Institutional entrepreneurship of women’s professional volleyball leagues, the United States and Czech Republic by Iva Docekalova A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation ©Iva Docekalova Fall 2013 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Dedication This work is dedicated to my boyfriend Damien, my family, supervisor, dissertation committee, and friends. Special thanks go to my boyfriend who was very supportive, always encouraging, and very positive during this process. I would like to thank him for his continuous support. I would also like to thank my family including my dad with whom I had numerous conversations over Skype about my dissertation. I am not sure if I would make it through without the support of my family. So, thank you for your support and encouragements. Thank you also to Marvin Washington (my supervisor) who patiently read each of my drafts and provided me with feedback, so I could move forward in the process. Thank you also to my supervisory committee, who took time to meet with me, read my drafts, and gave me feedback regarding my work. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends including those that played frequently volleyball with me in numerous leagues and tournaments or just for fun. They made my stay in Edmonton very enjoyable and helped me to reenergize, so I was able to continue my work at a later time. Thank you very much. Abstract Women’s volleyball gained major popularity in the United States in the 1980s under the umbrella of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (NCAA, 2010). In the last few decades several women’s professional volleyball leagues emerged in the United States. Unfortunately, every single women’s professional league ceased activity within five years of its creation. Incidentally, the struggle concerning the development of a women’s professional league has been absent in the Czech Republic (Stibitz, 1958). This dissertation answered two questions: Why did women’s professional volleyball leagues fail in the United States? Why did the women’s professional volleyball league not fail in the Czech Republic? To explore professional women’s volleyball league(s) in the United States and Czech Republic, I drew on the theory of institutional entrepreneurship, which refers to the formation of values and patterns of behaviors that not only strive to support an organization’s identity, but also strive to become socially accepted (Zimmerman & Zeitz, 2002). The U.S. cases followed Yin’s (1994) multiple-case study design and the Czech study was guided by Yin’s (1994) single-case study design. The collected data included archival data, books, newspaper and magazine articles. In addition, interviews were conducted with ten subjects. Successful institutional entrepreneurs are able to frame, gather resources, and collaborate, as the literature on institutional entrepreneurship suggests. My findings showed that the institutional entrepreneurs of the U.S. leagues failed to create a clear frame, gather useful resources, and collaborate with others. Additionally, the failed leagues experienced environmental misfit and wanted to become professional in a short period of time, which contributed to the failure of the leagues. On the other hand, the Czech league was able to create a clear mission, obtain resources and have clubs that developed a working relationship with the federation. The league functioned as an amateur league that was supported by the federation and Czech state for many years. The managers of a new professional volleyball league in the United States should consider connecting the league with USA Volleyball, creating teams in the areas where strong clubs are located, and have clear objectives that are consistent with the product. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2: Empirical Chapter ................................................................................. 6 History and Development of Men’s Major League Sports in North America ........................................................................................................ 8 Professional Women’s Leagues in North America .................................... 12 Failed Women’s Professional Volleyball Leagues .................................... 14 History and Development of Volleyball in the United States .................... 16 Women’s Volleyball .................................................................................. 19 Spread of Volleyball to Europe .................................................................. 28 Development of Volleyball in Czechoslovakia ......................................... 29 Women’s Volleyball in Czechoslovakia .................................................... 33 Chapter 3: Theory .................................................................................................. 36 Development of Institutional Theory ......................................................... 37 Institution…….. ......................................................................................... 37 Isomorphism .............................................................................................. 39 Field…… ................................................................................................... 40 Logics…… ................................................................................................. 41 Legitimacy…… ......................................................................................... 42 Change and Institutional Entrepreneurship ............................................... 43 Determinants of Institutional Entrepreneurship ........................................ 46 Organizational Field ................................................................................... 47 Framing/Vision Creation ........................................................................... 48 Mobilizing Allies ....................................................................................... 51 Resources. ........................................................................................... 51 Formal authority ................................................................................. 52 Social capital ...................................................................................... 53 Collaboration ...................................................................................... 54 Use of discourse ................................................................................. 54 Rhetorical strategies ................................................................ 55 Narration of stories .................................................................. 56 Embedding a new technology within institutionalized practices ........................................................ 56 Measurements .......................................................................... 56 Analogies, conventions, and private agreements ................................................................... 57 Sustainability versus Success ..................................................................... 58 Failed Leagues ........................................................................................... 59 Practices and Strategies .............................................................................. 61 Chapter 4: Method ................................................................................................. 63 Data Collection (U.S. Cases) ..................................................................... 65 Data Analysis (U.S. Cases) ........................................................................ 68 Data Collection (Czech Case) .................................................................... 70 Data Analysis (Czech Cases) ..................................................................... 74 Chapter 5: Results of the U.S. Cases ..................................................................... 76 Selection of Areas for Each Team ............................................................. 77 Leagues’ Missions ..................................................................................... 81 The Sport Product ...................................................................................... 83 Ownership .................................................................................................. 84 Expansion .................................................................................................. 86 Struggle for Profitability ............................................................................ 88 Achieving External Visibility ...................................................................