Barriers and Challenges to Entrepreneurship Development in Sports Manufacturing Businesses of Mazandaran Province (Case Study: Dignity and Progress Festival)

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC 4.0) license

Author

Ph D of Sport Management,, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babaolsar, Iran.

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify and explain the barriers and challenges to entrepreneurship development in sports manufacturing businesses in Mazandaran Province. This research was applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in methodology, conducted using a grounded theory approach. The statistical population consisted of managers, entrepreneurs, and owners of sports manufacturing businesses in Mazandaran Province who participated in the first round of the Dignity and Progress Festival. Purposeful sampling was employed, and theoretical saturation was achieved after conducting 18 semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding, and the validity of the results was confirmed using Lincoln and Guba's four criteria. Data analysis led to the identification of 51 open codes, 17 axial codes, and 8 main categories. These eight categories are: legal barriers, economic challenges, infrastructural deficiencies, managerial constraints, competition and distribution challenges, cultural and social barriers, weakness of the support ecosystem, and supply chain challenges. The findings of this study indicate that the barriers to entrepreneurship in the sports manufacturing industry of Mazandaran are multidimensional, intertwined, and mutually reinforcing, requiring a systemic and integrated approach to address them. By presenting the first local model of entrepreneurship barriers in Iran's sports manufacturing industry, this research fills an important gap in the country's sports management literature.

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Publisher: University of Tabriz       Copyright © The Authors   

 This is an open access article distributed under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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History

  • Receive Date: 15 May 2026
  • Revise Date: 28 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 08 July 2026

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