Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy: Building a New Approach to Policy-making for Sport [1st ed. 2020] 978-3-030-29457-1, 978-3-030-29458-8

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii
Entrepreneurship in Sport Policy: A New Approach (Vanessa Ratten)....Pages 1-5
Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility in Team Sport Clubs (Aila Ahonen, H. Thomas R. Persson)....Pages 7-21
‘It Pays to Play’: The Emergence of Innovative Planning, Occupational Devotion, and Lifestyle Entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand (Richard Keith Wright, Cindy Wiersma)....Pages 23-39
Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies Stimulated by the Brazil Olympics (Branca Terra, André Ribeiro de Oliveira, Mariza Almeida, Luiz Alberto Batista, João Alberto Neves dos Santos, Jana Almeida Nogueira et al.)....Pages 41-68
Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure of Europe’s Advanced Football Leagues (Birol Erkan, Oğuz Kara)....Pages 69-90
Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alaçatı Sample (Yavuz Yıldız, Kadir Yıldız)....Pages 91-102
A Gender Perspective of Sport-Based Entrepreneurship (Vanessa Ratten)....Pages 103-115
Online C2C Interactions with Sports Brands: Insights from the #Mo Salah Brand (Noha El-Bassiouny, Sara Hamed, Hadeer Hammad, Hagar Adib, Nesma Ammar)....Pages 117-133
The Future for Sport Entrepreneurship (Ted Hayduk III)....Pages 135-152
Sports Innovation: A Bibliometric Study (João J. Ferreira, Cristina Fernandes, Vanessa Ratten, Dina Miragaia)....Pages 153-170
High-Performance Management Work Systems (Vanessa Ratten, Joao J. Ferreira, Cristina Fernandes)....Pages 171-196

Citation preview

Contributions to Management Science

Vanessa Ratten Editor

Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy Building a New Approach to Policy-making for Sport

Contributions to Management Science

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/1505

Vanessa Ratten Editor

Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy Building a New Approach to Policy-making for Sport

Editor Vanessa Ratten Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Marketing La Trobe University Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

ISSN 1431-1941 ISSN 2197-716X (electronic) Contributions to Management Science ISBN 978-3-030-29457-1 ISBN 978-3-030-29458-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Also by Vanessa Ratten

Sole Authored Books Ratten, V. (2019) Sports Technology and Innovation: Assessing Cultural and Social Factors, Palgrave, United Kingdom. Ratten, V. (2018) Sport Entrepreneurship: Developing and Sustaining an Entrepreneurial Sports Culture, Springer, United Kingdom. Ratten, V. (2018) Frugal Innovation, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ratten, V. (2017) Sports Innovation Management, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ratten, V. (2017) Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Smart Cities, Routledge, United Kingdom.

Sole Edited Books Ratten, V. (2019) Entrepreneurship and the community: A multidisciplinary perspective on creativity, social challenges and business, Springer, Heidelberg. Ratten, V. (2019) Technological progress, inequality and entrepreneurship: from consumer division to human centricity, Springer, Heidelberg.

Co-edited Books Ratten, V., Jones, P., Braga, V. and Marques, C. S. (2019) Subsistence Entrepreneurship: The Role of Collaborative Innovation, Sustainability and Social Goals, Springer, Heidelberg.

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Also by Vanessa Ratten

Ratten, V., Jones, P., Braga, V. and Marques, C. S. (2019) Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Collaboration in the Global Economy, Springer, Heidelberg. Ratten, V. Braga, V., Alvarez-Garcia, J. and Del Rio-Rama, M. (2019) Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Inequality: Exploring Territorial Dynamics and Development, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ratten, V. Braga, V., Alvarez-Garcia, J. and Del Rio-Rama, M. (2019) Tourism Innovation: Technology, Sustainability and Creativity, Routledge, United Kingdom. Tajeddini, T., Ratten, V. and Merkle, T. (2019) Tourism, Hospitality and Digital Transformation: Strategic Management Aspects, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ratten, V., and Dana, L.-P. (2019) Diversity and Entrepreneurship, Routledge, United Kingdom. Dana, L.-P. and Ratten, V. (2019) Societal Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness, Emerald, United Kingdom. Ratten, V. and Jones, P. (2018) Transformational Entrepreneurship, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ramadani, V., Dana, L.-P. and Ratten, V. (2018) Informal Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Future Research Paradigms for Creating Innovative, Springer, United Kingdom. Ferreira, J., Fayolle, A., Raposo, M. and Ratten, V. (2018) Entrepreneurial Universities, Edward Elgar, United Kingdom. Dana, L.-P., Ratten, V. and Honyenuga, B. (2018) African Entrepreneurship: Challenges and Opportunities for Doing Business, Palgrave, United Kingdom. Ratten, V., Ramadani, V., Dana, L.-P., Hisrich, R. and Ferreira, J. (2017) Gender and Family Entrepreneurship, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ratten, V., Braga, V. and Marques, C. (2017) Knowledge, Learning and Innovation: Research Insights into Cross-Sector Collaboration, Springer, United Kingdom. Ratten, V., Ramadani, V. and Dana, L.-P. (2017) Women’s Entrepreneurship and Family Business, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ferreira, J., Dana, L.-P. and Ratten, V. (2016) Knowledge Spillovers and Strategic Entrepreneurship, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ratten, V. and Ferreira, J. (2016) Sport Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Routledge, United Kingdom. Ramadani, V., Dana, L.-P., Gërguri-Rashiti, S. and Ratten, V. (2016) Entrepreneurship and Management in an Islamic Context, Springer, United Kingdom. Dana, L.-P., Han, M., Ratten, V. and Welpe, I. (2009) The Handbook of Research on Asian Entrepreneurship, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar. Dana, L.-P., Han, M., Ratten, V. and Welpe, I. (2008) Handbook of Research on European Entrepreneurship: Internationalisation of Small Businesses, Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar.

Acknowledgements

Firstly, I would like to thank Dr Prashanth Mahagaonkar for his expertise and guidance with this book. Secondly, I thank my friends and colleagues for their support and advice about sport entrepreneurship. Thirdly, but not least in importance I thank my family. This includes my dad David Ratten, brothers Hamish Ratten and Stuart Ratten, and my niece Sakura Ratten. My mum, Kaye Ratten, has been and always will be the most influential person in my life. I am grateful to all the opportunities she gave me and for always encouraging me to pursue my goals. The world, particularly the sport world, has changed significantly from the time my mum was born to the present day. Today, we live in a time of increased computerization and connectivity, which has influenced the pace of entrepreneurship in sport. Watching live games on television with sport analytics included is now considered the norm. In addition, the gender pay gap between male and female sports whilst still being significant has been lessened. This is the result of the entrepreneurial spirit of sports clubs, athletes, fans, and supporters around the world. Another effect of increased technology usage in sport has been the idea of co-creation. This will further change the way sport is considered and used in society. I hope this book will encourage more people to think of the myriad of ways sport can be entrepreneurial and take an entrepreneurship approach to sport. There are endless possibilities if we open our minds and have an entrepreneurial mindset with regard to sport.

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Contents

Entrepreneurship in Sport Policy: A New Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vanessa Ratten

1

Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility in Team Sport Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aila Ahonen and H. Thomas R. Persson

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‘It Pays to Play’: The Emergence of Innovative Planning, Occupational Devotion, and Lifestyle Entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand . . . Richard Keith Wright and Cindy Wiersma

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Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies Stimulated by the Brazil Olympics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Branca Terra, André Ribeiro de Oliveira, Mariza Almeida, Luiz Alberto Batista, João Alberto Neves dos Santos, Jana Almeida Nogueira, and Leonardo Lehneman Agostinho Martins Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure of Europe’s Advanced Football Leagues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Birol Erkan and Oğuz Kara Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alaçatı Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yavuz Yıldız and Kadir Yıldız

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69 91

A Gender Perspective of Sport-Based Entrepreneurship . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Vanessa Ratten Online C2C Interactions with Sports Brands: Insights from the #Mo Salah Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Noha El-Bassiouny, Sara Hamed, Hadeer Hammad, Hagar Adib, and Nesma Ammar The Future for Sport Entrepreneurship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Ted Hayduk III ix

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Contents

Sports Innovation: A Bibliometric Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 João J. Ferreira, Cristina Fernandes, Vanessa Ratten, and Dina Miragaia High-Performance Management Work Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Vanessa Ratten, Joao J. Ferreira, and Cristina Fernandes

List of Contributors

Hagar Adib German University in Cairo, New Cairo City, Egypt Aila Ahonen JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä, Finland Mariza Almeida Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State, Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Nesma Ammar German University in Cairo, New Cairo City, Egypt Luiz Alberto Batista State University of Rio de Janeiro, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Andre Ribeiro de Oliveira State University of Rio de Janeiro, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Joao Alberto Neves dos Santos Fluminense Federal University, São Domingos, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Noha El-Bassiouny German University in Cairo, New Cairo City, Egypt Birol Erkan Uşak University, Uşak, Turkey Cristina Fernandes University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal Joao J. Ferreira University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal Sara Hamed German University in Cairo, New Cairo City, Egypt Hadeer Hammad German University in Cairo, New Cairo City, Egypt Ted Hayduk San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA Oguz Kara Düzce University, Düzce, Turkey

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List of Contributors

Leonardo Lehneman Agostinho Martins State University of Rio de Janeiro, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dina Miragaia University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal Jana Almeida Nogueira State University of Rio de Janeiro, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil H. Thomas R. Persson Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden Vanessa Ratten La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Branca Terra State University of Rio de Janeiro, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Cindy Wiersma Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand Richard Keith Wright Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand Kadir Yildiz Manisa Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey Yavuz Yildiz Manisa Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey

List of Figures

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies Stimulated by the Brazil Olympics Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Companies’ innovation degree. Source: Authors’ own figure . . . . . . . . Companies’ innovation degree, per radar dimension, and innovation environment. Source: Authors’ own figure . . . . . . . . . . .

53 54

Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alaçatı Sample Fig. 1

Results of structural equation modeling of destination brand equity. Source: Authors’ own figure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Online C2C Interactions with Sports Brands: Insights from the #Mo Salah Brand Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Conceptualization of the research framework (Source: Authors’ own figure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Mo Salah brand resonance map (NVivo 12 output) (Source: Authors’ own figure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Sports Innovation: A Bibliometric Study Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Evolution in terms of number of references and citations . . . . . . . . .. . . . 156 Network diagram of the core literature and clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Network diagram of co-occurrence of keywords and clusters . . . . . . . . 164

High-Performance Management Work Systems Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6

Number of articles by year of publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Network co-citations and their clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reference network of the 161 cited articles and their clusters . . . . . . . . Network authors mentioned in 161 articles and their clusters . . . . . . . . Network sources cited in 161 articles and their clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Collaboration network between countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

176 180 183 185 188 191 xiii

List of Tables

‘It Pays to Play’: The Emergence of Innovative Planning, Occupational Devotion, and Lifestyle Entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand Table 1

The six distinguishing feature of occupational devotion . . . . . . . . . . .

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Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies Stimulated by the Brazil Olympics Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10

Points criteria established for the companies’ responses . . . . . . . . . . . Specialist backgrounds .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. Companies’ scores, per specialist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Studied companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary of the companies’ responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Final score of the studied companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Companies characteristics’ related to the innovation degree—business model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Companies’ Characteristics related to the innovation degree—support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Companies’ Characteristics related to the innovation degree—entrepreneurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Companies’ Characteristics related to the Innovation Degree—Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

45 46 47 48 50 52 57 59 60 60

Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure of Europe’s Advanced Football Leagues Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4

Definition of the variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Concentration index results of the football leagues (2009–2018) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Technical efficiency scores of the football leagues according to the HHI . . .. .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . TFP index scores of the football leagues according to the HHI . . .

74 79 81 82 xv

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Table 5 Table 6

List of Tables

Technical efficiency scores of the football leagues according to the EI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TFP index scores of the football leagues according to the EI . . . . .

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Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alaçatı Sample Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5

Validity and reliability analyses results of destination brand value scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Compliance with normal distribution test for destination brand equity subscales results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Analysis of subscales of destination brand value in terms of sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . Omnibus test results related to model coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Logistic regression analysis result for the wish of visiting Alaçatı again . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . .

96 97 97 97 98

A Gender Perspective of Sport-Based Entrepreneurship Table 1

Individual and sociocultural influences of female athletes . . . . . . . . . 108

Online C2C Interactions with Sports Brands: Insights from the #Mo Salah Brand Table 1 Table 2

Total scores of brand attitude for brand resonance components of Mo Salah fan comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Total scores of brand image for brand resonance components of Mo Salah fan comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Sports Innovation: A Bibliometric Study Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11

Journals with the most publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Journals with more citations . .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . Journals with the highest number of citations per published reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of core literature based on total citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of core literature based on citations by year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of top co-citations in terms of frequency . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . Top 10 articles with more centrality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Groupings found cluster analysis of co-citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of top co-occurrences of keywords in terms of frequency . . . . Top 10 keywords with more centrality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Groupings found cluster analysis of co-word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

157 157 158 158 159 159 162 162 163 165 165

List of Tables

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High-Performance Management Work Systems Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5

Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10

The most cited articles in the field of HPWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clusters resulting from the cluster analysis of citations of articles mentioning the 21 most cited articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clusters resulting from the cluster analysis of citations of articles cited by 161 .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . The most cited authors in the field of HPWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clusters resulting from the analysis of the most cited authors in 161 articles resulting from research (in brackets shows the number of citations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Top sources with citations in HPWS domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Group results of the most quoted sources in 161 articles resulting from research (in brackets shows the number of citations) . . . . . . . . Top institutions with publications in HPWS domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Top institutions with publications co-authored in HPWS domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Top countries with publications in HPWS domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

177 179 182 183

184 186 187 189 189 190

Entrepreneurship in Sport Policy: A New Approach Vanessa Ratten

Abstract Sport has an entrepreneurial nature due to the way it can change depending on market circumstances. Unlike other industries, sport has a unique combination of profit and non-profit organisations that work together to create a competitive environment. The aim of this chapter is to highlight how a new approach to sport policy and practice is needed that incorporates an entrepreneurial dimension. There have been recent changes in the nature of sport due to increased levels of technological innovation, which requires a rethink by sport policy planners about how to incorporate entrepreneurial thinking. Automation and the use of robots are changing the way sport is viewed and played, which has positive benefits but also results in an alteration in existing practices. This chapter will focus on emerging issues regarding sport entrepreneurship and public policy with a view to highlighting future research suggestions.

1 Introduction Sport influences all sectors of society but in different ways (Ratten & Tajeddini, 2019). For this reason, it is important to think about sport in an entrepreneurial manner thereby focusing on the innovations that will potentially have profound changes on society. Reform of the sport system is needed in order to take into account current and potential changes. To do this is a hard task as it requires an entrepreneurial mindset and a focus on performance outcomes (Bolton & Thompson, 2000). Despite the increasing way sport is using entrepreneurship as a competitive tool, there has been relatively few research studies conducted on this issue. This is interesting as it is clear that entrepreneurship will provide new directions for sport that will shape practice (Jones, Jones, Williams-Burnett, & Ratten, 2017). In order to safeguard the role of sport in society, an entrepreneurial approach to change is needed. This includes high levels and low levels of entrepreneurship depending on the situation. Elite sport can provide a way to use high levels of technology innovation that by their V. Ratten (*) La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_1

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nature are entrepreneurial. There is funding and support for these technology changes at the elite level so the entrepreneurship involved can be more intense than that occurring at a grassroots level (Miragaia, Da Costa, & Ratten, 2018). Amateur sport can also be entrepreneurial but in a different way that reflects its community nature. There are many local sport clubs whilst still having sometimes the money to fund technology can also fund other strategic initiatives. This includes using entrepreneurship as a way to boost innovation and to build innovative capacity (Cunningham & Lischeron, 1991). Entrepreneurial sport policy is delivered through a range of structures including government entities to other stakeholders such as education providers and international sport committees. This means further detailed conversations regarding entrepreneurship need to occur with each relevant stakeholder (Jones, Ratten, Klapper, & Fayolle, 2019). Entrepreneurship does not necessarily mean major change but it can occur through alternations in the sport structures and systems. Rather than repeating past mistakes, entrepreneurship provides a way to take a fresh approach to sport. This means moving sport policy in a positive direction and building on the good work done in the past (Potts & Ratten, 2016).

2 Entrepreneurship in Sport Sport generally defined means any form of physical activity that aims to improve fitness or mental well-being. The emphasis is on physical expression but it can vary in intensity from low impact sports like walking to high impact sports such as aerobics. Most sport activities involve a form of competition either between other individuals or with oneself (Ratten, 2017a). Team sports involve social relationships that often rely on particular skill sets. This means people can specialise in certain tasks when they are a member of a team. Individual sports vary in intensity and depend on lifestyle preferences. For example, the practice of pilates is an individual sport but practiced through a group approach. Other sports such as tennis rely on separate predilections but are played against another person. A long-term action plan is needed between sport entities to ensure they achieve the required policy outcomes (Ratten, 2019). This means having specific policies in place that cater to a need in society. Policies are written documents that include statements about plans of action. Some policies are more stringent than others in terms of the goals and outcomes needed. This means each policy needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis to understand the main priorities. To implement sport policy there needs to be clear way of people understanding what is needed of them and the time required (Ratten, 2017b). The main ways to incorporate an entrepreneurial spirit in sport policy is through program improvement, strategic leadership, awareness and knowledge development. Program improvements involve finding ways for existing activities to have a more entrepreneurial approach. This includes fostering more alignment with innovation initiatives that enable foreshadowing of future events. It is important to refine

Entrepreneurship in Sport Policy: A New Approach

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programs to make them more appealing in the marketplace. Due to increased usage of social media in sport, it can help to have a more technological focus in sport programs. The quality of sport activities will increase when there is more engagement with stakeholders. Strategic leadership involves focusing on how to lead through taking a transformational approach. By proactively thinking about change it can help sport organisations become more resilient. This enables promoting sport experiences that allow participants to lead by example. It is important to take initiative in training programs as a way to strengthen leadership capabilities. This enables more individuals interested in sport to learn about entrepreneurship. Awareness is needed about the need to be entrepreneurial in the competitive global business environment. This involves discussing the benefits of entrepreneurship in sport and why it is needed. By involving others in the entrepreneurial experience it can further facilitate the process of knowledge creation. Knowledge development involves sharing best practices about the use of entrepreneurship. It is important that others learn through experience about positive and negative events. This helps create a learning community that enables further research and development.

3 Overview of Chapters The second chapter titled “Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility in Team Sport Clubs: Two Cases from Sweden and Finland” by Aila Ahonen and H. Thomas R. Persson focuses on sport policy from a social perspective. This is useful in terms of understanding the social implications behind sport entrepreneurship. The third chapter titled “It Pays to Play: The Emergence of Innovative Planning, Occupational Devotion and Lifestyle Entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand” by Richard Keith Wright and Cindy Wiersma further looks at the social aspects of sport but through a lifestyle perspective. This provides an interesting way to understand the use of innovation and lifestyle in a sport setting. The fourth chapter titled “Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technological-Based Companies Stimulated by the Brazil Olympics” by Branca Terra, Andre Ribeiro de Oliveira, Mariza Almeida, Luiz Alberto Batista, Joao Alberto Neves dos Santos, Jana Almeida Nogueira and Leonardo Lehneman Agostinho Martins focuses on how large sporting events use innovation. This is important in determining the effectiveness of sport policy with regard to innovation and technology management. The fifth chapter titled “Non-Parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure of Europe’s Advanced Football Leagues” by Birol Erkan and Oguz Kara focuses on professional sports. As entrepreneurship occurs in a variety of setting it is useful to understand how football, which is the world’s most popular sport is using entrepreneurial sport policy initiatives. The sixth chapter titled “Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alacati Sample” by Yavuz Yildiz and Kadir Yildiz focuses on entrepreneurship in the surfing industry. It provides a useful linkage between brand associations in sport and entrepreneurial intentions. The seventh chapter titled “A Gender Perspective of Sport-Based Entrepreneurship” by Vanessa Ratten examines

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the role gender plays in entrepreneurship. This is a relatively new area in the sport entrepreneurship literature. The eighth chapter titled “Online C2C Interactions with Sports Bands: Insights from the #Mo Salah Brand” by Noha El-Bassiouny, Sara Hamed, Hadeer Hammad, Hagar Adib and Nesma Ammar focuses on athlete entrepreneurship. This is important in understanding how sport policy affects individual athletes.

