Sports innovation in organisational perspective. Modelling multi-level determinants of the innovation phases and types in the social profit sports sector

The concept of innovation has been given broadly academic attention, particular in a business context. Yet, the field of sports has received much less academic attention. This is remarkable, as the sports sector provides obvious and various benefits. In this regard, the literature has provided evidence of the healt benefits that sports can produce, or how sports can bring people together, etc. Because of this, sport is also increasingly being used by governments as a means of solving societal problems. However, due to the increased expectations, sports organisations also have to find a way to cope with these challenges. As innovation is considered important for an organisation to manage these challenges, this study's aim is to investigate innovativeness within sports federations. More specifically, this project aims to answer four research questions. First of all, it examines which products/services sports federations offer to which target groups, and which objectives the sports federations pursue with these objectives (i.e. goal attainment). As a second research question, this study tries to find out which critical success factors play a role in the successful implementation of the various innovations, especially at the level of the users (i.e. critical user success factors). Thirdly, we aim to determine the success factors at the level of the organisation and environment (i.e. critical contextual and environmental factors). Finally, the purpose of this project is to determine the effect of the policy pursued and, if necessary, to make proposals for adjustments (i.e. effect of the policy).