A model of transparency: determinants and implications of transparency for national sport organizations

ABSTRACT

Research question: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theory of transparency by empirically developing a model of transparency of National Sport Organizations (NSOs). Three objectives aided the development of the model. The first objective was to examine structural determinants of transparency. The second objective was to identify further determinants and possible implications of transparency. The third objective was to statistically verify the identified implications of transparency.

Research methods: A mixed research method in equal status concurrent design (qualitative and quantitative) was employed. The data were collected in three phases; a website analysis of 67 Czech NSOs, follow-up interviews, and a survey.

Results and findings: A model of transparency was empirically developed based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis. The only positive structural determinant of transparency was membership, while other structural determinants had negative or no effect. Attitudinal and knowledge-based determinants were the main barriers of transparency. A positive effect of transparency regarding the collection of membership fees was confirmed. A new type of quasi-transparent organization was identified as a prevailing type of organization.

Implications: The model contributed to the development of the concept of transparency in three ways. First, it revealed a tangible effect of transparency on the collection of membership fees. Second, it identified new barriers to transparency; attitudinal and knowledge-based. And third, the phenomenon of a quasi-transparent organization points at possible discrepancies between a self-perception of being transparent and behaviors that are non-transparent. Practical implications and future research directions based on the results are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational transparency
• quasi-transparency
• National Sport Organizations
• determinants of transparency
• model of transparency
• sport governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Pavel Král http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3531-6123

Graham Cuskelly http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9352-1873

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Institutional Support Funding at FM VSE [grant number 600040].