Intellectual capital, the key to success in the management of high-performance sport organisations

One of the most important capabilities for organisations involved in the management of high-performance sport is to create and share knowledge and to compare such organisations with others. The purpose of this paper was to report on a model of intellectual capital developed in the Iran Ministry of Sport and Youth based on a pattern created by Skandia. The population of this study was the employees of the Ministry of Sport and Youth (750 people) and the sample size based on the Morgan table guidelines was 254. This research was descriptive-analytical in design and the data collection instrument was a researcher made questionnaire. Content validity was confirmed by twelve experts who were members of the Faculty of Sport Management. Cronbach's alpha of 0.856 was obtained when measuring questionnaire reliability. Exploratory factor analysis identified eleven factors which were used to explain the intellectual capital of the Ministry of Sport and Youth. Human capital (β=0.51, p<.05), relational capital (β=0.38, p<.05) and structural capital (β=0.31, p<.05) were all found to have a significant effect on intellectual capital. An intellectual capital model such as this has significant policy and practical implications for managing high performance sport organisations by facilitating desired ideologies and organisational behaviors necessary for success in a competitive environment.