4 Conclusions and Research Agenda I conclude this chapter by presenting an overview of future research suggestions that aims to discover new ways of thinking about sport entrepreneurship and public policy. Ideas are discussed with the view of opening up new possibilities that will provide fruitful research directions. Whilst there are a number of areas for further research, I focus on the ones I think are most important at this current point of time. While most focus on entrepreneurial elements of sport policy, it is clear that innovation is another research stream. Thus, implicit in some of these suggestions is both an entrepreneurship and innovation approach. In the past, the sport innovation and sport entrepreneurship research have been seen as separate disciplines but I think they will converge to form one discipline in the future. Therefore, following on from the findings of this chapter a sport entrepreneurship approach that embeds innovation in its process is taken. This will enable a better understanding of innovation for sport in relation to entrepreneurial policy and management. Sport entrepreneurs have a unique temperament that distinguishes them from other types of entrepreneurs. Traditionally, entrepreneurs have been viewed as individuals who find and capitalise on a business opportunity. This has emphasised the role of owner managers in the economy and downplayed other forms of entrepreneurship. Whilst many sport entrepreneurs own their own business there are others that work for an organisation. This means there are various ways to understand the nature of entrepreneurship in a sport setting. For example, there are international, environmental, technology and social types of sport entrepreneurs. This impacts policy as different kinds of entrepreneurship need to be considered and how this affects various stakeholders. For example, sport policy can take an international approach by being entrepreneurial and entering into new technologies that will provide increased viewing platforms. However, at the same time, issues regarding international law need to be considered in terms of intellectual property rights. Environmental forms of entrepreneurship provide a useful way for sport organisations to incorporate sustainability initiatives. All levels of policy planners from local councils to national sporting bodies can incorporate initiatives that foster environmental considerations. Due to the amount of resources such as water and land that sport entities use it is important to think about new ways of fulfilling these needs. For example, future researchers could consider how eco-entrepreneurship can be used in sport and whether different policy practices are followed. Technology entrepreneurship is critically important in sport due to the increased usages of social media. There

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needs to be more research on how the internet-of-things in terms of increased connectivity has influenced sport policy. Social entrepreneurship involves the use of non-profit initiatives in addition to profit considerations in the pursuit of sport ventures. The emphasis on financial feasibility is a hallmark of social entrepreneurship and it can be used in a variety of sport setting. More research is needed on understanding the unique aspects of sport policy that apply to social entrepreneurship. In conclusion, this chapter has reviewed the literature on sport entrepreneurship and public policy. I discussed the literature from both the entrepreneurship and sport management disciplines thereby creating a new field of interest. Increasingly the sport and entrepreneurship literature are being combined but much more work is needed in this area. In both bodies of literature, little attention is given to policy perspectives that involve the use of emerging technologies. This is a gap evident in the literature that requires addressing given the importance of technology to sport policy debate.

References Bolton, W., & Thompson, J. (2000). Entrepreneurs: Talent, temperament, technique. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. Cunningham, J., & Lischeron, J. (1991). Defining entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business Management, 29(1), 45–61. Jones, P., Jones, A., Williams-Burnett, N., & Ratten, V. (2017). Let’s get physical: Stories of entrepreneurial activity from sports coaches/instructors. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 18(4), 219–230. Jones, P., Ratten, V., Klapper, R., & Fayolle, A. (2019). Entrepreneurial identity and context: Current trends and an agenda for future research. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 20(1), 3–7. Miragaia, D. A. M., Da Costa, C. D. M., & Ratten, V. (2018). Sport events at the community level: A pedagogical tool to improve skills for students and teacher. Education and Training, 60(5), 431–442. Potts, J., & Ratten, V. (2016). Sports innovation: Introduction to the special section. Innovation Management, Policy & Practice, 18(3), 233–237. Ratten, V. (2017a). Entrepreneurial intentions of surf tourists. Tourism Review, 73(2), 262–276. Ratten, V. (2017b). Entrepreneurial sport policy. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 29(4), 641–648. Ratten, V. (2019). Social innovation in sport: The creation of Santa Cruz as a World Surfing Reserve. International Journal of Innovation Science, 11(1), 20–30. Ratten, V., & Tajeddini, K. (2019). Entrepreneurship and sport business research: Synthesis and lessons: Introduction to the special journal issue. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 19(1/2), 1–7.

Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility in Team Sport Clubs Two Cases from Sweden and Finland Aila Ahonen and H. Thomas R. Persson

Abstract Small and large sport clubs, in big cities or in the countryside, need to respond to external pressures created by social, financial and environmental factors. These pressures may come from the commercial environment, communities, national governing bodies, or political stakeholders. This chapter introduces the reader to the current pressures faced by Nordic sport clubs and the entrepreneurs’ role in the clubs’ development through the lens of entrepreneurship, and especially social entrepreneurship. This chapter addresses the role of the entrepreneur in relation to the triple bottom line of corporate social responsibility (CSR)—economy, environment, and society—in the context of Finnish and Swedish team sport clubs by using two football clubs as examples.

1 Introduction Sport has become one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. It is a significant part of many people’s lives, as it touches their everyday life as participants, media consumers, spectators, or through other types of engagements. This certainly applies to the Nordic countries1 where the sports culture has always been very strong and played an important role in the creation of their national identities. This is, perhaps, not strange considering that the Nordic countries have historically been very successful in elite sports on a global level, despite their small populations (Peterson, 1

Nordic countries include Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. These countries face similar challenges in terms of sports development, although the development tracks have been quite different. A. Ahonen JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Sport Business School Finland, Jyväskylä, Finland e-mail: Aila.Ahonen@jamk.fi H. T. R. Persson (*) Faculty of Business, Department of Work Science, Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_2

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2008). Notwithstanding certain differences between Finland and Sweden, the two countries discussed in this chapter have traditionally been successful in the winter Olympic sports, such as ice hockey, cross country, and downhill skiing and in the summer Olympic sports, such as wrestling, track and field as well as in the equestrian and aquatic sports. However, Sweden and Finland have over time with some exceptions lost some of their competitiveness in the professional Olympic sports (Andersen & Ronglan, 2012). The number one sport in both countries in terms of participants and spectators is football. In the mainstream debates, this is commonly explained by the media focus on the sport. Football is a global sport, and for big clubs and national federations, the international success of teams or individual players is often the most visible measurement of popularity. Naturally, this gains the most attention, whereas small- and medium-sized sports organizations mostly live an unnoticed life, at least as far as the media is concerned. However, the sport sector tends to be dominated by small organizations, and as such, the sector is best studied from an SME perspective (Moore & Levermore, 2012). The importance of these sport SMEs is especially remarkable in such small economies as Sweden or Finland. Hence, understanding the external pressures that these clubs face with regard to economic, social, or environmental aspects is important. Both Finland and Sweden have gone through a major organizational change in their sport systems in the past decades (Andersen & Ronglan, 2012). Although sports have been traditionally based on non-profit sports clubs, amateurism and volunteerism, the importance of sport enterprises or for sport organizations to behave like enterprises and the need for entrepreneurially oriented leaders have risen due to the rapid professionalization and commercialization of the sports industry. In the Nordic countries, this development did not start until the end of the last century, since before then, professional athletes were not recognized as real sports men and women. To be paid as an athlete was, in fact, forbidden up until the 1960s (Peterson, 2008). In both Sweden and Finland, football has been influential in the development of the sport model and sports culture in terms of integration, welfare, and even democracy (Andersson & Carlsson, 2009). Changes, such as when the Finnish public sector is withdrawing from funding sport organizations (Rosbäck, 2012), pressures the organizations at all levels of sports to find new sources of income. This has forced sport clubs to renew their operations and professionalize their organizations and actions. Moreover, it requires sport organizations to develop new business opportunities and attract more or more generous stakeholders in terms of sponsorship. One way of holding on to and attracting new sponsors is for organizations to develop a corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda (Inoue, Kent, & Lee, 2011). CSR has become an important topic among sport policymakers, and the pressure from commercial, community, and political stakeholders, as well as from SGBs to deliver in terms of social responsibility is increasing (Persson, 2008, 2014). When both small and big sport clubs respond to this external pressure by implementing CSR, it can be explained as an expression of the entrepreneurial nature of sport, a result from constantly having to adapt to suit its own and society’s changing needs (Ratten, 2010b). This chapter focuses on the role of the social entrepreneur in relation to the triple bottom line and sustainability, commonly associated with CSR and corporate

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governance (Hernández-Perlines & Ibarra Cisneros, 2018). Hence, in similar fashion to the distinction between an enterprise’s CSR and that of a social enterprise in terms of primary goals and handling of profit (Persson, Biggeri, Testi, Bellucci, & During, 2018), a distinction is made between the sport entrepreneur and the social entrepreneur in this chapter.

2 Sport Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship, or entrepreneurial traits have become an important topic in the context of the changing financial circumstances for sport, whether it is the state funding that is changing, stagnating or disappearing, or whether it is managing in a competitive environment where clubs compete both for sport results and sponsors. The turbulent and rapidly changing environment creates its own challenges for sport enterprises (Ratten, 2018). Sport as a business entity has certain unique characteristics: the competition is often held in two arenas, in business and on the field or pitch simultaneously, as teams in the same league and at the same time need to cooperate with and compete against each other as the uncertainty of outcome may affect the business unexpectedly. In all markets, but perhaps even more so in small markets, such as Sweden or Finland, sport clubs and companies need to seek new possibilities to grow their businesses and build their brands effectively. Hence, sport clubs need entrepreneurs at the same time as sport— specifically football and ice hockey—has become an interesting playground for entrepreneurs interested in sport. In Finland, the changes in state funding have created business opportunities for capable entrepreneurs willing to invest in sports, take risks and operate in a changing environment, while the 51% rule in Sweden is still an obstacle for big investments (Backman, 2018, p. 178, 183). This makes Finland and Sweden, with their own national circumstances, two interesting cases to study. Moore and Levermore (2012) argue that the sport sector is primarily made up of SMEs and that it should, consequently, be studied and analyzed accordingly. They conclude that certain organizational characteristics of SMEs, such as resource constraints, short termism, informality, and authoritarian management, are also characteristics of sport SMEs. In addition, innovations, risk taking, and proactiveness are closely connected to both entrepreneurship and sport (Ciletti, 2012; Hardy, 1986; Kreiser & Davis, 2010; Lumpkin & Dess, 1996). The fact that many sports, such as football, are played on a seasonal basis, and the Swedish and Finnish football leagues between April and November, creates seasonal challenges both in terms of income sources and of how to be competitive in the European Cups. In other words, football clubs need to be innovative to counteract these weaknesses. According to Ratten (2010a), common characteristic to sports entrepreneurs is precisely that they are innovative, willing to take high risks, and work proactively to meet these challenges. Opportunity, recognition, and exploitation are core functions of entrepreneurship (Shane & Eckhardt, 2003), and sport business offers multiple opportunities (Ratten,

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2011a, 2011b) on different levels of society. The exploitation of these opportunities is dependent on the individual entrepreneur and his/her personal entrepreneurial characteristics and motivation. Although profit has historically been the motivator for sport entrepreneurs (Hardy, 1986), more recent studies show that sport entrepreneurs are often more motivated by non-monetary aspects (Ratten, 2011b). Hence, the motivation of being an entrepreneur may change over time, and non-monetary aspects, such as being one’s own boss, freedom of decision making, opportunities of success, satisfaction, and personal rewards can become greater motivators than money making (Alstete, 2008). Just as for sport enterprises, sport entrepreneurship can also be seen as a tool for non-profit organizations to develop their business ideas with a desire to respond to or create market opportunities (Ratten, 2010b) and to gain market shares. Thus, even when the financial returns or profits are not the driving force, they are a necessary resource for developing sport organizations and achieving other goals. The distinction between sport entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship may or may not, depending on the definition of social entrepreneurship, be a gigantic leap, just like the gap between CSR and social entrepreneurship. Miragaia, Ferreira, and Ratten (2017) connect the two latter to the point of view of the enterprise and the sponsoring of sport events at the community level. In their research, they place the social entrepreneur in the midst of a for-profit company, instead of the social enterprise sector (see Testi, Bellucci, Biggeri, & Persson, 2018). With its natural connection to social enterprises, social entrepreneurship is commonly defined as a not-for-profit activity that generates and maximizes social value while remaining economically profitable (Persson et al., 2018). Social entrepreneurship can be about fulfilling a task that meets a certain need of a community (Gallagher, Gilmore, & Stolz, 2012), which could be argued to be part of a firm’s CSR actions. Social entrepreneurship in sport is often linked to small sport clubs operating in the non-profit sport sector (Gilmore, Gallagher, & O’Dwyer, 2011). However, in the context of this chapter, social entrepreneurship is not determined by the size of the organization but viewed in the light of motivation. A social entrepreneur is not motivated by the profits, but the opportunity to contribute to social change (Audretsch, 2012; Miragaia et al., 2017; Ratten, 2010b). Gallagher et al. (2012) identify social entrepreneurs in professional league sport clubs as entrepreneurs willing to assist in the development of the club by bringing their experience and networks to use. They offer their business knowledge and professionalism to improve the club’s development and operations (Gallagher et al., 2012). Moreover, they use their networks, contacts, and time in community projects that benefit the sport club and society (Gilmore et al., 2011). These social entrepreneurs are often entrepreneurs who own other businesses, and sport clubs are their side business, or they work on a volunteer basis for a sport club. Their social impact can either be based on altruistic motivations or on a hope of increasing the brand equity of the entrepreneurs and their companies (Shropshire, 2012). More importantly, it is argued in this chapter that the definition of the social entrepreneur and social entrepreneurship in sport is context-specific, depending on a national context, the nature of the organization, and position of the person.

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3 CSR as a Development Tool for the Sport Club The current pressures that (Nordic) sport clubs are facing and the different ways in which they handle and respond to the changing situation can be understood through the lens of CSR (Persson, 2008, 2011). CSR is not a requirement for sport organizations, but it is increasingly an expectation. A growing number of sport federations and clubs are acting as if it was in their organization’s best interests to become involved with CSR at some level. In line with Ratten (2010a, 2010b), it can be argued that sport in general has an entrepreneurial nature as it is constantly, sometimes voluntarily, and sometimes involuntarily, adapting to suit its own and society’s changing needs. Besides Ratten’s contribution on social entrepreneurship and innovation (Ratten, 2011a, 2011b) and sport entrepreneurship (Ratten, 2010a, 2012, 2018), surprisingly little attention has been paid to the entrepreneur in sport and even less to the entrepreneur behind CSR activities in a sport club context. Hence, the attention is on contributing to the knowledge of the role of the entrepreneurs behind the development of CSR as a response to the pressures that sport clubs are facing. Although these entrepreneurs might be viewed as sport entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurs in general, none of these views is predetermined. In the context of this chapter, a distinction is made between CSR and social entrepreneurship in terms of primary goals and handling of profits. While both may have similar social goals, in the latter case the social goals are primarily for gaining profit and using the surpluses mainly to achieve the social goals (Persson et al., 2018, p. 201). From the sport horizon, CSR has been a research topic for less than two decades (Babiak & Wolfe, 2006; Ioakimidis, Stergioulas, & Tripolitsioti, 2006; Irwin, Lachowetz, Cornwell, & Clark, 2003; Persson, 2008; Smith & Westerbeek, 2007), but CSR is far from being a new phenomenon. Formal studies on social responsibility are the product of the twentieth century, and Bowen’s (1953) publication Social Responsibility of the Businessman is commonly seen as the landmark book of the topic. According to Bowen, CSR “refers to the obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society” (Bowen, 1953, p. 6). Sport scholars have brought a range of different foci to the study of sport and CSR, partly colored by their parent disciplines, and the list of topics covered in sport CSR literature is constantly growing. The focus has been ranging from CSR indicators (Chen, Chen, Tai, & Hsiung, 2015), conceptual models (Breithbarth & Harris, 2008), sector-specific frameworks (Fifka & Jaeger, 2018), CSR activities (Filizöz & Fişne, 2011), communication (Persson 2014), and implementation (François, Bayle, & Gond, 2018) to stakeholder/consumer/fan perceptions and expectations (Alonso & O’Shea, 2012). The focus list also includes decision-making processes (Anagnostopoulos, Byers, & Shilbury, 2014), brand equity (Baena, 2018), sponsor strategies (Djaballah, Hautbois, & Desbordes, 2017), entrepreneurship, and CSR (Miragaia et al., 2017), media framing (Carey, Mason, & Misener, 2011), environmental management initiatives (Babiak & Trendafilova, 2011), corporate and athlete citizenship (Agyemang, 2014), as well as literature reviews (Breitbarth, Walzel, Anagnostopoulos, & van Eekeren, 2015). With the growing amount of literature

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stemming from different disciplines, it should not come as a surprise that there is little or no agreement among scholars regarding the definition of CSR or whether it is at all possible to measure and carry out an international comparative analysis of different CSR activities. Despite this, since 2011 it has been possible to compare the international ranking of one’s own national football league to others around Europe and lately globally by studying the Responsiball Ranking (Responsiball, 2018). Despite the comparative nature of the two case studies from different countries, this chapter does not present a comparative analysis but, instead, a descriptive and reflective case study approach. The concept of CSR has since the first publications at the beginning of the twenty-first century, started to appear in sport and gained increasing interest among politicians, sport federations, and clubs. A double-voiced political discourse with a twofold purpose (Bakhtin, 1999, p. 185) sets sport organizations challenging goals in terms of national funding (Persson, 2008). Especially in Sweden, where sport funding is based on the presumed benefits to the society in terms of public health and social integration, it is simultaneously argued that sport clubs should take on a social responsibility beyond their core activities, which makes them coproducers in the welfare sector. In the European context, football has been at the forefront of sports by communicating its CSR policies, agendas, and practices. National Football Federations have been signing up for UEFA’s Good Governance principles for associations (UEFA, 2018) and developing their Corporate Governance (FA, 2017) and their CSR agendas (DBU, n.d.; NFF, n.d.; Suomen Palloliitto, 2019; SvFF, n.d.). Football is a big business, and like other businesses, top football clubs in the different European leagues, such as Malmö FF from Sweden (MFF, n.d.-a), Helsinki Football club (HKJ, 2019) from Finland, Manchester United (Manchester United, n.d.) from England, and the German Borussia Dortmund (BVB, 2018) have long since had their CSR policies, agendas, and practices in their strategies. When researching CSR in the European context, the definitions by the European Commission should be drawn into attention. However, this chapter does not align itself completely with the EC definition (n.d.)—“the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society”—or previous ones stressing the integration of social and environmental concerns in the business operations in contact with stakeholders, since these lack the financial aspect. Neglecting the financial responsibility of the organization results in an incomplete CSR concept in relation to the triple bottom line (TBL) including economic, social, and environmental dimensions (Hernández-Perlines & Ibarra Cisneros, 2018). In the context of this chapter, CSR is viewed as a concept where the organization takes responsibility for its impact on society and environment by integrating their own and their stakeholders’ social, environmental, and financial concerns in their operations on a voluntary basis, not as a legal obligation.

