Apples and oranges? Establishing equivalence in comparative sport policy research

ABSTRACT

The notion of equivalence is important in the context of comparative studies, such as those that compare performance across sporting nations or those that compare good governance across different sport organisations. However, despite its importance, the concept has been interpreted and employed in different ways, resulting in the term being misunderstood or conflated. This article examines the concept of equivalence, discusses how issues of non-equivalence can arise, and identifies potential strategies that can be employed by researchers to ensure it is more appropriately addressed. We examine and apply three main types of equivalence (construct, sample and functional) to two empirical cases, (1) the SPLISS analysis of critical success factors in elite sport policy and (2) Play the Game’s Sport Governance Observer to demonstrate how researchers attempt to overcome or at least mitigate the problems of equivalence and how, despite these efforts, there remain equivalence-related problems that limit the reliability and credibility of comparative elements of the study. We conclude our paper by discussing the implications for comparative sport research and specifically how future comparative sport research may be enhanced.

KEYWORDS:

• Equivalence
• comparative
• methodology
• elite sport
• governance

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. To clarify, Play the Game developed the Sport Governance Observer concept, Geearart executed the study and authored the report.

2. Specifically, the first author was part of the team involved in collecting the data in Canada for the SPLISS: Track and Field Athletics (unpublished) and the second author, the US data for the National Sport Governance Observer within the US (Geeraert 2018).

3. where 1.00 = highly developed, 0.75 = sufficiently developed, 0.50 = reasonably developed, 0.25 = insufficiently developed and 0 = not developed.

4. Play the Game is an initiative run by the Danish Institute for Sports Studies (Idan), aiming at raising the ethical standards of sport and promoting democracy, transparency and freedom of expression in world sport. See here for further information: https://www.playthegame.org