Background
The importance of sport and physical activity (PA) in the prevention of non-communicable diseases has been widely demonstrated [
1]. However, recent studies have shown that PA levels worldwide are low [
2,
3]. In Germany, for example, PA recommendations were only met by a quarter of children and adolescents [
4] while about 40% of German adults show insufficient PA behavior [
3]. Due to increased mortality rates and health care costs [
5,
6], physical inactivity represents a key social and economic challenge.
Individual behavioral interventions have proven insufficient to promote sport and PA at the population level [
7,
8]. Instead, interventions aimed at changing systems while taking into account the social and physical environment in which people live have received increasing attention [
9,
10]. The World Health Organization not only calls for the provision of individual PA programs and opportunities but also for the development of active systems [
11]. In this context, the focus lies on intersectoral cooperation between relevant stakeholders and improved governance to enable social and environmental development and ensure sustainable sport and PA promotion.
To address the rather low PA levels of the German population, the German Federal Ministry of Health published the National Recommendations for PA and PA Promotion (NRPP) [
12]. These emphasize the need for PA promotion especially in community settings. While there are projects to implement the promotion of PA on a community level [
13,
14], a systematic and nationwide implementation of the NRPP on a policy level is deficient. Therefore, stakeholders call for sport and PA promotion to be given a higher priority on the political agenda, and for better networking of relevant actors including the community level [
15].
The community is seen as a central setting in which sport and PA promotion should be implemented since this is the place where people live, learn, work, commute, and exercise [
16]. Bauman et al. [
17] found that the existence of PA opportunities and recreational facilities in a person’s immediate environment is of great significance when it comes to sport and PA participation. Thus, organizations providing and coordinating sports and PA at the community level and their cooperation efforts play an important role [
18,
19]. In particular, the relevance of educational institutions, community departments, sports clubs, and recreational facilities is emphasized [
20]. This is because they can provide better access to sports and PA and break down barriers to active transportation through coordinated cooperation and exchange [
16]. These not only offer formal sports and PA programs but also provide spaces for informal sports, such as football fields, green spaces, or schoolyards.
The rationale for intersectoral cooperation is that public health challenges, such as physical inactivity, are very complex and multifaceted and therefore cannot be solved by single actors and organizations [
21,
22]. In addition, public funding in this area is scarce, which means that cooperation is essential in terms of uniting and sharing resources, information, and expertise [
23‐
26]. Ideas and solutions can be developed jointly and organizational capacity can be built together to address public health problems efficiently and effectively [
22,
27,
28]. Researchers have repeatedly emphasized that the health sector is not capable of solving these challenges on its own [
29]. Therefore, it is necessary for organizations from various sectors to work together to draw on diverse resources and capabilities and to unite different perspectives on a problem that enables them to reach shared goals [
10,
26,
30]. However, intersectoral cooperation is also accompanied by challenges such as increased bureaucracy, differing agendas pursued by individual organizations, and increased time requirements [
31]. To address these challenges and to increase network effectiveness, systematic network coordination and management is essential [
30].
The present study is based on three interrelated theoretical approaches: (1) systems thinking and the socio-ecological model; (2) network research; and (3) resource dependence theory. First, the concept of systems thinking [
32,
33] seeks to go beyond linear and simplistic views of complex phenomena and emphasizes the complexity of social life [
34]. It focuses on the diverse interactions of different components and facets of public health problems [
35]. According to systems thinking, it is important to understand the different structures that shape people’s lives as well as the interrelations between those structures. This is a necessary prerequisite to be able to transform systems that affect the public’s health. In line with this, the socio-ecological model assumes that, beyond individual action, human behavior is shaped by existing structures at various levels and environments. To change people’s PA behavior, the relevant environments, such as the organizational level, must be addressed [
16,
36,
37]. Second, network research is based on the concept of systems thinking and adopts a relational perspective. That means phenomena of interest are explained by reference to their underlying structures. Accordingly, organizations are embedded in social structures and do not act in isolation but in mutual dependence. Thus, it is not the individual organizations that are the unit of analysis but their relationships to each other [
38‐
40]. Social network analysis (SNA) enables the identification of strengths and opportunities for improvement by analyzing the structure of relationships and interactions between organizations from diverse sectors pursuing different goals [
41,
42]. Third, according to resource dependence theory [
43], organizations build cooperation to gain access to resources they do not possess themselves and thereby try to minimize risks and uncertainties [
44‐
46]. Often, relationships are established with particularly popular organizations, which play a central role in the network and thus have a strong influence on network processes [
47]. In Barabási’s terms, this phenomenon is known as scale-free networks [
48].
