The Factors Affecting Participatory Governance of Coronavirus Crisis Management in Sports Businesses with a Grounded Theory Approach

The outbreak of coronavirus has posed a serious threat to sports businesses. The aim of this study was identifying the factors affecting participatory governance of coronavirus crisis management in sports businesses. The study was applied in terms of purpose and qualitative research using unstructured Glaser method. The statistical population consists of experts who have scientific, executive or both expertises in sports management. In the present study, the opinions of 15 experts were collected during a semi-structured interview in a purposeful way until the theoretical saturation was reached. The reliability of the interviews was 0.75 using the intra-subject agreement study method. To analyze the data, continuous comparison method was used during the three stages of open, axial and selective coding by Maxqda2018 software. 60 codes were obtained in the open coding stage and 7 axes in the axial coding stage and finally, the factors of systemic approach, compensatory strategy, NGOs, crisis response policy, media support, e-government and crisis governance were identified as effective factors. As a result, crisis management based on participatory governance can increase its capabilities in dealing with such crises due to these factors and perform better in reviving and keeping sports and sports businesses active.