Title: Organisational legitimacy in sport management programs: an application of a scale

Authors: Gonzalo A. Bravo; Doyeon Won

Addresses: College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, West Virginia University, CPASS 212, 375 Birch Street, Morgantown, WV 26506-6116, USA ' Department of Sport and Leisure Studies, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, South Korea

Abstract: A scale that measures three dimensions of organisational legitimacy (cognitive, normative and regulative) in sport management programs was developed with the aim to examine which of these dimensions were perceived to be more important to influence students' choice when applying to a postgraduate sport management program. The study also compared how these three dimensions were perceived by students and faculty members. Confirmatory factor analysis and t-tests indicated that cognitive legitimacy was the most important dimension, followed by normative and regulative. Results show that perceptual differences exist between students and faculty in regards to how these two groups identify which legitimacy dimensions matter the most. Students placed greater importance on regulative legitimacy than faculty did. Meanwhile, faculty were more sensitive to normative and cognitive legitimacy. Finding suggest that for newly establishing sport management programs ensuring their program are well recognised and positioned among peer institutions becomes critical to influence student's choice.

Keywords: organisational legitimacy; market competition; higher education; new ventures; legitimacy scale; sport management courses; postgraduate courses; cognitive legitimacy; normative legitimacy; regulative legitimacy; perceptual differences; student perceptions; faculty perceptions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2016.077504

International Journal of Management in Education, 2016 Vol.10 No.3, pp.234 - 249

Received: 26 Jan 2015
Accepted: 03 Aug 2015
Published online: 04 Jul 2016 *

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