Using Grounded Theory in sport management research

Abstract

This paper argues for Grounded Theory (GT) to be more widely used to allow emergence of socially constructed sport related processes. The aim of GT is to explain social phenomena and the resources that are required to support social processes. GT is attractive to researchers as it uses the natural setting where the phenomena studied takes place to examine and understand social constructions. This paper demonstrates the importance of using GT by using a sport management study to exemplify GT processes and assess its efficacy in the discipline. Integration of GT method will strengthen sport management research and enable researchers understand social constructions associated with sport.