As for-profit organizations, business organizations primarily pursue the goal of profit maximization (89). Consequently, employees usually being permanently employed and receiving financial compensation for their role and contributions to the production of goods and/or the provision of services. The distribution of goods is based mainly on the individual purchasing power of consumers.

In contrast, national individual sports associations do not have profit maximization as their primary goal. Instead, they serve as non-profit organizations as the representative of the respective sport, representing its interests to society and [inter]national sport organizations, developing rules and regulations, organizing sport events and competitions, and promoting both grassroots and elite sport (4). Accordingly, the association's objectives are based on the interests of its members. The membership is generally voluntary, while the role identity of the members is complex and reflects a mixture of producers, consumers, decision-makers, and financiers (86). At the same time, produced goods and services are distributed among the members on the principle of solidarity and not based on purchasing power (90). However, academic literature outlines a weakening of the principle of solidarity, in theory at least, caused by the increase in money and power (90). These factors also currently play a significant role for national individual sports associations. At least in theory, this could lead to associations increasingly adopting similar characteristics to companies (90). In addition to the multi-layered role identity of their members, the individual national sports associations also represent a monopsony, as they are the only buyers of their product [resp. their members], by recruiting their top athletes to participate and represent them at major international competitions, such as world championships or the Olympics (88).

As this review examines the applicability of the first-mover advantage to the association level in international individual sports, it focuses particularly on the promotion of elite sport by the respective national sports associations. The performance of nations or national sports associations in international individual sports competitions has mostly been evaluated in studies based on their absolute number of athletes in rankings [e.g., (45, 58)] or the ranking position of their top athletes [e.g., (31, 59)]. Accordingly, in an international competition, both the number of top athletes and their sporting success can be seen as the key performance indicator for success, while the top athletes, as the value delivery mechanism, display the product of the respective nations or the national individual sports associations. Unlike in business, the key performance indicator for success like market share is therefore not based on revenue figures but is derived from these sporting parameters in international competition. This differentiated perspective on product and key performance indicators also shows that the profit maximization approach would not be useful for associations. While promoting top-level sport appears to be the key objective for the production of associations when evaluating their sporting performance in international comparison, it also becomes clear that many other association objectives, which are not focused on promoting top-level sport, nevertheless have a positive influence on it. As an example, promoting grassroots or fostering social exchange can also have positive downstream effects on top-level sports, which can be seen in the increase in consumer capital within a country, the expansion of the talent pool or increased interest from sponsors. Considering the role identity of the voluntary members as consumers and the monopsony position of an association as a buyer, it becomes clear that aligning with the interests of the members is essential for the association to achieve its goals. Accordingly, there are clear differences between business organizations and national individual sports associations, which, however, contribute to a functional equivalence in their effectiveness, as they provide comparable benefits regarding the achievement of objectives within their respective systems. Thus, business organizations and national individual sports associations operate in completely different systems, which are, however, each focused on consumers and buyers and designed to achieve the respective objective, which is why these differences do not represent an exclusion criterion for the transfer of the first-mover advantage theory.

In this section, we discuss the different decision-making structures of business organizations and national individual sports associations in relation to their impact on the transferability of the first-mover advantage. In business organizations, authority is typically delegated from the top down through centralized decision-making structures. The formal distribution of power often correlates with the amount of capital invested.

In national individual sports associations authority is generally based on a bottom-up approach whereas the board is elected by all members (86, 88). However, it can be empirically observed that association members only make limited use of the opportunity to participate in democratic decision-making, whether in elections or meetings (85, 91). In addition, there are theoretical approaches in academic literature that build on the iron law of oligarchy (92) and argue that bureaucratization and the increasing demand of expertise could foster oligarchic structures in sports organizations (85). So far, however, these theories have not been confirmed by empirical studies (91).

For the present discourse, it is crucial to evaluate the various structural differences in their entirety. National individual sports associations pursue a wide range of objectives that often can positively influence one another. Consequently, these associations benefit from democratic decision-making structures. These structures enable to fully consider the complex role identity of their members, who also take on the role of consumers, while supporting the different objectives. Accordingly, the decision-making structures of national individual sports associations differ fundamentally from those of business organizations, which, however, has its roots in the different systems [including objective structures and role identity] in which associations and business organizations operate. Yet, this does not represent an issue in terms of transferring the theory. The differences in the decision-making structure between business organizations and national individual sports associations lead to functional equivalence in their effectiveness, as they provide comparable benefits regarding the achievement of objectives within their respective systems. The transfer of the theory is therefore not influenced by these differences.