4 Cases of Swedish and Finnish Football Malmö FF (MFF) from Malmö, Skåne, Sweden, with a population of 339,313 (Ekonomifakta.se, n.d.) was formed in 1910, and it has played 82 seasons in the Swedish Premier League (Allsvenskan). It has won the Premier League 23 times,

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became the Swedish champion 20 times, won the Swedish Cup 14 times, and reached as far as the European Cup final in 1979. During the past 10 years, MFF has won the national title five times (MFF, n.d.-a). Although it has many similarities with sport enterprises due to the 51% rule, MFF is a membership-based organization. Currently, Malmö FF is a financially stable club with its own stadium, something that is not common in the Swedish context. In 2018, Malmö FF had a turnover of SEK 342.9 million and a profit of SEK 39.6 million (MFF, 2019). Although a financially poor club in comparison to the top tier of the European “Big Five,” MFF’s financial situation—due to Champion Leagues and Europa League appearances in the group stages and beyond—puts the club in a very favorable position in the Swedish context. Malmö FF’s CSR Manager does not come from the club’s own ranks. Instead, the manager has a long experience of cooperation between the public, private, and ideabased sector because of being involved in adult education (folkhögskola) that has a strong focus on social equality. The CSR manager is currently working with employment questions on a local level through Malmö FF as well as on the national level through the Swedish Elite Football as a member of SEF’s CSR steering group. The manager’s motto is “Football is more than just football,” and she is convinced about the increased importance of and opportunities created by sport and that together with the idea-based sector they contribute to a better society (Personal communication, April 2019). MFF chooses, just like several other Swedish clubs, to what we call in this chapter refer to as social responsibility or CSR as MFF in the community. MFF frames their Football Academy, Career Academy, School Football against Racism, Football network, Summer football, Autumn football, MFF supports, and Bengt Madsen’s youth fund as part of their community engagement. To MFF, community engagement is a key word in their description of their activities with a focus on children and youth. Community engagement is about “positive and for the individual developing activities . . . spreading positive values . . . counteract violence and racism and increase integration” and reducing drug abuse. It is about faith in the future and inclusion. This they try to achieve through a variety of activities for different age groups. In order to support its community engagement, the club has linked six companies as their main partners (MFF, n.d.-a). Three of the eight community engagement activities can be seen as CSR, if defined as something that goes beyond a sport club’s core activities. That is a general perception from the public point of view although the aim should be to integrate CSR with the club’s core activities. In most sport clubs and SGBs, the core activity is twofold: training and competing (in leagues officially recognized by the SGBs), and the former leads to the latter almost independent of age, and this is not an example of CSR. Accordingly, the three main CSR activities are the Career Academy, School Football against Racism, and MFF Supports. MFF has run their Career Academy since 2014, and it is based on collaboration with the City of Malmö through an IOP (idea-based public partnership), the Swedish Public Employment Service in Malmö, and several labor market policy projects. The Career Academy facilitates job matching, such as sharing job ads through their own channels and networks, providing and arranging opportunities for job interviews and other recruitment

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events as well as providing their own online job search engine. On the Career Academy website, the club highlights their latest achievements in terms of successful internal and external job matching, and reports results, such as 200 successful job matchings with MFF’s network of companies and nine career days arranged with 100 job seekers per meeting, out of which 50% have gone on to work, study or to internships (MFF, n.d.-a). The School Football against Racism project is run by Pedagogical Inspiration, Malmö Municipality with support from Malmö FF and it is based on the four basic principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The project includes working with the children in their classrooms, visiting the Malmö Stadium, and finishing with a football tournament at a local football arena. In 2018, 800 students from 13 Malmö schools participated in the project. MFF supports LifeWatch in increasing knowledge and understanding of autism, something they have done since the beginning of 2019 (MFF, n.d.-a). Even though MFF has chosen to place its Code of Conduct and policy (MFF, n.d.b) as part of their value base, instead of as part of MFF in society, their Environmental Policy should be seen as part of MFF’s CSR work based on the TBL model. While some parts of this environmental policy stress the importance of following the environmental legislation, other parts are norm driven, such as being aware of our environmental impact, working with energy saving measures, such as minimizing the use of disposable items, limiting the consumption of supplies, using environmentally friendly alternatives with transportation and communication, meetings, goods, and services, as well as educating on environmental issues (MFF, n.d.-b, p. 19). HJK Helsinki, from Finland’s capital, Helsinki is the most successful football club in Finland. Helsinki is the biggest city in Finland with a population of 634,272. Moreover, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area has around 1.5 million inhabitants (Helsinki, 2018). The HJK football club was established in 1906, soon after football arrived in Finland, and it has since 1911 won the men’s Finnish Championship (Veikkausliiga) title all together 29 times and the Finnish Cup 13 times. During the past 10 years, HJK has won the national title eight times and been the second and third once. HJK has been successful at all levels: men, women, and juniors (HJK, 2019). Most of the successful Finnish players have played for HJK before going abroad, and HJK has been the best steppingstone for players to gaining recognition by European teams. HJK is the biggest club in junior football in Finland with 3100 registered players (Helsingin Sanomat, 2019) on multiple different level teams around the Helsinki region. HJK operated as a non-profit organization until 2000 when the current ownerentrepreneur took over and established the limited company HJK Ltd. (Aalto, Lehtola, Sulkava, & Tiitta, 2007). HJK is divided into two different organizations: the team company and a non-profit association with recreational teams and junior teams. In the same year, a new stadium was built, which gave the club possibilities to develop its business further. Before that, HJK played in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, which had a far too big capacity, and the field was not suitable for football matches in terms of atmosphere and functionality. HJK’s turnover in 2018 was 4.6 million euros and that of its stadium company was 1.9 million euros with profits of 0.2 and 0.3 million euros, respectively (Asiakastieto, 2019). HJK’s revenues have

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varied yearly according to player sales and international games. For example, in 2014 HJK played the UEFA Champions league and succeed to qualify to the group stage, which showed as a remarkable growth in its turnover and profits (Asiakastieto, 2019). HJK has a long tradition of being one of the first football clubs in Finland and also values these traditions in its actions. Its current owner has been with the club since he was a child, and his father was the chairman of the non-profit club. Therefore, the motivation to start the HJK Ltd. was based on the entrepreneur’s passion for football and ties to the club more than possible monetary returns. His other family enterprise, one of the biggest media houses in Finland, is his main business entity (Personal communication, 2014). By purchasing the majority of HJK shares, he brought his business networks, experience, and knowhow to the football company. The volunteer board of executives also consists of successful directors from different business areas. Together with the entrepreneur, the board has had a crucial role for the survival of the club, and it has increased professionalism in decision-making (Personal communication, 2014). HJK has a public CSR strategy on its webpage, which identifies the three triple bottom line aspects—the social, environmental, and economic responsibilities in detail. The social responsibility includes children’s rights realization, social exclusion prevention as well as lifelong learning, and well-being for different minority groups. The environmental responsibility is based on sustainable use of energy, recycling, and sustainable development in all actions. The economic responsibility relates to facilities and possibilities for people to play football at different levels with reasonable cost (HJK, 2019). This is based on the stable and healthy economy of the league company and the non-profit association. HJK promotes CSR on different levels: it stresses diversity, sustainability, responsibility, and tolerance in its values. Moreover, the club has a sustainability program, offers football schools, football camps and city block football, and it is a big afterschool care provider. The public sustainability program is an important part of HJK’s corporate responsibility strategy, and it is based on three different programs: The “You are not alone”—campaign, Club Ball 2018–2021 and Aulis Rytkönen Trust Fund (HJK, 2019). The “You are not alone”—campaign is an EU funded project and run by the Family Federation of Finland and multiple sports associations (Väestöliitto, 2019). According to HJK (2019), they are one of the pilot organizations in the campaign that focuses on preventing bullying and inappropriate behavior in sports. The aim of the campaign is to secure safe sports practice in all clubs and teams and to develop ways to prevent bad behavior. Every player has the right to enjoy sports and to be treated equally with respect. The Club Ball—project aims at promoting non-exercising vocational school students’ movement by offering easy access to sports opportunities. The project is run together with the Stadin Ammattiopisto vocational school and the Business College of Helsinki. The aim of the project is to encourage non-moving students to take exercise and thus promote their commitment to their studies. The project is an example of taking responsibility of youth outside the teams and helping them improve their life management skills. The Aulis Rytkönen Trust Fund helps

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players from low-income families by granting scholarships to talented young players. The watchword of the trust is that no one should be left outside for monetary reasons since that would be a loss for the whole football community (HJK, 2019). The trust was named after one of the football legends in Finland. Aulis Rytkönen was the first player to go abroad in 1952 and play professionally in France (Aalto et al., 2007). HJK has developed its business functions outside the core business in order to make use of the stadium also outside the game events. It provides work well-being services for companies in the Helsinki region by advertising the possibility to learn from the club and its team spirits (HJK, 2019). In addition, HJK is the second biggest after-school care provider for schoolchildren in the capital city region after the church by moving 500 children daily (Helsingin Sanomat, 2019). This benefits HJK in terms of field usage and revenue as well as the community in terms of encouraging the children’s movement and providing after-school care activities. The City Block league is another example of a sport offer benefiting the community, and its effect on social integration is remarkable (Personal communication, 2014). HJK runs different city block teams around the city of Helsinki in order to offer children an opportunity to have a hobby in their own neighborhood at low cost. HJK’s entrepreneur has been the driving force in its development toward a successful, responsible and sustainable sport enterprise. He has acted as a social entrepreneur by investing time and money in the club’s operations, bringing his business knowledge into the company, and by being innovative and ready to take risks. HJK has developed its CSR Strategy together with the Finnish Football Association (Suomen Palloliitto, 2019) and other stakeholders, and it has benefited both the club and the surrounding community. HJK Ltd. and the HJK Association work closely together, and business revenues have been used to support the junior teams over the years. The social cohesion among the whole club is one of the member priorities in HJK (2019).

5 Conclusion The attitude that the surrounding society holds toward a sport club is often crucial in terms of community support and stakeholder involvement. Therefore, the importance of a CSR strategy and its implementation has grown in the past few years. The role of uncertainty in sport companies in terms of outcome and success is evident in the rapidly changing sport environment, and business functions in all sectors are important. Here, CSR strategies can be used to build a team’s image, reputation, and brand equity. There is no doubt that value creation for the stakeholders through social, environmental, and financial impacts has been the guiding principle for the two clubs discussed in this chapter. It takes an entrepreneurial mindset when investing in social responsibility in line with Malmö FF’s Career Academy, which has been copied and currently operated by nine other Swedish clubs and advocated by Swedish Elite Football (SEF), and the

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same applies to the Finnish HJK, which has been the role model for the rest of the smaller clubs in the Finnish league. The entrepreneurial role and orientation of the management staff in these clubs have been the driving forces in their CSR actions. Although it never depends only on one individual, the case of Malmö FF and their CSR Manager, both due to her background and the CSR activities being developed and implemented by MFF as well as SEF, fits the description of a social entrepreneur. Moreover, being hired to work with CSR based on competence rather than a successful sport career is a good example of the professionalization currently taking over the Nordic sport sector. In Finland, because of a greater focus on business actions due to the structure of the organization and self-funding, there is no appointed CSR manager in HJK. The characteristics of social entrepreneurship can be found in the activities of both clubs. Independent of the business-oriented nature and organizational form, both clubs show willingness to contribute to society, even though it might not always qualify strictly as CSR actions or be measurable in the short term. Different commitments, such as youth activities and socially beneficial CSR actions build their brand image and raise awareness among the stakeholders and public in the long term. The HJK “You are not alone”—campaign and the MFF Football against Racism are good examples of positive publicity and exquisite brand building. Even though the sizes of these two clubs differ, similar aspects in terms of triple bottom line can be found. Both clubs have developed programs and projects with a core of social responsibility, especially in terms of social and socioeconomic responsibility and, to some extent, environmental sustainability. HJK has developed multiple ways of offering opportunities to more and more children and youth to play despite their economic backgrounds by creating programs to bring football closer to different demographic groups and by supporting low-income families’ children financially. These different recreational football programs support social integration and community development as well as the sports development within the club. The more players the club has at the junior stage, the greater is the selection of players at the elite stage. MFF’s CSR-flagship, the Career Academy has proven that sport clubs in collaboration with local authorities can be just as, if not more, successful than local unemployment offices on their own. As a result, the activity has now spread to several other elite clubs in Sweden. Soft values in sponsorship have been the trend in sport for the past few years, and the role of CSR and social entrepreneurship has grown in partnerships between sponsoring companies and sport clubs. Therefore, the CSR programs run by the two studied football clubs are important in terms of promotion and stakeholder commitment. Successful CSR programs give the clubs a possibility to gain recognition and differentiate themselves from the competitors. In addition, as in the case of MFF’s CSR Manager, they can influence other football clubs to commit themselves to CSR activities. Environmental sustainability does not play a prominent role in either club’s public CSR actions. However, environmental issues are often self-evident in the Nordic cultures, and therefore, they are often not discussed as separate projects. For example, MFF’s CSR Manager states, “we do things before we tell others about

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them.” Recycling, sustainable energy use, and environment protection are everyday actions of all sport clubs in Sweden and in Finland. This chapter is limited to two countries and cases from them, and in the future, it would be interesting to study if these findings of the role of the entrepreneur in relation to the triple bottom line of CSR would apply to small- and medium-sized sports clubs from different countries outside the Nordic countries. The assumption here is that the operating environment and sports culture as well as the level of social entrepreneurship in these clubs play a crucial role in the adaptation of CSR.

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Responsiball. (2018). Responsible ranking 2018. Accessed February 19, 2019, from http:// responsiball.org/?s¼Responsiball+ranking+2018 Rosbäck, G. (2012). Urheileva Osakeyhtiö [Limited company in sports]. Taloustaito [Economics], 10/2012. Shane, S., & Eckhardt, J. (2003). The individual-opportunity nexus. In Z. Acs & D. Audretsch (Eds.), Handbook of entrepreneurship research; An interdisciplinary survey and introduction (pp. 161–191). Boston: Springer. Shropshire, K. (2012). Doing good while doing well in sports: Sports entrepreneurs and social impact. In D. Ciletti & S. Chadwick (Eds.), Sport entrepreneurship, theory and practise (pp. 27–34). Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University, Fitness Information Technology. Smith, A. C. T., & Westerbeek, H. M. (2007). Sport as a vehicle for deploying corporate social responsibility. The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 25(Spring), 43–54. Suomen Palloliitto. (2019). Suomen Palloliitto [Finnish Football Federation]. Accessed March 10, 2019, from https://www.palloliitto.fi/jalkapalloperhe/palloliitto/visio-missio-strategia/kestava-kehitys SvFF. (n.d.) Om Alla är olika-olika är bra. Accessed April 23, 2019, from https://www. svenskfotboll.se/svff/alla-olika/om/ Testi, E., Bellucci, M., Biggeri, M., & Persson, H. T. R. (2018). An introduction to social entrepreneurship in Europe. In M. Biggeri (Ed.), Social entrepreneurship and social innovation – Ecosystems for inclusion in Europe (pp. 1–12). London: Routledge. UEFA. (2018). UEFA good governance principles for associations. Accessed April 23, 2019, from https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/aboutuefa/news/newsid=2578786.html Väestöliitto. (2019). Et ole yksin [You are not alone]. Accessed March 7, 2019, from https:// etoleyksin.fi/

‘It Pays to Play’: The Emergence of Innovative Planning, Occupational Devotion, and Lifestyle Entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand Richard Keith Wright and Cindy Wiersma

Abstract In terms of community-focused sport provision, the Aotearoa/New Zealand market place has traditionally been dominated by the small- to medium-sized, volunteer run, not-for-profit incorporated society. A change in consumer behaviour habits over the past couple of decades, however, has led to the emergence of lifestyle entrepreneurs hoping to turn their past experiences and personal passions into a sustainable full-time profession. This chapter connects the principles of occupational devotion, innovative planning, and lifestyle entrepreneurship. It also offers an innovative insight into their adoption at a local community level. A provocative piece of critical analytical practice (CAP), reveals the inspiration and innovations behind the Auckland Beach Series (ABS), a profitable summertime fixture that has been routinely attracting hundreds of serious leisure enthusiasts for over a decade. The staged monologue identifies the significance of using one’s personal strengths and established social networks, especially when proactively seeking and sustaining resources (human and financial). The recommendations illustrate importance of establishing a reputation for offering a professionally delivered community service that meets the ever-changing needs and expectations of local investors, volunteers, and the family-orientated serious leisure consumer.

1 Introduction Sinek’s (2011) Golden Circle Model places a much greater emphasis on understanding ‘why’ people do what they do, and is built on the premise that people do not invest in what you do, but why you do it. Sinek (2011) proposes that everyone is able to clearly articulate ‘what’ they do (e.g. for a living), and that, if asked, the majority of these people would also be able to adequately explain ‘how’ they do it (e.g. the processes and practices that they employ). Where people often struggle, however, is when they are asked to explain ‘why’ they do it (Sinek, 2011). The search for R. K. Wright (*) · C. Wiersma Department of Sports Leadership and Management, School of Sport and Recreation, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_3

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‘happiness’ and a healthy work-life balance, for example has led to the emergence of more and more lifestyle entrepreneurs within Aotearoa/New Zealand’s local serious leisure community (Ateljevic & Doorne, 2000). This chapter adds to the existing sports entrepreneurship and innovation discourse, connecting the principles and practices of lifestyle entrepreneurship (Cooper & Artz, 1995), occupational devotion (Stebbins, 2004), and innovative planning (Wright, 2017). A Critical Analytical Practice (CAP) methodology was adopted to narrate the story of the Auckland Beach Series (ABS), a profitable participant-driven multisport event now operating at two of Auckland’s most popular urban beaches. The subjective memories and motives of five co-participants are presented (largely verbatim) within a single piece of staged monologue, empowering the reader to build a deeper understanding of how post-structuralist academic principles can be related to tried and tested industry practice (Barone, 2002; Wright, 2019).

2 The Principles and Practices of Occupational Devotion The serious leisure perspective (SLP) is an interdisciplinary framework that categorises all leisure activity as being either serious, casual, or project based (Stebbins, 2009). Robert Stebbins, the founder of the SLP, first coined the term serious leisure in the late 1970s, and has spent much of the last 30 years exploring it from multiple angles. According to Stebbins (1982), serious leisure is the systematic pursuit of interesting and self-fulfilling amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activities over a sustained period of time. Those who persist and persevere with regular serious leisure activity systematically navigate their way through the following five overlapping ‘career’ stages; the beginning, the development, the establishment, the maintenance, and the decline (Stebbins, 2009). The practice of serious leisure also incorporates ‘devotee work’, defined as ‘serious leisure from which a full or partial livelihood is possible’ and ‘an activity in which participants feel a powerful devotion’ (Stebbins, 2014a, p. 4). Stebbins (2014b) justifies the inclusion of ‘devotee work’ within the SLP by noting how that the traditional boundaries that separate ‘coerced work’ and ‘uncoerced leisure’ have been removed by those who experience such an intense positive attachment and a sense of high-level achievement with their day-to-day employment-based activities. Stebbins (2004) introduced six distinguishing criteria to help conceptualise occupational devotion and connect it back to the principles of serious leisure. These were skill, knowledge or experience, variety, creativity/innovativeness, control, aptitude/ taste, and social/physical milieu (Table 1). He defined occupational devotion as ‘a strong, positive attachment to a form of self-enhancing work, where the sense of achievement and fulfilment are high and the core activity (set of tasks) is endowed with such intense appeal that the line between this work and leisure is virtually erased’ (Stebbins, 2004). Stebbins (2004) proposes that there are three distinct career motives present within those found in each of the six categories listed in Table 1. Those with a principled-orientation understand that they could earn more elsewhere, doing

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Table 1 The six distinguishing feature of occupational devotion Skill, knowledge, or experience Variety Creativity/ innovativeness

Control

Aptitude/taste Social/physical milieu

The ‘core activity must be profound; to perform it acceptability requires substantial skill, knowledge, or experience or a combination of two or three of these’ (Stebbins, 2004, p. 9) ‘The core activity must offer significant variety’ (Stebbins, 2004, p. 9) ‘The core activity must also offer significant opportunity for creative or innovative work, as a valued expression of individual personality. The adjectives “creative” and “innovative” stress that the undertaking results in something new or different, showing imagination and application of routine skill or knowledge. That is, boredom is likely to develop only after the onset of fatigue experienced from long hours on the job, a point at which significant creativity and innovation are no longer possible’ (Stebbins, 2004, p. 9) ‘The would-be devotee must have reasonable control over the amount and disposition of time put into the occupation, such that he can prevent it from becoming a burden. . . No activity, be it leisure or work, is so appealing that it invites unlimited participation during all but a few waking hours’ (Stebbins, 2004, p. 9) ‘The would-be devotee must have both an aptitude and a taste for the work in question’ (Stebbins, 2004, p. 9) ‘The devotees must work in a physical and social milieu that encourages them to pursue often and without significant constraint the core activity’ (Stebbins, 2004, p. 9)

Source: Stebbins (2004, p. 9)

something else, but are highly motivated by the fact that they are being paid to not only pursue their passion, but to also provide similar opportunities to like-minded others. Those possessing an acquisitive orientation are genuinely devoted to the core values of their chosen occupation, but also see it as merely a stepping stone or temporary employment arrangement (i.e. one that they would be willing to sacrifice if/when a better, higher paying, position appeared). Finally, those with a principledacquisitive orientation seek to achieve the economic goals of the acquisitive work devotee without sacrificing the more social-orientated goals of the principled work devotee. They wish to work in a self-fulfilling and self-satisfying role that closely aligns with their core values and allows them to engage in their passion on a daily basis, but also seek ways in which to make this role profitable enough to sustain a healthy work-life balance. In sum, they want to have their cake and to eat it. A number of occupations have been linked to the ‘work devotee’ within a number of publications, which were categorised as; liberal professions, consulting/counselling, skilled trades, and small owner-operated businesses (Durieux & Stebbins, 2010; Stebbins, 2004, 2009, 2014a). For example, established client-focused professions, such as law, medicine, accounting, and engineering have been listed alongside more niche service-sector vocations situated within the arts, sports, scientific, and entertainment industries (Stebbins, 2004, 2014a). In sum, the occupational devotee places significant value on being actively involved in something successful, concurrently achieving one’s personal and professional goals, whilst also having freedom to act with minimal external constraints (Stebbins, 2009, 2014a). Their devotion is ever-

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present and their motivation is evident in their actions and the lifestyle they lead. More so, it is a part of their personal and social identity (Stebbins, 2009).

