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Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2011

A social perspective of sports-based

entrepreneurship
Vanessa Ratten
Palumbo Donahue School of Business
Duquesne University,
464 Rockwell Hall, 600 Forbes Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA
E-mail: vanessaratten@gmail.com
Abstract: In this paper I develop the concept of sport-based entrepreneurship
and argue that it provides a potential social orientated strategy for the
development of sports-related businesses. I maintain that this emerging form of
entrepreneurship is usually inherent in the management of sports, which
transforms sport-based organisations into an entrepreneur and enterprise. This
paper draws on interdisciplinary approaches from the entrepreneurship and
sport management literature to discuss the social entrepreneurship inherent
within sports-based organisations. The sport sector provides an exploration of
the contextual boundaries of social entrepreneurship and provides a useful
discussion on the innovation, risk taking and proactive activity. The
implications for sport organisations involved in social entrepreneurship are
stated and the importance of governments around the world to promote social
entrepreneurship in sport are highlighted. In addition, suggestions for future
research are stated that highlight the role of sport-based entrepreneurship theory
for examining social change.
Keywords: sport entrepreneurship; sport-based entrepreneurship; innovation;
social entrepreneurship; small business.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Ratten, V. (2011) A social
perspective of sports-based entrepreneurship, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and
Small Business, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp.314326.
Biographical notes: Vanessa Ratten is an Assistant Professor in Strategic
Management and Entrepreneurship at Duquesne University, United States. Her
PhD (University of Queensland) examined alliances in the technology industry.
Her research interests include technological innovation, entrepreneurship and
sport. She has published in numerous journals including the Asia Pacific
Journal of Marketing and Logistics, International Journal of Entrepreneurship
and Small Business, Journal of High Technology Management, European
Journal of Innovation Management, Journal of Management & Organisation,
International Journal of Educational Management, Thunderbird International
Business Review and the International Journal of Innovation and Technology
Management.

Copyright 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

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Introduction

The role of entrepreneurship in the sports context is an undeveloped research area. In this
paper, sport-based entrepreneurship is endogenous to an enterprise and the process of
entrepreneurship in the sports context. This interdisciplinary perspective of sport-based
entrepreneurship that includes the sport management and entrepreneurship literature is
important so that a new theoretical framework can be developed. Entrepreneurship has a
significant role in the sport sector as sport marketers and managers play an important role
in planning and leading their businesses. The sport sector has become a significant part of
the global business industry landscape and is one of the largest and fastest growing
industries worldwide. The worldwide consumption of sporting goods which are one of
the fastest growing segments of the sports industry is estimated at US$256 billion
(National Sporting Goods Association Research Newsletter, 2007). In the USA, the sport
sector is twice the size of the US auto industry and seven times the size of the movie
industry (Sports Business Journal, 2007). In the UK, the sport sector has an annual worth
of almost 17 billion (Total Sport Promotion, 2007). In Australia, the entire sport,
recreation and leisure industry is worth approximately AUD$65 billion (Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2006).
Sport-based entrepreneurship involves innovative activity that encourages economic
growth. This innovation can include profit seeking and risk seeking activity by an
entrepreneur (Hardy, 1996). Entrepreneurship is important to sport as consumer demands
change and business needs to constantly innovate. Entrepreneurship in sport is timely as
there is an increasing trend towards entrepreneurial behaviour by sports leagues.
Understanding the drivers underpinning sport-based entrepreneurship is particularly
salient as entrepreneurial behaviour has the potential to change the status quo in the
delivery and production of sport.
The concept of sport-based entrepreneurship is defined in this paper as a sport-based
organisation acting corporately as both entrepreneur and enterprise. Sport-based
entrepreneurship is therefore the result of a process in which an organisation involved in
sport acts entrepreneurially. Sport-based entrepreneurship is a promising strategy for
fostering innovation and development. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theory of
sport-based entrepreneurship as an alternative representation of how entrepreneurial
activity can be utilised with regards to the sport context.

