Temporary Organizations and Communication Flows: A Structurational View of Sport Presentation Teams in International Sport Events

Sport presentation is a key yet underexplored functional domain within sport events. This study conceptualizes sport presentation teams as temporary organizations formed around international sport events. Drawing on the Four Flows Model, a Communicative Constitution of Organization (CCO) approach grounded in Giddens’ Structuration Theory, this study analyzes data from interviews with 29 practitioners involved in international sport events in China to examine how communication constructs and sustains sport presentation teams across events. The findings reveal four communication flows shaping organizational structure and identify an additional “external communication flow” through which audience feedback from online networks influences backstage processes and frontstage presentation practices. From a long-term perspective, industry actors serve as key intermediaries linking temporary organizations across different events. Through their agency, they enact these communicative flows by mobilizing experiential knowledge and relational networks. Broader multilevel structural conditions both enable and constrain communicative flows. This study advances CCO theory by extending its understanding of how organizational continuity is achieved across time and space in temporary organizations, and provides practical insights for improving communication management and operational efficiency in international sport events.