Knowledge Structure in Sport Management: Bibliometric and Social Network Analyses

Over 250 sport management degree programs and over 25 academic journals are in existence currently. Despite the dramatic growth of academic programs and publications, as a relatively young academic field, there are ongoing debates on diverse issues such as definition, boundary, and methodology in the field of sport management (Chalip, 2006; Costa, 2005; Pitts, 2001, Quatman & Chelladurai, 2008; Slack, 1998). Reflecting the notions of Kuhn (1970), the field of sociology of science has contributed to provide insights on these ongoing issues in academic fields. Based on the ontological and epistemological foundations of the social construction of knowledge in sociology of science, this study identified critical concepts and paradigms and explored the structural patterns of those concepts in knowledge structure of sport management.;For this, the study employed bibliometric analysis and social network analysis on keywords and citations data retrieved from the articles of the Journal of Sport Management between 1997 and 2010. Embracing the advantages of the multilevel design, this study conducted two different levels of analyses with keywords and citations data -- keyword analysis (KA) and citation analysis (CA) for individual attributes and keyword co-occurrence network analysis (KCNA) and co-citation network analysis (CCNA) for relational attributes.;The findings of the study indicated that there has been a shift on trends and themes in sport management in both levels -- analytical and structural levels. The results of KA and CA revealed the shift on the popularity of certain individual keywords and publications whereas the results of KCNA and CCNA disclosed the shift on the popularity of structures of groups of keywords and publications.