Importance of entrepreneurship

The words entrepreneur and entrepreneurship have become buzzwords but there is no
universally accepted definition (Chrisman et al., 1998). Most definitions of
entrepreneurship refer to it in economic terms related to the entrepreneur (Drucker,
1995). An entrepreneur is a person who uses all of the factors of production (e.g.,
physical, human and financial resources) together to make a good or service (Sawyer et
al., 2004). Therefore, an entrepreneur is a person who locates and puts new ideas into
effect and uses these factors of production to be profitable (Baumol, 1993). Entrepreneurs
are people who demonstrate initiative through the creation and recognition of
opportunities (Spencer et al., 2008). Schumpeter (1965) defined entrepreneurs as a person
who exploits market opportunity through technical or organisational innovation. These

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opportunities form part of entrepreneurship as they lead to innovation (Bolton and

Thompson, 2000). Innovation is fundamental to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and
is a defining characteristic (Hitt et al., 2001).
Entrepreneurship involves the management and assumption of risk of a business or
enterprise. Entrepreneurship as a discipline and area of study has increased significantly
in the past decade as researchers, practitioners and public policy analysts encourage
entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship creates new wealth, improves competitiveness
and stimulates the economy (Spencer et al., 2008). Entrepreneurship is the engine that
drives the success of an economy (Morrison et al., 1999).
Entrepreneurship in sport occurs though five major ways (Schwarz and Hunter,
2008). The first is by understanding consumers through market research and the
management of information systems. The second is by managing logistics related to the
products and services, which includes supply chain management. The third is by
managing the promotional aspects of a business, which includes advertising and
sponsorship. The fourth is through operating specialised sport areas such as retail
management and electronic commerce. The fifth is by recognising the domestic and
international sport sub-sectors. As entrepreneurship occurs in sport through a variety of
different ways, the focus in this paper will be understanding the process of sport-based
entrepreneurship with a specific focus on social elements.
Entrepreneurship allows entrepreneurs to innovate by discovering and meeting
unfulfilled needs that assume a degree of risk and uncertainty in order that assembling
businesses can undertake change (Schneider et al., 1995). These business ventures
include new start-up businesses, established businesses that want to reinvigorate or
governmental/ non-profit organisations wanting to explore business opportunities in both
private and public sectors (Wickham, 2004). Entrepreneurship is therefore a result of
business expanding their efforts by a coordinated team of individuals (Terjesen, 2008).
Entrepreneurship can involve the creation of organisations (Gartner, 1988) or the
formation and development of new ventures (Wiggins and Ruefli, 2005). The most
common characteristics of entrepreneurship are opportunity seeking (Shane and
Venkataraman, 2000), achievement oriented (Turan and Kara, 2007) and visionary (Kao,
1989). These characteristics of entrepreneurship have been included in a variety of
entrepreneurship definitions. Wennekers and Thurik (1999) focus on organisations in
their definition of entrepreneurship as being the ability and willingness of people within
and outside organisations to create new economic opportunities. Shane and
Venkataraman (2000) define entrepreneurship as a three stage process involving the
discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities. Entrepreneurship is thus integral
to the success of a business and creates sustaining prosperity for people and organisations
involved in it (Henry et al., 2003). As globalisation and competition presents many
challenges and opportunities, entrepreneurship may hold the key to success (Hisrich and
Peters, 1998). In particularly, as entrepreneurship is pervasive and includes people and
organisations its role in sports is important to create a competitive advantage for
businesses that are involved in it.

Sport-based entrepreneurship

Sport-based entrepreneurship is the process of creating value. This value includes the
innovativeness, proactive nature and level of risk taking inherent in the activity (Holt et

