抄録
The purpose of this study was to obtain fundamental knowledge for a strategic approach in future sport policies to bid for and host international sport events and to explore the potential for the application of social network analysis in the field of international sport event research. We attempted to reveal the worldwide network structure among the international federations and countries hosting senior-class high level international sport events (Olympic sports only) like world championships and/or world-cups, for the past twenty years from 2001 to 2020. We defined the host countries and international federations of 647 international sport events as nodes, and measured the total numbers of nodes and ties of the network, the density of the network, and the degree of nodes using social network analysis. Furthermore, we used NetDraw to create a network map of hosting countries and international federations. The network consisted of 114 nodes and 878 ties with the density of 0.068. Countries with higher degree centrality were Germany, the United States, China/Spain, Italy, France, Japan/Russia, Great Britain, Canada, Hungary, and Australia throughout the past 20 years. The degree centralities in the first decade were higher for Germany/the United States, Spain/Italy, Canada/Japan, France, China, Australia, and Russia/Great Britain, while during the last decade China, France/Russia, Germany, the United States, Hungary/Spain, Italy/Japan, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Korea had a higher degree centrality. The international federations for sailing, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, athletics, wrestling, canoe, handball, modern pentathlon, and volleyball had a higher degree centrality throughout the past 20 years. In the second decade, the international federations for boxing, table tennis and taekwondo also had a higher degree centrality. These findings revealed the worldwide network structure and property among stakeholders related to hosting international sport events. Our findings provided basic evidences for understanding of market scale of international events and identification of competitive countries or potential sports/events in strategic planning of bidding for and hosting international sport events in the future. Social network analysis can be applied to researches in relation to high performance sport development, influence to international sports, and social effects on constancy of hosting international events in the field of international sport event research.
https://ror.org/01tx1rq25 
