Transferability of the first-mover advantage to individual sports: a conceptual and theoretical analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the transferability of the theory of the first-mover advantage to national sports associations in individual sports for the first time. The conceptual analysis examines the replicability through a comparative analysis, a theoretical modeling, and a case logic across three approaches. The comparative analysis detects a fundamental possibility of transferring the first-mover advantage, considering macroeconomic control variables and a specific athlete assignment process to reflect structural differences between business organizations and national individual sports associations. While the theoretical modeling demonstrates that the individual first-mover advantage components can generally be transferred to national individual sports associations, the case logic simulates how plausible first-mover effects could occur in individual sports and reveals highly relevant effects to the reality of national individual sports associations. The findings serve as an important basis for future studies to explore a potential first-mover effect in individual sports and derive success-focused implications for action.