ABSTRACT

As nations are increasingly investing large amounts of public money in elite sport development, policy makers often claim that elite sport will not only lead to more medals, but it will also trigger a range of wider societal outcomes. This point is clearly illustrated by the high-performance directors who were interviewed for this introduction. Notwithstanding the many claims, empirical studies that explore the outcomes of elite sport to society are largely fragmented and anecdotal. The six papers within this Special Issue add to our academic understanding of the complexity and multidimensional nature of both investigating and managing the societal impact of elite sport. By testing the papers against a hierarchy of evidence, they resonate with calls for sport management researchers to contribute to the field by utilising robust and appropriate research designs. However, as confirmed by the various studies, causality on this topic is still difficult to establish. We, therefore, call for a future research agenda that shifts away from wondering ‘if’ particular societal impacts attributable to elite sport exist, to answering the question ‘under what circumstances are they most likely to occur’.

摘要

随着各国越来越多地在精英体育发展上投入大量公共资金，政策制定者经常声称精英体育不仅会带来更多奖牌，还会引发一系列更广泛的社会成果。这一点在本次介绍中接受采访的高绩效董事中得到了清晰的说明。尽管有很多说法，但探索精英体育对社会的结果的实证研究在很大程度上是零散的和轶事。本期特刊中的六篇论文增加了我们对调查和管理精英体育社会影响的复杂性和多维性质的学术理解。通过根据证据等级测试论文，他们呼吁体育管理研究人员通过利用稳健和适当的研究设计为该领域做出贡献。然而，正如各种研究所证实的，关于这个主题的因果关系仍然难以确定。因此，我们呼吁未来的研究议程从怀疑“是否”可归因于精英体育的特定社会影响转变为回答“在什么情况下它们最有可能发生”的问题。