Relational pluralism, organizational status, and the adoption of collegiate varsity esports programs in the US

Research questionSport management scholars often draw on institutional theory to examine the adoption of new approaches among sport organizations, but understanding of variation in innovation adoption remains limited. Using a relational perspective to better account for the complexity of the institutional environment, we examine the following questions in the context of esports: how do organizations' ties to different entities across the field affect the adoption of innovations in sport? And how are these relationships shaped by organizational status?Research methodsOur sample includes 1274 universities and colleges in the U.S. We used event history analysis to investigate the influence of ties to field-level interest associations (i.e. athletic associations) and local-level peer networks (i.e. athletic conferences, state community settings) on organizational adoption of collegiate varsity esports programs. We also examined the moderating role of organizational status (i.e. university/college ranking). With respect to model selection, we used the Cox proportional hazard model.Results and findingsResults show that interest associations and local peer networks have a significant effect on the establishment of varsity esports programs. Additionally, organizational status moderates the influence of different relational ties (i.e. interest associations and peers) on esports adoption.Implications: This study contributes to the institutional literature on innovation adoption in sport by revealing how relational pluralism and organizational status affect the adoption of new sport programs.