Abstract

Studies in various areas of investment indicate that there is a close tie between decision-making and investment in a country’s economy. The investment decision is usually accompanied by the likelihood of failure or success. The present study aims at identifying and ranking the factors influencing the investors’ decision in the sports industry by taking advantage of TOPSIS method and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The current study is an applied research and it makes use of a survey method to collect the required data. To do so, a total of 123 experts in the sports field were selected for answering to the study questions. The validity of the questionnaire used herein has been verified by the experts of the field based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. In the end, the results obtained from the questionnaires were evaluated by the use of TOPSIS and data envelopment analysis methods. The results indicated that the entire identified factors have been effective on investment in the sport industry and the economic factors were found of a greater importance in contrast to the other pinpointed factors.