Management control systems in sport event organizations - how to cope with a pulsating nature and multiple stakeholders

Abstract: Management control systems (MCS) are a common feature in most organizations. However, few have explored the functioning of MCS in sport event organizations. This paper aims to address this apparent gap, exploring how sports event organizations apply MCS and investigating how such systems are affected by the pulsating nature of the organizations' operations as well as by its stakeholders. A multiple case study, including six Swedish sport event organizations, serves as the basis of the analysis. Adopting a broad perspective on management control in order to capture both informal and formal controls and applying the framework by Malmi and Brown (2008) enabled identification of the control elements. The distinction between participator and spectator events, as well as the concept of stakeholders and the pulsating organization, were found useful and enhancing the understanding of MCS in sport event organizations. The findings suggest that stakeholders' effect on MCS differ depending on the characteristics of the stakeholders. Furthermore, action planning is found to be a prominent control element assisting sport event organizations in managing the inherent pulsating nature of the operations.