THE PROBLEM OF DEFINING »PERFORMANCE« IN NON-PROFIT SPORT ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF BASKETBALL CLUBS FROM SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

The article examines the problem of ambiguities in the process of measuring the performance in non-profit sports clubs which is one of the main causes for disputes between various stakeholders in the process of determining organizational strategies and strategic objectives. The first objective is to use the non-profit basketball clubs as an example, to describe their specifics from the aspect of organizational performance and to reveal what exactly, beside the financial and sports results, is necessary to take into account for the performance evaluation in these organizations. The second objective is to disclose non-profit sport clubs’ actual strategic orientations. The explorative factor analysis performed on performance estimations of 15 organizational goals was obtained on a sample of 73 non-profit basketball clubs from four South-Eastern European countries. The results indicate two basic strategic orientations of non-profit basketball clubs, namely financial-competitive and non-financial-recreational orientation. The findings may be helpful to clubs’ managements in the process of defining missions and hierarchy of strategic goals for their organizations.