Another key distinction lies in the different types of employment. In business organizations, employees enter into an employment relationship with their employer, which guarantees them regular salary payments for the work they perform. The basis of this relationship is an employment contract that sets out all rights and obligations.

Opposed to this stands the constitutive feature of voluntary work within the association system (86), according to which sports associations frequently rely on voluntary contribution. This voluntary character does indeed represent a major difference to business organizations.

While voluntary work is widely spread among associations, our analysis focuses on the largest and most important national sports associations in each country, measuring their performance based on sporting success in elite sports. These associations are facing significant challenges arising from globalization, a sharp increase in international competition at elite level, growing expectations of member organizations and external stakeholders, the impact of modern communication and media, the increasing number of partners within the public and private sector, and the need to secure state funding as non-profit organizations (4, 93, 94). In order to ensure their long-term success, many of these sports associations are therefore working to professionalize their structures, with volunteers increasingly being replaced by full-time employees (4, 93). Having professional association structures also creates greater capacity for expanding the member base and promoting elite sports, while also increasing the chances to attract sponsors, which leads to greater autonomy from government funding (95). This professionalization process is not limited to administrative or organizational roles within the associations. Accordingly, a high income and a permanent employment contract are particularly important for coaches in elite sport when considering an international job move (96). This shows that, especially for elite sport, on which this analysis focuses, the structures of the associations are highly professionalized and thus similar to those of business organizations. Due to the similarities outlined, the theory is not excluded from being transferable.

In this section, we analyze how the different market structures in which national individual sports associations and business organizations usually operate affect the transferability of the theory. In general, the majority of business organizations operate in open market structures. These are characterized by many suppliers and free competition.

In contrast, national sports associations occupy a monopoly position (88) within their national borders which is a significant difference to business organizations. Consequently, when transferring the theory of the first-mover advantage, it must be questioned whether this analogy would be imperfect for this reason. Accordingly, a first-mover advantage for national individual sports associations might be much stronger as they maintain their monopoly position in their national markets. Furthermore, the global competition is entirely different, since a national individual sports association does not enter the national market of another, whereas the performance comparison in international competitions takes place between individual athletes and not between the associations themselves.

Although national individual sports associations maintain their monopoly position for their sport within their national borders, they are in constant competition for limited resources such as sponsors, talents, spectators, media attention or state funding, with other national sports associations of their country. Accordingly, a sport-specific monopoly may exist for national sports associations, but at the same time they are in a highly competitive environment within the country for relevant resources, which have a significant influence on sporting performance in international competition. Thus, national individual sports associations initially enter an upstream competition for limited resources at a national level, which serve as a basis for the subsequent international sporting competition. Despite their monopoly position, national individual sports associations must therefore also face national competition, although it exists in a different nature. Furthermore, the additional potential difference on global competition whereas individual national sports associations do not enter the national market of another association, is only partially correct. This may be true for a small part of sporting aspects such as the participation in the national sporting league system, which in turn is part of an association and not a relevant aspect when investigating international sporting success, or access to the local talent pool [covered in subsequent section], but it does not apply to the recruitment of employees (96) or even companies for strategic partnerships [e.g., (97)]. In summary, we can state that the permanent monopoly position of national individual sports associations undoubtedly represents a significant difference. However, as explained, these associations also face national competition alongside other associations within their country. This difference therefore does not lead to different patterns of behavior and can be disregarded regarding its relevance for the theory application.

The execution of international sporting competitions by individual athletes and not by national individual sports associations themselves is thereby similar to the competition within the economic system. As already explained, transferring the first-mover advantage to international individual sports competition would mean, that the top athletes represent the product while the number of top athletes or their sporting successes within rankings would represent the key performance indicators of the associations. At the same time, the market in international individual sports consists of the entirety of sporting events, with their outcomes being reflected in the respective world rankings. This is also supported by numerous studies that examined international success in individual sports and based their analyses on world ranking data [e.g., (45, 57–59)]. This approach should guide the theory transfer, as world rankings reflect the athletes' overall yearly performance, which can be used to derive the key performance indicators for individual associations. Within the classical concept of the first-mover advantage, competitive advantages are typically estimated based on market share [e.g., (24, 25)] or operational financial results [e.g., (26)], which are generally derived from an organization's product sales performance within a business year. The representation of an association by its athletes in international competitions is therefore not a limiting factor in transferring the first-mover advantage to individual sports, as it does not reflect a significant difference from deriving key performance indicators within the business world.

