Knowledge, Competencies, and Skills for a Sustainable Sport Management Growth: A Systematic Review

The present systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of sport management relevant knowledge, competencies, and skills analyzing and harmonizing the European skills classification for sport management employment profiles and evidence-based information from the scientific literature in this field. The information search in the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations platform resulted in four main sport management professional profiles, whereas literature searches in SPORTDiscus (EBSCOhost), Scopus, and Google Scholar databases resulted in 48 manuscripts meeting the inclusion criteria. The main findings showed a substantial scholars’ interest in deepening the understanding of necessary sport management-related knowledge/ competencies/skills from different research perspectives. However, a disconnect between industry demands and students and/or employees’ preparedness and performance emerged, which substantiates the need to systematically update education and training in the sector to foster the sustainable development of this scientific area. Furthermore, in recognizing the centrality of the background, foundational, sport management-related knowledge, the crucial role of competencies and soft skills emerged. The present study not only provided a comprehensive, evidence-based, overview on sport management relevant knowledge/competencies/skills but also proposed a harmonized framework grounded on different relevant clusters that should be considered in developing and implementing educational sustainable programs for sport managers and leaders.