Innovation Capability of Non-profit Sport Organisations

Innovation attracts great interest both from research and practice perspectives. It is seen as a way to grow within a competitive environment and meet consumers’ expectations. However, little has been done on innovation in non-profit sport organisations (NPSOs) despite calls for such research. Their context, features, and activities influence how they implement and perceive innovation. NPSOs develop sport and non-sport service innovations to satisfy their members, increase their effectiveness, and/or the quality of their programmes to the members. The purpose of this paper is to present a model of innovative capability in NPSOs. It displays four dimensions representing NPSOs’ constraints and opportunities with regard to innovation: strategy, user, human resources, and finance. The paper discusses the capability for NPSOs to develop innovations and provides further research directions on innovation in the non-profit sport context.