Perception of governance in sport clubs (GOBCD): confirmatory factor analysis and factorial invariance from the users' point of view

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v69.114595

Keywords:

Sport, governance, instrument validation, sports club

Abstract

Introduction and Objective: This study focused on the development and validation of a questionnaire, called the Sports Club Governance Perception Questionnaire (GOBCD), designed to measure the perception of governance in sports clubs from the users' perspective, emphasizing its importance as a fundamental pillar for ensuring transparency, democracy, internal control, and social responsibility.

Methodology: The research was based on Play de Game's National Governance Observer (NSGO) instrument and was administered to a sample of 336 amateur athletes. The GOBCD questionnaire consists of 19 items distributed across four dimensions: transparency, democratic processes, internal control, and social responsibility. The validation process included expert review, confirmatory factor analysis, and assessment of factorial invariance. Results: The results of the validation process yielded satisfactory validity and reliability indices for the GOBCD questionnaire. High internal consistency was observed, with Cronbach's alpha values ​​above 0.84. Furthermore, convergent validity was confirmed by obtaining average variance extracted (AVE) values ​​greater than 0.65. The factorial invariance analysis demonstrated the instrument's structural stability across different sample subgroups, suggesting its general applicability.

Conclusions: The validation of the GOBCD constitutes a relevant contribution to the development of tools for measuring and improving governance in the sports field. This tool facilitates the promotion of transparency and trust in sports organizations.Sport; governance; instrument validation.

References

Aguilar, L. F. (2010). Gobernanza, el nuevo proceso de gobernar. México: Fundación Friedrich Nau-mann.

American Psychological Association, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. (2015). Top 20 principles from psychology for preK–12 teaching and learning. http://www.apa. org/ed/schools/cpse/top-twenty-principles.pdf

Arias-Castaño, A.M., Gómez-Solano, J.H., Restrepo-Herrera, N., Ordoñez-Saavedra, N., Rivera- Castella-nos, L.V., Obando-Díaz, L.C., Colorado-Castaño, A.A., & Ramos-Acosta, J. (2022). La gobernanza y la legitimidad en el deporte: los procesos democráticos de los clubes deportivos de Chía, Cundi-namarca. Rev. Digit. Act. Fis.Deport. 8(1). http://doi.org/10.31910/rdafd.v8.n1.2022.2186

Ball, C. (2009). What is Transparency? Public Integrity, 11(4), 293–308. https://doi.org/10.2753/PIN1099-9922110400

Bavaresco, G., Dickson, G., Camargo, P., Santos, T., & Marinho Mezzadri, F. (2024). Transparency and accountability in Brazilian National Sport Organisations. Cogent Social Sciences, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2355560

Becker, J. M., Ringle, C.M., & Sarstedt, M. (2018). Estimating moderating effects in PLS-SEM and PLSc-SEM: Interaction term generation data treatment. Journal of Applied Structural Equation Mod-eling, 2(2), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.47263/JASEM.2(2)01

Bevir, M. (2012). Governance: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.

Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural Equation Modeling With AMOS: Basic Concepts, Applications, and Pro-gramming. New York, NY: Routledge.

Byrne, B. M. (2008). Testing for multigroup equivalence of a measuring instrument: A walk through the process. Psicothema, 20(4), 872-882.

Byun, G., & Leopkey, B. (2018). Exploring Issues within Post-Olympic Games Legacy Governance: The Case of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic. Department of Kinesiology, University of Geor-gia, 333 Ramsey Center 330 River Road, Athens, GA 30602-6554, USA.

Carolyn, P., & Doyeon, Y. (2024). Mapping the scientific research on Sport Governenace: Insights from bibliometric analitycs. IJASS International Journal of Applied Sports Sciencies. 36(1) 27-42. https://doi.org/10.24985/ijass.2024.36.1.27

Carretero-Dios, H., & Pérez, C. (2005). Normas para el desarrollo y revisión de estudios instrumenta-les. International Journal of clinical and health psychology,5(3), 521-551.

Chappelet, J. L., & Mrkonjic, M. (2019). Assessing sport governance principles and indicators. In Research handbook on sport governance (pp. 10-28). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(3), 464–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834

Comité Olímpico Internacional (2022). Principios Básicos Universales de Buena Gobernanza del Mo-vimiento Olímpico. https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Beyond-the-Games/Integrity/Bonne-Gouvernance-ES.pdf

DeVon, H. A., Block, M. E., Moyle-Wright, P., Ernst, D. M., Hayden, S. J., Lazzara, D. J., Savoy, S. M., & Kostas-Polston, E. (2007). A psychometric toolbox for testing validity and reliability. Journal of nursing scholarship: an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, 39(2), 155–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2007.00161.x

Dueñas-Dorado, L. A., Fernández-Martínez, A., Nuviala, R., & Nuviala, A. (2024). Intervention in organi-zational culture and its effects on users of public sports services. International and Multidisci-plinary Journal of Social Sciences, 13(3), 258–276. https://doi.org/10.17583/rimcis.15407

Furtado, S., Treter-Gonçalves, G. H., & Marinho-Mezzadri, F. (2024). Evidencia de validez de un nuevo instrumento que mide la percepción de (buena) gobernanza en las organizaciones deportivas (Validity evidence for a new instrument measuring the perception of (good) governance in sports organizations). Retos, 55, 624–634. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v55.103809

Ghai, K., & Zipp, S. (2021) Governance in Indian cricket: Examining the Board of Control for Cricket in India through the good governance framework, Sport in Society, 24:5, 830-845, https://doi.org/ 10.1080/17430437.2020.1819598.

