Research on Identification of the Capacity Influencing Factors of Youth Sports Clubs in China

Since the 1970s, nonprofit organizations have identified organizational capacity as the key to improving organizational effectiveness. Youth sports clubs have long been trapped in a predicament that makes it difficult for them to keep non-profit nature, operate independently and maintain high performance for a long time. This study investigates which influencing factors can act on the capacity of youth sports clubs to ensure their non-profit nature whilst achieving healthy and sustainable development. The organizational theory systems view emphasizes the relationship between open internal structures and the role of external environmental factors, therefore the capacity influencing factors of youth sports clubs can be comprehensively considered to achieve this by considering both the internal and external influencing components of organizational capacity. The focus of this study was obtained by searching 11 relevant policy documents, 21 papers, and in-depth interviews with 26 experts including youth sports club managers, coaches, and venue management personnel and scholars studying in the field of youth sports research or practice. The study revealed the internal and external influences on youth sports club capabilities, including strategic leadership, service innovation, resource acquisition, network relationships, policy, social media, and environmental uncertainty; and constructed a relationship between internal and external influences on youth sports club capabilities and organizational effectiveness. In addition, we found that Social media had the highest weight, policy had the lowest weight, and the rest of the influences did not differ significantly by the method of the weight calculation. We recommend that youth sports clubs increase the application of social media, stimulate employees' service and innovation ability, and cultivate the strategic leadership ability of leaders.