A New Lens: Envisioning an Active Economy

Introduction: Conceptualizing An Active Economy

The active economy incorporates a number of disciplines that include sport performance, sport business, recreation, tourism, physical activity, urban planning, leisure and health and wellness, among others. From an academic and policy perspective, these disciplines are typically viewed as distinct, with only limited spillover (Gerke, & Pria, 2018; Gerke, Desbordes & Dickson, 2015) and as a consequence, limited research explores the interaction between them. We propose an alternative in this book, building on the narrower but informative work in sport of Gerke and Pria (2018) and Shilbury (2000) and view each individual sector as interdependent rather than autonomous. By viewing the various sectors as part of a complex active ecosystem, we contend that policymakers and practitioners are better positioned to shape broad opportunities, while maximizing community value.

Taking a broad ecosystem view of the active economy follows trends found in many other areas of study. In particular, over the past thirty years, the nature of value creation has evolved dramatically. Competitive advantage has historically been viewed at an organization-level (Porter, 1998), but today value is often addressed at the inter-organization or network-level (Eisingerich, Bell, & Tracey, 2010; Tallman, Jenkins, Henry & Pinch, 2004). Sophisticated forms of inter-organization collaboration range from formal strategic alliances to informal cooperation and provide access to expanded resources and shared capacity to learn, innovate and co-create. To help understand how the creation of value actually takes place, we examine how scholars (e.g., Moore, 1993; Rothschild, 1990) exploit a similarity between biology and forms of inter-organization collaboration, deemed ecosystems. In both of these cases, ecosystems are at risk of collapse if they are unable to adapt to rapid changes. Older ecosystems are replaced by newer ones that possess the capacity to adapt to change. As Rothchild (1990, p. 6) notes, “A capitalist economy can best be comprehended as a living ecosystem. Key phenomena observed in nature – competition, specialization, co-operation, exploitation, learning, growth, and several others – are also central at business life.” What makes the ecosystem lens unique is that the interdependency recognizes that the health of the individual components (whether it is a species or organization) is dependent on the overall health and sustainability of the larger one (Moore, 1993). The reliance of the whole thus depends on the breadth and depth of interconnections between the parts. Applying this perspective to the active economy then allows for a deeper analysis of the boundaries, networks, and knowledge exchanges across the ecosystem, which is useful in assessing inter-organization collaboration capacity.

Interconnections and relationships between individual sectors or organizations can take many forms, many of which are measurable. There are physical connections in the form of purchases and sales of goods and services from one organization or sector to another. Examples could be professional services purchased by sport venues such as marketing or ticketing. Others could include equipment manufacturers supplying individuals or teams. There are also flows of workers and investments from one organization or sector to another. This may occur naturally as individuals move from one employer to another, but the same individual may also be simultaneously involved in multiple facets of the active ecosystem. The scale and scope of such flows and their economic footprint can be measured, albeit not easily. The non-physical outputs, such as learning and knowledge flows, while being more difficult to measure, are no less important and form a critical component of an active ecosystem. Capturing such a wide variety of complex interconnections and value creation thus represents a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. It begins with a strong conceptual framework.