SNA has been increasingly used in many areas of public health research to visualize and examine interorganizational cooperation [
22,
41,
49] addressing, for example, tobacco control [
50], child abuse prevention [
51], HIV services [
52], health policy [
53], mental health services [
54], and the physical and social health of senior citizens [
55].
Studies on cooperation networks of organizations engaged in sport and PA promotion show rather heterogeneous results [
31], both in terms of network characteristics and in terms of the predictors of cooperation. While some networks have a moderate to high density with a variety of realized relationships [
56‐
58], other networks are rather fragmented with low levels of cooperation [
18,
19,
59,
60]. In some networks, cooperation is characterized by centralization of a few actors that hold by far the highest number of cooperative ties or act as gatekeepers [
56,
58,
60,
61], whereas in other networks the relationships between the organizations are evenly distributed and represent a decentralized network [
19,
59,
62]. There are also contrasting results regarding the conditions of cooperation. In some studies using SNA, organizations in the same sector cooperate more often with each other, indicating homophily as a mechanism of cooperative tie formation [
59,
63]. However, other network studies have found that organizations from different sectors are more likely to establish a relationship, indicating heterophily as a mechanism of cooperative tie formation [
18,
56,
60]. An effect frequently observed is that cooperation in these networks takes place in triangles [
18,
63], i.e. in group-like structures characterized by mutual support and trust [
64‐
66].
The different findings can be attributed to various reasons: (1) Some of the networks studied not only included organizations based in the community but also organizations operating on higher administrative levels, such as the national, state, or county level [
56‐
58,
61‐
63]. (2) Some of the networks are formally organized with a clear structure and leadership [
20,
56‐
58,
63], while others emerged unplanned without systematic governance [
18,
59,
62]. (3) Not all networks focus exclusively on sport and PA promotion but more generally on healthy lifestyles [
57,
59] or more specifically on active transportation [
67], resulting in different actor constellations. (4) The majority of studies used descriptive methods of network analysis [
20,
57‐
59,
61,
62,
68], while only a small proportion used stochastic methods to uncover the mechanisms and conditions of network emergence [
18,
19,
56,
63,
67]. As a result, very few general conclusions concerning the processes and partnerships necessary to build and develop interorganizational community networks promoting sport and PA can be drawn to date. However, to ensure sustainable sport and PA promotion by strengthening partnerships, creating synergetic effects, and building capacity, it is essential to understand how these networks function.
Therefore, the aims of this study are (a) to analyze the structural properties and (b) to identify the conditions of cooperation in interorganizational community networks of sport and PA promotion. This study will add to the body of knowledge by moving beyond the description of network structures and focusing on organizational and structural predictors of interorganizational cooperation for sport and PA promotion on the community level. For this purpose, interorganizational networks of sport and PA promotion will be analyzed to identify how these networks are structured, how cooperation comes into being, and whether similar characteristics and mechanisms can be found. The findings can help to provide a better understanding of how community networks work and might help to uncover starting points for network development and effective network governance.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to analyze interorganizational cooperation in community networks focused on sports and PA. By investigating two cooperation networks of community sports and PA providers as well as sports administrating and coordinating organizations, we identified structures and predictors that facilitate cooperation and which enable us to uncover starting points for strategic network development and network management in sport and PA promotion.
