Management control systems in Swedish elite football associations - A case study on Djurgårdens IF Fotboll

Sammanfattning: The sports organization is, from an accounting perspective, a little researched area. This thesis adds accounting knowledge to the field through a single case study on Djurgårdens IF Fotboll (Djurgården), one of the top Swedish football clubs. The Swedish elite football industry has for well over a decade shifted towards an increasingly commercial environment, while the conditions for carrying out commercial activities fundamentally differ from the comparable business setting. The study is carried out with the aim to, using the Malmi & Brown (2008) management control system as a package framework, identify the current configuration of an elite sports association's management control systems. Moreover, such systems are, using the notion of institutional logics, put in relation to the Swedish elite sports association environment. The results suggest that an elite sports association, with some support of more formal control techniques, heavily rely on culturally oriented steering mechanisms in order to influence employee behavior. Furthermore, such management control system design can be traced to the organizational context, that to a large extent obstruct business-like rationalities to thrive.