A social perspective of sports-based entrepreneurship

317

al., 2007). Sport is one of the largest worldwide industries and impacts many other
sectors such as technology and education. In the sport context, entrepreneurs develop
organisations and encourage new product development (Hardy, 1996). Sport-based
entrepreneurship impacts society, the economy and enterprise in a variety of ways. New
products are developed, promotional approaches are changed and social change results
from sport-based entrepreneurship. There is a growing economic disconnect between
consumers and professional sport teams particularly in times of economic distress
(Araton, 1998). The sport industry has business cycles that depend on the economic
climate. The current economic climate worldwide has lead to an upheaval in global
markets that has eroded business and consumer confidence (Futterman, 2008). These
challenging economic conditions serve as a catalyst for entrepreneurship (Peredo and
Chrisman, 2006). Entrepreneurship allows desirable outcomes to result from the need to
recognise opportunities in changing economic times (Yusuf and Schindehutte, 2000).
Therefore, an entrepreneurial approach can provide a mechanism to weather economic
crises as entrepreneurs are more willing to assume risk and be alert to opportunities
(Schneider et al., 1995).
Businesses in the sport sector are repositories of entrepreneurship as they try to
innovate in order to promote a competitive edge to customers and find a niche market
(Berrett et al., 1993). Sport products and services that are developed through
entrepreneurship include stadium leases and monopolistic broadcasting rights (Mason,
1999). In addition, predetermined geographic territories and player contracts can be
changed through innovative new ways of thinking (Zorn, 1994). As sport often has a deep
emotional attachment to fans through athletes and teams, the connection to the
community and economy is required, which is influenced by the long product life cycle
curve of most sport products (Chalip, 2004). The sport product is affected by three key
issues: commodification, delocalisation and its place in the recreation/entertainment
sector of the economy (Euchner, 1993). Sports products have become commodities
through the professionalisation of many sports leagues. In addition, famous sports stars
such as Tiger Woods and David Beckham have become commodities and have been
entrepreneurial through the large variety of products that they sell such as perfumes, golf
courses and clothing lines. Delocalisation of sports products has occurred through many
professional sports leagues becoming global phenomenons such as Liverpool Football
League and The New York Yankees. The entertainment sector has meant that sport
competes with movies, attending the theatre or renting a DVD. Therefore, consumers use
discretionary income to make entertainment purchase decisions and have many different
entertainment options with sport being one.
As sports organisations face challenges from increased entertainment options and the
advent of accessible digital technology it becomes increasingly important to deliver value
(Sweeney, 2007). Value is created by entrepreneurial firms that produce spillover effects
encouraging regional employment growth rates (Van Praag and Versloot, 2007).
Entrepreneurs contribute to the economy by increasing a person utility level and in sport
this impacts employment generation, productivity and innovation (Lechner and Schmidt,
2002). Therefore, to an individual and organisation, sports affect daily lives. Sport has
been studied from a variety of different disciplines including economics, marketing,
psychology, philosophy and sociology (Olivier, 2006). Sport has to a lesser extent been
studied from an entrepreneurship perspective but as the need for innovation increases,
entrepreneurship creates a competitive advantage for sport to deliver value. This paper

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proposes that sport-based entrepreneurship is a way to understand and sustain sports

organisations. As entrepreneurship offers direction to business leaders who want to
increase their companies social and economic performance (Wolcott and Lippitz, 2007),
sports-based entrepreneurship links both the sport management and entrepreneurship
literature. Sport based entrepreneurship occurs in a number of ways including people
watching sport, organisations involved in sport and athletes competing both
recreationally and professionally.
In this paper, I propose sport-based entrepreneurship as a promising strategy for
fostering economic development. Sport-based entrepreneurship involves the organisation,
operation and risk activity for a sport-related business venture. Sport-based
entrepreneurship is interdisciplinary as both sport management and entrepreneurship are
combined in order that new theories, frameworks and models can be developed. New
ways of thinking about entrepreneurship can be devised by focusing on sport as an
enterprise and entrepreneur. Sport-based entrepreneurship involves innovation, risk and
proactive behaviour of an organisation and each of these elements will now be discussed.

3.1 Sport innovation

Innovation is important as it promotes change and adaptation (Schwarz and Hunter,
2008). Innovation occurs through a number of different ways in sport such as changing
the rules of a sport game or incorporating new franchise structures in professional sports
leagues (Mullin et al., 2007). Product and process innovation have occurred in sport and
both are important components of sport-based entrepreneurship. Product innovation in
sport can include sport-related clothing, trading cards bearing athlete likeness (Mullin et
al., 2007), sports related materials and equipment and nutritional and health products.
Product innovation has become particularly important with sport computer games as
gaming companies focus on developing new games that include a number of different
sports. The Wii gaming console that allows users to interactively play sport games is an
innovation that has gained in popularity. Another popular sport based innovation is
fantasy sport, which allows people to choose professional sport players to play pretend
games on the computer. Extreme sports have also innovated traditional sports by using
different equipment and technology (Schneider et al., 2007). Innovative new extreme
sports include high altitude rock climbing and big wave surfing.
Product innovation in sport has also involved extreme sports with the sport of surfing
evolving to include kite surfing and rowing to include whitewater kayaking. Products in
sport such as clothes and merchandise have also changed due to differing demographics.
The ageing population has meant that sports stars themselves are playing for a longer
time span. This growing market often called the zoomers as they are baby boomers who
are innovative has caused sports companies to change their products. An example of this
is the action sports industry that targets older customers through higher priced labels
(Tran, 2008).
Process innovation has occurred to a large extent in sport through changing
promotional approaches. Much sport advertising now occurs through the internet or
celebrity endorsements. In addition, people now receive information about sports games
through their cell phones or online. New venues, ticket sales, giveaways and education
are all processes that have changed due to different demands of both businesses and
consumers together with technology advances (Ross and Sharpless, 1999). Innovation in
sports occurs differently with slightly declining sports sectors such as skiing the

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319

innovations being more process orientated, whilst in fastly expanding sectors such as
snowboarding the innovations are more product oriented.