First, we examined the structural properties of the networks. In both networks, non-profit organizations – mainly sports clubs – made up the majority, while private for-profit organizations were the least represented. This is not surprising, given that cooperation between the private sector and the public or non-profit sector is generally challenging due to their different aims, values, and missions [
89]. However, since the integration of private organizations in public health networks is seen as particularly beneficial due to their resources and competencies [
90‐
92], strategies are needed to convince these actors of an engagement in sport and PA promotion. In addition to financial incentives, one approach could be to emphasize the opportunity of recruiting new members or clients through cooperation and joint projects. Another possible strategy would be to make for-profit organizations aware of the opportunity to engage in PA promotion as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts [
93].
In line with a systems thinking approach, it is important to integrate change agents from various sectors into these types of networks whose primary focus is not on sports and PA promotion. Such change agents could be urban planners, transportation services, health insurance companies, or social service agencies [
94]. They can have a major impact on PA-promoting structures but often do not realize that they play a crucial role [
15,
63,
95,
96]. By aligning community structures, PA promotion can be approached more holistically [
11]. However, too much heterogeneity among different actor groups and sectors can also be a hindrance to network effectiveness [
97], which should be considered when managing and developing these networks.
The analyzed networks had a low density with a small number of realized ties. Since both were not formally established and had not yet been subject to systematic management, this is not surprising and can also be observed in other networks of this type [
19,
98]. Previous studies showed that there is a need for closer cooperation and networking in the field of sport and PA promotion [
15,
99]. The findings of this study provide evidence for this call for more integrated cooperation and strategic governance, as the observed networks were highly fragmented. Centralization tendencies could be identified in both networks but these were more pronounced in Network II. In both networks, the community sports administrations are among the most central network organizations, in terms of the number of cooperative ties and in terms of their function as bridging organizations. Previous studies also concluded that public and governmental sector organizations occupy a powerful position within public health networks [
19,
56]. This is probably because these organizations are responsible for the distribution of financial and material resources and the coordination of cooperation is inherently one of their main tasks.
Previous research has come to mixed conclusions about what level of network size, density, and centralization is ideal. The larger the network, the greater the variety of different goals of the individual organizations [
61]. This represents a challenge regarding the effectiveness of a network to solve specific problems [
26]. At the same time, especially in the observed networks, there is little public funding available. Thus, by integrating more actors and by forming more relationships between existing actors, there is greater availability of resources, expertise, ideas, and mutual trust, making positive outcomes more likely [
100]. It has also been shown that increased exchange and cooperation can lead to improved dissemination of information within the network [
101]. For networks with a large number and diversity of actors to be effective, common network goals should be defined and documented, and their achievement should be monitored [
102]. Advantages of centralized networks are that one actor or a small group of key actors organize the network activities centrally and efficiently [
56]. Decentralized networks leave more room for diversity and the emergence of new ideas [
57]. However, it is significantly more time-consuming for individual organizations to maintain a multitude of cooperative relationships [
61], rather than to rely on a central organization to coordinate all activities. Because there is large variation in the goals and network engagement of the individual organizations surveyed, a centralized network form might therefore be more appropriate for managing cooperative activities [
30].
The second aim of this study was to identify organizational and structural predictors and conditions of cooperation in interorganizational community networks of sport and PA promotion. In both networks, non-profit sector organizations cooperated with each other less frequently than would have been expected by chance. Additionally, a heterophily effect was observed among public sector organizations in Network I. Thus, cooperation in the two networks is characterized by heterophilic rather than homophilic relationships and therefore occurs in intersectoral clusters. These findings are in accordance with resource dependence theory [
43], which states that organizations establish heterophilic ties with other organizations to gain access to information and resources that are not available within their own sector. Previous research concludes that homophilic relationships are more common in public health [
26], yet the importance of cooperation in intersectoral clusters, in particular, is consistently emphasized. Cross-border cooperation, while more costly and difficult to manage, is thought to be more likely to help achieve structural change [
10,
18,
103]. In addition, the greater diversity of available resources allows for capacity building in interorganizational networks [
104]. In this respect, the heterophilic nature of cooperative ties in the studied networks can be seen as purposeful. However, it should be taken into account when managing the networks.
