Title: Economic performance in Spanish sports clubs: entrepreneurial orientation of professional and non-professional teams analysed through fsQCA

Authors: Paloma Escamilla-Fajardo; Juan M. Núñez-Pomar; Vicente Prado-Gascó

Addresses: Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 3 GascóOliag St, 46010 Valencia, Spain ' Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 3 GascóOliag St, 46010 Valencia, Spain ' Faculty of Psychology, Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia, 21Blasco IbáñezAv, 46010 Valencia, Spain

Abstract: Sports clubs play an important role in the creation of social value, however, despite the scarcity of studies, analysing the associative sports environment from an economic perspective has an undeniable relevance. The entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been largely related to the economic performance of the organisation, however, this study has found a difference in sports clubs related to their legal and organisational structure. The analysed sample is composed of 13 non-professional sports clubs and 13 professional sports clubs, using the fsQCA methodology. According to the results obtained, EO has an influence on the economic performance (EP) of sports clubs, with proactivity being the most important dimension and innovation the least important. Being a professional sports club is present in the results for high levels of EP and amateur sports clubs are present in the results for low levels of EP.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation; sports clubs; professional sports club; non-professional sports club; economic performance; professionalisation; proactivity; sports corporation; amateur sports clubs.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2021.113240

European Journal of International Management, 2021 Vol.15 No.2/3, pp.214 - 230

Received: 28 Sep 2019
Accepted: 19 Oct 2019
Published online: 25 Feb 2021 *

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