3 The Principles and Practices of Innovative Planning Dowson and Bassett (2018) propose that, within the event industry, innovation is the key to future success, suggesting, ‘the best way to know what the future holds is to create it yourself. For event planners, this means going out and creating the events of the future’ (p. 332). They challenge those in the industry to become innovators willing to try out new ideas (new ways of doing things). Event planners need to be able to create solutions to problems of all shapes and sizes (Dowson & Bassett, 2018). The concept of innovative planning draws inspiration from both academic and industry sources, including Covey’s (1989) seven habits of highly effective people, Litman’s (2013) principles and practices of effective planning and Sinek’s (Sinek, 2011) Golden Circle Model. Effective planning is fuelled by the collection and critical analysis of relevant data and the application of general concepts to specific cases (Litman, 2013). According to Litman (2013), it is the methodical process of asking and then answering complex questions such as what needs to happen next and how is the future going to look. He proposes that . . .planners help nurture a community’s deepest aspirations, such as love, hope and beauty. Planners translate theoretical goals into specific actions. Planners facilitate change and so must overcome entrenched practices and interests. . . .planners are not infallible; we can make inaccurate predictions and bad recommendations, and a planning process can encounter unexpected problems. Planners who follow professional practices generally do a pretty good job of identifying the best course of action. . . Planners should strive to understand factors that will affect the future. Planners work at the intersection of many disciplines and so need basic knowledge of many subjects including design, economics, law and management, making it an ideal field for people with diverse interests. (Litman, 2013, pp. 3–5)

Litman (2013, p. 4) lists the following seven principles as being the core components of the planning process, all of which can be applied equally well to the practice of innovative planning: • • • •

Comprehensive—All significant options and impacts are considered. Efficient—The process should not waste time or money. Inclusive—People affected by the plan have opportunities to be involved. Informative—Results are understood by stakeholders (people affected by a decision). • Integrated—Individual, short-term decisions should support strategic and longterm goals. • Logical—Each step leads to the next. • Transparent—Everybody involved understands how the process operates. Innovative planners must be able to communicate their findings and recommendations in a manner that is both logical and easy to understand. It should be

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insightful, comprehensive, and transformational. Whilst sustainability planning prioritises resource development (improved quality) over growth (increased quantity), innovative planning focuses on doing things differently, in a way that is widely accepted as being better than anyone else has ever done it. Innovative planning offers a way for event planners to profit from the myriad opportunities attached to the unknown, yet often predictable, future (Wright, 2017). According to Wright (2017), it is about the effective application of strategic foresight that is built on evidencebased insight systematically extracted from the proven benefits of hindsight. It mixes the long-established principles and practices of event planning (Dowson & Bassett, 2018) with those attached to sports entrepreneurship and innovation (Ratten, 2011; Ratten & Ferreira, 2017). Following in the footsteps of Stephen R Covey, Innovative planners build everything they do around their unique ‘why’, ensuring that they never lose their focus or passion during the ‘doing’ process. It is driven by one’s core values and personal vision. In keeping with Covey’s calls for more principled-based leadership, innovative planners are proactive, as opposed to reactive, and willing to accept full responsibility for the consequences of their actions (Covey, 1989). They strive to solve problems before they materialise (Wright, 2017). Innovative planners always begin with the end in mind, and work hard not to deviate from their chosen pathway (despite the many distractions that appear along the way). They possess the ability to prioritise their finite resources, putting first things first by assessing their importance and the urgency in which they need to be completed (Covey, 1989). Innovative planners approach every social and commercial transaction with a positive ‘win-win’ mindset, seeking to understand fully the needs and wants of others before they share their thoughts and recommendations (Covey, 1989). Finally, they fully appreciate the importance of establishing synergy amongst the key stakeholders and constantly looking to improve themselves and others through the provision and prioritisation of saw sharpening activities that target one’s physical, mental, spiritual, and social well-being (Covey, 1989). Ultimately, how and when innovative planners achieve their goals can vary on an individual case-by-case basis.

4 The Principles and Practices of Lifestyle Entrepreneurship Cooper and Artz (1995) were the first to publish the term ‘lifestyle entrepreneurship’, using it to define local artisan or craft-based business owners looking to have complete control over their work-life balance. Unlike ‘growth-orientated’ commercial entrepreneurs, who seek profit maximisation and financial acquisition, lifestyle entrepreneurs seek only enough remuneration to sustain a comfortable and healthy quality of life (Bredvold & Skalen, 2016; Marchant & Mottiar, 2011; Peters, Feeche, & Buhalis, 2009; Shaw & Williams, 2004). Marcketti, Niehm and Fuloria (2006, p. 214) defined the lifestyle entrepreneur as an individual who own and operate

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businesses ‘closely aligned with their personal values, interests, and passions’. Their findings focused on examples of actual and perceived enhancement of life quality at a personal, family, and local community level, noting that those involved in lifestyle enterprises, whether as the founder, an employee (paid or unpaid), a supplier/funder or even as a customer, were generally more content/happy than those who did not (Marcketti et al., 2006). Gomez-Velasco and Saleilles (2007) categorised lifestyle entrepreneurs as those who create and implement their companies in unison with their personal interests more than in relation to locally available resources or economically oriented activity. They also identified that lifestyle entrepreneurs who were embedded within their local environment and able to maintain specific relationships within their locality were more likely to profit personally and professionally from the social capital obtained as a consequence. Peters et al. (2009) concluded that lifestyle entrepreneurs were experienced consumers (hobbyists) and product innovators within the market place in which they also seek to earn a living. They also presented a list of personal attributes and characteristics that they found helped shape the lifestyle entrepreneur’s profile, including: • • • • • • • • • •

Motivated by quality of life, rather than growth Main priority is lifestyle, rather than customer service Very limited growth orientation Limited marketing and product development expertise and activities A reluctance to accept professional advice or external involvement Motivated by survival and the maintenance of their, and their families’, way of life Low education and training on management A lack of awareness regarding quality management techniques Unwilling to let go or to sell their ventures Questionable economic sustainability (Peters et al., 2009, pp. 397–398)

Marchant and Mottiar (2011) emphasised the importance of past life experiences on the values shared by lifestyle entrepreneurs, and noted how these values can change over time. Like Peters et al. (2009), they also presented a series of common themes and characteristics that separated lifestyle entrepreneurs from other entrepreneurs. More recently, Bredvold and Skalen (2016) noted the importance of personal and sociocultural identity development amongst a small cohort of Norwegian lifestyle entrepreneurs, creating a typology that distinguished between the modern, the loyal, the freedom-seeking, and the post-modern lifestyle entrepreneur. The findings of these studies supported those of Ateljevic and Doorne (2000), who concluded that lifestyle entrepreneurs in New Zealand’s tourism sector prioritised engaging with consumers who shared their sociocultural values. Having provided an overview of the overlapping theoretical principles that prove the foundation for the authors’ exploration into sports-inspired entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the remaining sections of the chapter will offer a localised context for the reader to make connections and hopefully draw their own conclusions.

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5 Narrative Inquiry and Creative Analytical Practice Bruner (1990) argues that narrative is an essential structure in human meaning making, perhaps innate, that plays an important role in social negotiation and identity formation. Narratives shape our understanding of the interconnections that exist between our past, present, and future. The field of narrative research has expanded and diversified significantly since the turn of the century, drawing upon a range of principles and practices located across the hard and softer sciences (Wright & Blair, 2016). Although it will arguably forever remain rooted in humanistic traditions that centre on explorations into ‘life experiences as narrated by those who live them’ (Chase, 2011, p. 421), the field of narrative inquiry is now widely accepted as a viable/valid means of understanding the role of isolated storytelling within the increasingly socially constructed world (Bruner, 1990; Riessman, 2008; Schwandt, 2007). Calls for more entrepreneurship-inspired narrative research, however, appear to have fallen largely on deaf ears (Hjorth, 2007; Steyaert, 2004). The study of narrative is the study of the way people construct and experience the world (Riessman, 2008; Schwandt, 2007). Wright and Blair (2016, p. 220) define narrative construction as ‘an active and engaged process that requires the negotiation of cultural tools and social conventions’ and narrative analysis as ‘the ordering and connecting of particular subjects, events, actions, and experiences in a causally or temporally meaningful sequence or whole’ (p. 219). They argue that narratives are formed when people draw upon their ‘personal, social, and cultural resources for rhetorical purposes, to highlight particular versions of self and experience, for a particular audience and specific purpose’ (p. 220). This exploratory case study adopts an innovative, post-structuralist-inspired, narrative approach to dive into the localised production and consumption of serious leisure lifestyle entrepreneurship (Morse & McEvoy, 2014; Savin-Baden & Major, 2013; Yin, 2009). A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted, each lasting between 30 and 60 minutes. These face-to-face, one-on-one, interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Rather than sharing a series of themes created by the researcher, the authors have chosen to employ an innovative form of Creative Analytical Practice (CAP) that accurately shares the socially constructed memories, motives, and mindsets of five co-participants (Berbary, 2015; Parry & Johnson, 2007; Richardson, 1999; Wright, 2018). The following narrative is the amalgamation of five transcripts. A staged monologue is a form of CAP ethnodrama (Mienczakowski & Morgan, 2001; Saldana, 2010). It is most commonly used to transform socially constructed memories of a past lived experience into a piece of creative non-fiction that, when consumed at a later date, allows the audience to immerse themselves into a storied narrative (Mienczakowski, 2001; Saldaña, 2012). Morgan et al. (2013, p. 523) argue that the principal purpose of an ethnodrama is to ‘inform, disturb, confront and hold the attention of an audience’. Barone (2002) also acknowledged the importance of producing provocative narratives that inspire personal reflection, internal confrontation, a period of critical self-examination, plus the desire for further deconstruction and future discussion. The goal is to evoke a

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response from the reader, as opposed to provide them with all the answers (Barone, 2002). One of the benefits of employing CAP is that the end product can be more appealing, and more easily consumed, by those situated outside the academy (Wright, 2019). The names of the five co-participants have been changed.

6 It Pays to Play: The Auckland Beach Series (2005–Present) This story starts in 2005. Ray was approached by a person who was running the Ski Series for the Takanini Boating Club. He came to him and said, ‘I’ve had enough. I don’t want to run it anymore’. They had a coffee. Ray always had a natural ability and flare in organising events. He was a competitive swimmer for years. He liked the idea that if you put the hard work in you get the result; you were not reliant on anyone else. He ran an ocean swimming event for the first time in April 2004 and then another one in December 2004. He was still working full time for a day job that he did not enjoy. ‘I just used what I knew and went out and gave it a shot’ Ray recalls. The Beach Series concept was born out of the fact that the existing sponsor did not want to continue with just one sport. Ray agreed to add three more, but they still did not sponsor it at the naming rights level. Thankfully, the local council came on board and Ray formed a family of local sponsors around them. Over a decade later, Ray remembers the day he did the first event. ‘It was quite a complex event to run cause you’ve got three different disciplines happening at the same time and we had 150 people. It was the first of 20 Tuesdays. I remember going home and I literally cried. I thought what have I created?’ Ray found it so stressful at the beginning; ‘I thought I’ve got to do this 20 times’. The next season he made it 16 and it got easier from there. The numbers built and he got better at the processes. ‘We just got better at doing it and the event got better’ Ray adds, before admitting that ‘When it was first formed, with the Ski Series, it was slightly odd because you had different factions. You had the Ski Series in which they were extremely competitive. The race was almost world class. There were certain bunch of people, mostly men, big guys, quite serious dudes. And then you had recreational runners and recreational swimmers of all shapes and sizes and it was kind of like a schoolyard where they stayed over there and they stayed over there. At the beginning, thinking back, it wasn’t well received by a lot of ski paddlers’. Basically, the Ski Series was going to finish if Ray had not agreed to take over. The Ski Series turned into a Beach Series and Ray thinks that some of the regulars were not happy about it. Ray believes that there was ‘a bit of resentment’. There were a few altercations over the years. It used to be 90 or 100 ski paddlers, but it got down to about 30 or 25. He finished it and introduced a new activity: stand-up paddle. ‘The stand-up paddlers were fun people’ he recalls, ‘and it was much more accessible’. He also added a junior run section and ‘all of a sudden’ the Beach Series went from a series that was not really working that well, with different types of people, to all the

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same types of people. It turned into a really family fun community event. In his own words ‘It just got better and better and better and better’. The junior events attracted 120 children under the age of 10 years running on the beach, which brought the adults. The adults then took part in the other events and adults would run with their children. ‘It was just awesome’ Ray announces proudly. Ray did a 30% discount for family members across their whole pass. ‘If you got a kid’s pass of eight or twelve events you were paying about $6 an event for a child. If you got all 16 events for the swim you were paying about $13 a race. $13 to swim a Beach Series is pretty cheap’ Ray adds, before concluding ‘It was a unique event. There was nothing else like it and it was well run. We did a good job of running a really professional event and I think people like that’. Ray has always enjoyed being the boss. ‘There’s no politics. You just do it. You just need to give it a go, hope the risk isn’t too high if you fail but you just take the first few steps then you take a few more steps and next minute you’ve got something and then you’re away’. Ray thinks that the event brought people together and is pretty sure that a club would not have been able to pull themselves together to run something like the Beach Series. He argues that ‘if you want a quality event, and you want to come every Tuesday, and get a good experience then you’ve kind of got to pay for it. . . the pros of commercial operated events I think is that you generally get a better quality of events experience. The cons are that they survive by either commercial sponsorship or entry fee revenue and the person that owns them has got to make a profit’. Reflecting upon the early days, Ray does not know whether it was his ‘youthful energy and enthusiasm’ that ‘got him through’ or whether the market was easier back then, he thinks it was probably the latter. He likes to think that he is still ‘a go-getter’ but that ‘when you’re in your mid-twenties you don’t have the distraction of life when you’ve got a family and children and mortgage and house. You’ve got nothing to lose and so I would just do anything to get the sponsors across the line’. Ray thinks there is a little bit of ‘right place, right time’, but also suggests that it is a case of using your initiative and pushing forward. He worked from his bedroom for a little while then from a couple of rooms in his first home, before renting a small office. In 2010 or 2011, his business moved into a warehouse-type office and roller door warehouse to hold their gear. In 2012, Ray considered rolling the Beach Series out around the country. He did a whole lot of work on it, and was going partner with the existing events that were similar in Christchurch, Wellington, and Tauranga. He pulled the pin on it in the end, however, ‘because I just thought it was too risky. It was putting the brand into other people’s hands and I didn’t go beyond that’. The safety and the timing staff were paid a seasonal rate (the same every time), so were the 15 lifeguards. When reflecting upon the people who volunteered to help run the events, Ray discusses how those not connected to the event would commit to helping but then fail to turn up. He found that it was ‘better to go through people that have got a vested interest in it’ and ‘tried to get as many people as we could that would attend every week’. To incentivise, Ray would provide the volunteers with a drink at the end of every night ‘nothing big. . . a beer at the bar with us. . . they could come and have a beer, chink, it’s that camaraderie, and then we’d give them a Pita Pit voucher. So they’d get a drink, they’d go and get a meal and then they’d go home’. At the end

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of the season, Ray would get them ‘a nice bottle of wine’ and invite them up onto the stage to thank them for all their hard work. Every year, he would go back to the people who did it the year before and say, ‘Do you want to do it again?’ and ‘60% or 70% would say yes’. Many of the volunteers were either active participants or the partners and families of the paying participants. Ray would go to participants and say, ‘Can you arrive early and leave later but you can still do your event?’ People who just want to do the run could work at the event until they needed to run. ‘They’d run and they’d come back and continue on their duty’, Ray recalls, adding ‘They get a $150 pass, or something like that, and they’d just turn up or leave late, and they’d help pack up’. Ray needed about eight to do registration and about three or four to set up the site ‘from about three o’clock through till five’. He would then have about six or seven packing up at the end of the night. Sally, arguably one of the Beach Series’ most dedicated volunteers, swam the first year but then got a shoulder injury and, still wanting to be involved, started to volunteer along with her partner. Ray was an ex-student of hers. She met many nice people and had a lot of fun. There were some long hours. She usually showed up at three o’clock whilst other volunteers did not come until five. By the time the event was over, it was seven thirty, quarter to eight, when it all had to be packed up and she was usually one of the last ones there. At times, over those years, Sally was given ‘some good authority’ and was ‘able to contribute to the event and help the event grow’. She recalls getting the ‘occasional burger, occasional t-shirt and a few things’, but those were not the reasons that she did it. For her, it was ‘to be actively involved in sports that I enjoyed and just to give back’. She also felt a sense of obligation ‘because I was one of the core and probably one of the most knowledgeable volunteers there’. She could have swum, and did occasionally do the short swim, but felt guilty ‘leaving Ray in the lurch’ and recalled how ‘they always needed somebody on the ground’. She accepts that she ‘probably shouldn’t have felt an obligation’ and admits that ‘it wasn’t pushed on me to be an obligation’. Sally recalls that there were several staff changes during her nine seasons as a volunteer and concludes that ‘in the beginning, I think, there was probably a closer knit of Ray’s friends. So we were there to help Ray. We were given beers, wines. And then it evolved a little bit with more sponsors. You’d get a Pita Pit or you’d get a Burger Fuel or something. Some people came because of what they could get out of the event. I don’t think there was a commitment and the passion as you would have within a club atmosphere’. Sally witnessed the event evolve over the years, but chose to stop when Ray decided to sell the business. When asked to reflect upon Ray’s creation, she noted how the prizes that they had due to the commercial sponsorships were quite substantial. As a business model, she saw it being ‘the way of the future’, but admitted that she would not pay that much money to run up and down a beach, when she could do that on her own for free. ‘But some people like the involvement’ she concludes, before adding that, ‘one of the attractions’ was seeing the young kids running or swimming with their parents. Sally’s partner, Simon, also volunteered,

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having been invited to come along and help out. He quite liked it and carried on doing so for several years. Like Sally, Simon enjoyed seeing the faces of the kids as they grew up and the people who would stop and say hello when they were out in the community. ‘It’s the interacting with a different type of people’, Simon notes, before reflecting that, ‘It’s a time out. It’s not like a job. It’s actually a night out, just socialising with different people, but you’re doing something for them and they’re doing something for yourself while smiling and saying thank you at the end of it. So it was good’. Simon shares his memories of supporting a female participant who, despite being ‘a bit bigger than normal’, used to run at the Beach Series. ‘She was always the last person, but she enjoyed it. She forced herself. She kept coming back each week’. Simon, like Sally, was totally committed from 3.30, till 8 o’clock. They were there before anyone else and typically the last to leave. Whilst he got to learn different skills, there was no down time. Over the years, Simon went from just doing one job to knowing the whole thing. ‘It’s like any other job, you do as best you can’, he concludes, adding, ‘You get the thanks and appreciation from the boss, but. . . they’re keeping you happy as much as you’re keeping them happy’. Simon stopped volunteering a couple of years before Ray sold the business, claiming that ‘it was just getting too much. I was juggling too many things’. In 2014, Ray decided to focus his attention on another one of his creations, the ‘Ocean Swim Series’, an nationwide event that he has been running alongside the Beach Series from the start. When asked why, he offered three reasons. Having moved to a different town, one part of the decision was the weekly commute. He also admits that, having done it for 10 years (185 Tuesdays), he wanted to move onto other things. Finally, the second 5-year naming rights sponsorship deal that he had secured in 2010 was also coming to an end. I thought now’s a good time’ Ray concludes. ‘But I worked with the new owner to get a new sponsor on board’, he adds quickly, ‘So that made the sale a little bit more palatable’. When asked to talk about the Beach Series’ new owner, and recent expansion into a new area, Ray praises Michael’s ambition and admits that he is now a consumer who takes his daughter down to ‘run with her on the beach’. He knows the challenges that his successor will be facing. ‘I know the balance of sponsorship and entry fee, and how many numbers he’s got turning up’ Ray adds, before continuing ‘Good on him for expanding the brand. I knew Michael’s as an attention to detail guy, very bright guy, very commercially savvy. He had been at the local Council. He knew the event. And so I knew he’d do a good job. If we got the wrong person in then the Beach Series would have gone just like that, ‘cause it needs to be looked after and worked out the right way’. Michael had been working for a larger multi-sport events company, 2 years’ full time, and 2 years part-time, looking after their marketing for all the events, and managing the sponsors. He was about to leave, having recently launched a new business. ‘That’s when I heard Ray was selling the Beach Series’, he recalls with a smile, adding. ‘He had talked to my boss, who said that they might consider looking at buying it. Which they didn’t want to in the end, because they went through a whole bunch of staff changes. That’s when I got in touch and went and had a chat’.

