The Influence of Managerial Competencies on Decision-Making in a Sports Club: a Qualitative Study

The paper examines managerial competencies that support data-driven decision-making in a community football club. The study addresses the problem of which specific managerial competencies enable club leaders to use diverse data sources effectively when making strategic, operational and sport-related decisions in a non-profit, community-based context, focusing on the case of the Neptūnas Football Club in Klaipėda, Lithuania. The research object consists of managerial competencies related to data-driven decision-making, while the aim is to justify and present a coherent set of competencies relevant to similar sports organisations. The study applies literature and document analysis, content analysis of public club reports, and semi-structured interviews with six key stakeholders, followed by qualitative content analysis to identify decision-making domains, data use practices and competency requirements. The findings reveal three main decision-making areas, a wide range of data types and analytical tools used in practice, and a multidimensional set of strategic, analytical, leadership, interpersonal, personal-ethical and digital competencies linked to data-driven decision-making. The proposed competency set can serve as a practical reference for community and non-profit sports clubs seeking to strengthen data-driven decision-making and to align technological, organisational and human factors.