AtLAS is a novel European entrepreneurship training for athletes powered by TWIN. This week, the website of the EU-funded project was launched.
Athletes have an outstanding potential to become high-performing business men and women. In their sporting career, they acquire extraordinary skills that are also crucial to entrepreneurial success. In this context, athletes engaging in entrepreneurship is not a novel phenomenon. However, what are their main motivators for this engagement? Research offers the following (not exhaustive) list of crucial motivational aspects:
- Exploiting the existing athlete brand: Athletes can build on their success by using their name and persona in a business venture.
- Dealing with uncertainty: Self-employment is appealing as it offers independence and fulfilment during times of transition.
- Advantage of social capital: Athletes have key resources available to them in terms of knowledge, potential financial resources and influential contacts from their established social, professional and charitable relationships.
- First-hand experience of gaps: Athletes experience possible gaps in certain markets first-hand and can create novel solutions and change for future generations of athletes.
- Societal motivations: Some athletes are motivated by the opportunity to create change for minorities, women or the less fortunate by putting the influence they have to good use or give back to their communities.
New website
The compact training of AtLAS offers athletes across Europe the chance to combine high-level sport and top-class entrepreneurship education. AtLAS will be designed in the form of a joint venture of international academics in the field of sport & entrepreneurship and dual career experts coming from 6 different countries. TWIN acts as the consultant of the EU-funded project.
This week, the brand new website of AtLAS was launched. On athletesasentrepreneurs.eu you can find first information on the training which will start run its first course free of charge in October 2021.
References
- Ali, H. S., Shahid, N., Javed, I. S., & Jawaria, K. (2018): Challenges that Make/Break the Athlete’s quest to become an entrepreneur: A qualitative study about fans’ perceptions
- Bosma, N., Hessels, J., Schutjens, V. Van Praag, M., & Verheul, I. (2012): Entrepreneurship and role models
- González-Serrano, M.H., Valantine, I., Crespo-Hervás, J., Pérez-Campos, C. and Calabuig-Moreno, F. (2018): Sports university education and entrepreneurial intentions: a comparison between Spain and Lithuania
- LoRé, Michael (2019): Dale Moss’ Mission To Empower Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs
- Puyana, M., Gálvez-Ruiz, P., Sánchez-Oliver, A. and Fernández, J. (2019): Intentions of entrepreneurship in sports science higher education: gender the moderator effect
- Ratten, V., & Miragaia, D. (2020): Entrepreneurial passion amongst female athletes