Another clear disparity emerges in how limited resources can be accessed. In general, open market structures allow business organizations to purchase essential but limited resources needed to produce their goods from outside the country [e.g., raw materials].

In contrast, there are essential limited resources for national sports associations in form of the human capital stock (98) and thus the talent pool, which are restricted by the country's own structures. Due to the professionalization in elite sport previously outlined, this limitation primarily affects the talent pool, which is limited for national individual sports associations in terms of the size and age structure of the respective population. In addition, a country's individual economic wealth contributes to the size of the talent pool, as a population can devote more time to sporting activities as its wealth increases (98). These circumstances lead to national individual sports associations facing unequal conditions and resources in an international context, which can affect the sporting competition and therefore also the analysis of the first-mover advantage. Although there are examples of individual athletes changing their national association to represent another country [e.g., (99, 100)], such cases are highly exceptional. While these examples illustrate that elite athletes do not necessarily represent their home country or home association, athletes generally do not have the freedom to choose which national sports association they want to represent within a particular individual sport.

In this case, the comparison reveals differences with a limiting effect. Accordingly, it is necessary to further explore if a modification can enable the transfer of the theory. In order to take these significant differences into account when transferring the theory to the association level in individual sports, two key aspects must be considered. Firstly, the restricted access to essential but individually different limited resources must be considered when transferring the first-mover advantage. Since countries differ fundamentally in terms of population size, age structure, and wealth, the size of the respective talent pool also varies. Therefore, when conducting an empirical study on the first-mover advantage in individual sports, macroeconomic control variables of countries, such as population size or GDP [per capita], should be included to account for these unequal conditions and to avoid possible distortions. Secondly, as athletes do not necessarily represent their home country or home association, the work of the national associations in developing the athletes needs to be considered in the analysis as well. Accordingly, athletes need to be assigned to the individual national sports associations prior to the analysis, based on the contribution of the associations to the development of the respective athlete, not based on the flag they currently represent. The implications outlined are a necessary requirement to account for the restrictive differences between business organizations and national individual sports associations in order to enable a fundamental applicability of the theory of the first-mover advantage to the association level in individual sports.

Table 3 provides a summary of the structural differences between business organizations and national individual sports associations and highlights their impact on the transferability of the first-mover advantage to individual sports.

As the governing body, national sports associations are responsible, for example, of talent development, training and education of coaches, and promoting exchange between their members (88). To fulfil these tasks, professional structures need to be created and established to ensure the long-term development of the sport within the country.

Therefore, a pioneering national individual sports association would enable its members to be the first to enter into an exchange within these structures, thus initiating a sport-specific learning process. This could lead to a knowledge advantage in many essential sport-specific areas and ultimately result in a technological leadership position.

Business organizations can create market entry barriers by investing in strategies that significantly increase the resource requirements of competing firms (105). At the same time, a central strategic task of national sports associations lies in the promotion of the respective sport (4, 88). This is done, for example, by initiating strategic programs for the attraction and retention of athletes, which in turn are implemented by local clubs and coaches (46).

The pioneer move would give a national individual sports association the opportunity to launch initial nationwide promotional programs to attract athletes at the earliest stage and retain them long-term. If the pioneering association implements its programs on a large scale, the athletes could develop an intense connection to the sport. As a result, subsequent national sports associations in the country would have to invest significantly more resources to motivate athletes to switch sports. This reduces the likelihood for the pioneering association that an athlete will quit or switch sports, which would reveal the emergence of product-related switching costs.

National individual sports associations are faced with a number of limited resources, such as athletes [due to the limited national talent pool], coaches, medical staff and infrastructure, sports infrastructure, or sponsors.

In this context, a pioneer move would enable a national individual sports association to be the first to access these limited resources, allowing the pioneer association to secure and utilize these resources to its advantage early on. Therefore, from a theoretical perspective, this element of the first-mover advantage can be applied to the level of national individual sports associations.

