Barriers and strategies of using network marketing in sports in Iran country

The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers and strategies for using network marketing in sport industry in Iran. The study was a qualitative research in which Thematic analysis was used to analyze data in three stages of open coding, the main and selective categories. The participants were selected basd on Triangulation technique and included of experienced experts in network marketing, sports management experts who had related scientific works and researches. Participants were selected using purposive sampling method and thus the interviews started with 5 people and continued until reaching the theoretical saturation (N=25). The reliability of Crippendorf alpha (α) coefficient was 0.84, which indicates the desired reliability. Findings showed that barriers for using of Network marketing in sports in Iran included of Managerial, economic, legal, psychological and cultural barriers. Strategies for using Network marketing in sport industry in Iran is based on information management, legacy, technology and social benefits which can result to different out comes as human resource empowerment, economic benefits, service quality improvement. Managers of sports organizations can use network marketing to achieve valuable goals inside and outside their organizations.