (strategic implementation, institutional implementation and resource allocation, systematic management of sources of innovation, structured innovation processes, organizational culture and knowledge management) were defined deductively based on economic literature (Picot et al., 2020) and focussing on the institutionalization of innovation in the service industry (Storey et al., 2016). Economic literature was considered because no large-scale review or meta-analysis on the institutionalization of research and innovation in sport could be identified and sport follows a service-dominant logic with service as the fundamental basis of exchange (Woratschek et al., 2014). Furthermore, three focus groups with federation representatives were held.

Results

The publicly available documents revealed a medium to low institutionalization of research and innovation in most federations analyzed. While most federations vaguely mention the topics in their strategy, evidence for institutionalization, dedicated resource allocation, established innovation processes or institutionalized knowledge management is scarce. Furthermore, a significant imbalance between federation was found. While one federation has shown evidence in five out of six categories, most federations only show activity in 1-3 categories. In addition, the research focus of the federations is on competitive sport. The results of the focus groups match the results of the content analysis.

Discussion/Conclusion

The low level of institutionalization of research and innovation in Swiss sports federations could be one factor explaining the low level of Sport specific research in Switzerland. With federations having key responsibilities in the Swiss sport research and innovation ecosystem, the question for the factors hindering their engagement in research and innovation practices arises. Research and innovation are important factors to remain agile in the face of the major challenges posed by megatrends and rapid technological change. Further research is needed to identify the underlying challenges of federations, for them to stay internationally competitive and adaptable to societal changes.

References

Kempf, H., Weber, A., Zurmühle, C., Bosshard, B., Mrkonjić, M., Weber, A., Pillet, F., & Sutter, S. (2021). Leistungssport Schweiz – Momentaufnahme SPLISS-CH 2019. Bundesamt für Sport (BASPO).

Picot, A., et al. (2020). Organisation (8. Ed.). Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel.

Storey, C., Cankurtaran, P., Papastathopoulou, P., & Hultink, E. J. (2016). Success factors for service innovation: A meta-analysis. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 33(5), 527–548.

Woratschek, H., Horbel, C., & Popp, B. (2014). Sport value framework. European Sport Management Quarterly, 14(1), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2013.865776