Institutional pressures, government funding and provincial sport organisations

Amateur sport organisations are funded through a variety of means, including government funding, corporate sponsorship and/or private donations. In the UK and Canada, amateur sport programs are primarily funded through government grants (Garrett, 2004; Kikulis, 2000; Slack and Hinings, 1994). While sport organisations have provided a rich setting to examine organisational and institutional theoretical concepts, there have been recent calls to extend this line of research further (O'Brien and Slack, 2004). The current study extends DiMaggio and Powell's (1983) concepts of isomorphic pressure by examining how different pressures complement and contradict each other as they impact organisational processes. Specifically, this paper explores the pressures created by Alberta Sports, Recreation Parks and Wildlife Foundation (ASRPWF) on Alberta's provincial sport organisations (APSOs). Results suggest that ASRPWF criteria and reporting requirements operated as institutional pressures impacting the APSOs. The geographic locations of the APSOs and the implementation of brown bag lunch seminars also operate as institutional pressures; however, these pressures minimise the pressures that emanate from the ASRPWF.