George, D., & Mallery, P. (2003). SPSS for Windows step by step: A simple guide and reference. 11.0 up-date (4thed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Hair, J., Black, W., Babin, B., y Anderson, R. (2009). Multivariate data analyses. New York: Prentice Hall.

Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2017). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Sage.

Health and Fitness Association. (2024). HFA Global Report. https://www.healthandfitness.org/improve-your-club/industry-news/global-health-and-fitness-industry-poised-for-further-expansion/

I Trust Sport. (2024). Fifth Review and Overview of Change From 2017 to 2024. https://www.asoif.com/sites/default/files/download/progressing_towards_better_international_federation_governance.pdf

I Trust Sport. (2025). Fifth Review of Governance of Winter Olympic Federations. https://www.itrustsport.com/uploads/images/Fifth-Review-of-Governance-of-the-Winter-Olympic-Federations-I-Trust-Sport-Feb-2025.pdf

Kline, R. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (Third ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.

Knoppers, A., Spaaij, R., & Claringbould, I. (2021) Discursive resistance to gender diversity in sport gov-ernance: sport as a unique field?. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 13(3), 517-529. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/19406940.2021.191584.

Lefebvre, A., Zeimers, G., Helsen, K., Corthouts, J., Scheerder, J., & Zintz, T. (2023). Better Governance and Sport Innovation within Sport Organizations. Journal of Global Sport Management, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2023.2228833

Montgomery, D., Vining, G., & Peck, E., (2006). Introducción al Análisis de Regresión Lineal. 3ed ed. México: Cecsa.

Muñiz, J., & Fonseca-Pedrero, E. (2019). Ten steps for test development. Psicothema,31(1), 7-16

O'Brien, R. M. (2007). A caution regarding rules of thumb for variance inflation factors. Quality & Quan-tity: International Journal of Methodology, 41(5), 673–690. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-006-9018-6

Parent, M., & Hoye, R. (2018). The impact of governance principles on sport organisations’ governance practices and performance: Asystematic review. Cogent Social Sciences, 4(1), 1-24.

Play the Game. (2025). National Sports Governance Observer (NSGO). https://www.playthegame.org/projects/national-sports-governance-observer-nsgo/

Ramos-Acosta, J., Arias-Castaño, A. M., Gómez-Solano, J. H., Ordoñez-Saavedra, N., & Carrillo-Barbosa, R. L. (2022). Gobernanza y legitimidad en las federaciones deportivas colombianas (Governance and legitimacy in Colombian sports federations). Retos, 45, 851–859. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v45i0.89338

Rodríguez, M. N., & Ruiz, M. A. (2008). Atenuación de la asimetría y de la curtosis de las puntuaciones observadas mediante transformaciones de variables: Incidencia sobre la estructura factorial. Psicológica, 29, 205-227.

Schermelleh-Engel, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Müller, H. (2003). Evaluating the Fit of Structural Equation Models: Tests of Significance and Descriptive Goodness-of-Fit Measures. Methods of Psycholog-ical Research, 8(2), 23–74.

Strain, T., Flaxman, S., Guthold, R., Semenova, E., Cowan, M., Riley, L. M., ... & Stevens, G. A. (2024). Na-tional, regional, and global trends in insufficient physical activity among adults from 2000 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 507 population-based surveys with 5· 7 million participants. The Lancet Global Health, 12(8), e1232-e1243.

Thompson, B. (2004). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis: understanding concepts and ap-plications. American Psychological Association, Washington.

Thompson, A., Lachance, E., Parent, M., & Hoye, R. (2022). A sistematic review of governance principles in sport. European Sport Management Quarterly, 23(6), 1863-1888. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2022.2077795

Vittinghoff, E., Glidden, D. V., Shiboski, S. C., & McCulloch, C. E. (2012). Regression Methods in Biostatis-tics: Linear, Logistic, Survival, and Repeated Measures Models (2nd ed.). Springer.

World Medical Association. (2025). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Princi-ples for Medical Research Involving Human Participants. JAMA, 333(1), 71-74. https://doi: 10.1001/jama.2024.21972

Zurbriggen, C. (2011). Gobernanza: una mirada desde América. Perfiles Latinoamericanos, 19 (38), 39 – 64.

Published

2025-07-14

How to Cite

Gomez Solano, J. H., Fernandez Martinez, A., Calvo Lluch, A., & Nuviala Nuviala, A. (2025). Perception of governance in sport clubs (GOBCD): confirmatory factor analysis and factorial invariance from the users’ point of view. Retos, 69, 62–72. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v69.114595

Issue

Section

Original Research Article