Bastien Soule

Innovation in Sport


Скачать книгу

time (Gaglio 2017). This “setting in motion” is supported and stimulated by the creation of investment funds, incubators or dedicated places that encourage actors from different backgrounds to “take action” (Mootoosamy 2016), without necessarily attaching great importance to the evaluation of the real positive effects that are brought about, as well as to the collateral effects generated (Godin and Vinck 2017). Entrenched as an ideal, innovation in fact tends to constitute a value in itself – innovate to innovate (Gaglio 2011) – or even an ideology – innovate or perish (Oki 2019) – where stability and conservatism are mostly described in a pejorative way. It refers indiscriminately to everything that is good, new and useful, likely to play a role in the socio-economic and societal challenges facing modern societies (Oki 2019). It is no longer a matter of challenging the established political order, but rather of reinforcing and conforming to it. This sacralization is nothing new: more than 50 years ago, Rogers (1995) pointed out the existence of a “pro-innovation bias” in Western societies, which consisted of considering innovation as fundamentally and systematically positive for the economy and society. We expect innovation, especially innovation based on science and technology, to lead us out of stagnation, or even economic and social crises (Joly 2019; Lechevalier and Laugier 2019). Innovation is said to be economically virtuous: there is indeed a myth according to which the maximization of value obtained through innovation is not merely a source of competitiveness, but also of trickle-down to other spheres of the economy (maintaining employment, protecting social models), according to a very classic but widely contested theory in economics. More broadly, innovation is increasingly seen as the solution to major challenges, in very different sectors (global warming, food security, depletion of natural resources, demographic aging, etc.) (Joly 2019).

      I.3. What innovation is and is not: in search of a definition

      In view of the evolution of its meaning, the sacredness of which it is currently the object and its omnipresence in the field of sport, we need to clarify what is meant by innovation.

      Indeed, a notion that has become unavoidable is not yet clear. Still rather obscure, often confused with invention, creativity or change, the term innovation covers different realities depending on who uses it, and therefore remains rather vague (Mootoosamy 2016). It is in fact a “catchword” that is a source of ambiguity (Garcia and Calantone 2002), on the one hand because it has been the subject of multiple definitions (depending in particular on the scientific disciplines (Boly 2004)), but also because it is strongly imbued with values.

      This situation refers to a classic difficulty in the social sciences: the concepts used circulate for the most part in everyday language, often in a vague manner and according to a variety of meanings (Bajoit 2003; Passeron 2006). A classic trap is to consider the categories of common sense sufficiently “meaningful” not to bother with costly terminological precautions (Duchastel and Laberge 1999).

      As mentioned above, the evolution of practices initially constituted the main part of the research carried out on innovation in the field of sport. Subsequently, analyses focused on product innovations against the backdrop of accelerated technological change. Other types of innovations exist and have also been studied: organizational (Hillairet 2003), service