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Michael’s first impressions were that Ray had done it for 10 years and was ready for a change. He also acknowledged the fact that the event had ‘lost their naming sponsor’. ‘It wasn’t too much of a challenge taking over’, Michael reveals, admitting ‘I thought people might go once Ray had gone, but they’re kind of just there for the event really. . . A lot of people use it as their training event for one of the weekend events. . . It was just an amazing event, because it has such a community feel to it’. Michael acknowledged Ray’s achievements, noting how hard it is to find a location for a beach series. ‘it needs a beautiful beach where you can swim and that kind of thing. . . but it also needs good residential around it; you need the numbers. it also needs businesses around the beach to be able to get the sponsorship. Without sponsorship you couldn’t put the event on; so it’s actually quite a unique thing to try and find all of that in one go’. Michael was aware that Ray had talked about taking it around the country, but concluded that ‘actually doing that is quite a big ask. . . Even us having two events now will be pretty demanding. . . It’s getting more popular, and you’re getting a lot more of the [paddle]board riders. You’re always pretty tired. Last year it was Tuesday, Wednesday, and now it’s going to be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, it’s going to be a big ask; you couldn’t go and do a Tuesday, a Wednesday somewhere else, and a Thursday somewhere else’. Michael had about 650 signed up by the first event, with average weekly attendances of between 500 and 550. ‘People use it as their reason to get out each week’ he reveals, followed by ‘We have a lot of parents with two or three kids all come down and all do the event together’. Michael also offers a 30% family discount, noting that ‘even if a family signs up for all 18 events, the kids are sort of $5.00 an event. . . it’s a lot cheaper than going to your swimming pool, it’s a pretty good deal, and families can go down together and all take part, and sort of hang out afterward’. Michael is keen to emphasise the social side, and his desire to get ‘kids off the couch and away from the Playstation’. Like Ray before him, Michael, does not employ a huge staff pool to help put the event on, and asks a lot of favours of friends. He has about 15 volunteers who help with the registration, the race starts, setting up, and packing down. Michael has also had interns, including international students from Germany and the Netherlands. ‘Half of them just like to be involved, they’re maybe even be a little bit older, or not really into actually doing the activities, they just like being involved with the community. . . the other half. . . they’ll help out registration, and then go and swim, or run, or paddle for free’. Michael is happy to follow Ray’s practice of giving his unpaid helpers a free series pass, and ‘a few goodies along the way. . .a beer at the end of the night’. He pays ‘quite a bit’ for someone to do the timings and results (the series points) and notes how employing the Lifeguards is ‘a massive expense’. Looking to the future, Michael wants the Beach Series to remain a local community sports event with community sponsors, and a community charity partner. His chosen charity partner is different to the charity that Ray’s company worked with and has ‘a few staff that do the stand-up paddle’ who he describes as being a group of ‘older ladies’ who ‘just absolutely love it’. The charity gets a small financial contribution from every person who enters, which Michael pays at the end of the year,

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whilst his participants can also donate online when they register. The partner does raffles at some of the events, and a sausage sizzle at the gate. Crucially, Michael had worked with them before, when working for his previous employers. ‘It’s a nice little partnership we have’, he concludes, ‘it’s not earth shattering in terms of the dollars that they get, but it can’t beat at the end of the day’. Tracey is one of the Beach Series’ most loyal local sponsors. She watched the event as a participant and an observer for a few years, liked ‘how it was for the community’ and ‘the kind of people it attracted’. She sees it as ‘very much a local event’. As a marketer of a big corporate, Tracey has a big budget to play with but had stayed away from sponsorship ‘because it’s just so hard to measure return’. Ray changed her mind. Tracey recalls how Ray was known to be ‘such a good operator’ and someone who ‘delivered for his sponsors’. What Ray offered her was also ‘at a price point that was appealing’ and Tracey decided that ‘it was a good fit’. That was 5 years ago (2 years before Ray sold the event to Michael). Tracey explained that, from her experience, ‘people have events, but don’t necessarily deliver for sponsors and sometimes sponsors don’t tend to be that satisfied with being a sponsor. They don’t necessarily see their return’. She knew, however, that Ray worked hard for his sponsors. She lives locally and got to experience the Beach Series on a weekly basis. She felt close enough to it to invest, and has been impressed with what Michael has to offer, especially his desire to work with all his investors. ‘If this was an event that was taking place in Wellington, and I didn’t know who owned the event, I wouldn’t sponsor it’, Tracey admits, adding that, ‘Occasionally I do get pressure from various groups, including my boss to look at some bigger sponsorship. It’s all very nice to throw money at a sponsorship, but you actually need to kind of include it in your collateral, and your livery, and get people volunteering, and reflecting on your website, and having people in corporate boxes, and it’s just not a space I want to go into’. Tracey views the Beach Series sponsorship as ‘almost like a pet project to be honest’. In the beginning, she was really trying to show evidence of it working, including the creation of special offers that were specific for Beach Series participants. ‘I’m actually much more relaxed about it now’, she admits, adding, ‘The thing that I’m really pleased about is we provide the beach blankets and water bottles. The water bottles are great, because I see them everywhere. And other people have told me they see them everywhere’. She thinks that one of the things that Ray did well in the beginning was helped by his background in swimming. She liked how he was able to attract a lot of ‘semi rockstars’, revealing the appeal of seeing ‘Olympians down on the stand-up paddle board or on a kayak’. She thinks that created ‘a bit of a vibe on its own’ and concludes that ‘Ray did a really good job on the microphone. There were always lots of people quite engaged with it, you know? You had the coffee truck down there or the radio guys in the truck and they’d be throwing around the rugby ball for the kids and there’d be people trying on wetsuits. There was always a lot of stuff going on so it kept it quite lively; it was quite a carnival atmosphere. You really felt quite buzzy; you really felt like this was the place to be on a Tuesday night’.

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7 It’s Not What You Know, or Who You Know, But Who Knows What You Know Burns (2001) defines lifestyle enterprises as businesses that not only provide adequate income but also allows the owner–manager to engage in an area of activity that brings them personal pleasure. Ray and Michael are seen as two like-minded innovative planners who, through being proactive and accepting the reputational risks involved at an early development stage of their own serious leisure event career, have ultimately been rewarded and enriched (financially and socially). Interestingly, of the ten lifestyle entrepreneur attributes and characteristics identified by Peters et al. (2009), none appear to apply to either Ray or Michael. Both are driven by the desire to sustain a healthy lifestyle and comfortable quality of life, more so than being growth orientation, but neither would knowingly prioritise it ahead of offering good customer service. Both were university educated with extensive marketing and product development expertise, and appreciate the importance of accepting professional advice from external stakeholders. Ray was also willing to ‘let go’, albeit only to someone he knew and trusted. Ray took a leapt of faith by quitting his sales job in order to establish the ABS in 2005. He arguably, took an even bigger leap a decade later when he sold it to Michael. Through necessity, Ray expanded on what the previous club-based operators were offering to include other established and emerging forms of physical activity (swimming, running initially, and then stand up paddle-boarding), allowing him to target a wider audience, including children. Michael has taken Ray’s business model and replicated it within a second locality on different nights (but in the same city). Sally and Simon both ended their personal involvement in the ABS around the same time the ownership changed hands, although Simon stopped before Ray decided to sell the business to Michael. Tracey, the sponsor, chose to continue her professional relationship with the ABS and was complementary towards both Ray and Michael’s management of her company’s investment. Their individual contributions to the monologue may not have been as substantial as that offered by Ray and Michael, but collectively their memories and motives should help the reader establish a clearer picture of why hundreds of local serious leisure enthusiasts have invested their time and money into the ABS over the past decade. Ultimately, as Sinek proposed, these three supporting actors have been inspired by the occupational devotion of two innovative planners in the lead roles of this production (and they are not the only ones). The staged monologue provides a non-generalisable assessment of the Auckland Beach Series, but the personal narratives reveal a shared passion for localised serious leisure activity to which many others should be able to easily relate and identify. The aim of this chapter was to do something a little different, if not necessarily better, and use a form of creative analytical practice (CAP) to provide a fresh and truly unique insight into the existence of occupational devotion, innovative planning, and lifestyle entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand’s not-for-profit dominated local sports and recreation sector. In keeping with the post-structuralist principles of CAP

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ethnodrama, the narrative has been presented in a deliberately descriptive and provocative manner that required the reader to engage fully with what is and is not included in the story. The aim is to generate further conversations and critical discourse from the audience’s initial reaction and many questions that remain unanswered (Wright, 2019). Our conclusion is that the ongoing development and delivery of the ABS represents ‘the what’ (the outcome), whereas the principles of innovative planning evident within the personal practice of the two lifestyle entrepreneurs responsible for its existence represents ‘the how’ (the opportunity), and that the occupational devotion evident amongst all five co-participants represents the all-important ‘why’ (the objective) (Sinek, 2011). Stebbins (2004) acknowledged the difficulty in studying occupational devotion from an entrepreneurial perspective, blaming the scarcity of reliable data available on small business entrepreneurs and a lack of existing research on which to base future study. He also noted his surprise at the number of occupational devotees that, in their eyes at least, were yet to achieve something important or that they have been successful in life (Stebbins, 2004). The authors are aware that they have only brushed the surface of this subject (on this occasion), but plans are in place to delve deeper into the three concepts presented within this chapter before they widen their gaze to look at further cases for contextualisation. Arguably, much of the existing academic literature has focused heavily on the provision of traditional standalone case studies that show what sports-based entrepreneurship and innovation looks like, and how it fits within the interdisciplinary fields of sports, recreation, leisure, event, and entrepreneurship studies. In sum, this chapter introduces the principles of occupational devotion and innovative planning overlap with/within the concept of lifestyle entrepreneurship, all of which need further exploration and examination. Innovative planning is an art as well as a science, requiring sound judgment, sensitivity, and creativity. Further innovative and creative explorations into the why, how, and what of lifestyle entrepreneurship within the sports, recreation, and leisure sectors is undoubtedly required, as are more case studies that have been co-created by the practitioners actively involved in shaping the future of the industry.

References Ateljevic, I., & Doorne, S. (2000). “Staying within the fence”: Lifestyle entrepreneurship in tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 8, 378–392. Barone, T. (2002). From genre blurring to audience blending: Reflections on the field emanating from an ethnodrama. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 33(2), 255–267. Berbary, L. (2015). Creative analytic practices: Onto-epistemological and theoretical attachments, uses, and constructions within humanist qualitative leisure research. International Leisure Review, 2, 27–55. Bredvold, R., & Skalen, P. (2016). Lifestyle entrepreneurs and their identity construction: A study of the tourism industry. Tourism Management, 56, 96–105. Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Burns, P. (2001). Entrepreneurship and small business. Tavistock and Rochdale: Palgrave Macmillan. Chase, S. E. (2011). Narrative inquiry: Still a field in the making. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (4th ed., pp. 421–434). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Cooper, A., & Artz, K. (1995). Determinants of satisfaction for entrepreneurs. Journal of Business Venturing, 10, 439–457. Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. New York: Free Press. Dowson, R., & Bassett, D. (2018). Event planning & management: Principles, planning and practice. London: Kogan Page. Durieux, M., & Stebbins, R. A. (2010). Social entrepreneurship for dummies. Hoboken, NY: Wiley. Gomez-Velasco, M., & Saleilles, S. (2007). The local embeddedness of lifestyle entrepreneur: An exploratory study. Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research 2007, Montpellier. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 275889173 Hjorth, D. (2007). Lessons from Iago: Narrating the event of entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(5), 712–732. Litman, T. (2013). Planning principles and practices. Victorian Transport Policy Institute. Retrieved from www.vtpi.org/planning.pdf Marchant, B., & Mottiar, Z. (2011). Understanding lifestyle entrepreneurs and digging beneath the issue of profits: Profiling surf tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs in Ireland. Tourism Planning & Development, 8(2), 171–183. Marcketti, S., Niehm, L., & Fuloria, R. (2006). An exploratory study of lifestyle entrepreneurship and its relationship to life quality. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 34(3), 241–259. Mienczakowski, J. (2001). Ethnodrama: Performed research—limitations and potential. In P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, & L. Lofland (Eds.), Handbook of ethnography (pp. 468–476). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mienczakowski, J., & Morgan, S. (2001). Ethnodrama: Constructing participatory experiential and compelling action research: Participative inquiry and practice. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (Eds.), Handbook of action research: Participatory inquiry and practice (pp. 219–227). London: Sage. Morgan, K., Jones, R. L., Gilbourne, D., & Llewellyn, D. (2013). Changing the face of coach education: Using ethno-drama to depict lived realities. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 18(5), 520–533. Morse, A. L., & McEvoy, C. D. (2014). Qualitative research in sport management: Case study as a methodological approach. Qualitative Report, 19(31), 1–13. Parry, D. C., & Johnson, C. W. (2007). Contextualizing leisure research to encompass complexity in lived leisure experience: The need for creative analytic practice. Leisure Sciences, 29(2), 119–130. Peters, M., Feeche, J., & Buhalis, D. (2009). The importance of lifestyle entrepreneurship: A conceptual study of the tourism industry. Pasos, 7(2), 393–405. Ratten, V. (2011). Sport-based entrepreneurship: Towards a new theory of entrepreneurship and sport management. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 7(1), 57–69. Ratten, V., & Ferreira, J. (2017). Entrepreneurship, innovation and sport policy: Implications for future research. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 9(4), 575–577. Richardson, L. (1999). Feathers in our CAP. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28(6), 660–668. Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Saldana, J. (2010). Writing ethnodrama: A sampler from educational research. In M. Savin-Baden & C. H. Major (Eds.), New approaches to qualitative research: Wisdom and uncertainty (pp. 61–69). London: Routledge.

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Saldaña, J. (2012). Ethnodrama. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 284–285). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C. H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice. London: Routledge. Schwandt, T. (2007). The SAGE dictionary of qualitative research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Shaw, G., & Williams, A. M. (2004). From lifestyle consumption to lifestyle production: Changing patterns of tourism entrepreneurship. In R. Thomas (Ed.), Small firms in tourism. International perspectives (pp. 99–113). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Sinek, S. (2011). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. New York: Penguin. Stebbins, R. A. (1982). Serious leisure a conceptual statement. Sociological Perspectives, 25(2), 251–272. Stebbins, R. A. (2004). Between work and leisure: The common ground of two separate worlds. Oxon: Routledge. Stebbins, R. A. (2009). Serious leisure and work. Sociology Compass, 3(5), 764–774. Stebbins, R. A. (2014a). Careers in serious leisure: From dabbler to devotee in search of fulfillment. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Stebbins, R. A. (2014b). Leisure, happiness and positive lifestyle. In S. Elkington & S. J. Gammon (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives in leisure: Meanings, motives and lifelong learning (pp. 28–38). London: Routledge. Steyaert, C. (2004). The Prosaics of entrepreneurship. In D. Hjorth & C. Steyaert (Eds.), Narrative and discursive approaches in entrepreneurship. A second movements in entrepreneurship book (pp. 8–21). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Wright, R. K. (2017). Innovative planning in parks, sport & recreation. Paper presented at the 2017 Generate Network Conference: Industry Innovation, Relationship Management, Christchurch. Wright, R. K. (2018). “Doing it for dot”: Exploring active ageing sport tourism experiences through the medium of creative analytical practice. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 22(2), 1–16. Wright, R. K. (2019). ‘All the lonely people’: Embracing autoethnographic creative analytical practice at the 2017 World Masters Games. Annals of Leisure Research, 22(3), 342–361. Wright, T. S., & Blair, E. E. (2016). Narrative inquiry in early childhood education: Pursuing the promise. In T. David, K. Goouch, & S. Powell (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of philosophies and theories of early childhood education and care (pp. 219–233). Oxon: Routledge. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods. Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research (Vol. 5). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies Stimulated by the Brazil Olympics Branca Terra, André Ribeiro de Oliveira, Mariza Almeida, Luiz Alberto Batista, João Alberto Neves dos Santos, Jana Almeida Nogueira, and Leonardo Lehneman Agostinho Martins Abstract The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the innovation degree and environment of Brazilian technology-based companies that produce sports devices with the support of business incubators and government encouragement. The results show the low level of innovation in these companies, even though one can observe a positive set of government initiatives.

1 Introduction Brazil hosted several sporting events during the 2000s, such as the Pan American Games, the Parapan American Games in 2007, the Military World Games in 2011, the Confederation Cup in 2013, the Football World Cup in 2014, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016, which have stimulated discussion about the Brazilian technology-based companies involved in sports innovation. In the build-up to the Olympics, government agencies that supported scientific and technological research had focused on innovation and opened public tenders dedicated specifically to innovation in sport, increasing the understanding that the country could use this opportunity to become a producer of sports solutions and not just a customer. The government incentives were in place because it is known that Brazilian companies have a low degree of innovation (IBGE, 2016) and that the major sports companies that conduct R, D, and I have foreign brands. These government initiatives encourage innovation in the sports sector and could generate a legacy in science, technology, and innovation (S, T, and I) in an economic sector that, until then, did not exist. Because of this scenario, the Rio de Janeiro State University’s Innovation and Society research group decided to carry out the present research work. The aim of this chapter is to B. Terra (*) · A. R. de Oliveira · L. A. Batista · J. A. Nogueira · L. L. A. Martins Departamento de Ciências Administrativas, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil M. Almeida Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil J. A. N. dos Santos Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_4

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evaluate the innovation degree and environment of Brazilian technology-based companies that produce sports devices with the support of business incubators and government encouragement. Specific aims are to (1) identify the devices’ sports industry segments; (2) measure the innovation degree of those devices and observe the innovation environment of such enterprises; and (3) identify patterns and behaviors in this sample, according to sports industry segments. The research analyzed 386 Brazilian incubators, according to ANPROTEC (2014), and identified 22 technology-based companies to evaluate the innovation degree and the innovation environment. The research used the Radar Innovation Methodology, proposed by Sawhney, Wolcott, and Arroniz (2006), Bachmann and Destefani (2008) and Silva Neto (2012), which is based on the four dimensions: offerings (what), customers (who), process (how), and presence (where), and in addition, the research included another dimension entitled innovation environment, through university–industry– government interaction, as proposed by Etzkowitz (2003) to analyze the innovation degree. Finally, the research analyzed the different sports industry segments were classified with respect to the proposal of Pitts, Fielding, and Miller (1994), covering three items: sports production, sports performance, and sports promotion, and of Ratten (2011), Ratten and Ratten (2011) proposal, covering nine aspects of sportsbased entrepreneurship: business strategy, crisis management, new sports development, performance management, product innovation, promotional strategies, social issues, sustainability concerns, and technological developments. For qualitative and quantitative collected data, the research uses documents of the companies (home pages, folders, newspapers, etc.) and questionnaires, where 12 companies answered the questions. The questionnaire aimed to observe the characteristics of the companies: business model support; entrepreneurs and team, all of them related to their innovation degree, and it was developed to support face-to-face and remote interviews and organizing the database of the studied companies. This document was organized as follows: the “Introduction” shows the context and the research question. The “Literature Review” presents some theoretical concepts to support understanding of sports innovation. The “Methodological Issues” shows the tools and procedures used to collect data and support data analysis. The “Companies Presentation” shows the characteristics of the companies. The “Data Analyses” presents the results and synthesis of the innovation degree, patterns, and behaviors of respondent enterprises. Finally, the “Conclusion” shows the low level of innovation in these companies, even though one can observe a positive set of government initiatives.

2 Literature Review This section shows a review of the six theoretical concepts underlying this analysis: business opportunities and innovation environment, spin-off and technologicalbased company, innovation phases, innovation degree measurement, sport-based entrepreneurship and sports industry.

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

2.1

43

Business Opportunities and Innovation Environment

The theoretical concepts about the business opportunity source identified by the company and the business opportunity exploitation by the company were carried out by Shane (2004). He says that while it is common to think of technological, political/ regulatory, social/demographic, and industrial structure changes as opening up entrepreneurial opportunities by making it possible to introduce new products and services that had not previously existed, these changes also create opportunities by allowing older products and services to be produced with new production methods, using new raw materials, organized in new ways, or for sale in new markets. Very often technology entrepreneurs think in terms of creating new products and services even through producing old products and services through new ways of organizing, using new raw materials, new production processes, and targeting to new markets. Business incubators are an important way to promote technology transfer between the University and businesses, providing technical and managerial support to entrepreneurs by facilitating their access to existing knowledge through specialized consulting and training (OECD, 2010). Incubators are intended to enhance or create new knowledge within University research projects in the form of books, scientific articles, communications at conferences and research reports so that they can return to the University research lines and compose a theoretical body that, in turn, can be used by other entrepreneurs (Enríquez & Costa, 2001). Observing the innovation environment, it is necessary to know that startups companies should get, through university–industry–government interaction, the production of knowledge needed for business success (Etzkowitz, 2003).

2.2

Spin-off and Technological-Based Company

A broader definition of “spin-off” venture was given by Steffensen, Rogers, and Speakman (2000), it is a company that emerges from another organization. For these authors, a spin-off can be a planned or a spontaneously created business venture. The former is a company that results from voluntary efforts by the initiating organization. The latter is a company that results from the effort of the entrepreneur, who functions subject to with little or no encouragement by the organization that creates the spinoff company. Shane (2004) defines an academic spin-off as a company created to exploit intellectual property derived from a research activity developed at an academic institution. A spin-off company can develop products or services from a technological idea or scientific/technical knowledge originated by a member of the university (Rappert, Webster, & Charles, 1999). In Brazil, spin-off companies have received a boost from the introduction of the Innovation Law (Brasil, 2004, 2005) modified by another law named Legal

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Framework of S,T&I (Brasil, 2016, 2018), since it allows researchers to take leave from their academic activities in order to set up such a business. However, the fact that the universities still need to sort out their regulations in respect to the law and that knowledge of this legal mechanism has received limited dissemination means that it is still a little used option (Botelho & Almeida, 2011). According Hansen and Allen (1992), some of these companies are technological intensive, so that, are defined as businesses whose products or services largely depend on the application of scientific and technological knowledge technology-based companies typically face growth challenges characterized by intense product and/or process innovations—frequently combined with business model innovations—and early and fast internationalization processes (Preece, Miles, & Baetz, 1999).

