Enablers and Constraints of Environmental Sustainability Integration: A Structuration Perspective on Professional Sports Organizations

Integrating environmental sustainability (ES) into organizational strategies and operations remains a persistent challenge, particularly in fields where environmental concerns are not yet embedded within dominant institutional norms and standards of behavior. In such contexts, ES risks being overshadowed by economic and operational priorities, hindering meaningful organizational change toward sustainability. This study addresses this challenge by examining how ES is integrated within organizations operating in a field where it is still in the early stages of institutionalization—namely, the European football sector. Drawing on structuration theory, the research applies the notions of signification, legitimation, and domination as sensitizing devices to explore factors that enable or constrain organizations in gradually altering societal structures to embed environmental concerns into strategies and operations. Methodologically, the study draws on a multiple case study of four National Football Associations operating in Europe. By focusing on the football sector, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how organizations respond to institutional pressures for ES in the absence of fully established norms, exercising agency to shape meanings, transform expectations of behavior, and mobilize power and resources to drive organizational change toward sustainability.