Virtual Volunteering

Abstract

Since the inception of the World Wide Web, organizations have incorporated various forms of digital technology (e.g., computer software and systems, artificial intelligence) into their operations. Within sport organizations and events, volunteers are a crucial resource – yet volunteering has traditionally occurred in-person. Emerging from the World Wide Web, virtual volunteering is becoming popular among organizations, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, operations were transitioned (either temporarily or permanently) to virtual spaces. Despite a plethora of research on virtual volunteering, its investigation in the context of sport organizations and events is absent. This absence remains despite the prominence of the digital age in contemporary society and the increasing adoption of digital technology in sport organizations and events. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss broader virtual volunteering research to suggest future research directions in the context of sport organizations and events. To accomplish this, research on virtual volunteering from the broader volunteer literature is reviewed and discussed according to topics (e.g., motivation, engagement, social capital), contexts (e.g., non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations), and key findings (e.g., demographics, relationships, management practices, advantages and disadvantages of virtual volunteers). Several directions are offered to incorporate virtual volunteering into future sport and event volunteer research.