3.2 Sport risk

Risk taking in sports occurs in a variety of contexts. There is risk for sport businesses
going into new geographic markets and franchise or ownership risk (Parks and Zanger,
1990). Generally most people or organisations participating in sport are themselves risk
takers and the uncertainty in sport can also add an additional element of risk (Kedar-Levy
and Bar-Eli, 2008). Depending on the context of sport there is a degree of social risk such
as a football game between two rival countries. Risky activities in professional sport can
include market capitalisation, operating history, competition, experience, team
competitiveness, credibility, relocation and business activities (Friedman and Mason,
2007). Innovative risk may result from changes in sport such as advertisements or playing
a sport. This may decrease the number of spectators or people watching or playing a
sport. Examples of innovative risk in extreme sports are free diving (Olivier, 2006).
A characteristic of entrepreneurs is their risk taking proclivity and this applies
particularly to sports teams. Sports teams and their owners often take risks by offering
multimillion dollar contracts to athletes by assuming continued strong performance and
minimal negative publicity by off field behaviour. Sports teams often face the risk of
developing and promoting a player only to lose them to another team. There is also
ownership risk from rising franchise fees, expansion costs and unstable broadcast fees.
For some sport team owners their ownership risk is that they might not make a financial
profit because they are more interested in the ego, fun and power that go with being a
sport team owner. Sports teams more recently have been involved in risk by entering
international markets. Professional sports teams such as the National Hockey League are
aggressively entering Europe, the National Basketball Association has expanded to China
and the Indian Premier League has enlarged cricket in India.
Sports leagues have been entrepreneurial by partnering with broadcasters to promote
their brand image amongst fans (Eastman and Newton, 1996). In addition, many large
corporations have purchased naming rights of sport stadiums that potentially has the
added benefit of transferring the spectators positive liking of the sport to the sponsors
brand (Bennett, 1999). Being a sports team owner brings a variety of benefits including
images of being healthy and innovative but can also involve risk. An example of this
happened in Manila where a real estate developer gained instant credibility from
purchasing a team in the Philippine Basketball Association but assumed financial risk for
the team (Hookway, 2003). Direct connections from owning a sports team resulted from
the structural embeddedness of the network. This occurs by the sports team giving
sponsors access to network resources and to piggyback from media relationships such as
television and press coverage.

3.3 Proactive sport behaviour

A proactive approach is a feature of the entrepreneurial nature of sport. In order to
compete sports organisations change through leadership and proactively keeping advance
of technology trends. Sports organisations proactively recruit talent for high school,
college and professional teams. In order to survive long term, sport promotes healthy

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eating and fitness for overall health benefits. Changing environmental events has caused
more sports organisations to be proactive with regards to sustainability initiatives such as
green buildings, the use of recyclable material and renewable energy.
The organisers of many mega sport events such as the Olympics and World Cup are
very proactive in encouraging city citizens to be more environmentally friendly during
the games by refraining from driving in peak traffic times (Madden, 2007). Sports events
organisers have been proactively seeking to combat marketing tactics by businesses that
are not official sponsors. These tactics have been referred to as ambush marketing as
organisers other than the official sponsors piggyback on publicity from a sporting event
(McKelvey and Grady, 2008). An example of ambush marketing is what Kentucky Fried
Chicken did during the 2008 National Football League Super Bowl. The National
Football League proactively spoke out against Kentucky Fried Chicken who offered
US$260,000 to a charity if a player performed a chicken dance following a touchdown
on the field. The National Football League felt that Kentucky Friend Chicken was
conducting ambush marketing rather than the consumer-generated marketing campaign
that had been originally intended.
Entrepreneurship in sport has occurred through television and broadcasting rights. As
innovative ways of televising sport have become available there is a global linkage
between sport and television (Rowe, 1996). Entrepreneurial M-form structures for global
media firms have arisen, which are characterised by managers driving a top-down
international expansion strategy (Eisenmann and Bower, 2000). An example of this type
of entrepreneurship in sport is News Corporation, whose strategy was to use sport to
become a global media empire. News Corporation purchased the Fox network in
Australia and its British Sky Broadcasting affiliate purchased the television rights to the
National Football League and the British Premier League football.

