Cooperation proposals and ideas for Active Life Lab: improving cooperation between the competitive sports clubs in the Mikkeli region and Active Life Lab

The topic of this bachelor’s thesis was the development of cooperation between Active Life Lab and competitive sports clubs in the Mikkeli region. This thesis was assigned by Active Life Lab, which is a non-profit research and development unit of the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, founded in 2018 in Mikkeli. The objective of the thesis was to develop cooperation between the competitive sports clubs in the Mikkeli region and Active Life Lab. The research questions aimed to find out what Active Life Lab could offer to competitive sports clubs in terms of athletes’ testing environments and wellbeing services. Research questions also aimed to map the wants and needs of the sports clubs using Active Life Lab’s services and products. All research questions are aimed at improving cooperation between the parties and developing the current model. The theoretical framework of this thesis consisted of three main chapters. The first chapter covered the functions of sports clubs in general. The second chapter discussed wellbeing services. The third chapter discussed the cooperation in non-profit organisations. Qualitative methods were used as a thematic / semi-structured interview as well as using the benchmarking method, which examined the operations of a non-profit organisation of Department of Physical Activity and Health Centre in the region of South-Western Finland. The conclusions of the research were made at the end of the study; the research questions were answered, and recommendations for actions and ideas for the case company were made and the ideas were proposed. Furthermore, additional ideas for future research were given