From league champion to community champion: Institutional entrepreneurship in Belgian soccer

Abstract

Sport clubs traditionally focus on essential tasks such as organising local competitions, facilitating youth sport, and managing their volunteers. This primary focus can sometimes make it challenging to prioritise additional social initiatives such as developing more inclusive sports programs for disadvantaged communities. Despite the inherent difficulties, expanding the scope of sport clubs to embrace social inclusivity can significantly enhance their impact on both members and their local neighbourhoods. Central to addressing this social challenge are institutional entrepreneurs, who serve as exemplary sports clubs advocating the integration of both traditional responsibilities and social values within the sports sector. Recognising the pivotal role played by institutional entrepreneurs, this study aimed to delve deeper into the specific environmental characteristics and actions that trigger sport clubs to become an institutional entrepreneur. For this purpose, we applied the entrepreneurial model of Battilana, Leca & Boxenbaum (2009) . Employing a single-case study design, we focused on a Belgian amateur soccer club, conducting a comprehensive investigation through 22 semi-structured interviews. The findings yielded multiple interesting insights such as the role of the external environment (i.e., the competitive dynamics of soccer and the demographic shift in the club's neighbourhood) in initiating entrepreneurial initiatives. Furthermore, the role of an intrapreneur emerged from the data and proved to be a decisive characteristic in catalysing the call for advocating social values within the club. Consequently, this study contributes to the discussion on how entrepreneurial actions, initiated by the intrapreneur, can bring about social change in the field of sport clubs.