Multidimensional knowledge for the professionalization of sports and physical activity managers in Ibero-America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v85.120103Keywords:
Physical activity, Professional knowledge, Mixed-methods approach, Sport management, ProfessionalizationAbstract
Introduction: The professionalization of sport and physical activity management requires clearly defining the knowledge that underpins professional education and practice, particularly given the heterogeneity of professional profiles across Ibero-America.
Objective: To identify and systematize the key knowledge required by sport and physical activity managers across three dimensions, with the aim of establishing a reference framework for professional education and the professionalization of the sector.
Methodology: A descriptive mixed-methods study was conducted with 233 managers from Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and other countries. A questionnaire evaluated by 10 experts was administered. Quantitative data were processed using SPSS and Excel, while responses to open-ended questions were analyzed in ATLAS.ti through content analysis, axial coding, and co-occurrence matrices.
Results: The Knowledge dimension showed satisfactory psychometric properties (assessment index = 0.908; Cronbach’s alpha = 0.949). A total of 144 codes and 1,274 co-occurrences were identified; 20 high-conceptual-density codes accounted for 879 co-occurrences (69.0%). The most prominent areas included sport legislation, knowledge of different sports disciplines, marketing, economics and finance, strategic planning, and human resource management. Knowledge was organized into technical-administrative, strategic, and socio-human dimensions, with specialized knowledge being more concentrated at the postgraduate level and among professionals trained in sport management.
Conclusions: The sport manager’s profile is multidimensional and combines operational, strategic, and relational knowledge. The findings provide a basis for reviewing academic programs, aligning educational criteria, and strengthening the professional relevance of sport management in Ibero-America.
References
Acosta Silva, A. (2025). Un futuro líquido. La educación superior en América Latina hacia el 2050. Revis-ta De La Educación Superior, 54(214), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.36857/resu.2025.214.3266
Adobe Inc. (2025). Adobe Illustrator (versión 2025) [Software]. Adobe. https://www.adobe.com/illustrator
AlKhaldi, H. M. H. (2022). Athletic knowledge management and its role in achieving competitive ad-vantage in sports work environment. Annals of Applied Sport Science, 10(s1), e1058. https://doi.org/10.52547/aassjournal.1058
Arriola Ruiz, E., Matus Ruiz, M., & Carrillo Viveros, J. (2025). Impacto social y eficiencia operativa: Ha-cia un modelo de Innovación Social Corporativa Esbelta en la frontera México-Estados Unidos. Nóesis. Revista De Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades, 34(68), 92–115. https://doi.org/10.20983/noesis.2025.2.5
Barraza Macías, A. (2022). La neofobia generalizada: concepto, modelo teórico y medición. Nóesis. Re-vista De Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades, 31(62), 74–85. https://doi.org/10.20983/noesis.2022.2.5
Barredo Ibáñez, D. (2015). El análisis de contenido. Una introducción a la cuantificación de la realidad. Revista San Gregorio, 26–31. https://doi.org/10.36097/rsan.v0i0.113
Boyd, R. J., Powney, G. D., & Pescott, O. L. (2023). We need to talk about nonprobability samples. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 38(6), 521–531. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.01.001
Cardona-Mejía, L. M., & Padierna-Cardona, J. C. (2021). Administración y gestión deportiva: Dimensio-nes teóricas para el diseño de programas académicos. Latin American Journal of Sports Man-agement – Revista Gerencia Deportiva ALGEDE, 5(2), 17–44.
Carranza-Bautista, D. (2021). Gestión del deporte o la actividad física: modelo de intervención global (Sports or physical activity management: global intervention model). Retos, 39, 961-972. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v0i39.80303
Carranza Bautista, D. (2026). Los Seis Maestros del Éxito Profesional y el Método 5A en Actividad Física y Deporte. Revista De Ciencias Del Ejercicio FOD, 21(2), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.29105/rce-fod.v21i2.193
Carranza-Bautista, D., Gómez Hincapié, A. J., Rojas Núñes, C. F., & Sandino Rodríguez, M. C. (2025). Retos y problemáticas de la gestión deportiva y de actividades físicas en Latinoamérica: Diagnóstico estratégico a través de las Herramientas P + SEPCES = R y la matriz FODA. Retos, 63, 291-305. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v63.109697
Carranza-Bautista, D., Miranda Mendoza, F. J., Mendoza Farias, F. J., & Ramírez Nava, R. (2024). Diseño y validación de un modelo de gestión de actividad física y del deporte universitario (Design and validation of a management model for physical activity and university sports). Retos, 57, 232-244. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v57.105458
Carranza-Bautista, D., Valcarce-Torrente, M., Amaya-Sánchez, B. E., & Rojas-Núñez , C. F. (2024). Key competencies and role profiles for sports managers: a multi-dimensional analysis. European Journal of Government and Economics, 13(2), 225–239. https://doi.org/10.17979/ejge.2024.13.2.10584