2.3

Innovation Phases

Understanding innovation requires an awareness of the processes through which technical and administrative innovations are introduced into organizations over time (Newell & Swan, 1995). Several authors have sought to understand and define the phases, or processes of innovation. Abernathy and Utterback (1978) have identified patterns of product and process innovation. Rothwell (1994) presents the evolution of R&D process models, since the first-generation model (that assumed as their mission, providing a “technology push” to move the firm) and second-generation (that were developed as solutions to bring R&D activities more efficiently close to market demands) to fourth- and fifth generations, those are the ones where one assumes activities as part of an integrated innovation process, where different teams of R&D work simultaneously, establishing stronger links with primary suppliers, keeping horizontal collaboration (such as “joint ventures” and strategic alliances), and meeting several demands and different customers in the market. Wheelwright and Clark (1992) and Cooper (1990, 1993) have proposed a traditional representation of the innovation process with the fixed sequence, such as research and development, manufacturing and production, and commercialization. To Wolfe (1994), innovation is often considered a single event phenomenon, however, it can also be considered as a multievent process that follows three wellestablished stages: initiation, adoption decision, and implementation. These stages of innovation provide a useful tool for identifying, organizing, and analyzing the determinants that promote innovation within an organization. Innovation in sport can be product- or process-based and often incorporates both (Ratten, 2010). Hoeber and Hoeber (2012) classify the determinants that contributed to the innovation process and identify at which particular stages of innovation those determinants were critical. To Hillairet, Richard, and Bouchet (2009), the type of sport, such as a decathlon, affects the innovation process.

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

45

3 Methodological Issues The methodology for the investigation was developed in two phases. The first phase used quantitative research including a review of the literature, as well as documental analysis. The second phase had both quantitative and qualitative components. A semi-structured questionnaire was applied on interviews carried out with the CEOs of the studied companies. This survey began in 2014. The main question discussed in this chapter, based on the initial hypothesis is, Which are the characteristics of the Brazilian technology-based companies that produce sports devices with support of business incubators and government encouragement, observing their innovation degree and environment?

3.1

Quantitative Data Collection

Following the criteria defined by Sawhney et al. (2006), with adaptations inspired by Etzkowitz (2003), a questionnaire was prepared with questions aimed at mapping the degree of innovation of the innovative companies in the sports sector. The questions were presented in two different ways, the first—each company responded only yes/no/does not apply (this has one used when the company does not work in some item); and the second—covers the descriptive content of each question, which was recorded in an Excel spreadsheet, for preparation of the analyses. The questions were organized in the four dimensions of the Radar Innovation Methodology, proposed by Sawhney et al. (2006), Bachmann and Destefani (2008), and Silva Neto (2012), plus a fifth dimension, entitled innovation environment, based on Etzkowitz (2003) and presented in Table 3. The degree of innovation of the companies was calculated using the scores 1 and 0, with 1 were evaluated by specialists, who classified them according to their degree of importance to each of the dimensions. The classification of the rating is shown in Table 1. The classification took place in two stages. In the first stage, specialists in the area of sports innovation were chosen and each one conducted their own individual evaluation. In the second stage, the evaluations were presented to the group of specialists and they were discussed among the specialists until a consensus was reached. Table 2 presents the background of the specialists who participated in the evaluation of the degree of innovation of the companies studied. Table 1 Points criteria established for the companies’ responses

Weighting 9 7 5 3 1

Criterion adopted Very great importance to the dimension Great importance to the dimension Moderate importance to the dimension Low importance to the dimension Very low importance to the dimension

Source: Authors’ own table

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Table 2 Specialist backgrounds Specialist 1

Specialist 2 Specialist 3

PhD Professor of the Department of Administrative Sciences (DCA); School of Administration and Finance (FAF), State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ); School of Business Administration and Accounting (FACC), Fluminense Federal University (UFF) PhD Professor of the Department of Physical Education at the Institute for Physical Education and Sports (IEFD), State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) Evaluator of incubation projects, with 15 years’ experience in consulting and management of projects geared to innovation and enterprise

Source: Authors’ own table

Table 3 shows the partial and final scores for each question answered by the companies:

3.2

Qualitative Data Collection

Some questions were detailed, giving the companies studied the opportunity to elaborate and explain their responses. These were questions relating to the following subjects: (1) Innovation Characteristics—Type of innovation; nature of the business; reasons to become an entrepreneur and innovate; stages of innovation; development time; average revenue over the last 3 years; patents held or filed; common causes of problems for innovation; (2) Innovation Environment—Financial support received; partnerships; need to import in order to develop; services provided by the incubators; (3) Profiles of the Partners—Highest qualifications of the partners; previous experience of the partners; (4) Profiles of the Team (human resources)—Number of employees; number of employees doing R&D; number of women; most needed areas of knowledge to the development of the products/processes.

4 Companies Presentation In order to identify the companies, a search was conducted on the websites of 386 incubators that existed in Brazil in 2014 (ANPROTEC, 2014). A set of 22 companies that innovate in the sports sector was identified within 19 incubators with devices related to this subject. Eight interviews were conducted by visiting the companies and four by e-mail or phone. Ten companies decided not to participate in the survey. The research group decided to neither disclose the name of the companies nor to present the confidential information. Then the companies were denominated by a generic name: Company A; Company B up to the 12th, Company L. Of the 12 (twelve) companies interviewed, 6 (six) are spin-offs (A, B, D, E, G, and K) with significant interaction with universities and research institutes, which gave rise to the ideas underpinning their founding. Table 4 presents a summary of the main products/services of the companies.

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

47

Table 3 Companies’ scores, per specialist Dimension Offerings

No. 1 2 3 4

Customers

5 6 7

Process

8

9 10 11 Presence

12

13 14

15

16 Innovation Environment

17

18 19

20 21

Question Were any new products/services created in the last 2 years? Was your product/service conceived within a platform development context? Is your company’s trademark registered? Does your company hold any patent or license for a technological device? Was your product conceived to meet the needs of any specific segment? Does your product incorporate integrated services? Has there been any specific effort to identify the needs of customers or segments? Has there been any significant effort to make changes in the processes, to meet needs arising from the company’s innovations? Have there been any attempts to capture the value created? Has there been any kind of organizational innovation? Has there been any innovation regarding materials or new raw materials? Are there multiple opportunities to utilize the products and/or services? (by amateurs or professionals) Has the company at any time engaged in activities to popularize the sport? Were the major sporting events in Brazil used to inform the public about your equipment and projects? Were any partnerships formed to support the process of change required by the dynamics of the business? Have there been any initiatives aimed at developing local suppliers and partners? Has the company received any financial support (such as government aid, venture capital, angel investor, etc.)? Were the services provided by the incubators essential to the company’s growth? Was there any collaboration with other academic structures to identify and develop business opportunities, other than the business incubators? Are the products/services provided by the company new to Brazil? Is R&D at your company conducted in partnership with other entities?

Source: Authors’ own table

Specialist 1 2 3 9 9 9

Consensus score 9

7

7

3

7

1 5

3 5

5 5

3 5

9

9

9

9

5

5

3

5

7

7

5

7

9

9

7

9

7

7

5

7

1

3

1

1

3

5

3

3

9

9

9

9

9

7

7

7

7

1

1

3

5

3

5

5

5

5

3

5

9

9

9

9

5

7

5

5

9

5

7

7

3

1

1

1

7

3

3

5

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B. Terra et al.

Table 4 Studied companies

Company A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

Main Product/Service Equipment that monitors the movements of the human body Software linked to bodybuilding equipment, assists the performing of exercises at the ideal speed and range determined by the instructor Monitoring module for bodybuilding equipment Platform accessible by any device that has internet for managing fitness environments Software for full physical evaluation and sports diagnosis Aquatic exercise bicycle (hydrobike) Elliptical apparatus for use in swimming pools Boats and yachts using laminated carbon fiber parts Other items—Carbon fiber mast, Kevlar fairings, etc. Custom-made mouthguards that are effective and whose thickness is adapted to the needs of each sport Food product for people who suffer from metabolic disorders Interactive website for the organizing of amateur football events and assisting the teams to manage their games Boat powered by a kite, a first in Brazil 24 rally circuits set up, in different locations, to

University/Research Institute where the incubator is located Paraná Institute of Technology (TECPAR)

Brazilian State Paraná

Spinoff Yes

Year founded 2008

University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNISUL)

Santa Catarina

Yes

2004

Federal University of Viçosa (UFV)

Minas Gerais

No

2008

Federal University of São João del-Rei (UFSJ)

Minas Gerais

Yes

2005

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

Rio de Janeiro

Yes

1998

University of São Paulo (USP)

São Paulo

No

2010

Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) Federation of Higher Education Institutions in Novo Hamburgo (FEEVALE) Pernambuco Institute of Technology (ITEP) Veiga de Almeida University (UVA)

Minas Gerais

Yes

2006

Rio Grande do Sul

No

2012

Pernambuco

No

2000

Rio de Janeiro

No

2008 (continued)

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

49

Table 4 (continued)

Company

K

L

Main Product/Service promote tourism, cultural, historical, ecological, corporate, and adventure circuits Portal to assist in the performing of a variety of sporting activities Integrated variometer with GPS for use in free flying Onboard computer worn in the hand, for swimmers

University/Research Institute where the incubator is located

Brazilian State

Spinoff

Year founded

Federal University of Viçosa (UFV)

Minas Gerais

Yes

–

Federal University of Itajubá—(UNIFEI)

São Paulo

No

2004

Source: Authors’ own table

5 Data Analyses The results of this study are presented as follows: Sects. 5.1 and 5.2; entrepreneurs and team.

5.1

Innovation Degree

In order to calculate the degree of innovation, the consensus score for each question was first calculated, based on the interpretation of the specialists already presented in Table 3. The responses to the questionnaires were then compiled and recorded in the format yes/no/does not apply, so that they could be converted into 1 or 0. Following the conversion, the innovation degree of each company was calculated, using the weighted average for each dimension. Finally, the companies were arranged in descending order, according to their innovation degree, as a ranking format. The responses provided in the interviews were then recorded on a spreadsheet is shown in Table 5. The responses to the questionnaires: yes/no/does not apply were converted into the numbers 1 and 0, according to the established criteria. These values were then considered for the calculation of the weighted averages per dimension, for each company interviewed. The total of the weighted averages per dimension for each company is shown in Table 6. Figure 1 presents the ranking of the companies according to their innovation degree. Additionally, according to the key, the degree of innovation of the companies classified according to Pitts et al. (1994) is also shown.

15

14

13

12

9 10 11

8

6 7

5

3 4

No. 1 2

Questions Were any new products/services created in the last 2 years? Was your product/service conceived within a platform development context? Is your company’s trademark registered? Does your company hold any patent or license for a technological device? Was your product conceived to meet the needs of any specific segment? Does your product incorporate integrated services? Has there been any specific effort to identify the needs of customers or segments? Has there been any significant effort to make changes in the processes, to meet needs arising from the company’s innovations? Have there been any attempts to capture the value created? Has there been any kind of organizational innovation? Has there been any innovation regarding materials or new raw materials? Are there multiple opportunities to utilize the products and/or services? (by amateurs or professionals) Has the company at any time engaged in activities to popularize the sport? Were the major sporting events in Brazil used to inform the public about your equipment and projects? Were any partnerships formed to support the process of change required by the dynamics of the business?

Table 5 Summary of the companies’ responses

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes No No

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes No No

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No No No

No

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Companies A B C Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Yes

No

Yes

No

No No No

No

No No

Yes

Yes Yes

D Yes No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes Yes

Yes

No Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

E Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes No No

Yes

No Yes

Yes

Yes No

F No No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes No Yes

Yes

No Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

G Yes Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No No No

No

No Yes

Yes

Yes No

H No No

Yes

No

No

No

No No Yes

Yes

No Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

I No Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes No

No

Yes Yes

Yes

No No

J Yes No

Yes

No

No

No

Yes No No

Yes

Yes No

Yes

No No

K Yes No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes No No

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

No Yes

L Yes Yes

50 B. Terra et al.

Have there been any initiatives aimed at developing local suppliers and partners? Has the company received any financial support (such as government aid, venture capital, angel investor, etc.)? Were the services provided by the incubators essential to the company’s growth? Was there any collaboration with other academic structures to identify and develop business opportunities, other than the business incubators? Are the products/services provided by the company new to Brazil? Is R&D at your company conducted in partnership with other entities?

Source: Authors’ own table

20 21

19

18

17

16

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

No Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes No

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes No

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes No

No

Yes

No

Yes

No Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . . 51

Source: Author own table

Dimension Offerings Customers Processes Presence Innovation Environment Total per company

H 0.1 0.8 0.0 0.7 0.5 2.1

D 0.7 0.4 0.0 0.6 0.5 2.2

K 0.4 0.7 0.8 0.2 0.6 2.6

Table 6 Final score of the studied companies I 0.6 0.8 0.6 0.3 0.2 2.6

F 0.1 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.2 2.7

J 0.4 1.0 0.4 0.7 0.6 3.1

Company C 0.7 1.0 0.0 0.8 0.8 3.3 L 0.9 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.7 4.0

B 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.7 0.7 4.2

G 1.0 0.8 1.0 0.7 1.0 4.4

E 1.0 0.8 1.0 1.0 1.0 4.8

A 1.0 1.0 0.8 1.0 1.0 4.8

Total per dimension 7.9 9.9 7.0 8.1 7.8 40.7

Average 0.7 0.8 0.6 0.7 0.7 –

Sd 0.34 0.18 0.38 0.24 0.27 –

52 B. Terra et al.

1º

Company A

2º

Company E

3º

Company G

4º

Company B

5º

Company L

6º

Company C

7º

Company J

8º

Company F

9º

Company I

2.6

12º 11º 10º

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

Company K

2.6

53

4.8 4.8 4.4 4.2 4.0 3.3 3.1 2.7

Company D

Sports Promotion

2.2

Company H

Sports Production

Sports Performance

2.1 0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Fig. 1 Companies’ innovation degree. Source: Authors’ own figure

The three companies with the highest degree of innovation are spin-offs, whose products are R&D results in conjunction with universities. The entrepreneurs have a relevant academic background in the area of activity of the companies (masters, extension courses, and doctorate, respectively), besides presenting previous partner experience in academy and own business. These three companies have a team developing internal R&D and in their teams work more than 25% of women, reaching Company A (1 ranking) having 50% women. Considering Ratten and Ratten (2011) categories their business strategy, product innovation, technology development, and performance are described below. Company “A” has been operating in the field of Biomedical Engineering and Rehabilitation Engineering, which had its start from an innovation developed within the Master’s Degree thesis of its founder.The sport industry segment is classified as sport performance (Pitts et al. 1994). The business strategy includes the development of a product that was not offered in the market. The product innovation is related to monitor human movements applied for a person in the physical rehabilitation process, as well as for athlete training and for watching elderly patients in a hospital and at home, making possible recording the movements of a non-handicapped person for its reproduction on a handicapped person. The technology development couples between sensors and electronic transducers and data processing software. The promotional strategy is directed to gyms and physiotherapy clinics. In the performance management, the company received grants from government and angel investors. They also focus on social issues like the development of wheelchair rugby. Company “E” since its creation in 1998 has always invested in R&D activities in a close partnership with Naval Engineering Program, at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where two undergrad students started their carrier developing their first

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research project during the Scientific Initiation Program, when they had built a wooden Snipe class sailing boat. The first innovation project was finalized in 2002: The Double Canoe, a rowboat for two people. The company’s business strategy and technology development spread from boats manufacture using carbon fiber to new products as a wheelchair in the same material to proposing viable solutions to projects and parts in composites in different industries, like Petrobras submarine robot, a protective cover to contain a possible explosion of a circuit breaker in a power substation at CEPEL (Electrical Energy Research Center), the first habitable sled for an exploration of Antarctica made entirely out of carbon fibers and Kevlar. Due to integrating theoretical scientific knowledge to years of practical empirical knowledge, the company’s performance management was able to receive financial resources to R&D from different sources: governmental grants from Rio de Janeiro innovation agency and angel investors. Company “G”, a biotechnology firm, works on the human health sector. The technology development exploits a patent licensed from a university that is a result of 30 years of a professor’s research that decided to create the company in 2006, with three of her students. The product innovation generates several products using milk serum to manufacture protein for the food industry that is utilized in producing of nutritional supplements for athletes and food for allergic people (PKU—phenylketonuria). Those products offer improved characteristics in relation to the imported product. The company’s performance management includes an investment obtained from the government fund and venture capitalist firm. Firstly, how each dimension of the radar contributes to the degree of innovation of each company was ascertained. Figure 2 then seeks to illustrate the influence of each dimension on innovation at each company.

Company A

1.0

Company E

1.0

0.8

1.0

Company G

1.0

0.8

1.0

Company B

1.0

Company L

1.0

1.0

0.9

Company C 0.4

Company I

0.8

Company K

0.7 0.7

0.0

0.8 0.5

Offerings

0.7

0.6

0.4 0.0 0.0

0.8

0.2 0.5

1.0 Customers

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.2

0.3 0.2

0.6

0.7

1.0

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.4

Company H 0.1

0.4

1.0 1.0

0.7 0.6

0.8

0.8

0.6

Company D

0.0

1.0

Company F 0.1

0.8

1.0

1.0 1.0 0.7

0.8

1.0

0.7

Company J

0.8

0.6

0.5 1.5

2.0 Processes

2.5

3.0

Presence

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Innovation Environment

Fig. 2 Companies’ innovation degree, per radar dimension, and innovation environment. Source: Authors’ own figure

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

55

It is possible to note that: • OFFERINGS Dimension: It turns out that there are two distinct groups, which present similar results related to and this dimension. The first group, consisting of companies A, B, C, D, E, G, I, and L, which have results higher than 60% of the maximum score, create new products/services based on R&D and university– company interaction; trademarks, patents, and licensing of their products. The second group does not have these characteristics and present the respective lower degrees of innovation, except for Company D. It should be noted that of the six spin-off companies only Company K did not stand out in this respect, which may be an indication of an interaction with the incubator and the university. In turn, it is also interesting to mention that of all the companies that stood out in the question, only Company G is not part of the sports production group, perhaps indicating that the offerings question is easier to be reached by the companies of the sports production group. • CUSTOMERS Dimension: Companies A, B, L, C, and J obtained maximum points in this dimension. All the other companies, with the exception of Company D, obtained low point level in spite to be a spin-off company. It is important to note the cases of companies E and G, which lead the overall ranking of the 12 companies, but did not obtain the maximum points in this dimension. On the other hand, Company H obtained a good points level in this dimension, yet placed last in the overall ranking of the companies. This dimension saw the highest average points level for the 12 companies (average ¼ 0.8). PROCESS Dimension: Only companies E and G obtained maximum points. Companies A, B, L, F, and K obtained less points levels. Three companies— Companies C, D, and H, did not obtain any points in this dimension. It is important to note the case of Company K, which obtained a representative points level in this dimension, despite being third from bottom in the ranking of the degree of innovation of the 12 companies. This dimension saw the lowest average points level for the 12 companies (average ¼ 0.6) and the highest points variation (standard deviation ¼ 0.38). There are two groups of companies: a group with eight companies with a performance of more than 0.6 (5 sport production companies, 1 sport promotion company, and 2 sport performance companies), which seeks to change their processes according to the innovation that occurs in the company or of the need to use new materials, and a group with 4 companies with a performance lower than 0.6 (3 companies of sport production, 1 company of sport promotion), which seems to show that sport promotion companies are the most impacted by this dimension, because none of them performed below average. PRESENCE Dimension: Only the companies A and E obtained maximum points. Companies G, B, C, J, F, and H obtained less points levels. Two companies—companies I and K, obtained very low points levels. It is important to note the case of Company H, which obtained a good points level in this dimension, yet placed last in the ranking of the degree of innovation of the 12 companies. Almost all sport production companies (with the exception of Company I) and all sport performance companies have performed well in this dimension. The results of

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companies I and K, indicate the search for new market niches for action, participation in major sporting events, or the search for partnerships. In addition, Company K, being a spin-off, has an exception with respect to its performance in this dimension. There are two groups of companies: a group with eight companies with performance superior to 0.6 (5 companies sport production, 1 company sport promotion, and the 2 companies sport performance), which seeks to change their processes according to the innovation that occurs in the company or the need to use new materials, and a group with 4 companies with performance below 0.6 (3 companies sport production, 1 company sport promotion), which seems to show that sport promotion companies are the most impacted by this dimension, as none of them performed below average. Finally, with regard to the INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT, companies A, E, and G obtained maximum points. Companies B, L, C, J, and K obtained points levels that were not the maximum, but lower to average. Two companies—Companies F and I, obtained points levels that were well below average. It is important to note the cases of companies H and D, which obtained reasonable points levels in this dimension, despite being in the last and penultimate places in the ranking of the degree of innovation of the 12 companies. It can be verified that eight companies of all the segments obtained superior scores to 0.6; and these companies are seeking various financial support, incubator services, and academic support, in order to enable the opportunities that arise at each moment.

