The Entrepreneurial Orientation of Nonprofits : A Case Study on Swedish Sport Associations

Abstract: The model of Entrepreneurial Orientation has frequently been used as a way to analyze the entrepreneurial behavior of organizations. Although the model has been adopted across different context, it has rarely been adapted to these: One such context is nonprofits. As nonprofits operate under other circumstances, we argue that the five dimensions of innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy may not account for all entrepreneurial activity in these organizations. With the largest body of nonprofits in Sweden being sports, a single case study with semi-structured interviews of members in Judo associations were conducted to answer the two research questions: (1) Which dimensions of EO can be found within nonprofits? and (2) Why do entrepreneurial behavior differ between for-profits and nonprofits? By implementing the study of Morris, Webb and Franklin (2011) of motivation, processes, and outcomes we identified what processes can be translated into dimensions, as well as what the motivation behind these are. By analyzing our empirical data we were able to answer our questions in the following way. In nonprofits, the dimensions of innovativeness, internal proactiveness, collaboration, lobbying, and autonomy were identified, indicating that the EO model does indeed need to be adapted for nonprofits. The reason for why these dimensions occurred is mainly due to difference in the motivation of nonprofits. We find that the nonprofits aim to fulfill external goals, by serving a social purpose to stakeholders and growth. This means that nonprofits are not as focused on other players in the market, which impacts on their entrepreneurial behavior.