Better Governance and Sport Innovation within Sport Organizations

This research aims to examine the impact of better governance on sport innovation. Observational desk research collected publicly available online data on better governance principles and sport innovation in sport federations. The sample included 150 regional sport federations in Belgium. First, a two-step cluster analysis identified two clusters of sport federations according to their governance level. Next, a one-way ANOVA was conducted to compare sport innovation between the two clusters. Finally, a multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify better governance principles impacting sport innovation. Results indicated that better-governed sport federations were significantly more inclined to innovate. Multiple linear regressions showed that transparency significantly and positively impacts sport innovation. These findings are the first empirical evidence of a relationship between better governance and sport innovation. This study empirically highlights the often-assumed but little-tested positive impact of adopting better governance principles on sport organizations.