Identification and prioritization of the barriers of relation between the manufacturing sector of the sport industry and universities in Iran

Nowadays, all the structures, including the science, technology, and industry structures, are highly required to be viewed from a deep, realistic, integrated, generous, and inclusive perspective. The industry owners and academicians should accept that their institutions would be able to absorb and achieve the technology in a proper way, if they work side by side. The present study aims to identify and prioritize the relation obstacles between the manufacturing sector of the sport industry and the universities in Iran’s geographical context. The study is an applied research based on a descriptive-analytical methodology of research. In order to collect the data, Esham’s 2008 questionnaire for industry was used in which the reliability coefficient was calculated by the alpha Cronbach (?=0.86) method. The research population of the research included all the sports products manufacturers (N=220) among which a number of 140 companies was considered as the research sample of the investigation. The analysis of the results of the study through the descriptive statistics (frequency distribution tables and diagrams) and inferential statistics (Factor Analysis, Friedman, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis) was processed using the Spss software. The results gained through Friedman’s test showed that among all the factors in surveying the reasons of the cooperation and correspondence obstacles between the manufacturing sector of the sports industry and the academia, “lack of awareness” was concluded to be the most important obstacle in maintaining the cooperation. The results from Mann-Whitney U’s test showed that the amount of U was meaningful according to the major (study field) in all of the factors investigated as the obstacles of the cooperation between the industry and the academia. Additionally, according to the results achieved through the Kruskal-Wallis’ test, there was a significant difference among the managers’ perspectives on the surveyed factors of the cooperation obstacles between the industry and the academia based on the level of study and the companies range of activities. Based on the findings it can be acknowledged that many factors were involved in the cooperation obstacles between the manufacturing industries of sports products and the academia. Therefore, the partnership, correspondence and cooperation of the two institutions (academicians and industry owners) seem necessary in elimination of those barriers.