Title: Delivering strategic change in complex sport environments: Country Racing Victoria

Authors: Matthew Nicholson, Russell Hoye

Addresses: School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, La Trobe University, Victoria 3086, Australia. ' School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, La Trobe University, Victoria 3086, Australia

Abstract: This paper utilises a contextualist approach to examine the implementation of strategic management within a complex sport business environment. The focus of this paper is to examine how Country Racing Victoria (CRV) implemented a strategic management process in conjunction with its member racing clubs and the resultant improvements in country racing over the period 2000–2005. This paper reveals how CRV formulated strategy, the details of that strategy and the issues they confronted in implementing the strategy. This paper further illustrates the utility of adopting an incremental change process when dealing with multiple stakeholders in complex operating environments.

Keywords: horse racing; strategic change; governance; incremental change; strategy formulation; strategy implementation; complexity; Australia; strategic management; Country Racing Victoria; racing clubs; change management; multiple stakeholders.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2008.017656

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2008 Vol.4 No.1, pp.18 - 32

Published online: 26 Mar 2008 *

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