Abstract
Objective: The current research has been carried out with the aim of designing a model of the impact of social media in the development of sports businesses.
Methodology: The mixed and thematic analysis method was used in the qualitative part and the structural equation analysis method was used in the quantitative part. The statistical community in the qualitative part included university professors and sports business owners, who were selected after reaching the theoretical saturation limit of 17 people, and also in the quantitative part, 417 people were selected from the professors, graduates, and postgraduate students of sports management and marketing in the country. The research tool in the qualitative part included a semi-structured interview, and in the quantitative part, it included a researcher-made questionnaire with 36 questions taken from the qualitative part, whose formal and structural validity was confirmed, and its reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha test of 91%. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and Amos version 24 software.
Results: In this research, 116 open codes were extracted and categorized into 8 variables. In the quantitative part, except for the legal factor and financial resources, 6 other factors had a significant effect, and their prioritization includes the nature of social media, structural factor, online marketing, managerial factor, cultural and social factor, and human resources, respectively.
Conclusion: According to the findings of the current research, sports business owners are advised to use the necessary planning and investment for the success of their business based on the specified priorities.
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