R ESEARCH M ETHOD

To seek the best approximation of the constructed reality, i.e. the strategies of IFs to induce the compliance of their national federations, there are two ways of investigation in the context of this research. The first is to collect and study the official information produced by IFs (technically their staff), i.e. official documents, strategic plans, official website articles outlining or disclosing their compliance inducement

strategies. The second way is to inquire IFs about their compliance inducement strategies directly, via interviewing or a questionnaire. For this research, the combination of a preparatory document analysis followed by semi-structured interviews was chosen.

3.3.1 Preparatory document analysis

The document analysis method used in this research is defined as preparatory because it plays a supporting role in the investigation of the research questions. There are three types of documents we collect to assist our understanding of the sampled IFs’

missions and vision, of their declared compliance inducement strategies, and of the actual implementation of their strategies, namely the Statutes or Constitution, official strategic plans, IFs’ internal reports or documentation of the implementation of strategies.

The researcher collected the statutes and/or equivalent documents that are statutory in nature and identified key components in their statuary rules. These include the following.

1. The set of rules with which the member federations are required to comply.

2. The act of commitment (legally binding or non-binding) that the member federations are required to undertake.

3. The degree of alignment between national and international regulations required, for example, the extent to which the national federations’ official documents are

federations.

4. IFs interference in implementation or IFs oversight of implementation, the extent to which the IFs monitor the situations of their member federations practicing rules that are in consistency with the international rules.

5. Sanctioning powers, the procedure and forms of punitive actions stipulated in the rules, and their enforcement.

This information helps us understand the current compliance situation of these international policy regimes from the legal point of view, which has been discussed in chapter 2 (s. 2.2.3). The membership admission process of IFs serves as an official procedure to ensure NFs have ratified, adopted or accepted the IF international rules prevail the NF national rules.

The official strategic documents of IFs are not scheduled as a binding instrument in IFs’ statutory documents for their national federations to comply with. According to Weiss (2007, p. 535), they are a type of non-binding instrument with promotional content that is “purposed to establish a consensus and later lead to binding obligations.”

Examples are FISA’s strategy to “ensure key stakeholders are represented in decision-making processes”(FISA, 2018, p. 6) or ITU’s aim to “provide education on strong leadership practices to CCs & NFs.”(ITU, 2018, p. 6). FINA’s strategic plan manifests

exceptional compulsion to assert its commitment:

…a culture of good governance must permeate every aspect of aquatic sports. … FINA will regularly scrutinise, and identify ways to improve, its own governance

and help its National Federations adopt and implement the principles of good governance (FINA, 2018, p. 10).

They all disclose an intention, the direction or the policy areas of importance or priority. However, using the analysis of the official strategic documents comes with certain issues of validity with regard to the investigation of reality. First, official strategic documents often represent the strategic ideas of IFs, not the actual implementation where the interfacing mechanism between IFs and their NFs is the most intriguing aspect to this research. In addition, the operational adjustments and the outcome of these strategic actions are not always updated to these documents or on the website. Second, the official strategic documents published on the official website are constructed to cater to IFs’ public relations purpose; therefore, the analysis of the official strategic documents poses a risk of deviating from the actual implemented strategies. Thus, to capture said reality, the document analysis will be complemented by semi-structured interviews. However, the analysis of strategic documents and information can offer valuable insights into the strategic directions IFs are seeking to promote. As such it can be seen as an entry reference to guide our inquiry of the reality.

3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews

Given that the compliance inducement of international sports policy regimes is well under-documented and under-explored (Chappelet et al., 2020; Clausen, 2018,

2018; Croci & Forster, 2004), the adoption of a qualitative approach is an obvious choice for three reasons. The first concerns the exploratory nature of this research where relevant information is not (yet) widely available. Secondly, the research questions concern an issue that requires an uncovering a thick context and procedures, and thirdly, the aim of this research is to identify strategies which often are descriptive and contain certain values and believes of the actors exercising the strategies (May, 2011;

Sarantakos, 1998). It makes sense to use a theory-informed investigation tool, i.e. a semi-structured interview guideline, which allows for new emerging aspects but also approaches the reality in a relatively structured way. We adopt a semi-structured interview so that the interview can be proceeded in a conversational setting (Brinkmann,

2013; Magnusson & Marecek, 2015).

The interview guideline is developed based on the analytical framework adapted for this research where the key compliance strategic elements from each stage are listed in Table 4 (p55). The interview guideline consists of three main lines of questions:

policy objectives, compliance inducement strategies, and hypothetical questions. A list of interview questions (in brief) is outlined below in Table 6 (p69).

Based on the analytical framework, a semi-structured interview guideline is developed to encourage interview participants’ elaboration of compliance inducive strategies. The interview data also serve as an important source for capturing the actual

implementation and actions that are often dynamic and adjusted on a rolling basis. The use of a semi-structured interview guideline is considered the most ideal for this research because its open ended questions allow the interview participants to provide contextualised information their day-to-day actions and the researcher to identify the strategies still within the given structure (Galletta, 2013; Magnusson & Marecek, 2015;

Marshall & Rossman, 1999; May, 2011). Most importantly, it allows the researcher to explore an under-explored field that is also not accustomed to being completely transparent in the documentations. In most interviews, the researcher deliberately created the room for the interview participants to tell their own story, the achievements, and the challenges and the ways to rise to these challenges. This way, the interview participants often answer more than one interview question altogether in the same narrative. The researcher seeks to establish a trustworthy relationship with the interviewees, paving the way for them to elaborate on the implementation of their organisational strategies, specifically the challenges and the ways they are managed, and what is required to manage the challenges more effectively.

Table 6 Interview Guideline

[Policy objectives]: Could you elaborate on the policy objectives of your organisation

with regard to your interaction with the national federations?

Stage Dimension Interview Questions (in Brief)

 How does your organisation interact with

Stage Dimension Interview Questions (in Brief)

Prevention your national federations?

 How does your organisation induce your member federations to behave in a desirable way?

 How do you inform your member federations about your new policies?

 How do you guide your member federations to behave in a desirable manner?

The building of capacity

 Does your organisation provide some forms of subsidies or aide (education, training,

Nesting  How do you ensure your member federations apply the international rules, principles or standards at the national level?

Stage II Monitoring

Monitoring  How does your organisation monitor your member federations?

 Do you think ensuring transparency of information important in advancing your policy objectives?

Verification  How do you verify the actual situation at the national level?

Stage III Intervention

(Horizontal Linkages)  What are the challenges when you and your team try to achieve your policy objectives?

 When non-compliance occurs, what are your responses?

 To what extent do you utilise your continental or regional bodies to facilitate the work?

Stage Dimension Interview Questions (in Brief) policy objectives?

Stage IV Sanction

Sanction  In what cases does your organisation impose some forms of punishment on your member federations?

[Hypothetical question]: If you had more resources at hand, which area of your work would you spend these resources on with regard to your national federations?