Social entrepreneurship and sport

Social entrepreneurship is defined in the sport context as an organisation pursuing a

social goal as well as achieving financial benefits. Governments around the world
promote social policies such as having a healthy lifestyle and community participation
through sports-related activities. Entrepreneurship particularly in developing countries
occurs through social networks that provide motivation and support to encourage social
activities (Peredo and Chrisman, 2006). Social problems can be solved through sport
(Ball, 2005). Entrepreneurship often includes risk taking and profit seeking activity that
does not have a social mission (Johannisson and Monsted, 1997). However, social factors
in business activity are becoming more important in sport such as having a civic duty and
a love of sport as well as a concern for some profit (Hardy, 1996).
Entrepreneurship occurs in a variety of settings often influenced by social structure
(Dana, 1995). Social entrepreneurship in the sports sector occurs through innovative
programmes. Ashoka an organisation that provides support for social entrepreneurs has
partnered with Nike through its changemaker programme. This programme encourages
collaborative competitions such as sport for a better world that encourages people to
think about innovative ways that sport can promote social change. Previous winners of
this competition have included using football to fight against aids in South Africa and
giving cell phones to youth in Brazil as a way to promote social and job opportunities in
sport. In the USA, Ashokas changemakers programme has been involved in the

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321

development of sports coaches at urban school playgrounds to teach children how to play
sport as a way of facilitating social development. Sport events like the World Cup or
Olympics have been used by cities to address social issues (Kott, 2005). One of the most
famous examples of the use of sport to promote social change is during the apartheid era
in South Africa, cricket teams from around the world refused to play the South African
team because of the racial issues surrounding apartheid. Sports teams have also acted
entrepreneurially by being involved in clean up campaigns that enhance a communitys
image by promoting the removal of rubbish and the gentrification of urban areas.
Well known entrepreneurs and organisations have engaged in social entrepreneurship
by donating to sports through social ventures and collegiate activities. T. Boone Pickens
donated US$165 million to his alma mater Oklahoma State Universitys athletic
department in order to update sporting facilities and programmes at the university. In
addition, universities in the top six athletic conferences in the USA raised approximately
US$3.9 billion during 20022007 for athletic facility improvements.
Social change in sport is also a result of institutional entrepreneurship. In baseball,
institutional entrepreneurs have changed the traditional business model by introducing
innovations that created competitive pressures on other teams (Chacar and Hesterly,
2004). Athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds have promoted social change in sport in
addition to institutional innovation. The Dodgers baseball team opened up professional
baseball to African American athletes by recruiting Jackie Robinson in 1947, which
broke the colour barrier in Major League Baseball in the USA. Encouraging people from
different backgrounds and religions to compete in sport is also part of social
entrepreneurship. Sport has facilitated the process of racial integration by sports teams
more concerned about winning than ethnicity of players (Goff et al., 2002). Sport
entrepreneurs have figured out that ethnicity of an athlete doesnt matter if it gives the
team an advantage in terms of revenues and recognition (Goff et al., 2002). In Australia,
aboriginal athletes like Evonne Cawley in tennis have encouraged social change by
promoting sport to indigenous athletes. Social change in sport has resulted in more
minority groups such as females participating in sport-related activities (Moore et al.,
2001). Females represent a large percentage of total NASCAR fans and also participate
heavily in NASCAR fantasy games on the internet (Roy and Goss, 2007). In order to
encourage female athletes from Muslim countries to compete in the Olympics, a group
called the Atlanta-Sydney-Athens Plus was formed (Garvie, 2006).
Social change in sport has been facilitated by environmental changes such as
implementing sustainability initiatives into business operations. Sustainability includes
looking beyond the financial bottom line to include social and environmental issues that
everyone involved in sport including consumers, businesses, manufacturers, local
authorities and event organisers can benefit from. Sustainability therefore in the sports
context incorporates environmental initiatives for societies benefit by both people and
organisations. Recent sustainability initiatives in the National Football League include
encouraging sustainable building developments that uses recyclable material and energy
efficient designs (Falt, 2006). There is also an increasing concern amongst professional
sports leagues about environmental degradation caused by sports events (Sweeney,
2007).
Sport is a powerful tool for companies to venture beyond sponsorship into social
causes. There are social representations of sports brands as they project their image into
their immediate community (Ferrand and Pages, 1999). For brands to be sustainable they

