From medals to community champions : institutional entrepreneurship in Belgian soccer

Aim and Research Question Sport clubs are generally driven by the objective of winning competitions, but this focus is often at the exclusion of their societal goals. The purpose of this study is to enhance understanding of the emergence and role of institutional entrepreneurship in the field of sport clubs, and more specifically how an institutional entrepreneur may advocate a more social and inclusive policy. To address this aim, the following research questions will be addressed: (1) What specific field conditions and drivers may enable sport clubs to become institutional entrepreneurs in promoting social and inclusive values? (2) How does this entrepreneurship initiate action in other sport clubs? Theoretical Background Sport is characterised by the dominance of competition and winning medals. This competitive logic of sport is appointed by several scholars as one of the main reasons why many sport organisations, such as sport federations and their clubs, fail to attain a more social and inclusive policy. (Stenling & Fahlén, 2009). In addition to the competitive logic, sport organisations are also considered social actors that have an important role to play in local community development by, for instance, engaging disadvantaged communities (e.g. people with a migration background or living in poverty). Vandermeerschen and Scheerder (2017), however, demonstrated that there is a lack of awareness of the fact that disadvantaged communities are subjected to multiple participation barriers and that most sport managers lack the necessary knowledge and expertise to effectively target disadvantaged communities (Vandermeerschen & Scheerder, 2017). In this competitive environment, institutional entrepreneurs can enact as catalyst to modify the dominance of the competitive logic. Specifically, institutional entrepreneurs are described as actors who initiate change that contributes to transforming existing or creating new institutional logics. Although some sport management research has focused on the examination of how institutional entrepreneurs create new logics (Andersen & Ronglan, 2015), more research on institutional entrepreneurship is needed. Particularly, the emergence of entrepreneurs and the manner in which they disrupt existing logics has received limited attention (Di Lu & Heinze, 2020). To capture this process, we applied the model of Battilana et al. (2009). In particular, Battilana at al.’s model grasps the different phases of the process of institutional entrepreneurship. Firstly, the model emphasises the enabling conditions of the field and strategy of the entrepreneur to realize change. Secondly, the model tries to capture how the entrepreneur tries to diffuse and institutionalise new practices (Battilana et al., 2009). Research Design, Methodology and Data Analysis This study uses a qualitative single case study approach. In particular, we selected a Flemish amateur soccer club, that won the Silver UEFA Grassroots Award in 2018. This Silver UEFA Grassroots Award rewards sport clubs for their societal contributions to the local community though numerous social and inclusive projects. In particular, the club is located in a suburb of one of the largest Flemish cities. Since the start of the new millennium, the close neighbourhood has been changing i.e. a more diversified population of people with a migration background and people living in poverty have settled in the neighbourhood of the club. So at that time, the board members of the club responded to this demographic change and decided to reorient the focus of the club towards the local community. In the initial stages, especially the board members were delivering efforts to attain the community, whereas recently the club could professionalise which made it possible to expand their operations to new locations in the city. Currently, the club has approximately 1500 members, representing more than 100 different nationalities. Our study entails 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted with the former and current board members of the club, the operational staff, members of the club, staff of the federation, as well as with board members of surrounding soccer clubs. The mentioned framework of Battilana (2009) was applied as guiding framework and provided categories and, a predetermined structure for our interview guide and analysis. The interviews are coded and analysed using Nvivo 12 software. Results/Findings and Discussion At the time of writing, the data analysis is still ongoing. One of the preliminary findings indicated that the current field conditions of Flemish soccer, being the dominant competitive logic almost bankrupted the club. Reducing focus on the competitive aspects of the club and a reorientation of their strategy towards the local, disadvantaged neighbourhood made the club an institutional entrepreneur in promoting social and inclusive values in the Flemish soccer landscape. The other findings on the process of institutional entrepreneurship will be presented during the conference. Conclusion and Contribution This study will enhance sport managers’ understanding of how sport clubs can act as initiators of a more social and inclusive policy in an environment that is characterised as competitive. Furthermore, this study strengthens policy makers knowledge of how they can support local amateur sport clubs in attaining a more social and inclusive policy.

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Open