Critical factors influencing international sporting success of the Philippines : the athletes' perspective

Abstract

The aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the recent declining performance of the Philippines in international sporting competitions by identifying and evaluating relevant factors that are critical to its international success through the perspective of the national elite athletes. An evaluation of the organizational effectiveness of the national sports governing bodies provides explanation to the poor performance of the country in major international competitions such as the Southeast Asian (SEA)Games.

One of the most recent approaches used in measuring organizational effectiveness is the Sport Policy factors Leading to International Sporting Success (SPLISS) model. The model specifies Critical Success Factors (CSFs) which are operationalized into measurable concepts for evaluation of success in international sporting competitions. The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate relevant CSFs that influence the international sporting performance of the Philippines. This research also aims to compare the results of the evaluated CSFs between the participating National Sport Associations(NSAs). Finally, the study examines possible relationships with international success output (2015 SEA Games results) among the participating sports.

There were 83 National elite athletes from six NSAs participated in this research. A fivepoint likert survey questionnaire derived from the CSFs of the SPLISS framework was used in identifying and evaluating success factors in elite sports. Quantitative data was distributed over five categories for each CSF to identify the relevant factors. Also, five level standards of measurement were adapted to transform the category format data into a numeric five-point scale in order to measure the level of quality of CSFs. Further, descriptive statistics was used to compare and analyze possible relationships between the effectiveness ratings of factors and the success output of the participating NSAs.

Results showed that majority of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that all SPLISS pillars had a critical influence on their international sporting success. Also, a positive correlation was analyzed between the effectiveness ratings of the pillars and the 2015 SEA Games output across the different participating sports where if the rating of sport policy factors is high, the international performance also is relatively high. Otherwise, when the perceived quality of these key factors is low, the international output may not be as successful as expected.