Management, Strategy & Organizational Culture
Play For the Badge! A Study of the Management Accountant’s Identity in Swedish Sports Organizations (MSc)
Mabast Baban & Oscar Franzén Ehrlich (2022)
Abstract: This paper contributes to extant research on the management accountant's identity by studying identity work in hybrid sports organizations tinged by permanent liminality. Through a cross-sectional field study on 16 Swedish sports organizations, this paper addresses a gap in prior research on identities in hybrid organizations, sports organizations, and organizations in permanent liminality. Further, by integrating theory on permanent liminality with Horton & Wanderley's (2018) framework on multiple identities and identity conflicts, the study explores how management accountants construct their identities and make sense of the liminal context. The study finds that permanent liminality is managed by a continuous adjustment of the current identity with varying levels of professional and organizational identification. Thereby, the study suggests that the identity in liminality is fluid rather than static. Moreover, the study finds that in the sports setting, identity conflicts are moderated by passion and organizational prestige, diminishing the risk for job dissatisfaction and personnel turnover.
Gender budgeting in sports: icing on the cake? (MSc)
Oscar Lundquist & Lukas Öberg (2022)
Abstract: This study seeks to explore what role the budget has in supporting gender equality. By adhering to sports management literature's concern for gender inequality in sports and how it can be linked to resource allocation, we build upon the concept of gender budgeting through a budget's different roles. We investigate Riksidrottsförbundet through an exploratory single case study where semi-structured interviews with employees close to the budgeting process have been conducted. This thesis makes two main contributions. First, we contribute to accounting and sports research by integrating sports management's call for gender equality, showing how accounting, sports, and gender issues become an important research field that can solve large societal issues in terms of gender inequality. Second, we contribute to the research on gender budgeting and how different roles of a budget are used in supporting gender equality in a national sport governing body characterized by a dual identity - both acting in the place of a sports authority and being the spokesperson for the independent sports movement. This dual identity could help uncover whether gender budgeting is an "icing on the cake".
Management control in a hybrid setting – a case study of a Swedish football club (MSc)
Hamza Ali (2021)
Abstract: Research within sports associations is, from an accounting perspective, a modestly researched area, where the multifaceted circumstances and organizational settings existing in sports clubs affect the use of management control systems. Taking an all-inclusive view on how management control systems are designed in sport organizations in tough times, I expand prior research on management control and sports that mainly has discovered constricted topics within the chosen subject. To achieve the purpose of the thesis, a comprehensive case study of a Swedish professional football association, xxx F.C., has been conducted with the identification of two fundamental logics: sports logic and business logic. Linking the object-of-control framework provided by Merchant & Van der Stede (2017), I formulate a theoretical framework, which leads to the collection and analysis of data. The discoveries illustrate that xxx F.C., is a hybrid organization where the business- and sports logics exist but appear not to be in conflict. Despite the turbulent times within the association, the strong prevailing culture that exists with the strong emotional connection employees have to the organization, together with the lack of formal guidelines, have implied a greater focus on the sports logic and consequently the whole organization being dependent on achieving sporting success and selling their assets in order to survive.
Accounting and Sport in a Crisis – Give Sense to Keep Racing? (MSc)
Fanny Almersson & Johanna Sand (2020)
Abstract: This study aims to explore how the budget is implicated in the process of how organizational members in a sports organization make sense during a crisis. By using the lens of sensemaking theory, an explanatory single case study has been conducted in the Swedish organization RunningCo during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted to answer the research question. Two identified themes in previous literature within accounting and sport have focused on institutional logics and soft budget constraints, and external stakeholders; we provide insights to complement these. First, we contribute by showing how the sensemaking strategy of compromising and balancing becomes essential in maintaining and prioritizing the sports logic in a crisis, as the budget is not used to make the most profitable decision. Second, we contribute to previous literature by showing how the budget in a crisis is primarily used to give sense to external stakeholders by bridging and contextualizing, while using the budget for internal financial planning becomes secondary.
Anna Sandäng & Eric Karlsson (2019)
Abstract: In this thesis, we examine the legitimizing role of accounting in a public debate. We draw upon a case study of Sweden's candidacy for hosting the Winter Olympics in 2026, in which the budget for the games played a central and at the same time problematic role. The Olympic candidature turned out to be a complex procedure, where competing interests, power dynamics, and low confidence in the budget from the start characterized the process of legitimating the candidacy. Building upon the legitimacy process framework by Patriotta et al. (2011), we apply the concept 'orders of worth' to analyze the public debate and conceptualize the role of accounting in a legitimating process. We find that the role of accounting and the factors influencing it differ between the stages of the legitimating process. More specifically, we find that differing mobilizations of orders of worth affect an organization’s ability to legitimize a project to different stakeholders using accounting. In parallel, we show that the quality of current and past budgets also plays a role in the legitimizing process. We term this historical bias against accounting 'the broken environment', since it affected the Swedish Olympic Committee's ability to legitimize the candidature using the budget. Thereby, it influenced both the role of accounting and the legitimation process.
Gustaf Ericson & Franz Larsson (2018)
Abstract: Through a qualitative field study of the Swedish Athletics Association (the SAA) and three Swedish athletics clubs, we explore a multi-tiered setting within the realm of accounting and institutional logics. We identify three logics at the field level: an elite sports logic, a sport-for-all logic, and a business logic. In spite of structural differentiation at the SAA that corresponds to the three logics, we find that the reflection of the logics in the performance measurement systems (PMSs) in the divisions of the SAA creates an imbalance in the organization's activities that is inconsistent with the long-term strategic plan of the SAA. Drawing upon Greenwood et al. (2011), we find that the PMS of the SAA helps reinforce a governance-related feedback loop that generates a dominance of the elite sports logic in shaping the strategic direction of the Swedish athletics movement, which is partly inconsistent with the club-level goals. We conclude that in a mature, multi-tiered field, the governance structure of the ecosystem can explain how one logic maintains dominance over the other(s) in and with the help of PMSs.
