| As the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) is fast approaching the 25th anniversary of its inception, the intent of this study was to critically review and empirically explore the social scientific structure of the field of sport management in North America. Integrating a network perspective, the ideas presented offer a unique and compelling approach toward identifying the underlying social structure and potential socio-structural barriers to the diffusion of innovation throughout the network of scholars.; A network model of coauthorship patterns was generated using several rounds of sampling and archival data collection. The observed network structure was explored both quantitatively and qualitatively for meaningful patterns. The results of the study were intended to essentially tell a story of the evolution and current state of the field of sport management's coauthorship structure and identify potential socio-structural barriers present in the network. Among the themes that emerged included the structural dominance of one particular institution and the presence of a structural gap between researchers in the United States and Canada. As this study was exploratory in nature, the themes developed were not meant to be conclusive but rather lay the foundation for future research directions.; The findings of the study were tied to theoretical, methodological, and practical implications for the diffusion of ideas and practices throughout the network structure. In addition, the secondary thrust of this study was to fundamentally introduce social network analysis as an alternative methodological approach to scholars in the field of sport management. By incorporating some of the techniques of social network analysis into the process of a critical investigation of the social construction of knowledge in the field, it is the authors' hope to insightfully delineate how network analytic techniques can provide an opportunity to explore more diverse and robust research questions in the future. |
