Towards a definition of "sport administration"

Abstract

In this paper, the concept of "sport administration" was defined. Sport administration is a specialized field of sport sciences as well as a part of the field of business administration classified by each industry. In previous studies on sport administration, there has not been a common understanding of the concept of sport administration among researchers. Accordingly the nature and meanings of sport administration as a special field of business administration was examined in this paper by reviewing the Japanese literature on those subjects. Sport administration is a type of cooperative system for business administration. Cooperative systems for business administration are distinguished from other types of cooperative systems on account of their involvement in the supply of goods and services. Thus cooperative systems in general, such as a cooperative system for learning and the one for competitive sport, are not the object of research in sport administration. Sport business is a key concept to define sport administration. Sport administration means a cooperative system for managing sport business. Business is defined in previous studies as works to supply necessary goods and services and as the process that changes these procured goods and services into some utilities or values. The objective of sport business is to supply services involved in the diverse functions of sport provision and to enrich people's life with sport involvement. Sport administration is a united whole of organization and management for sport business, and aims at making common benefit for all members contributing to sport business.