Identifying and Validating Strategies Affecting Strategic Innovation in Sports Businesses

The purpose of this study was to identify and validate strategies affecting strategic innovation in sports businesses. The research method was mixed in terms of data collection which was qualitative-quantitative. The statistical population in the qualitative section included university professors and experts in the field of sports business. The field of study and having scientific papers related to the subject, having managerial positions and executive experiences in the field of entrepreneurship and sports business were the criteria for selection of the 360 participants that consisted of a small number of sports club managers and staff, sports business managers and staff, senior managers from the Ministry of Sports and Youth, PhD students in sports marketing, and sports service clients. The research tools included semi-structured interviews and a researcher-made questionnaire that was designed according to the extracted codes in the qualitative part of the study. Qualitative analysis was performed with Maxqda software and quantitative analysis was performed with AMOS structural equation modeling software. The findings related to the strategies affecting strategic innovation in the sports business consisted of 5 concepts and 18 codons identified and approved. Finally, the results of the model were confirmed in terms of validation. Society, laws and other environmental factors can pave the way for sports businesses to move towards strategic innovation.