Priority or marginal phenomenon? An analysis of the relevance of digitalization in voluntary sports clubs

Summary: Although the social significance and the potential of digitalization for organized sport were already perceptible before the COVID crisis, there are so far only a few meaningful findings on the importance voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) attach to digitalization in their club work Against this background, the article examines the following questions: (i) What priority do VSCs give to the topic of digitalization? (ii) What club-specific factors influence the respective prioritization of digitalization? It models the prioritization of digitalization in relation to organizational goals, the factors of attitude and organizational culture, and the different organizational capacities of the VSCs A sample of n = 787 VSCs was generated for the analysis The findings show that VSCs regarded digitalization as an important issue but not as one of high priority within club work before the COVID crisis The results of the logistic regression model indicate that the differences in prioritization are mainly related to differences in organizational culture and organizational capacities © 2021 Mathematical Institute Slovak Academy of Sciences