Framing and Conceptualizing the IOR Literature in Sport Management: Mapping the Scholarly
Terrain
Kathy Babiak, University of Michigan
Lucie Thibault, Brock University
Annick Willem, Ghent University
Organizational theory/culture Friday, June 5, 2015 20-minute oral presentation
(including questions)
Abstract 2015-095 10:35 AM (Richelieu)
Intro / Background / Purpose
As the nature and scope of the sport industry has changed around the world, the role of interorganizational
partnerships has become central to the operations of a variety of sport organizations (cf., Bingham & Walters, 2013;
Cousens, Barnes, Stevens, Mallen, & Bradish, 2006; Franco & Pessoa, 2013; Grix & Phillpots, 2010).
Interorganizational relationships (IORs) among and between sport organizations exhibit an array of forms,
structures, and outcomes and often represent a central strategic function. Concurrent with the growth and
prevalence of partnerships and collaboration in the sport industry in practice, there has been a related increase in
focus of the academic literature on the topic (Misener & Doherty, 2012; Parent & Harvey, 2009; Thibault, Frisby, &
Kikulis, 1999). The scholarship on partnerships in sport management has emerged as a growing field of inquiry with
researchers exploring a range of issues and industry contexts (e.g., Babiak & Thibault, 2009; McDonald, 2005;
Misener & Doherty, 2014; Rosentraub & Swindell, 2009). However, as these studies have evolved, there remains
little interconnection, generally accepted models and theories, or holistic interpretation of the knowledge generated
by this research. In short, the literature in IOR in sport management is fragmented and atomistic. This fragmentation
has led to a situation in the sport management domain that mirrors that of the broader parent disciplines, and as
Parmigiani and Rivera-Santos (2011) suggest “this has made it difficult to effectively apply and combine theoretical
lenses, to delineate the commonalities and differences between IOR forms, to identify key attributes of specific
relationships, and to understand how organizations create and manage a portfolio of relationships” (p. 1109). The
purpose of our research is to address these issues by collecting and categorizing the substantial sport-related IOR
literature, identifying what advancements have been made in this body of work, uncovering connections between
concepts of interest, and presenting key questions and issues that merit further investigation given the gaps and
prospects revealed.
Methods
We began by conducting a systematic content analysis of the sport-focused IOR literature (consistent with Berg
(2007) and Krippendorf (2004)). This meta review approach summarizes and connects the empirical and conceptual
work in the field (Parmigiani & Rivera-Santos, 2011). We only included refereed articles focusing on relationships
among sport organizations, between sport organizations and other organizations, and network analyses of sport
organizations. Articles were culled from sport management journals as well as from parent discipline management
journals and policy, nonprofit, tourism, leisure, and marketing journals. The central theme of each article reflected a
primary emphasis on an aspect of partnership or collaboration. Articles ranged from empirical to theoretical to
critical analyses of partnerships and interorganizational relationships. In terms of focus, articles discussed various
aspects of partnership relationships from formation, to management, to evaluation. A total of 118 articles were
identified through this process. Using this sample, we developed themes and subthemes for coding and categorizing
the articles, including by setting / context / sport industry segment (Pedersen & Thibault, 2014), geographical
emphasis, theoretical approach, type of alliance form, methodology used to investigate, and key findings. For a more
content oriented analysis of the data we adapted the framework developed by Seekamp, Cerveny, and McCreary
(2011) who identified a number of dimensions involved in partnerships. Specifically, these dimensions include:
composition (e.g., mixture and number of organizations involved in the IOR), structure (e.g., type or form of
arrangement, coordination and integration of partners, formalization, configuration, legal and institutional setting),
scope of interaction (e.g., nature and significance of the problem being addressed, geographical scale and scope of
efforts, size of target group or community being served, duration of relationship); function (e.g., purpose and
objective of IOR; number of programs, services, or activities offered); process dimensions (e.g., mechanisms and
2015 North American Society for Sport Management Conference (NASSM 2015)
Ottawa, ON June 2 – 6, 2015 Page 338
procedures via which partnership goals are achieved, participation in decision making, partner integration,
implementation, interaction, alignment, centrality of relationship); and outcomes (IOR impact,