Sport innovation: developing a typology

Abstract

Innovation plays a vital role in sport. Through new ideas, change and renewal, innovation shapes how sport is played, viewed and organized. In other words, innovation affects the role of sport in society. Despite its importance for the development of sport, innovation has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. However, during the last ten years, sport innovation has started to emerge as a research field of its own. This article seeks to synthesise current knowledge on sport innovation by reviewing previous and current research on innovation and sport. Based on the reviewed literature, a typology of sport innovation is developed. In the typology presented in this article, it is proposed that there are at least five types of innovation that occurs in sport: social innovation, technological innovation, commercial innovation, community-based innovation and organizational innovation. Each sport innovation type is discussed and some directions for future research on sport innovation is suggested.

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