Sport, Youth Entrepreneurship, And Sustainable Development: A Systematic Literature Review And Global Benchmarking of Bahrain’s Leadership-Driven Innovation Ecosystem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66635/fd24gn46Keywords:
port for Development, Youth Empowerment, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Systematic Literature Review (SLR), Comparative Benchmarking, Leadership-Driven Governance, Bahrain, Human Capital Development, Social Inclusion, Sports Policy, Entrepreneurship Development, Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Innovation Ecosystems, SME Development, Youth Enterprise, Entrepreneurial Mindset, GCC, Sports Diplomacy, Policy Integration, Global PositioningAbstract
The purpose of this article is to conduct a literature review of sport-based youth empowerment programs, sustainable development goals, entrepreneurship ecosystems, and sport development models for innovation and position the Kingdom of Bahrain in the global context of sport-for-development. The article synthesizes published peer-reviewed and international experience on the strategic use of sport for human capital development, social inclusion, employability, entrepreneurship development, and economic participation by focusing on how and where sport has been harnessed as a development tool globally. The review also evaluates the role of sport-based programs in developing an entrepreneurial mindset, innovation capacity, employability, and youth enterprises in emerging markets.
A review of literature published in the years 2015 to 2025 was conducted to present the main thematic elements, success factors, governance mechanisms, entrepreneurship linkage and challenges of sport-for-development programs and related initiatives. A comparative benchmarking is presented for the national initiatives in Bahrain led by Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa with selected international and regional models. The benchmarking focuses on the strategic integration of sport, entrepreneurship, tourism, innovation, and youth development in national transformation programs.
It is hypothesized that Bahrain’s case is an emerging model that can be represented by a leadership-driven and policy-integrated model that leverages four main points. The first point is a strong leadership convergence around sport as a social and national development tool, the second is an integrated approach that connects sport with entrepreneurship and education, the third is the utilization of international sport platforms for youth empowerment and global positioning, and the fourth is a multidimensional development outcome that extends beyond social inclusion. The results of the study suggest that Bahrain’s leadership-driven sport ecosystem helps in building entrepreneurship education, sports tourism, and startup opportunities, employability, small and medium enterprise (SME) participation, and youth development for innovation in line with Bahrain Economic Vision 2030. In comparison to a decentralized and fragmented sport for development ecosystem observed across the globe, Bahrain presents an ecosystem that is more integrated, strategically aligned and therefore more scalable with faster implementation and potential for greater impact at the national level.
The study also contributes to the literature in this area by (1) benchmarking Bahrain within a systemic and comparative international context, and (2) presenting evidence on how leadership-driven sport ecosystems can be leveraged as a platform for youth empowerment, economic diversification, innovation capability, and national development in emerging economies.
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