Abstract:
Our study examined and compared the type, process, conditions, and consequences of radical and incremental innovations in community sport organizations (CSOs), which are a type of nonprofit membership association. Interviews were conducted with the president (or representative) of 14 CSOs engaged with both radical and incremental innovations. Radical innovations were reported to be mostly technical (but also administrative), undertaken with the goal of club growth and enhancing club management, adopted and further adapted from outside the organization, influenced by the culture and expertise of the board and the culture and capacity of the CSO at large, and informed by market opportunity and best practices. The radical innovations were reported to be successful in reaching their intended goals, and a wide variety of unanticipated (positive) consequences was also realized. The findings have implications for the management of radical (and incremental) innovation in the focal nonprofit context and contribute to theorizing about the radicalness of organizational innovation.