Unpacking the Harmonization of National Anti-Doping Policy: A Collaborative Autoethnography Through the Lens of Institutional Entrepreneurship

Abstract

National sport policies’ harmonization with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been one of the most researched topics within the sport policy domain. The literature, however, has failed to offer firsthand empirical insights from those actors who develop the policy so that harmonization occurs. The present study fills this gap by drawing on the tenets of institutional entrepreneurship to unpack the process through the experiences of the person responsible for it. The study employs a collaborative analytical autoethnography where, through memo-writings, emails, and reflective notes by the second author, it micro-theorizes the political, technical, and cultural activities that the institutional entrepreneur carried in order to harmonize Montenegro’s anti-doping policy with WADA. The study reveals that the harmonization process entails seven institutional works: boundary spanning, scanning the environment, repairing bilateral relationships, designing the new legislation, modifying structures, framing the need, and transferring responsibility. This is the first empirical study in sport management literature to examine institutional change for sport policy-making through the lenses of institutional entrepreneurship and a collaborative autoethnographic perspective.