Industry insights and post pandemic practices for entrepreneurship and innovation in leisure

Abstract

This article explores how leisure organisations developed entrepreneurial practices to enable innovation for the post-covid-19 pandemic era. Whilst entrepreneurship and innovation have been the subject of academic scrutiny in mainstream sport, there is a relative paucity of studies within the broader holistic context of leisure. Semi-structured interviews, conducted in the United Kingdom (UK), provide insights from nine high profile, globally recognised industry practitioners from across the leisure industry including the sport, entertainment, health and fitness, leisure, hospitality, arts and culture, events and tourism sectors. Four key themes emerged from the data including extending capabilities through (i) research and development (R&D) and (ii) digitalisation, and changing culture through (iii) diversification, and (iv) sustainability. These practices were shown to enable leisure organisations to create new customer value within an increasingly competitive environment. The paper concludes with an overview of theoretical and managerial implications and provides approaches for developing more entrepreneurial practices in leisure.