Castro Vasquez, M. del C., & Arellano Gálvez, M. del C. (2024). La teoría fundamentada en la investiga-ción social: experiencia en un estudio sociocultural en salud. Nóesis. Revista De Ciencias Socia-les Y Humanidades, 33(66), 4–20. https://doi.org/10.20983/noesis.2024.2.1
Çiftçi, S., & Mirzeoğlu, N. (2014). The research of qualifications of sport manager. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 152, 740–745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.313
Cremades, R. (2017). Validación de un instrumento para el análisis y evaluación de webs de bibliotecas escolares mediante el acuerdo interjueces. Investigación Bibliotecológica: Archivonomía, bi-bliotecología E información, 31(71), 127–149. https://doi.org/10.22201/iibi.0187358xp.2017.71.57813
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310555
Custodio González, C. A., Ortiz Salazar, T. M., & Medina Pérez, P. C. (2024). Segregación socioespacial a los bienes socioambientales de los espacios verdes públicos de la ciudad de Durango, México. Nóesis. Revista De Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades, 33(65), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.20983/noesis.2024.1.1
Dawadi, S., Shrestha, S., & Giri, R. A. (2021). Mixed-methods research: A discussion on its types, chal-lenges, and criticisms. Journal of Practical Studies in Education, 2(2), 25–36. https://doi.org/10.46809/jpse.v2i2.20
Díaz Herrera, C. (2018). Investigación cualitativa y análisis de contenido temático. Orientación intelec-tual de revista Universum. Revista General de Información y Documentación, 28(1), 119-142. https://doi.org/10.5209/RGID.60813
Guidotti, F., Demarie, S., Ciaccioni, S., & Capranica, L. (2023a). Knowledge, Competencies, and Skills for a Sustainable Sport Management Growth: A Systematic Review. Sustainability, 15(9), 7061. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097061
Guidotti, F., Demarie, S., Ciaccioni, S., & Capranica, L. (2023b). Sports Management Knowledge, Compe-tencies, and Skills: Focus Groups and Women Sports Managers’ Perceptions. Sustainability, 15(13), 10335. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310335
Martínez Hernández, R., & Martínez Rodríguez, A. del C. (2021). La gestión deportiva en escuelas de ne-gocios: Una visión de formación universitaria. Revista de Investigación Científica y Tecnológi-ca, 5(2), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.36003/Rev.investig.cient.tecnol.V5N2(2021)12
Méndez Rial, B. (2014). Evolución de la gestión del deporte en el territorio español: síntesis (Evolution of sport management in the Spanish context: synthesis). Retos, 26, 134–137. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v0i26.34415
Moreno Olivos, T. (2015). Las competencias del evaluador educativo. Revista De La Educación Supe-rior, 44(174), 101-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resu.2015.04.011
Navarro Chávez, J. S., Yance Carvajal, C. L., & Fernández Solís, M. A. (2025). Planificación estratégica para mejorar la gestión deportiva de la Liga Cantonal de Milagro. ASCE Magazine, 4(2), 1053–1074. https://doi.org/10.70577/ASCE/1053-1074/2025
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (GPT-4, May 12 version) [Large Language Model]. Response to query by Car-ranza-Bautista, D., September 23, 2025. https://chat.openai.com/chat
Pentapati, K. C., Chenna, D., Kumar, V. S., & Kumar, N. (2025). Reliability generalization meta-analysis of Cronbach’s alpha of the oral impacts on daily performance (OIDP) questionnaire. BMC Oral Health, 25, Article 220. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-025-05496-3
Romeo, M., Yepes-Baldó, M., Burset, S., González, V., Gustems, J., Calderón, C., Rius, C., Besolí, A., Martín, C., & Bosch, E. (2022). A la búsqueda de la evaluación de competencias profesionalizadoras a partir de incidentes críticos. Revista De La Educación Superior, 51(204), 85-100. https://doi.org/10.36857/resu.2022.204.2281
Sanabria Navarro, J. R., Silveira Pérez, Y., & Cortina Núñez, M. de J. (Eds.). (2023). Gestión organizacio-nal deportiva: Revisiones sistemáticas. Sello Editorial FUNGADE. https://selloeditorial.fungade.com/index.php/fungade/catalog/book/28
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for develop-ing grounded theory (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Suresh Kumar, S. (2017). Soft skills for sports management. International Journal of Physical Educa-tion, Sports and Health, 4(3), 152–153. https://www.kheljournal.com/archives/?year=2017&vol=4&issue=3&part=C&ArticleId=938
Tinto Arandes, J. A. (2013). El análisis de contenido como herramienta de utilidad para la realización de una investigación descriptiva. Un ejemplo de aplicación práctica utilizado para conocer las in-vestigaciones realizadas sobre la imagen de marca de España y el efecto país de origen. Provin-cia, (29), 135-173. http://www.saber.ula.ve/handle/123456789/38452
Tuirán, R. (2019). La educación superior: promesas de campaña y ejercicio de gobierno. Revista de la Educación Superior, 48(190), 113–183. https://resu.anuies.mx/ojs/index.php/resu/article/download/715/289
Van Cleave, J. H., Guerra, A., Liang, E., Gutiérrez, C., Karni, R. J., Tsikis, M., Nguyen, G. P. C., & Squires, A. P. (2025). Using content validity index methodology for cross-cultural translation of a patient-reported outcome measure for head and neck cancer. Frontiers in Health Services, 5, «Article 1582127». https://doi.org/10.3389/frhs.2025.1582127
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Daniel Carranza-Bautista, Manel Valcarce-Torrente, Raquel Morquecho-Sánchez, Oscar Franco-Ávila
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