5.2

Companies’ Characteristics Related to the Innovation Degree

With regard to the characteristics of the companies in relation to their degree of innovation, the information is presented according to business model support; entrepreneurs and team, in Tables 7, 8, 9, and 10. Looking at Table 7, one can state, regarding the companies’ characteristics in relation to the Innovation Degree—Business Model, that: • Eight companies developed product innovations and four companies developed innovations in services, while in relation to the market, all the companies sought to be active, with six of them aiming at the mass market and six aiming at niche markets. • Regarding the nature of the business in the sports sector, according to the classification by Pitts et al. (1994), eight companies can be classified as Sports Production, two as Sports Performance, and two as Sports Promotion, which were then ranked according to the degree of innovation. • Looking at the motivations to engage and innovate, nine companies identified business opportunities in the signals given off by the market—a typical characteristic of R&D called for by the market. The other three companies developed their technologies and/or products from academic work (a characteristic of R&D that pushes technology into the market).

Company A

E

G

B

L

C

J

F

Innovation degree ranking 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Mass market product Mass market service Niche market service Niche market product

Niche market product Mass market product

Niche market product

Type of innovation Mass market product

Market evidences

Sports Performance

Sports performance

Sports production Sports promotion

Sports production

Market evidences

Market evidences Market evidences

Opportunities arising from academic research Market evidences

Market evidences

Sports production

Sports production

Motivations to undertake and innovate Market evidence

Nature of business (Pitts et al., 1994) Sports production

Commercialization

Commercialization

Commercialization

Commercialization

Commercialization

Commercialization

Multiple phases (Commercialization, Pilot Test, Development, etc.)

Phases of innovation Commercialization

Table 7 Companies characteristics’ related to the innovation degree—business model

About 2 days

About 6 months

2 years

No

No

–

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Between 100,000 and 500,000

Up to 100,000

More than 500,000

0

–

6 months

More than 500,000

More than 500,000

Average revenue (last 3 years, in Reais) Start of commercialization, amount not given

2 years

6 months

Development time 3 years

Patented product/ service or patent requested Yes

(continued)

Lack of capital High taxes/charges

–

Competition, lack of capital, high taxes/charges Others

Common causes of problems for innovation Lack of capital, high taxes/charges, inexperienced partners Competition, lack of capital, time management High taxes/charges Legal issues Competition, high taxes/charges, Legal issues Lack of capital, time management High taxes/charges

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . . 57

K

D

H

10

11

12

Source: Authors’ own table

Company I

Innovation degree ranking 9

Table 7 (continued)

Mass market service

Niche market product

Type of innovation Niche market product Mass market service

Opportunities arising from academic research Market evidences

Sports production

Sports Promotion

Opportunities arising from academic research

Motivations to undertake and innovate Market evidences

Sports Promotion

Nature of business (Pitts et al., 1994) Sports production

Initial development

Commercialization

Initial development

Phases of innovation Pilot test

Up to 100,000

0

–

Up to 100,000

Average revenue (last 3 years, in Reais) 0

About 2 years

About 6 months

Development time About 2 years

No

Yes

No

Patented product/ service or patent requested Yes

Competition, lack of capital, high taxes/charges Default and/or few clients Competition High taxes/charges Default and/or few clients Lack of capital, time management, inexperienced partners, default and/or few clients

Common causes of problems for innovation Lack of capital

58 B. Terra et al.

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

59

Table 8 Companies’ Characteristics related to the innovation degree—support Innovation degree ranking 1

Company A

2

E

3

G

4

B

5

Import need for development Yes

Financial support Government (a federal agency) and seed money (angel money) Others (own capital) Government (federal and regional agencies)

Partnership Open innovation R&D University

Yes

Government (federal and regional agencies) venture capital Government (federal and regional agencies)

University firm

Yes

University government

No

L

Angel money

Firm

Yes

6

C

University

No

7

J

Government (federal agency) Government (regional agency)

Firm

No

8

F

None

None

Yes

9

I

None

None

No

10

K

Government (federal agency)

In-house R&D

Yes

11

D

None

Yes

12

H

None

In-house R&D None

No

Services provided by incubators Physical space; Innovation management Consulting; Physical space; Labs; Training Consulting; Physical space; Labs Physical space; Training Consulting; Physical space; Labs; Training Physical space Consulting; Physical space; Training Consulting; Physical space Consulting; Physical space; Labs; Training Consulting; Physical space; Training Consulting; Physical space Consulting; Physical space; Training

Source: Authors’ own table

• With regard to the stages of innovation that these companies are in, eight companies are at the point of commercialization of the innovations developed, while three are in earlier stages. Company E is in more than one stage, as it has more than one product at different points of development maturity.

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Table 9 Companies’ Characteristics related to the innovation degree—entrepreneurs Innovation degree ranking 1 2

Company A E

3 4

G B

5 6

L C

7

J

8

F

9 10 11

I K D

12

H

Background of entrepreneurs Master’s University graduate Doctoral degree University graduate Master’s University graduate University graduate University graduate Master’s Master’s Master’s University graduate

Partner’s previous experience Own experience Experience in the academy Experience in the academy No previous experience No previous experience Worked in another branch Worked in another branch Worked in another branch Worked in another branch No previous experience Own experience, due to needs arising as a Physical Education professional Worked in another branch

Source: Authors’ own table Table 10 Companies’ Characteristics related to the Innovation Degree—Team Ranking innovation degree 1

Company A

No. of employees 2

2

E

14

4

3

3 4 5 6 7 8

G B L C J F

9 0 5 5 5 15

3 0 2 2 0 10

6 0 1 1 0 2

9

I

1

1

0

10 11 12

K D H

3 6 2

2 2 0

0 1 0

Source: Authors’ own table

No. of employees for R&D 0

No. of women 1

Knowledge area Physical education and health Materials engineering and ship designers Nutrition IC Electronic engineering IC Metrology Sales and digital marketing Materials Engineering and Ship Designers IC Designers Online service

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

61

• In terms of development time, five companies took more than a year to develop their products/services, while the others took less than a year. • In relation to the average revenue from the sale of these innovations, three companies have already pocketed more than one million reais, four companies have earned revenue of between 100,000 and 500,000 reais, and five companies have not yet received anything for their innovations. • Regarding patents awarded or filed, eight companies have patented or filed patents on their technological developments, while four holds no patents nor applications filed. • With respect to the most common sources of problems identified in the innovation process, lack of capital and the high tax burden were presented by eight companies as being the main causes. • In general, the companies that obtained the highest degree of innovation were product innovative, but no significant relationship was identified between the target market and the degree of innovation of the companies. • No significant relationship was identified between the nature of the business and the degree of innovation of the companies studied. • In general, the companies that obtained the highest degree of innovation responded to market signals to innovate (demand-pull) and did not push technology derived from academic research into the market (technology push). • The companies that obtained the highest degree of innovation are at the commercialization stage of their innovations—or, as in the case of Company E, are in multiple stages of development of their multiple range of products and services. • No significant relationship was identified between the development time and the degree of innovation of the companies. We have companies that took more than a year to develop their innovations appearing in the upper level of the ranking (like companies A and G) and in the lower level (companies I and D). • The companies with the greatest returns on their innovations dominate the upper level of the ranking—with the exceptions of companies A and B, respectively, first and fourth in the ranking, which did not state their revenues. • The companies that obtained the highest degree of innovation have patented their products/services, or are at least in the process of seeking intellectual property protection. • Even for companies with a higher degree of innovation, the lack of capital, and high taxation burden were reported to be the main obstacles to innovation. However, the inexperience of the partners and time management, which were expected to be problems of companies with a low degree of innovation, were also observed in companies with a higher degree of innovation. Looking at Table 8, one can state, regarding the Companies’ Characteristics in relation to the Innovation Degree—Support, that: • With regard to the financial support received, six companies had government support to drive their innovation processes and two had support from angel investors. On the other hand, four companies did not have any type of outside financing.

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• With respect to partnerships, four companies developed their technologies with university support, while three companies had partnerships with other companies. Two of the companies conducted internal R&D while three did none. • With regard to importing for technological development, seven companies imported raw materials during the technological development process, while others did not import anything. • Considering the main services expected of a business incubator, the use of physical space was cited by nearly all the companies (11 out of 12). Consulting was also mentioned as an important service provided by the incubators (by 9 of the 11 companies), followed by training (8 of the 11 companies). • The companies that obtained the highest degree of innovation used government sources of financing, along with other sources, such as venture capital and angel investors. On the other hand, companies with a low degree of innovation did not seek outside financing. • The companies that obtained the highest degree of innovation made use of partnerships with universities and research institutes to develop their products/ services, while on the other hand, the companies with a lower degree of innovation did not make use of partnerships in their projects and chose to develop their innovations in-house. • No significant relationship was identified between the importing of raw materials and the degree of innovation of the companies. • No significant relationship was identified between the need for the services of the incubators and the degree of innovation of the companies, although the use of laboratories was highlighted as an important service by four companies, notably all companies that developed products. With regard to the Companies’ Characteristics in relation to the Innovation Degree—Entrepreneurs, Table 9 summarizes some of the information. Looking at Table 9, one can state, regarding the Companies’ Characteristics in relation to the Innovation Degree—Entrepreneurs, that: • The partners in six of the companies have maximum qualifications at the undergraduate level, the partners in five of the companies have maximum qualifications at the master’s level and a partner at one company has a doctorate. • With regard to the previous experience of these entrepreneurs, at least one partner in five of the companies had worked at other companies in the same field, while in three of the companies no partner had previous business experience. • At least one partner at two of the companies turned to entrepreneurship to resolve their own everyday issues. • There is no apparent relationship between the qualifications of the partners and the degree of innovation of the companies. • With regard to previous experience, it should be pointed out that experience in the academic sphere is a factor in the companies that appear in the second and third positions in the ranking.

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

63

• The fact that partners had previous professional experience at other companies in the same field was not a significant factor in increasing the degree of innovation of their present companies. With regard to the Companies’ Characteristics in relation to the Innovation Degree—Team, Table 10 summarizes some of the information. Looking at Table 10, one can state, regarding the Companies’ Characteristics in relation to the Innovation Degree—Team, that: • With regard to the total number of employees hired, 2 of the companies have more than 10 employees. • Regarding the number of employees dedicated exclusively to R&D activities, four companies do not have any dedicated employees. • Looking at the number of women involved, five of the companies do not employ any women. • With respect to programming, that is the area of knowledge that is most necessary to the business at four companies. • There is no apparent correlation between the number of employees and the degree of innovation at the companies—except in the cases of Company E (second place and 14 employees) and Company H (last place and 2 employees). • There is no apparent correlation between the number of employees dedicated to R&D and the degree of innovation at the companies—in general, these companies have few employees, except in the case of Company F, which has 10 employees dedicated to R&D, yet it appears in eighth place in the ranking of the degree of innovation. • The top three companies in the ranking of innovation have women on their staff—Company G, ranked third, has six women.

6 Conclusion According to Terra, Batista, Campos, and Almeida (2013) the present global context of professional competitive sports involves considerable science, technology, and innovation (S, T, and I) development, yielding improved performance from the athletes, which in turn provides sporting success that generates new business opportunities. Hence, the development by companies of closer relations with the universities and government can lead to the creation of new technology and products for the sporting field, spurred by the research potential of the academic institutions and government support. The firms that come about (academic spin-offs) generate knowledge of the sporting field, through the interaction between university– industry–government, and are linked to a very broad range of knowledge (health sciences, life sciences, applied social sciences, engineering, humanities, linguistics, arts and literature, earth sciences, mathematics, agricultural sciences, and others). These knowledge-based firms are linked to the research and development of innovative ideas and are usually, located in incubators, thus becoming business spin-offs.

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By the other hand, sometime before and after the Olympics, there was a favorable environment in Brazil for the stimulating of technological innovation in sport business, including non-repayable financial resources, subject to approval, and the regulations of the Innovation Law (2004, 2005) modified by another law named Legal Framework of S,T&I (2016, 2018) and the launching of federal government economic programs, such as the Plan for a Greater Brazil (2011–2015), which seeks to provide continuity and also expand upon the industrial policy measures that had been introduced previously: PITCE—Industrial, Technological and Foreign Trade Policy (2003–2007) and PDP—Policy for the Development of Production (2008–2010). Therefore, the analysis of the technology-based companies’ innovation degree that is working with sports innovation is appropriate within the context of Brazilian scientific and technological development. In this research work, the evaluation tool of the innovation degree, named Radar Innovation Methodology, was effective in defining the main variables present in the process of innovation of the technology-based companies. From a questionnaire with simple answers and objectives of the type yes/no/no applied, it was possible to quantify the responses according to weights given by specialists and to evaluate the degree of innovation of the companies, in general, and specifically, by size. It is, therefore, a tool that can be adopted in different situations and economy sectors, making it possible to rank and evaluate the gaps present in the innovation structure of companies. Although the research group has not done a detailed analysis on the innovation process of each company, it was evidenced that the companies that best structured their processes obtained greater innovation degrees, which corroborates the determinants of innovation according to Hoeber and Hoeber (2012). The Table 7—Companies Characteristics’ related to the Innovation Degree—Business Model illustrates that the best-positioned companies in the ranking perform product innovation based on market evidence and conducted the whole process of innovation until the final stage of commercialization, protecting their technology from patents. The financial performance of these companies also proves the result inherent in a more mature innovation process. It is important to highlight the role of the university in the process of innovation in technology-based companies, according to Etzkowitz (2003). The best-ranked companies were those that used the university as the main partners of their innovation process, who worked with a process based on open innovation, with defined inputs and outputs to be worked with business partners, and finally used the government funding and/or venture capitalists to fund their research and technological development. In addition, this research shows that the companies with the best performance in the ranking are spin-offs, where the background of the entrepreneurs (undergraduate, master, doctorate, and previous professional experiences) were important factors for the innovation degree of their companies. The research also shows that these companies have more than 25% of women in their teams and work with own R&D staff, interacting with universities and research institutes’ research groups.

Sport Innovation: An Opportunity for Technology-Based Companies. . .

65

In a country like Brazil, with a low R&D in companies and with the creation of innovative products, where the innovation measured by IBGE (2016) occurred much more by replacing equipment than by changing paradigm in the sports market, the role of the incubator and the university can be considered very relevant in the creation of an innovation environment and an innovative culture in small companies with the business strategy is focused on innovation. It is possible to say that all companies have a low level of innovative products. Historically, the process of developing a sports material industry in Brazil is not characterized by a progressive and continuous course. In fact, over time, evolutionary peaks are identified, intermittently followed by declines and subsequent stagnation of the process. An event of great importance of this type occurred in the course of the 1980s, characterized by a large volume of investments and actions, to some extent, innovative. At the time, a few national companies established partnerships with teams and entities of volleyball, which resulted in a harmonious relationship that favored both industries and volleyball. The sport has experienced a dizzying growth, has evolved, technically, in all aspects and has garnered a worldwide projection and the country, until the present day, is recognized as one of the most important powers in the sport. The sports equipment industry did not experience the same success, although it was an important piece in the change of scenery. At that time, the innovative aspects concerned the form of relationship established between the parties, with a strong emphasis on the sponsorship action and the results it provides. To a certain extent, the companies involved developed materials and products, but the development actions focused much more on the value of the brand image than on the actual technological evolution. It can be said, therefore, that the period was marked by innovations in the ways of establishing relations of patronage, which serves as a model to date in the Brazilian sporting context. In the 2000s, the perspective of development was different. For some time now the Brazilian government has been stimulated and financed by the Brazilian government to design, implement, and execute projects aimed at developing a multidisciplinary sports culture in the country, forming a critical mass of practitioners at all levels and specialized technical staff. At a given moment, different governmental and non-governmental organizations admitted that the increase in sports culture had, in fact, the potential to generate a series of benefits for the country in different sectors, especially in the social and economic fields. Starting from this assumption different actions were initiated in order to create the necessary conditions for the processes to take place. As a way to start the process, the country was made available to host the mega sporting events. It can be said that this action was successful since six mega international events were held in the year 2000, on Brazilian soil. Regarding the intention of nuclear and boosting the development of an innovative Brazilian sports industry, the main action consisted of establishing financing lines for the execution of projects to develop processes and technologies. The expectation was that the development actions would result in the growth of a new sector of the Brazilian economy, characterized by the effective production of a modality of legacy resulting from the accomplishment of mega events in the country. However, it is

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verified that the collimated results were not obtained in significant magnitude. In fact, we can observe the realization of some projects marked by innovative ideas, be it in the field of processes or in the field of products. However, the activities did not evolve beyond the state of projects executed. In other words, no breakthrough was found in the context of the Brazilian sports industries, resulting from the economic and personnel investment implemented. Therefore, as far as it can be seen until now, the Brazilian sports industry cannot yet be characterized as being the birthplace of innovative actions in the sector. This state of the art suggests that Brazil, with regard to industrial sports culture, is still dependent on the product available in a market dominated by foreign organizations.

References Abernathy, W. J., & Utterback, J. M. (1978). Patterns of industrial innovation. Technology Review, 80(7), 40–47. Associação Nacional De Entidades Promotoras De Empreendimentos Inovadores (Anprotec). membership. Accessed April 5, 2014, from http://anprotec.org.br/site/menu/a-anprotec/associadosanprotec/ Bachmann, D. L., & Destefani, J. H. (2008). Metodologia para Estimar o Grau de Inovação nas MPE. Curitiba. Accessed March 1, 2016, from http://www.bachmann.com.br/website/docu ments/ArtigoGraudeInovacaonasMPE.pdf Botelho, A. J. J., & Almeida, M. (2011). Overcoming institutional shortcomings for academic spinoff policies in Brazil. International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development, 9(3), 175–193. Brasil. Decreto n. 5.563, de 11 de outubro de 2005. Regulamenta a Lei no 10.973, de 2 de dezembro de 2004, que dispõe sobre incentivos à inovação e à pesquisa científica e tecnológica no ambiente produtivo, e dá outras providências. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, 13 out. 2005. Accessed December 10, 2013, from http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2004-2006/ 2005/decreto/d5563.htm Brasil. Decreto 9.283, de 07.02.2018. Regulamenta a Lei n 10.973, de 02.12.2004, a Lei n 13.243, de 11.01.2016, o art. 24, § 3 , e o art. 32, § 7 , da Lei n 8.666, de 21.06.1993, o art. 1 da Lei n 8.010, de 29.03.1990, e o art. 2 , caput, inciso I, alínea “g”, da Lei n 8.032, de 12.04.1990, e altera o Decreto n 6.759, de 05.02.2009, para estabelecer medidas de incentivo à inovação e à pesquisa científica e tecnológica no ambiente produtivo, com vistas à capacitação tecnológica, ao alcance da autonomia tecnológica e ao desenvolvimento do sistema produtivo nacional e regional. Accessed May 1, 2019, from https://www.mctic.gov.br/mctic/opencms/legislacao/ decretos/Decreto_n_9283_de_07022018.html Brasil. Lei n. 10.973, de 02 de dezembro de 2004. Dispõe sobre incentivos à inovação e à pesquisa científica e tecnológica no ambiente produtivo e dá outras providências. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, 03 dez. 2004. Accessed December 10, 2013, from http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_ 03/_ato2004-2006/2004/lei/l10.973.htm Brasil. Lei N 13.243, DE 11 DE JANEIRO DE 2016. Dispõe sobre estímulos ao desenvolvimento científico, à pesquisa, à capacitação científica e tecnológica e à inovação e altera a Lei n 10.973, de 2 de dezembro de 2004, a Lei n 6.815, de 19 de agosto de 1980, a Lei n 8.666, de 21 de junho de 1993, a Lei n 12.462, de 4 de agosto de 2011, a Lei n 8.745, de 9 de dezembro de 1993, a Lei n 8.958, de 20 de dezembro de 1994, a Lei n 8.010, de 29 de março de 1990, a Lei n 8.032, de 12 de abril de 1990, e a Lei n 12.772, de 28 de dezembro de 2012, nos termos da Emenda Constitucional n 85, de 26 de fevereiro de 2015. Accessed May 1, 2019, from http:// www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2016/lei/l13243.htm

