Managing institutional complexity in a football organization

Abstract

Rationale/purpose: In European club football, balancing sports and business is challenging. The clubs operate in a complex context, with competing institutional demands. The clubs face a demand for sporting as well as financial performance, and the purpose of this study is to examine how clubs manage competing institutional logics in order to prevent financial distress. Design/methodology/approach: This study applies a case study design, and the data were collected by interviewing people with different affiliations to a football organization. Findings: This study indicates that structural differentiation can lower tension between logics in a football organization, and hence improve the balance between sporting ambitions and financial performance. Practical implications: This study finds that organizational structure may impact an organization’s ability to balance partly conflicting organizational demands. Moreover, this study points to how a more business-oriented board of directors in a football club may reduce overspending and hence prevent financial distress. This has practical implications for managers and governing bodies in European football. Research contribution: This study contributes to literature on sports management by empirically showing how specific organizational solutions can be implemented to improve the balance between sporting ambitions and financial performance in order to prevent financial distress in European club football.