ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Management, Marketing, and Economics
An Analysis of the Market for Diving Certificates
Provisionally accepted
- Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, Jena, Germany
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This study examines the market for diving certificates through the lens of the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) Paradigm, focusing on market structure, firm behavior, and market outcomes. It seeks to understand the role of entry barriers and market concentration in shaping competition and performance in this niche market. The analysis reveals that competition is constrained by high entry barriers such as network effects, proprietary training systems, and standardized certification formats. While the dominant player, PADI, exercises significant market power, technical efficiency and training quality remain high. However, monopolistic pricing results in allocative and distributive inefficiencies. Given the maintained training quality and heterogeneous demand, the study suggests limited need for direct regulatory intervention. Policy efforts should instead focus on promoting certificate interoperability, supporting open educational resources, and enhancing market transparency to gradually reduce supplier dominance and stimulate competition.
Keywords: Diving certificates, SCP-paradigm, Market concentration, SCUBA diving, Market analysis
Received: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Daumann, Schurade and Klöcker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Julian Alexander Klöcker, julian.kloecker@uni-jena.de
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.