Entrepreneurial ecosystems for developing the sports industry in European Union countries

In recent years, the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach has gained particular interest worldwide for understanding the context of entrepreneurship at the macro level. However, although the sports sector is gaining importance in the European Union and can improve people's health, generate employment, and contribute to countries' GDP, no research from this perspective has been found. Thus, this paper aims to analyze the influence of different indicators related to innovation on European Union countries' shared sport-related GDP (last data available from 2012 were used). The results showed that 12 solutions could explain 76% of the cases of high levels of shared sport-related GDP. The most important solution is the combination of high levels of creativity*high levels of knowledge and technology*high levels of business* high levels of infrastructure*high levels of human capital and research (consistency: 0.80; raw coverage: 0.50). Finally, some guidelines to develop a sport entrepreneurial ecosystem are proposed.

Automated summary

This study aimed to analyze the influence of innovation indicators on the sport-related GDP of European Union countries, and proposed solutions that could explain cases of high levels of sport-related GDP. The most important solution identified was a combination of high levels of creativity, knowledge and technology, business, infrastructure, human capital, and research.