The Relationship between Knowledge Management and the Process of Entrepreneurship in Sport Organizations

Abstract

In the current competitive world, organizations can reach competitive advantage which support entrepreneurship by providing the required tools. One of the most important tools for developing entrepreneurship which was neglected in previous studies is organizational knowledge management. The present paper aims to shed light on the role and importance of knowledge management in sport entrepreneurship in sport organizations of Mazandaran Province. 250 managers and employees of sport organizations were selected as the sample. Two questionnaires were used for data collection; knowledge management questionnaire with 22 questions (including knowledge acquisition, knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application) and entrepreneurship questionnaire with 35 questions (including idea creation, opportunity discovery, and idea exploitation). The results show that there is a significant relation between knowledge management and entrepreneurship process (r=0.68, p= 0.001) and also between knowledge management and entrepreneurship components (idea creation: r=0.33, p= 0.001; opportunity discovery: r= 0.53, p= 0.001; idea exploitation: r= 0.33, p= 0.001). According to the results, paying attention to knowledge management can systematically support the organizations in idea creation, opportunity discovery from created ideas, idea exploitation, and also entrepreneurship. Managers of sport organizations should assume that knowledge management is one of the empowerments of entrepreneurship or, in other words, knowledge management is one of the effective factors in the emergence of entrepreneurship. Hence, knowledge management should be regarded as one of main priorities and special planning must be done for it.