Having examined the individual first-mover advantage components, the following summarizes their collective outcome and reinforces its relevance through concrete examples. The theoretical modeling of the transferability of the individual first-mover advantage components to the level of national individual sports associations, based on the founding year of the respective association, shows that, at least in theory, the individual components could also exist for national individual sports associations. This indicates that a first-mover advantage represents a theoretically plausible phenomenon that could occur in individual sports. The results of theoretical modeling can be supplemented by economic findings. For example, there is some research on first-mover advantage that shows positive effects for companies with structural similarities to national individual sports associations. In terms of their production objective and product type, national individual sports associations are particularly similar to business organizations in the service sector, such as private flight or driving schools, which train pilots or drivers as service providers. At the same time there are numerous studies in the academic literature that provide evidence of a first-mover advantage in the service sector (24–26). On top of that, there is scientific evidence that, for businesses with limited resources in international markets, early market entry is crucial for success (27). In addition to these parallels, there are aspects within individual sports itself that can be interpreted as indicators pointing to the existence of the first-mover advantage. Accordingly, there are some individual sports in which especially older national individual sports associations are very successful in international comparison. A prominent example is tennis, where France [number of top 100 athletes: 13; association founded: 1888], the United States [9; 1881] and Australia [9; 1904], all of which are among the oldest national tennis associations, currently count the most ATP athletes in the top 100 of the ATP singles rankings (28). This relation is also observable in golf. Within the Official World Golf Ranking, the United States [association founded: 1894] and Canada [1895], two nations with comparably old national golf associations, represent more than half of the athletes in the top 100, with the United States alone accounting for 47 athletes (29).

The theoretical transfer of the first-mover advantage of technology leadership reveals several areas that can be positively affected within the pioneering association. Possible effects include advantages in the equipment of training facilities, the development of training concepts, the qualification and training of coaches, the association's sports policy strategy, and the advancement of knowledge and research in the field of sports science and sports medicine. Taking on the pioneering role provides the opportunity to become a leader in each of these areas. This provides a conceptual basis for utilizing specialized expertise to initiate process innovations at an early stage, which in turn strengthens the technological leadership position. While companies experience learning curve effects as production increases, applying the first-mover approach to individual sports allows the company's production to be compared with the practice of the sport and the operational working methods within a national individual sports association. Due to the time advantage over other nations, learning curve effects can be used within the respective areas to expand and strengthen the leading position. In this case, the learning curve effects result through the increased practice of organized sport. Learning curve effects allow national individual sports associations to reduce the average cost of the sport produced as volume increases, leading to lower marginal costs per unit for specialized nations as production volume increases (106). This initiates a continuous improvement process, which is necessarily time-dependent (22). The resulting learning curve effects can appear in the areas mentioned, for example, through an optimized approach of a country's sports policy, lower costs for training, or a greater number of sports facilities, while even the pure availability of sports infrastructure already has a significant influence on sporting activity (107). Likewise, continuous development of sport infrastructure as well as of research in sports science and sports medicine can contribute to providing players with the highest scientific level of training in specialized training centers, ensuring excellence in education and coaching of coaches, and offering superior medical care for athletes. The revealed potential effects of a leadership position in areas such as training facilities, training concepts, coach qualifications, and the sports policy of an association show a clear overlap with the reality of national individual sports associations. In golf, both top-level coaching and professional association structures that provide well-established training programs for clubs play a central role in sporting success (44, 50). In tennis, too, scientific studies show that professional association structures, educational concepts for coaches, top-level coaching, and professional association infrastructure can have a positive influence on international success (42, 46, 47). According to Brouwers et al. (42), aspects like well-trained and experienced elite tennis coaches, a long-term plan for elite tennis development, coordinated planning for the development of talent in tennis, a national coordination plan for tennis facilities, and a network of high quality national and regional elite tennis centers can each have a positive influence on international success in tennis. These are all factors that could be positively influenced by a pioneering move and the resulting leadership position.

