Does relatedness drive the diversification of countries’ success in sports?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research Question: The sources of countries’ success in sporting events have been investigated for a long time. In addition to socioeconomic factors, sport specialization and competitive balance have been identified as impacting medal yields. Nevertheless, there remains little understanding of how countries become successful in sports they did not succeed in before. Research methods: We argue that the concept of related diversification, which is particularly popular in Evolutionary Economic Geography, can also be applied to sports and can help to explain in which sports countries become successful. We substantiate our argument with an empirical study of the evolution of national medal portfolios covering 61 sports at the Olympic Summer Games between 1896 and 2016 using this framework. Results and findings: Our empirical findings quantify the relatedness of sports emerging from physical, financial, cultural, and organizational similarities. We confirm that diversification processes based on countries’ existing strengths in particular sports are a (small) driving force behind the Olympic success of countries and help to explain their success in sports in which they have been previously unsuccessful. Implications: Our results highlight how examining hidden opportunities for diversification by incorporating sport-relatedness in a competitive positioning strategy can be informative for sport policy makers.