High performance judo: organizational determinants for international sporting success’ - examination

Presentation of the dissertation
The international high-performance sport shows two major trends in the past years. Firstly, an increasing number of countries that are seeking success in major world sporting events; secondly, an increasing number of countries that developed the ability to win medals in the international context. Despite this increase in competitiveness, in the international high-performance sport context there are usually only few winners and many losers; however, some nations are on the path to international sporting success and others are not. In this context, researchers and managers have a great interest in analysing the existing sports policies in different countries in the search of explanations for the international sporting success achieved by some countries and not by others. Recently, the studies have further advanced the field of sport policies by studying certain aspects of the high-performance sport policies and key success factors of specific sports. Like the competitive advantage of nations in economic context, no nation can be competitive in everything, therefore nations may specialise in one or few sports.

Objective
The objective of this research was to identify the organizational factors influencing the international sporting success in international high-performance Judo. Organizational factors were understood as manageable factor in system. This concept is originally from Systems Theory, which define “systems” as a whole, comprising interrelated elements that are integrated to accomplish a clearly defined objective. Systems Theory and other studies on high-performance sport policies (in this case, mainly the ‘Sports Policy factors Leading to International Sporting Success’ model) could contribute to the perception of the systemic elements that influence the sports development and the organizational factors of the international sporting success.

The organizational factors influencing the international sporting success in high-performance Judo
To fulfil the objective of this research, a Sequential Exploratory Design was used, which involves an initial phase that collects and analyses qualitative data, followed by a second intermediate phase related to the development of a measurement instrument, and a third which involves the collection and analysis of quantitative. Through Content analysis of interviews with 33 international high-performance Judo stakeholders (athletes, coaches, performance directors and experts), in initial qualitative phase 11 categories and 44 subcategories were identified, which were considered the dimensions and the organizational factors influencing the international sporting success in high performance Judo respectively. It was verified that the results are similar to other studies and models that had the purpose of investigating sport policies or high-performance sport systems. However, specific Judo characteristics that cause effect on organizational factors influencing the international sporting success were identified. Furthermore, based on the Systems Theory environmental factors that influence the development of judo in different countries and consequently that influence the reach of international success were also identified. From these results, the "Judo Organizational Factors Influencing the International Sporting Success" (JUDO-OFIISS) model was developed. A questionnaire developed and validated by Content Validation of six experts in the second phase allowed the model validation in a third quantitative phase, which proceeded an Exploratory Factor Analysis on data obtained in a sample of 406 Brazilian judokas, divided into athletes, coaches, performance directors and experts. It was found through the Exploratory Factor Analysis that the organizational factors influencing the international sporting success in high-performance Judo were correlated and validated, but they did not follow accurately the elements of Systems Theory. There were no organizational factors with priority, the search for international sporting success in the high-performance Judo depend on the existence of all identified organizational factors and probably their relationship in different countries. Future research can deepen the understanding of the relationship among organizational factors, conducting quantitative procedures performed in samples of judokas from other countries or carrying out procedures involving confirmatory analysis or structural equation modelling in order to identify the importance or the “power” of each organizational factors or even the dimensions (categories) that were identified in this research. In special for Judo, the identified results may provide knowledge for the development and management in high-performance Judo and it can even be used as a model for the identification and evaluation of key factors in Judo policies and systems that may influence in achieving international success. As to its theoretical contribution, this research adds in the understanding of sport policies and high-performance sport systems, since specific characteristics and new factors involving a sport specific level were identified.