Fisnik Zahiti & Josefin Olsson (2018)
Abstract: The market and opportunities for development of products and services on the market, have changed over the years. Business ecosystems and platforms are well-known concepts and are used in the business world today. To develop a new form of sensor technique specialized in helping athletes work out smarter, an ecosystem is required in the project, as the parties themselves do not have the required skills and knowledge alone. But even as ecosystems are frequently used, a surprisingly small amount is written about the subject. This paper is about business ecosystems and aims to understand how they are created as well as how they evolve. Through the study of the Swedish Olympic Academy (SOA) case, we implement the theory, resulting in a definition of what kind of ecosystem the SOA project is, as well as what is needed for the ecosystem to develop. Through the questions, we analyze what is needed for an ecosystem to work and what different stages an ecosystem can exist in. The result of the thesis shows that the SOA project is still in the earliest stage of the development of an ecosystem, called ferment, and is matching the criteria of the type of ecosystem called Creative Bazaar. These insights lead up to the conclusion that personal contacts are important for the creation of an ecosystem, and a common understanding of what the ecosystem wants to achieve is needed in the initial phase of ecosystem development.
Marcus Kristensson & Gabriel Spetz (2016)
Abstract: This paper adds to the emerging stream of literature on the interrelations between intra- and interfirm management control by looking into how various forms of collaborations influence, and are in turn influenced by, internal management control systems (MCS). We draw theoretically on Merchant & Van der Stede's (2003) result, action, personnel, and cultural controls, which are used as a package to analyze mutual influences between the firm and its various collaborations. The chosen empirical method is a multiple case study design in the context of Swedish elite hockey clubs and their various forms of sponsorship collaborations. Theory within sponsorship is found helpful in identifying how commercialization of sports influences the motivations of the club and its sponsorship partners, which allows for a classification of collaborations in terms of low and high strategic integration. It is found that the closer the collaboration, the higher the impact is on a firm's internal MCS. It is also shown how adding intrafirm competencies by adjusting internal management control systems leads to closer and more intense collaborations.
Anders Nyman & Daniel Ahlenius (2015)
Abstract: This paper employs a qualitative survey approach to study the structure of formal management control systems ("MCS") among the top Swedish football and ice hockey clubs. Applying a theoretical framework based on research of initial MCS adoption among start-up companies, we create a unique and comprehensive empirical overview of MCS adoption in Swedish professional sport clubs. With this as a starting point, we develop a framework for understanding patterns in the core MCS structure across three stages of MCS professionalization. Our framework offers a point of origin for future research on control in a professional sports context and could also be used by practitioners in the field looking to design MCS structures in professional sports clubs.
Management control systems in a hybrid organization facing financial problems (BSc)
Johan Lindbäck & Tobias Bengtsdahl (2015)
Abstract: This thesis aims to further increase the knowledge regarding hybrid organizations and their use of management control systems MCS). Unlike previous research, the aim is to examine a shorter time span and to add insight to the specific use of MCSs and the effect of hybridity when facing an internal financial crisis. The study is conducted by looking at one type of organization that is subject to multiple institutional logics: an elite sports organization. Based on Malmi & Brown's MCS-package (2008), a theoretical framework has been designed in order to examine the use of in-crisis control systems. Combining this framework with Pache & Santos' (2010) theories regarding organizational responses when facing competing institutional demands, the thesis finds that sports have been heavily prioritized ahead of business. This has been played out by an unequal treatment of the two different organizational units, where the sports unit's MCSs were almost untouched, whereas the business unit had to make heavy cutbacks. The paper's conclusion, as previous research suggests, is that non-profit organizations merely see financials as a means and are prone to put non-financial goals ahead of financials. Adding on to previous research, this has also been found to be true when examining a shorter time period.
Louise Karlsson (2014)
Abstract: Management control systems (MCS) are a common feature in most organizations. However, few have explored the functioning of MCS in sports event organizations. This paper aims to address this apparent gap, exploring how sports event organizations apply MCS and investigating how such systems are affected by the pulsating nature of the organizations' operations as well as by their stakeholders. A multiple case study, including six Swedish sport event organizations, serves as the basis of the analysis. Adopting a broad perspective on management control in order to capture both informal and formal controls and applying the framework by Malmi and Brown (2008) enabled the identification of the control elements. The distinction between participator and spectator events, as well as the concept of stakeholders and the pulsating organization, was found useful and enhanced the understanding of MCS in sport event organizations. The findings suggest that stakeholders' effect on MCS differs depending on the characteristics of the stakeholders. Furthermore, action planning is found to be a prominent control element assisting sport event organizations in managing the inherent pulsating nature of the operations.
Gustaf Ericson & Viktor Olausson (2013)
Abstract: This essay studies how and why large sports clubs from sports with different degrees of commerciality interact with their institutional surroundings in the way that they do. It compares two large Stockholm-based table tennis clubs, Ängby SK and Spårvägens BTK, with a large Stockholm-based football club, AIK Fotboll. In order to get proper data, a number of key persons within the organizations were exploratively interviewed using open and semi-structured questions, together with a study of literature and other sources related to the subject. One of the key findings was that the non-profit table tennis clubs, which were expected to resemble the institution association closely, were subject to company-ization, and thus acted a lot more like the institution company than expected. The other key finding was that the football club, although driven partially like a public limited company, in many aspects placed a greater value on cultural capital than on economic capital.