Ethical considerations in researching sport and social entrepreneurship

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss ethical dilemmas that occur in doing research on social entrepreneurial sport ventures. Three cases that highlight ethical dilemmas in research on social entrepreneurship and sport are presented and ethically reflected upon. The data comprise interviews with representatives, field notes from observations and analyses of documents concerning the ventures. Three things make research in this area extra problematic: first, ‘social good’ in social entrepreneurship and sport implies a normative perspective. It is permeated by ideology and ethics. Second, what is considered as ‘social good’ may differ between sectors of society as the entrepreneur crosses boundaries. What is valid as a resource and capital in one sector might not be so in another one, and what is legal within one sector may be illegal in another. Third, social entrepreneurs may have their own intentions with regard to participating in research, which may challenge our credibility as researchers. Therefore, we need, as professionals, to take a step back and be both critical of our work and make this criticism visible, which is to some extent what we are doing by writing this article.

Keywords:

• Research ethics
• ethical dilemma
• sport research
• qualitative research
• entrepreneurship

Acknowledgements

We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions to improve the paper as well as Kutte Jönsson at Malmö University for providing valuable feedback in an earlier draft on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by grants from The Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity.

Notes on contributors

Daniel Bjärsholm

Daniel Bjärsholm is a PhD student in Sport Science at Malmö University. He is also employed at Linnaeus University as a lecturer. His research interest primarily concerns social entrepreneurship and sport. His other research interests include sport policy and sport pedagogy.

Per Gerrevall

Per Gerrevall is a Senior Professor of Education at Linnaeus University. His main interests are professional learning and development within various contexts, primarily school, higher education, and sports.

Susanne Linnér

Susanne Linnér is a Senior Lecture at Linnaeus University. Her main interests are ethics, learning and leadership issues in both children and youth sport as well as elite sport.

Tomas Peterson

Tomas Peterson is a Senior Professor at Malmö University. His research areas include sport and social entrepreneurship, the professionalization of Swedish football, selection and ranking in Swedish children’s and youth sports, the relation between school sport and competition sport, as well as sport politics. He was the investigator of the latest Official Report of the Swedish Government on Sport Policy (SOU, 2008).

Katarina Schenker

Katarina Schenker is a Senior Lecture at Linnaeus University. Her research interests concern the inclusion and exclusion of children and youth in sport and in the school subject Physical Education and health. Additionally, she researches the relationship between sport and social entrepreneurship from a Swedish sport policy perspective.