Exploring the nexus of digital technology and organizational change in non-profit sport organizations

ABSTRACT

The sport industry is not immune to the force digital technology brings in facilitating organizational change in sport organizations. Consequently, the purpose of the study was to explore the nexus of digital technology and organizational change in sport organizations, specifically identifying the presence of smaller digital changes and larger digital transformations. A collective case study of five Canadian national sport organizations undergoing organizational change was conducted; data derived from 49 semi-structured interviews and 151 documents. Results indicated these organizations engaged in a variety of digital changes like incorporating Microsoft 365, Zoom, and Samepage, and developing their own digital tools. Although these technologies fostered some larger digital transformations insofar as they enabled greater stakeholder communication and engagement, in the context of organizational change, digital technology remained predominantly at a small-scale, digital change level. The findings make it imperative for executives to reflect upon whether digital technology is being (un)intentionally disregarded from a strategic standpoint.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital Sport Management
• organization theory
• transformation
• national sport organizations
• Canada

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the organizations and individuals for their willingness to participate in this research study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ There is a body of research on digital transformation in sport marketing (for more information, see the review by Stegmann et al., 2023).