Breaking Bad Karma in mega-sport events: the Reincarnated Organization framework

Research question Mega-sport events are formally temporary organizations, yet they reproduce institutional continuity across host cities and event cycles. Existing theories of temporary organization and project-based organization explain short-term coordination, but they give limited attention to cross-cycle continuity, organizational learning, and legitimacy transfer across successive organizing committees. This study asks how institutional memory and governance logics are transmitted across event cycles despite formal organizational dissolution.Research methods This conceptual article adopts a theory synthesis approach to develop the Reincarnated Organization (RO) framework. It integrates institutional theory, temporary and event-based organizing, meta-organization theory, and organizational learning to analyze recurring mega-event systems.Results and findings The article introduces the RO as a temporary host-based organization established to deliver a recurring field-configuring event under the normative authority of a permanent meta-organization. The framework identifies three analytical phases in each RO cycle: pre-incarnation, incarnation, and post-incarnation. Organizational Karma links these phases by explaining how knowledge, legitimacy, and governance practices are transferred between cycles as either Good Karma or Bad Karma.Implications The RO framework advances sport management theory by connecting institutional and project-based perspectives. It also offers a governance lens for analyzing learning, legitimacy, and sustainability across event cycles. The framework treats mega-events as sequential organizational cycles rather than isolated projects.