Three common factors within institutional theory—political, functional, and social—serve as major themes that can strengthen or erode commonly held traditions, beliefs, or values within an organization. Drs. McCullough and Cunningham apply these factors to environmental sustainability initiatives in sport organizations.
Several propositions are advanced, as inciting factors, moderating factors, and outcome variables.
Inciting factors:
1: Political pressures from external stakeholders (e.g. Greenpeace, governments), internal stakeholders (e.g. staff and volunteers), and/or professional organizations will lead organizations to develop green initiatives.
2: Functional pressures (e.g. competition for scarce resources, financial stress) will lead sport organizations to develop green initiatives.
3: Social movements (e.g. protests, public awareness campaigns), legal mandates (e.g. emissions laws) and differentiation among groups will lead sport organizations to develop green initiatives.
Moderating variable:
4: The ideals and values held by upper management members towards environmental programs moderate the movement towards either adapting or avoiding environmentally friendly programs, policies, and practices.
Outcomes:
5: Implementing environmentally friendly programs will result in cost savings for the sport organization.
6: As sport organizations embody the green movement, early-adopting organizations can gain a competitive advantage, gain access to environmentally conscious consumers, and can also influence others in the industry by demonstrating economic savings.
7: Sport organizations that adopt and initiate environmentally friendly programs can open new opportunities to sponsorships that will increase goodwill perceptions of the surrounding community and fan base.
8: As sport organizations implement environmentally friendly programs and practices, fan identification will increase with the association to the sport organization through those environmentally friendly programs.
CITE: McCullough, B. P., & Cunningham, G. B. (2010). A conceptual model to understand the impetus to engage in and the expected organizational outcomes of green initiatives. Quest, 62(4), 348–363.