For-profit organizations did not show a higher level of cooperative activity, which could be attributed to the fact that they do not see any added value in increased network engagement. Furthermore, limited time and personnel resources as well as conflicting expectations regarding the objectives of cooperation could act as barriers for private-sector organizations [
89]. Here, again, strategies are needed to make the benefits of network participation clear to for-profit organizations. In Network II, owning a sports facility did not lead to more cooperative ties. A reason for this could be that organizations that own a sports facility are less dependent on cooperation. This is in accordance with resource dependence theory [
43].
In terms of structural predictors, cooperation in both networks was characterized by triangular structures, indicating that network organizations often cooperated in small, group-like clusters, which are inherently characterized by reciprocity, trust, and information sharing [
64‐
66,
105]. This effect was also found in two previous studies analyzing networks of sport and PA promotion [
18,
63], and is suggestive of small networks within the network. Another structural mechanism that characterized cooperation in both networks was a centralization effect. It occurs when ties within a network are not equally distributed so that a few actors have formed more relationships than others [
48,
106]. These central actors, such as the community sports administrations, have a strong influence on network processes, whereupon other organizations also tend to establish cooperative ties with these central organizations, indicating a preferential attachment effect. The existence of a few important actors occupying a central position can also be observed in other informal networks or networks at an early stage of development [
62,
73]. The power-law degree distribution in the observed networks with a few high-degree nodes and preferential attachment effects is similar to the organizing principles in scale-free networks as proposed by Barabási [
48].
Taking the structure and mechanisms of cooperation in the observed networks into account, implications can be derived for effective network governance [
30,
72]. Both networks have a low density and are centralized rather than decentralized. Because the networks were not formally established but have emerged unplanned without a strategic aim, there might be little consensus on network goals. Both networks are moderate to large in size, so the need for network-level competencies increases. However, when looking at a lower level, small triangular cooperative clusters characterized by high levels of mutual trust and interaction are also evident in both networks. Therefore, a hybrid of a lead organization- or leading group-governed network, where cooperation and information dissemination are centrally coordinated, and a participant-governed network, where the participants themselves manage the cooperation in smaller subgroups, might be the most effective governance form for both networks.
The major strength of this study is that it is one of only a few network studies in the field of public health and PA promotion [
19,
56,
63] that, in addition to describing network structures, also reveals the conditions and mechanisms of network functioning through stochastic network modeling procedures. From this, a variety of starting points for the development and management of community networks of sport and PA promotion can be uncovered. In addition, using the data of networks with similar characteristics (same type of network organizations, community-based, informal networks, same cultural area, federal state, etc.) allows for the consideration of more general characteristics and mechanisms of interorganizational cooperation and a better understanding of community sport and PA networks.
Nevertheless, the study has various limitations. The data collected are self-reported, which may be inherently subject to some degree of recall bias. In addition, some organizations did not participate in the survey despite multiple reminders, so not all cooperative relationships in the network may have been captured. However, we imputed missing data by symmetrization. Since this is a secondary analysis of existing data sets, the types of cooperation surveyed are not identical in both networks. This was counteracted by dichotomizing the data and combining all cooperation types. Furthermore, the data in both networks were not collected in the same year, but with a difference of five years. However, both networks were at a similar stage (no systematic management, not formally established), so comparability is still possible. Finally, the networks analyzed represent only a snapshot of the network organizations and relationships involved at the time of the survey. Nevertheless, studies like this are still the most common approach in network research as they can provide insights into the phenomena and characteristics of a newly developing research field.
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