The Sports-Based Holistic Development Model: The General Public’s Transformation by Having a Meaningful Story Through Sport

Abstract

Despite an increasing expectation of sports’ potential as contributors to society, not many studies have longitudinally examined their social, economic, and cultural outcomes. This study proposes an integrated conceptual model to enhance the holistic understanding of sports-based development initiative. Applying this model to the “Vision 2030: Live Better through Sport” road map in Singapore, the longitudinal study empirically shows that the public’s participation in grassroots sports activities is a fundamental engine of sports-based holistic development for multi-dimensional outcomes among grassroots, elite, and mega sports dynamics. Also, this study presents a general sport system model to describe the mechanism for social impacts and longitudinal outcomes in the sports-based development initiatives, which provides strategic guideline for project monitoring and evaluation for the actual outcomes. Importantly, the findings offer policy insights into the public’s transformation by having a meaningful story through sport as a high leverage point in the sport-based holistic development system.