13: Comparative Analyses

Through conducting content analyses, in this study inter-country similarities and differences were identified and compared with the illustrations made by the 11 teams of authors for the previous chapters of this overview. Congruent and disparate themes and assertions were preliminarily articulated and discussed in the following five perspectives: (1) recent history and developmental stages of a country’s sport industry; (2) current state of being in the country’s sport industry, such as scope, magnitude, structure, governance, major policies, facilities, programs, and major happenings; (3) developmental characteristics, strength, and highlights of the country’s sport industry; (4) contemporary challenges and issues in the country’s sport industry; and (5) trends of development and advancement in the country’s sport industry. According to Babbie (1992), Creswell (2012), and Krippendorff (2004), as a form of qualitative research protocols, content analysis is a descriptive research in which the researcher examines a class of social artifacts typically composed of written documents. The researcher collects a set of documents, systematically reads them and records the consistent features of each one, and then draws inferences about the use and meaning of the documents. Content analysis seeks to characterize and synthesize content in order to discover the essentials or point out typical characteristics, thus revealing features not immediately apparent to the reader. In the current study, an emphasis was made on identifying summative characteristics among nations and regions. This chapter ends with some indicative closing remarks.