A scoping review of sport organisations’ accountability

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose/Rationale Stakeholders of sporting organisations have expressed a myriad of concerns regarding sport organisations’ accountability. Despite growth in the literature, a review and examination of this scholarship remains missing. This paper provides a scoping review on the accountability of sport organisations, and in doing so, map the research field and determine future research opportunities. Design/Methodology/Approach Based on the scoping review guidelines of Arksey and O'Malley (2005), four databases were comprehensively searched. Following a thorough search process, 44 articles relating to sporting organisation accountability were reviewed. Findings Our analysis reveals a dominance of conceptual and theoretical-based studies with a varied approach to accountability, and evidently a pre-eminence of case study methodologies and lack of explicit theoretical perspectives. International sport organisations, national sport organisations, and government agencies were among the most studied. Practical implications Future studies should pursue an integration of discourses, and greater generalisability among organisations. This has the potential to strengthen the theoretical perspectives and guide research that improves accountability practices of sport organisations. Research contribution We have mapped the sport organisation accountability literature, as well as identifying research gaps to direct future research. Overall, the results reveal sport organisations’ accountability is a nascent topic with unrealised interdisciplinary potential.