Design, validation and psychometric properties of a questionnaire to assess intrapreneurial behaviours in sports organisations

Abstract

Intrapreneurs in sports organisations can detect early signs of new opportunities and threats and introduce early changes to adapt to the constant changes in the sports sector. In addition, intrapreneurs are considered a fundamental pillar in the growth and development of innovation in sports organisations. Thus, the objective of this work is to design and validate an instrument to detect employees with intrapreneurial behaviours in sports organisations. Based on the dimensions of intrapreneurship identified in the scientific literature and related questionnaires, a tool—the COINDE—composed of 46 items distributed in five dimensions was constructed and subjected to expert judgment and a pilot study and subsequently reduced to 26 items and five statistically validated dimensions. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded two valid and reliable models to detect employees with intrapreneurial behaviours in sports organisations, with 5 and 6 dimensions and 25 and 26 items, respectively. The 5-factor model is proposed and justified. The dimensions are: creativity/innovation, risk-taking, proactivity, recognition of opportunities and priority of the internal project. The COINDE is a valid and reliable instrument representing an important advance over the existing instruments by providing specificity of the measure in the sports context, the work profile of the employees of these organisations, and allowing direct evaluation of intrapreneurial behaviour.