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.

中文翻译：

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管理足球组织的机构复杂性

摘要

理由/目的

在欧洲俱乐部足球中，平衡体育和商业是具有挑战性的。俱乐部在复杂的环境中运作，具有相互竞争的制度要求。俱乐部面临着体育和财务表现的需求，本研究的目的是研究俱乐部如何管理竞争的制度逻辑，以防止财务困境。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究采用案例研究设计，通过采访足球组织不同隶属关系的人来收集数据。

发现

这项研究表明，结构差异可以降低足球组织逻辑之间的张力，从而改善体育雄心和财务绩效之间的平衡。

实际影响

这项研究发现，组织结构可能会影响组织平衡部分冲突的组织需求的能力。此外，这项研究还指出，足球俱乐部中更加以商业为导向的董事会可以如何减少超支，从而防止财务困境。这对于欧洲足球的管理者和管理机构具有实际意义。

研究贡献

这项研究通过实证展示如何实施具体的组织解决方案来改善体育雄心和财务绩效之间的平衡，从而防止欧洲俱乐部足球的财务困境，为体育管理文献做出了贡献。