Applied to international individual sports, the first-mover advantage of generating product-related switching costs becomes visible through the early creation of consumer capital on the demand side and the establishment of a sport-specific culture within the pioneer's country. Given the lack of sports opportunities, the pioneer can meet a corresponding demand when entering the market. Through the consumption of the respective individual sport, sport-specific know-how develops within the consumer level, which increases the identification with the sport and reduces the risk of consumers finding a comparable benefit in another sport (22). The pioneer move therefore enables an early promotion and development of consumer capital in the country. At the same time, the pioneering association can reduce the risk of athletes switching sports or turning away from the respective individual sport as a result of a strong development of consumer capital. Sporting successes, due to learning curve effects, and the increasing accumulation of consumer capital also strengthen the social significance of the sport, which in turn fosters the formation of a sport-specific culture in the pioneer country. Consequently, consumer capital is also generated through an increased presence in the mass media, while professional athletes gain social status as popular role models (22, 42). In addition to sporting success and strong consumer capital, a country's sport-specific culture can also increase the “product-related switching costs”, as more athletes take up the respective sport and fewer athletes switch sports, leading to an increase in the number of athletes and the size of the talent pool. Accordingly, the pioneer association not only benefits stakeholders in their respective sport but also achieves positive effects across all sports within their own country. The potential effects outlined above are highly relevant for national individual sports associations. As explained in section 3.1, these associations face the challenge of dealing with a limited talent pool, which is restricted by the structural conditions of the respective country and for which they have to compete with other national sports associations within their country. Accordingly, it is standard practice in individual sports for national associations to prioritize the generation of consumer capital. This is achieved in particular by initiating grassroots and youth programs, which are designed to attract talents at an early stage and retain them long-term [e.g., (44, 46)]. In Swedish golf, well-designed and funded youth programs have been identified as a key factor in international success (44). Research on success factors in international tennis reveals that coordinated planning for the development of talent in tennis and a high general tennis participation each can have a positive impact on an association's international tennis success (42). Wijk (55) also identified a positive correlation between the spread and promotion of tennis in the mass media in Sweden and the nation's international tennis success in the 1980s. The generation of consumer capital, for example through early targeted programs, promotes the formation of a sports culture in the country and increases product-related switching costs, which appears essential for national individual sports associations due to their limited talent pool.

The transfer of the first-mover advantage of initial access and securing of limited resources can be noticed by the opportunity of securing important human resources. In particular, the pioneer move provides the opportunity to be the first to access limited essential human resources. Special relevance can be attributed to limited sport-specific resources such as athletes, sports managers, medical staff, fans, and specialists responsible for the development [coaches] and identification [scouts] of talents. The combination of the advantages outlined so far, such as securing limited human resources, who can continuously develop the improvement process through learning curve effects and the increased social significance through the early establishment of a respective sport-specific culture, opens up the potential to secure important economic resources over time through the growing interest of sponsors. Although the transfer of the first-mover advantage to individual sports is not immediately followed by securing economic resources through sponsorship income as a result of the initial market entry, a time-delayed connection and a positive interaction between securing limited resources, technological leadership, and the generation of product-related switching costs can generally be assumed in this case. The potential effects outlined also align with the reality of individual sports associations. In addition to the already highlighted need to attract and retain limited resources at an early stage, such as talents and qualified coaches, evidence can also be found in individual sports for the relevance of effective systems for the detection of young talent and the associated specialized personnel in scouting (42). As the development of professional athletes can be extremely cost-intensive, sponsorship income plays an important role for both national individual associations and athletes (42, 52, 56). According to the study by Brouwers et al. (42), the various funding components “sufficient financial support for tennis associations”, “sufficient financial support for grassroots tennis”, and “sufficient financial support for elite tennis” each have a decisive influence on international tennis success. Consequently, studies show that sponsors and the financial resources of associations play an important role in international sporting success in individual sports (42, 47, 55, 56), highlighting the parallel to the potential first-mover effects outlined.

The theoretical transfer of the first-mover advantage to the level of national associations in individual sports indicates the extent to which the potential pioneer advantage could influence success in individual sports. At the same time, the study findings in individual sports demonstrate that potential effects of first-mover advantage influence areas that have been identified as contributing to sporting success. The practical examples therefore underscore the fundamental need to examine the transferability of the theory of first-mover advantage. Regarding the classification of success factors, it appears that a potential first-mover advantage would affect the overlapping level between the macro and meso levels as well as the meso level. Looking more closely, it becomes clear that the potential first-mover advantage in individual sports could have an impact on all previously identified success factors at these levels. Therefore, already identified success factors such as top-level coaching, the sports policy of an association, or the extent of the respective sport-specific culture within the country, could be long-term effects of a first-mover advantage. However, the first-mover advantage itself would be categorized as a success factor at meso level, based on the definitions provided by De Bosscher et al. (38).