The LIV disruption of global elite golf tournaments and its ripple effects: an institutional analysis

This study uses institutional complexity to examine how the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour responded to the emergence of LIV Golf, which introduced a market-driven logic into a previously profession-dominated system. Following the interpretive research approach and based on secondary data analysis, we provide a systematic and structured understanding of how the interactions of two institutional logics, the profession logic, represented by the PGA Tour, and the market logic, represented by LIV Golf, impact the institutional landscape of professional golf tours and their actors. We found that the PGA Tour responded with three sequential escalation levels to the threat from LIV Golf, shifting more from the profession logic to the market logic with each response, resulting in what we call ‘sanctioned complexity.’ Our analysis illustrates the organizational and institutional shifts caused by the LIV Golf disruption, focusing on the PGA Tour’s adaptation and the broader implications for sport management in which financially empowered challenger leagues confront profession-based incumbents.