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must conform with societal expectations and also minimise negative environmental
impacts. Partnering social and environmental concerns with a financial objective have
been referred to as the triple bottom line. The triple bottom line approach has become
ubiquitous with sustainability initiatives, which are a cornerstone of social
entrepreneurship. Sport has a direct responsibility to be sustainable as it is often practiced
outdoors and requires large infrastructure (Lau et al., 2004).
Social entrepreneurship utilises sport as a way to encourage solutions to social issues.
Right to Play is an international non-profit organisation that uses sport to improve health
for people affected by global poverty. Another example of a sport entrepreneur
encouraging social change is professional sports players such as basketballer Kevin
Johnson who created an organisation designed to develop young people into community
leaders. This organisation is an example of a sports person partnering with a community
organisation in order to create a collaborative social programme.
Social entrepreneurship in sport can also occur when there is sports team ownership
by a community. An example of this is in the UK in which MyFootballClub.com is a
web-based organisation that has a web-community with more than 30,000 members from
122 countries. MyFootballClub.com used a web-community ownership structure with
members paying a yearly fee to part own Ebbsfleet United, a football club.
Social entrepreneurship in sport can also be through technological innovations. Sport
is a driver of innovation and technology has changed the needs of sport teams and
athletes. Examples of technology-based entrepreneurship in sport include the photo finish
system developed to electronically record finish lines in sport, or the replay system used
by umpires to double check sports results. More recently, Motus Corporation has
invented a new fitness training vest that uses wireless motion to help athletes achieve a
better performance. Another innovation is the start up firm Yoonew which has created a
stock market for sports tickets (Schorow, 2008). A more well known example of
technology-based entrepreneurship is the collaboration between Nike and Apple to
include an Apple iPod nano digital music player in Nike shoes. Adidas has also been
involved in a similar type of technology-based entrepreneurship project through its
collaboration with Samsung to have a sensor in running shoes that is linked with an
online workout journal. Many sports organisations like the Australian Institute of Sports
Applied Research Centre focus on technology-based entrepreneurship by emphasising the
technology or innovation that will have a direct performance outcome for their athletes.
Athletes with disabilities have benefited from technology-based sport entrepreneurship as
the development of new materials, engineering and surgical techniques have given them
more opportunities to participate in sport (Castonguay, 2008).

Implications and suggestions for future research

This paper has examined the role of entrepreneurship in sport by focusing on the role of
social change. Innovation in sports has encouraged social entrepreneurship to develop.
More research is required to learn more about the role of sports-based entrepreneurship in
facilitating social change and this could prove beneficial to practitioners, academics and
public policy planners. There has been a rapid growth in the sports industry during the
past decade that has coincided with more concern globally about social issues.

A social perspective of sports-based entrepreneurship

323

Future research needs to examine in more detail social entrepreneurship from a sports
perspective. Whilst there are many studies that have discussed the role of social
responsibility in sports, less large scale empirical studies have been conducted on the
antecedents and processes of sport social entrepreneurs. There are many practical
examples of sport social entrepreneurs in the media but it would be interesting to examine
whether the sport context changes the types of social entrepreneurship that occur. For
example, a longitudinal study could examine the number, types and demographics of
social entrepreneurs involved in sport who appear in the media.
The theoretical framework of sport-based entrepreneurship developed in this paper is
helpful to link academic discussion to practical implications. As discussed in this paper
sport-based entrepreneurship incorporates innovation, risk taking and proactive
behaviour. Therefore, entrepreneurship and sports management academics can use this
theoretical framework to test it in a number of different sports. From a practitioner
perspective this paper is helpful for management professionals to understand the
entrepreneurial motives that are sport-specific. This can allow managers of sports-related
businesses to look for opportunities to promote social entrepreneurship that facilitates
collaboration between business, people and governments.
Sport-based entrepreneurship is also influenced by the different activities that
encompass sport. Sport fans consume sport for a variety of reasons including
entertainment and family fun (Wann et al., 2008). This means sport-based
entrepreneurship needs to be examined depending on motivational reasons for
consumption but also whether international differences exist in the type of
entrepreneurship that occurs. The types of sport played worldwide differ according to a
persons culture (Kwon and Trail, 2001). More research work is required on
understanding whether sports-based entrepreneurship is the same worldwide or what type
of cultural influences impact on the entrepreneurial nature of sports. The increased
commercialisation and professionalism of sports worldwide has meant that the social role
of sport has also risen. Therefore, sport-based entrepreneurship provides a way to look at
the importance of social entrepreneurship in increasing sport popularity (Ratten, 2010).

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