Understanding how local contexts shape partnerships in sport for development across Latin America

Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) organizations use sport as a vehicle for social change. Often operating in complex environments, SDP organizations extensively rely on partnerships to deliver social impact. Researchers have given significant attention to interorganizational relationships, yet specifics of some of the most active SDP regions, including Latin America, remain unknown. Considering prior research has established significant contextual differences in SDP, we therefore interviewed 17 SDP practitioners in Spanish across 9 Latin American countries. Our analysis demonstrates that the challenges of interorganizational relationships of SDP organizations in Latin America are heavily grounded in their environmental context, influenced by economic volatility, political turbulence, corruption regulations, a lack of SDP legitimacy, as well as resource dependence and power dynamics. We also found the critical importance of time sensitivity due to the rapidly changing environment in the region. Besides challenges, we discuss several benefits practitioners perceived from partnerships as well. Our findings question some of the underlying assumptions of resource dependence theory and identify nuanced perspectives for future application across regions in the Global South. We also demonstrate the value of combining resource dependence theory with real options theory for reimagining how practitioners manage external partnerships.