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Title Fraud in Community Sports: the Role of Leadership, Culture and Management Controls Aim of the research The aim of this study is to gather insight into the observed fraud incidence in community sport clubs. The study assesses how different fraud types are fortified or prevented by controls, leadership and culture within these clubs. We aim to identify patterns regarding to factors making sport clubs fraud resilient or vulnerable to fraud. Literature review The dark number of fraud in sports – the number of unregistered fraud cases – is estimated to be 90% of the total fraud cases in sports (Andreff, 2019). Fraudulent practices are detrimental for the functioning of community sports clubs, as fraud negatively influences credibility, reputation and resources. Both the non-profit sector as well as the sport sector are characterized by a series of peculiarities that increase their fraud vulnerability. This study sheds light on the observed fraud incidence in community sports in relation to organizational controls, leadership and culture. Likewise, this study meets the need for both quantitative data on fraud and a better insight into organizational fraud antecedents, as fraud research is remarkably focused on individual level explanations. Drawing from the Organizational Fraud Triangle (OFT) (Free, 2015), the three organizational components are (1) organizational culture, mapped by the Corporate Ethical Virtues Model Scale – Short Form (CEVMS-SF) (De Bode, Armenakis, Feild, & Walker, 2013), (2) ethical leadership for which we use the Ethical Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ) (Yukl, Mahsud, Hassan, & Prussia, 2013) and (3) management controls. Guiding research questions are: RQ1: How do the OFT elements affect observed fraud incidence among board members, athletes, coaches, referees and volunteers? RQ2: Which factors are the strongest predictors for the observed incidence of (sport) fraud in community sport clubs? RQ3: Which factors consist the best prevention for different types of (sport) fraud in community sport clubs? Methodology This study targets community sports clubs, without the exclusion of any discipline. We will reach 70 sports clubs and at least five respondents within each sports club. Respondents must meet one or more of the following profiles: board member, athlete, referee, coach or volunteer. Multilevel modeling is used to analyze how management, ethical leadership and organizational culture are associated with the incidence of fraud within Belgian nonprofit sports clubs. Multilevel analysis has been adopted within sports management research in a series of occasions, e.g., to study volunteer satisfaction, democratic participation etc. Multilevel research allows us to examine the relations between variables specific to individuals and variables at the level of a collective. Results and discussion The study is still under development. To date, no scale existed for measuring observed frequency of (sport) fraud (dependent variable). This gap in literature is being countered by creating a new measurement. The new scale finds its foundation in existing scales for unethical behavior and integrity violations (Kaptein, 2008; Lasthuizen et al., 2011) as well as in (sport) fraud typologies (ACFE, 2022; Council of Europe, 2020). Once this scale is tested, the questionnaire including the OFT elements (independent variables) will be distributed among community sports clubs. We will present the preliminary results by the time of the EASM congress. References ACFE. (2022). Fraud Tree. Retrieved from https://www.acfe.com/fraud-tree.aspx#publications Andreff, W. (2019). An Economic Roadmap to the Dark Side of Sport: Springer. Council of Europe. (2020). Typology of Sports Manipulations - Resource Guide. Retrieved from https://www.coe.int/en/web/sport/typology De Bode, J. D., et al. (2013). "Assessing ethical organizational culture: Refinement of a Scale." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 49(4): 460-484. François, A., Bayle, E., & Gond, J.-P. (2019). A multilevel analysis of implicit and explicit CSR in French and UK professional sport. European Sport Management Quarterly, 19(1), 15-37. Free, C. (2015). "Looking through the fraud triangle: a review and call for new directions." Meditari Accountancy Research 23(2): 175-196. Yukl, G., et al. (2013). "An Improved Measure of Ethical Leadership." Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 20(1). |
