How far is World Champion from World Class? Institutional effects on a Brazilian non-profit sports organization

The objective of this research is to identify the main factors for the internationalization of Brazilian soccer teams via the strategic networks and institutional view approaches. The literature review unveils that ties and connections to the access and acquisitions of inimitable resources, learning races and being a leader or occupying an important position in a network are the main factors for the network formation to achieve internationalization. We adopted the single case study method, and data collection was done by in depth-interviews with ten key respondents. The main findings revealed that resource acquisition capabilities, the organization’s size, brand and image reputation and institutional environment are relevant factors for the internationalization of a firm by networks. As a theoretical contribution, firms that have strong brand and image reputation with resources that will strength network are an important factor for a firm entering a network or developing one. Regarding managerial perspective, a main contribution is to propose a sequence of factors to be used in a specific way.