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Abstract
The purpose of this article was to further explore the emergence of legacy and the process through which it becomes a taken-for-granted institutional rule that has impacted how organizations plan and implement the Games. More specifically, this article reviews why and how legacy was adopted, the forces at play, and the subsequent implications on bid and organizing committees and other actors within the Olympic Movement. Institutional theory is applied as a theoretical framework to investigate the emergence and evolution of legacy and its governance. The organizational field under investigation consists of the committees involved in the bidding for and hosting of the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee as the main rights holder, and other actors within the Olympic Movement which impact or can be impacted by the event's legacy (e.g., national and international sport organizations and sponsors). Archival material was used as the primary source of data. This source included multiple types of documentation such as bid documents, candidature files, final reports, and related websites. Institutionalization is an ongoing process. As such, in order to further understand the adoption of legacy into the Olympic Movement, the evolution of the concept was broken down into the pre-institutionalization, semi-institutionalization, and full institutionalization phases as described by Tolbert and Zucker. Managerial implications that arise as a result of the institutionalization of legacy and the subsequent objectification of its governance are discussed.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by grants from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 2007 Postgraduate Grant Program and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant # 752-2009-1807.