“My definition of community is community, and their definition is more around fan engagement”: balancing business and social logics of professional sport teams’ community activities

ABSTRACT Professional sport teams operate within an increasingly complex institutional environment and are required to often confront incompatible prescriptions from multiple institutional logics, such as performance and commercial goals (i.e., business logics) relative to community development and altruistic goals (i.e., social logics). The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of institutional complexity on managers perceptions of community-oriented practices across 12 professional teams within a single Australian sport league. Using Raynard’s (2016) configurations of institutional complexity, we identify two types of hybrid responses that professional teams utilise to address multiple logics: aligned and segregated. When community managers perceived social logics to be aligned with business logics, community activities were more aligned with commercial organisational outcomes such as brand, fan and sponsorship benefits. Alternatively, when managers perceived social logics to be segregated from business logics, community activities were more autonomous from commercial drivers, allowing a greater focus on community development outcomes including education, health and increased trust. Theoretically, our research adds to institutional logic scholarship by showing that multiple logics can be compatible with each other, central logics influence peripheral logics and organisational responses to institutional complexity can vary within a professional sport league. HIGHLIGHTS Professional sport teams are operating in increasingly complex institutional environments. Organisations responded to institutional complexity by either segregating community activities from, or aligning community activities with commercial goals. Community activities that were directed by business logics focused upon commercial outcomes, such as fans, sponsorships, and branding. Community activities that focused upon social logics targeted community outcomes, such as health, education, engagement, and trust.