| The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the strategy process in nonprofit sport organizations. The first part of the investigation consisted of the development of a framework. In this framework, key strategic imperatives for the domestic sport activities of nonprofit sport organizations were identified. These imperatives were: fundability, size of client base, volunteer appeal, support group appeal, equipment costs, and affiliation fees. The identification of these six imperatives along two dimensions, program attractiveness and competitive position, allowed the researcher to determine the organizations' domestic sport context. This led to the proposition of four expected strategic types according to the nonprofit sport organizations' domestic sport context. These types were: enhancer, refiner, innovator, and explorer.;The second part of the study consisted of the empirical verification of the strategy framework. With the operationalization of the imperatives, data were collected for 32 national sport organizations (NSOs). These organizations were selected because they were involved in a government-initiated strategic planning program for their domestic sport activities. Empirical support was evident for the two dimensions postulated in the framework, program attractiveness and competitive position. These dimensions were well represented in the principal components' solution. By retaining the components scores of each cases included in the sample, it was possible to plot the NSOs on a graph and to determine their expected strategic type based on the domestic sport imperatives.;The third part of the research focused on the analysis of the NSOs' strategic planning documents. National sport organizations' planned strategies were analyzed using the six imperatives identified in the framework along a six-point Likert scale. In considering the organizations' expected strategies determined in the previous part of the research, it was possible to analyze the extent and the direction of changes NSOs are proposing to make for their domestic sport activities. Overall, the majority of organizations intended to make most of their changes along the dimension of program attractiveness.;In the fourth part, the focus of the study was on the implementation process of the strategies. Using the data from the previous parts of this dissertation and collecting data on the imperatives two years into the implementation process, it was possible to speculate on the performance of NSOs in carrying out the intentions set out in their strategies. Overall, organizations have planned to make several changes to their domestic sport activities, however, after two years into the implementation process of their strategy, very few changes have actually occurred. Issues about domestic sport strategic planning as well as about the commitment to change are raised. |
