Social Entrepreneurship and Sport in Romania: How Can Former Athletes Contribute to Sustainable Social Change?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is interesting, due to the scarce empirical research carried out so far on social entrepreneurship and sport. This study, through the study of cases, deepens the understanding of the aspects that characterize this type of entrepreneurs, and those characteristics that favor their success. However, certain changes must be made to improve the quality of this:

Introduction

The introduction should go a little deeper. It is not entirely clear how social entrepreneurship differs from "normal" or economic entrepreneurship, so more emphasis should be placed on them. In addition, it would also be necessary to highlight the specific characteristics that social entrepreneurs have, and which differentiate them from other types of entrepreneurs. The difference between these two types of ventures and entrepreneurs should be made very clear.

Furthermore, when the resources and inspiration to innovate through social entrepreneurship to solve problems are presented, these ideas must also be corroborated by previous research. I strongly recommend you this paper that is related to social sport entrepreneurship:

• Bjärsholm, D. (2017). Sport and social entrepreneurship: A review of a concept in progress. Journal of Sport Management, 31(2), 191-206.
• Hemme, F., Morais, D. G., Bowers, M. T., & Todd, J. S. (2017). Extending sport-based entrepreneurship theory through phenomenological inquiry. Sport management review, 20(1), 92-104.
• Rey-Martí, A., Ribeiro-Soriano, D., & Palacios-Marqués, D. (2016). A bibliometric analysis of social entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), 1651-1655.

Method

This section should be better structured to understand the procedure carried out in this study. For example, it should be noted what kind of specific questions were asked to the entrepreneurs, and whether any programs were used to analyze this information. Furthermore, it should also be pointed out when these interviews were carried out, as well as the original sources from which the information of the different social entrepreneurs in sport was extracted. The categories used to classify this information should also be indicated.

Finally, it is recommended that the authors use impersonal language, and avoid the first person plural.

Case Study Relevance

In this section, which is where the data of the different entrepreneurs are analysed, it is advisable to create a sub-section for each one of them. In this way, it is easier to consult and understand the results of each specific entrepreneur.

Furthermore, it is recommended to consult the values of Hofstede de Romania in the following link:

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country/romania/

And to make a brief contextualization of how the culture towards entrepreneurship is in Romania, taking into account these values. Perhaps, these references can help you:

• Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's recent consequences: Using dimension scores in theory and research. International Journal of cross cultural management, 1(1), 11-17.
• Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. Sage publications.

How Social Entrepreneurship Succeeds

This section is very interesting and quite complete. However, more emphasis should be placed on how the skills developed during the sporting life of these athletes can be transferred to the world of work. Please refer to this research:

• Hindle, K., Viala, C., Hammerschmidt, J., Kraus, S., Jones, P., & Calabuig, F. (2019). Converting sporting capacity to entrepreneurial capacity: a process perspective. European journal of international management.

Also, avoid using personal language (please change our in page 6, line 255).

Discussion and conclusions

These two sections are complete, however, the theoretical and practical implications of this work should be highlighted. In addition, limitations and future lines of study should also be highlighted.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

• What are the criteria for choosing the sample?
• Author should expand the section on theoretical implications and research practices, as well as identify possible future developments
• The author should better specify the line of research to which he wishes to refer
• the literature review on the research topic appears to be meager and not always adequate, it must be expanded and improved
• The author should better explain the limits and advantages of the methodology used
• the authors must better highlight and explain in the research work the correlation and the coordination existing between the theoretical framework and the empirical analysis

• The aim of the paper should be assessed more uniformly through the paper. Moreover, the authors should start with a clear question(s) that will be answered. The objectives and/or research questions section would help to summarize and focus the overall aim of the study and improve the conclusions section, once the main ideas are clearly systematized.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This paper “Social entrepreneurship and sport in Romania: how can former athletes contribute to sustainable social  change?” investigates an important topic

I think the paper fits the Sustainability Journal and can be accepted for its publication in the journal.

 

In order to improve the paper, before being published, I recommend the following suggestions:

 In methodological part, you should explain better how do you conduct an open interview.

 

In the introduction, you say that this paper intends to answer to the following question: How could former athletes contribute to sustainable social change in Romania?

you say “sustainable”, but then this concept is missing.

Then should better support your discussion derived by your interviews. Make the link stronger by defining how you can build a SOCIAL enterprise

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors, you have improved the document and followed all the recommendations.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your report.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Accept in present form

Author Response

Thank you very much for your report.