What Values do Leisure Sports Create and What is Their Relationship to Competitiveness?

Abstract

Sports play an increasingly important role in the economy and in society. Yet when it comes to the study of sports economics, most literature focuses on professional athletics; the topic of leisure sports receives scant attention on both the theoretical and the practical level, as Downward and his co-authors pointed out in 2009. This article will focus on leisure sports. Its goal is to highlight the values that leisure sports instill in individuals, companies, society and the economy, and to explore how leisure sports can make them more competitive. I will begin with a short conceptual definition of leisure sports and competitiveness, followed by a review of relevant academic literature. Finally, this paper will analyze the results of 31 qualitative in-depth interviews with business professionals, government officials, and representatives of civil society and university experts who specialize in sports business or sport sociology.