Sport Development Model in Iran with an Emphasis on the Stakeholders, Practices and Processes

The aim of this study was to develop the model of sport development in Iran with an emphasis on the stakeholders, practices and processes. In the present research, qualitative method based on the grounded theory was used. For data collection, snowball sampling method and semi-structured interviews with 15 elites, who were aware of the subject, were used. The collected data were analyzed by coding the grounded theory with the constructivist approach by Charms (2006). Coding was conducted in two phases: initial coding and focused coding. Then, theoretical coding was used to form focused codes. The data and obtained codes were assessed periodically by the researcher to ascertain their accuracy. The Results showed that according to the systematic approach, the model of sport development in Iran had five parts: input which included stakeholders (macro, middle and micro) and practices (development of human system, management development, development of financial system, development of equipment and facilities, cultural development, institutional development, promotion, development of the competition system), process which included three processes of attraction, retention (retention of talent, retention of community sport participation) and nurturing, output which included sociocultural consequences, economic consequences and political consequences, feedback system (control and evaluation system), and ultimately, the environment which included sociocultural, economic and political-legal grounds. It seems that for effective development of sport in Iran, it is necessary for macro-stakeholders such as the government to adopt the right and necessary policies in this regard and for those organizations that directly and indirectly paly roles in developing sport to define and operate these policies in the form of related practices and processes so that the necessary opportunities, structure and contexts for the participation of sport consumers can be provided in the form of a system.