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Cooper, R. (1990, November/December). New products: What distinguishes the winners. Research Technology Management, 27–31. Cooper, R. (1993). Winning at new products (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Enríquez, G., & Costa, J. G. C. (2001). Sistemas locais de inovação tecnológica, incubadoras de empresas e desenvolvimento da indústria do Pará. Revista Saber: Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia, 3, 103–120. Etzkowitz, H. (2003). Innovation in innovation: The triple helix of university-industry-government relations. Social Science Information, 42(3), 293–337. Hansen, E., & Allen, K. (1992). The creation corridor: Environmental load and pre-organization information-processing ability. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 17(1), 57–65. Hillairet, D., Richard, G., & Bouchet, P. (2009). The dual management of innovation by the Decathlon group. A distinctive strategic system in the sporting goods market. Journal of Innovation Economics Management, 1, 189–210. Hoeber, L., & Hoeber, O. (2012). Determinants of an innovation process: A case study of technological innovation in a community sports organization. Journal of Sport Management, 26(3), 213–223. Instituto Brasileiro De Geografia E Estatística (IBGE). (2016). Pesquisa de inovação: 2014/IBGE, Coordenação de Indústria. Rio de Janeiro: IBGE. Accessed April 14, 2016, from http://www. pintec.ibge.gov.br/index.php?option¼com_content&view¼article&id¼45&Itemid¼12 Newell, S., & Swan, J. (1995). The diffusion of innovations in sports organizations: An evaluative framework. Journal of Sport Management, 9(3), 317–337. OECD. (2010). SMEs, entrepreneurship and innovation. Accessed April 20, 2019, from http:// www.oecd.org/berlin/45493007.pdf Pitts, B., Fielding, L., & Miller, L. (1994). Industry segmentation theory and the sports industry: Developing a sports industry segment model. Sport Marketing Quarterly [SMQ], 3(1), 15–24. Accessed September 4, 2014, from http://www.academia.edu/3668977/1994_Brenda_Pitts_ Industry_Segmentation_Theory_and_the_Sport_Industry_Developing_a_Sport_Industry_Seg ment_Model_-_Sport_Marketing_Quarterly_1994 Preece, S. B., Miles, G., & Baetz, M. C. (1999). Explaining the international intensity and global diversity of early-stage technology-based firms. Journal of Business Venturing, 14(3), 259–281. Rappert, B., Webster, A., & Charles, D. (1999). Making sense of diversity and reluctance: Academic–industrial relations and intellectual property. Research policy, 28(8), 873–890. Ratten, V. (2010). Developing a theory of sport-based entrepreneurship. Journal of Management & Organization, 16(4), 557–565. Ratten, V. (2011). A social perspective of sports-based entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 12(3), 314–326. Ratten, V., & Ratten, H. (2011). International sport marketing: Practical and future research. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 26, 8. Rothwell, R. (1994). Towards the fifth-generation innovation process. International Marketing Review, 11(1), 7–31. Sawhney, M., Wolcott, R. C., & Arroniz, I. (2006). The 12 different ways for companies to innovate. MIT Sloan Management Review, 75–81. Accessed January 15, 2016, from https://www. researchgate.net/profile/Stuart_Hart4/publication/237379284_Innovation_From_the_Inside_Out/ links/0a85e5320a7feba016000000.pdf#page¼30 Shane, A. S. (2004). Finding fertile ground. Economics Department at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University: Bookman. Silva Neto, A. T. (2012). Mensuração do grau de inovação em micro e pequenas empresas do estado de Sergipe. Dissertation (professional master’s degree in regional development and the management of local endeavours), Núcleo de Pós-graduação e Pesquisa em economia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristovão. Accessed January 15, 2016, from https:// bdtd.ufs.br/bitstream/tede/1531/1/ANA%20TERESA%20SILVA%20NETO.pdf Steffensen, M., Rogers, E. M., & Speakman, K. (2000). Spin-offs from research centers at a research university. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(1), 93–111.

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Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure of Europe’s Advanced Football Leagues Birol Erkan

and Oğuz Kara

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the competition structure, efficiency, and productivity level of the English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, and Turkish football leagues, which were the most advanced in Europe. In this context, the competitive structure of the leagues was determined by the Concentration index, the Herfindahl–Hirschman index (HHI), and the Entropy index (EI). In addition, it was aimed to find out which leagues exhibit relatively better efficiency and productivity by modeling the factors influencing the level of competition (number of spectators, transfer expenditures, market value of the leagues) in the study. The obtained scores were modeled by non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Total Factor Productivity index to analyze performance levels of the leagues between the years 2009 and 2018. According to the results, the French, Italian, English, Spanish, Turkish, and German leagues were the most competitive, respectively. The French and Turkish leagues provided the highest level of efficiency and productivity with minimum spectator, market value, and transfer expenditure. In the model where the HHI and the EI scores were considered as output variables, while the German league achieved the best productivity level on average, the lowest productivity level occurred in the Italian and Turkish leagues.

1 Introduction Especially in the football industry, there is a wide range of income, such as broadcasts of matches, individual sponsorship or team sponsorship agreements. For this reason, there are many local and multinational companies that want to take part in this industry. Clubs are often rewarded according to their sporting achievements, can make sponsorship deals and have financial resources such as broadcast revenues. For B. Erkan (*) Department of Economics, Uşak University, Uşak, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] O. Kara Department of Business Administration, Düzce University, Düzce, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_5

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example, the English Premier League, which has been followed with interest all over the world, is the league that creates the highest level of live broadcast revenue in Europe with its 2.5 billion euros live broadcast revenue per season. Therefore, each club competes with its competitors in both sporting and industrial levels in order to benefit from more resources (Ekolig, 2017). The level of competition in sports branches is an important indicator of investment for the sports industry. Increases in competitiveness affect the spectators. This causes industrial investments to shift into this area. Since the matches of leagues with strong brand value and the belonging teams are shown in media both in the country and abroad, TV broadcasts constitute a significant source of income for leagues and teams. Football, for example, is the biggest actor in the global sports industry with a market size exceeding $50 billion per year. La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and especially Premier League, are the most advanced and branded leagues of the global football market. The Turkish, Russian, Dutch, Belgium, Greek, and Ukrainian leagues follow these most branded leagues (Ekolig, 2017). The aim of this study was to determine the competition structure of Europe’s most advanced six football leagues (English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Turkish) between the years 2009 and 2018. In addition, it was aimed to determine the performance (efficiency and productivity) levels of the mentioned leagues in a relative manner based on indicators such as the number of spectators who affect the level of competition, transfer expenditures, and market values of leagues. The market structure and competition levels of the football leagues were analyzed by the method of concentration indices. To determine the competition levels of the aforementioned leagues, the most commonly used Concentration index (CRm), the Herfindahl– Hirschman index (HHI), and the Entropy index (EI) were used. The relative performance (efficiency) analyzes of the leagues, on the other hand, were carried out by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index. There are many studies in the literature about the competitive structure or balance of sports branches. In most of these studies, concentration indices were used in order to conduct a competition analysis in sports branches. In addition, the HHI was the most preferred among the concentration indices (Hobbs, 2015; Humphreys, 2002; İnan, 2017; Jungić, Jovanović, Mihajlović, & Simović, 2015; Kara, Pehlivan, Tiryaki, & Bayhan, 2017; Magueta, Gonçalo, & Pego, 2015; Manasis, Ntzoufras, & Reade, 2015; Owen & Owen, 2017; Pehlivan, Tiryaki, & Kara, 2018). Some studies found the HHI sufficient to measure the competition structure of sports branches. However, some of the studies did not see the HHI as sufficient but also used the CRm as a concentration criterion to determine the proximity of these markets to monopoly or perfect competition. For example, Magueta et al. (2015), Manasis et al. (2015), Kara et al. (2017), and İnan (2017) used the CRm to analyze the competition in the sports branches. Competition analysis of various sports branches and leagues of various countries is mainly done with concentration indices such as the HHI and the CRm. However, in some studies, different methods are used as an alternative to classical Concentration indices. In the case of the use of alternative methods, it is considered that the

Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure. . .

71

competitive structure of the markets in the sports branches can be measured more realistically and consistently. Some of the alternative methods for measuring competition structure are the concentration criteria such as the EI, and some are Competitive Balance Ratio (CBR), Standard Deviation index (SDI), and Simulation Method (SM). For example, Humphreys (2002), Manasis et al. (2015), and Hobbs (2015) used the CBR, Jungić et al. (2015) and Magueta et al. (2015) used the SDI, Owen and Owen (2017) used the SM, and Pehlivan et al. (2018) used the EI. Humphreys (2002) investigated the level of competition for the last 100 years of the US baseball league in his study. He claimed that the CBR which was an alternative to the classical concentration indices in determining the competitive structure of sports leagues was a useful measure of competitive balance in sports leagues and made a significant contribution to the determination of competitive balance. According to him, the CBR could be applied to a number of other interesting cases in the economics of sports. Jungić et al. (2015) analyzed the comparative competition of the Regional Adriatic League (ABA), the Spanish League (ACB), and the National Basketball Association League (NBI) in their study using the 2001 data. The reason for that was the fact that the NBA was the most quality basketball competition in the world in doubt, while ACB was the most quality league in Europe. The result of the study did not leave as predicted, a surprise was encountered. It was concluded that ABA was more equal and competitive than the NBA and ACB. Hobbs (2015) analyzed the impact of the star football players transferred from Europe to the US Major League’s competitive structure in the period 1996–2014. According to concentration and regression analysis, the superstar player transfers of clubs in Major League Soccer tended to disrupt the competition structure and created a salary increase pressure in the club. Magueta et al. (2015) investigated the effect on competition of reducing the number of struggling teams from 18 to 16 in the Portuguese Football Super League (with the expectation of making the league more attractive) in the 2006–2007 season. In the study, the ranking of the Portuguese league was analyzed from the 1991–1992 season until the 2013–2014 season. As a result, they concluded that the impact that the two-team reduction did not improve the degree of competitiveness expected by the league executives and this measure had no significant effect on the competitive balance. Manasis et al. (2015) analyzed the competitive balance in European football for eight local leagues in their work for the 1959–2008 period. In this study, specifically designed indices [Normalised Concentration Ratio for the Champion (NCR1), Adjusted Concentration Ratio (ACRK), Normalised Concentration Ratio for Relegated Teams (NCRI), and the Special Concentration Ratio (SCRIK)] were used to capture the complex structure of European football. It was concluded that the competitive structure had been moving indefinitely in the period covered. Unlike other studies, Owen and Owen (2017) studied the competition analysis of professional sports leagues. In their study, they analyzed the number of matches played by each team linked to the effects of the season length on the HHI by using the simulation methods. According to the results obtained, the number of matches played by the teams led to significant deviations in the HHI. They, therefore, recommended that the HHI should be used together with McGee’s adjusted balance criteria. Kara

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et al. (2017) studied the competition level of clubs in the Turkish Basketball League for the 2014–2017 seasons. Basketball Super League as well as the two lower leagues [Turkish Basketball League 1 and League 2 (two groups)] were included in the study. According to the results, the competition level in the 1st league is higher than in the second league. However, the level of competition in the Super League is lower than in other leagues. Pehlivan et al. (2018) analyzed the competitive structure of Turkish football, basketball, and volleyball leagues comparatively. The competitive structure and levels of these leagues in the last three seasons (2015–2018) were analyzed with the method of Concentration indices. According to the obtained results, the most competitive sports in Turkey were basketball, football, and volleyball, respectively. İnan (2017) also examined the competitive structure of the Turkish Super League by using concentration indices. Although competitive equilibrium characteristics were observed in some years in the period covered, it has come to the conclusion that the period was dominantly far away from competition in general. Studies on the measurement of efficiency and/or productivity levels of sports leagues are also available in the literature. In these studies, the DEA and/or the Malmquist TFP index methodologies were generally applied (Escuer & GarcíaCebrián, 2008; Guzmán & Morrow, 2007; Lázaro, Escuer, & García-Cebrián, 2014; Pyatunin et al., 2012; Sánchez, 2007; Zelenkov & Solntsev, 2017; Zhao, 2013). Zelenkov and Solntsev (2017) analyzed the efficiency of Russian football clubs for 2012–2016 seasons with quantitative methods. They evaluated the efficiency in three stages (methods). These were, respectively, theoretical analysis of football production process, structural equation model, and the DEA. According to the results, the wage differences in the team and the limitation of the number of foreign players were determined as the factors reducing the effectiveness. Pyatunin et al. (2012) measured the economic efficiency of 48 major European football clubs for the 2012–2014 period. In addition, they evaluated the relationship between productivity and different financial and sportive indicators (variables) in the study. Productivity results showed that the richest clubs were more efficient than poor clubs. This was because these rich clubs had access to all tournaments and income sources. As such, this advantage helped these clubs to be efficient in the future even if they did not perform well in a certain season. Sánchez (2007) surveyed the technical inefficiency of the Spanish Professional Football League by using the DEA during the 2004/2005 season. According to the results, both the offense and defense efficiency of Spanish football teams showed a positive performance in the 2004–2005 season. Guzmán and Morrow (2007) measured the efficiency and productivity of clubs in the English Premier League. They used the Malmquist TFP index (non-parametric technique) and the DEA from the 1997–1998 season to 2002–2003 season. Relatively high average efficiency and productivity scores were observed for the sample of all clubs. Zhao (2013) examined the efficiency of the Japan Professional Football League (J1 and J2) by using the DEA and the Malmquist TFP index between the years 2006 and 2010. The results showed that the rankings in the league did not correlate with the efficiency and productivity scores. On the contrary, all clubs with a high level of activity were at the bottom of the league. The reason for this was that these clubs had limited resource inputs and lack of incentive expectations. Escuer and García-Cebrián (2008) surveyed the productivity of Spanish First Division football teams between the years

Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure. . .

73

1998 and 2004 using the Malmquist TFP index. The results of this study showed that football teams would improve their sport results by better using their own resources and applying an attack strategy on the field of play; even if they were not in a problematic condition like being threatened by falling with relegation. Lázaro et al. (2014) evaluated the efficiency of Spanish first-division basketball teams between the season 2008–2009 and 2011–2012. They used the Malmquist TFP index and concluded that the efficient teams achieved the best sports results and could reach the same amount of revenue by using less resources than non-efficient teams. Barros, Scafarto, and Samagaio (2014) and Barros, Wanke, and Figueiredo (2015) used the Stochastic Frontier Model, which was a different method on the subject. In this context, Barros et al. (2014) analyzed the cost efficiency of Italian football clubs and concluded that the clubs had similar productivity with other European leagues from the 2006 season to 2010 season. Barros et al. (2015) also analyzed the Brazilian football league and stated that the clubs were relatively effective in the period analyzed with an average level of inefficiency of 18% between the years 2003 and 2011. In addition, it was positive even though the level of efficiency was low.

2 Methods 2.1

Sample, Data Resource, and Variables

The analysis dimension of the study includes two stages. First, the most advanced football leagues in Europe were identified as competition structure by using the concentration indices (CR2, HHI, and EI). In the second stage of the analysis, Concentration index scores were taken as the output variable (dependent variable). As the input variables, number of spectators, transfer expenditures, and market values of the leagues have been used. Based on this, the relative performances of the leagues were compared by using the DEA and the Malmquist TFP index methodologies (Table 1). Six of the most developed leagues in Europe were selected for the analysis covering the football seasons between 2009 and 2018. These were the English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Turkish leagues.

2.2

Concentration Analysis

The competitive structure of any sector in the market is closely related to the concentration level in the sector. The traditional microeconomic theory assumes that a high concentration rate will indicate a low level of competition (Türkkan, 2001). Monopoly, where only one firm operates in a market, is the market structure with the highest concentration. However, in cases where the market demand is met by more than one company, there may be a high or low concentration in the market (Kostakoğlu, 2015).

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Table 1 Definition of the variables Output Herfindahl–Hirschman index (HHI)

Concentration Ratio (CRm)

Entropy index (EI)

Input variable Variables in concentration analysis Total scores of the football clubs

Market shares of all football clubs operating in a league Total scores of the football clubs

Market shares of the largest “m” clubs operating in a league Market share of the firm “i” operating in a league

Non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Variables in efficiency analysis Number of spectators, transfer expenditures, and market values of the leagues

Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (Malmquist TFP) index

Variables in productivity analysis Number of spectators, transfer expenditures, and market values of the leagues

Data source https://www. transfermarkt. com https://www. mackolik.com https://www. transfermarkt. com https://www. mackolik.com https://www. transfermarkt. com https://www. mackolik.com https://www. transfermarkt. com https://www. transfermarkt. com

Source: Author’s own table

Although there is no certainty about the factors that determine the concentration, the nature and weight of these factors may vary in each sector. The competitive balance in sports leagues is mainly related to the inequalities in the match and championship results. For this reason, criteria such as scores, sports income, number of fans, and market values can be used as an indicator of concentration. In addition to all these indicators, indicators such as the length of each league and the number of competitions played in a season are other factors that may affect the competitive balance. There is no agreed basic method for measuring the market concentration level (rate). The HHI is the most popular method for measuring the concentration level (Tegene, 1990). The HHI takes into account the market shares of all firms/teams. The HHI (Herfindahl 1950; Hirschman 1945) is a widely used measure of concentration, easy to calculate and interpret. In contrast to the CRm, the HHI incorporates all companies in the market into the index account. The HHI is used quite frequently because it can be calculated simply and it is an index that takes into account the sector shares directly. The HHI consists of the sum of the squares of market shares of all companies operating in a sector (Aydınlı, 1996). It is calculated as follows:

Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure. . .

HHI ¼

m X

75

ð Si Þ 2

i¼1

Si m

The share of firm “i” in total value The number of firms in the market

If the market shares are expressed as 100% in total, the HHI can take values up to 10,000. In this case, it is obvious that there is only one company in the market. If there are many companies with equal shares in the market, the HHI is close to zero and represents a competitive structure. In the case of high Concentration index values, the price and output strategies are determined by a few firms in the market, and vice versa (Pehlivanoğlu & Tekçe, 2013). Along with the HHI, the Concentration index (CRm) is the most widely used index for measuring the concentration structure of a particular market. The CRm, also known as M-Firm Concentration Ratio, is based on the market shares of the largest “m” firm in a sector. The CRm is calculated as follows: CRm ¼

m X

Si

i¼1

Si  . . .  Sm , Si m CRm

0 < CRm < 1

The share of firm i in the industry Number of companies in the industry The share of the largest “m” company in the industry

The CRm value is between 0 and 1. In case of an infinite number of companies with very close market size, the index value is close to 0. In the case of monopoly, the index value is equal to 1 (Coşkun et al., 2012). If the CRm is close to 0, it means that the largest firms earn a small share of the total market earnings. On the contrary, if the CRm is close to 1, it is obvious that the fewest firms earn a great share of the total market earnings (Makonnen, 2012). Theil (1967) used the EI for the first time in the industrial economics literature in his study. The index began to be used widespread with Horowitz and Horowitz (1968). The EI is traditionally used in sciences, communication, business, finances, and economics represent the diversity or spread of a distribution, and indicates extreme specialization or concentration of firms (Samen, 2010). The EI evaluates whether there is a divergence from competition market conditions in an industry branch in a similar way to the HI. However, by using the EI, a deficiency that may arise due to the taking of squares of firm shares in the HI will be eliminated (since the squares of the market shares are taken in the HI, there are proportional differences between the firm sizes). For this purpose, a correction is made by taking the logarithm of the reverse of the company share. The total market diversification of the sector is measured by the entropy value calculated as follows:

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EI ¼

m X i¼1

Si m

  1 Si : log Si

The share of firm “i” in total value The number of firms in the market

The EI will take place between 0 and log n (logarithmic value of the number of firms in the sector). Low index value indicates high concentration, and vice versa (Laaser & Schrader, 2002). Values close to zero are interpreted as proximity to monopoly or oligopoly markets. In other words, in this case, there is a high concentration in the market and there is no entropy situation. The high EI value indicates that the concentration decreases and there is a competitive structure in the market.

2.3

Efficiency and Productivity Analyzes

The second stage of the method of the study involves the calculation of the relative performance (efficiency and productivity) level of the leagues. For efficiency analysis, Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (1978) developed a non-parametric analysis based on mathematical programming that determined the radial distances of inactive points within the active boundary. Thanks to this approach called the DEA, in cases where the comparison of inputs and outputs with multiple and different measurement units makes it more difficult to compare the activities, it is possible to measure the relative performance of the Decision-Making Units (DMU) within the framework of Farrell’s approach. The first form of the DEA is known as the CCR model, which is the first letters of the names, Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes, who developed this model. All models developed later are based on the CCR model. The assumptions of the CCR model can be specified as follows: The CCR model handles producing “s” unit different output process by using “m” unit different input of “n” unit DMU. The mathematical expression of the output/ input ratio to be maximized is as follows (Charnes et al., 1978): s P

max hk ¼ r¼1 m P

urk Y rj vik X ij

i¼1

In this expression, Xij  0 parameter shows “i” amount input that is used by “j” amount decision unit and Yrj > 0 parameter shows “r” amount output that is used by “j” amount decision unit. The variables for this decision unit are the weights which are given for “i” amount input and “r” amount output by “k” amount of decision unit. These weights are shown in vik ve urk, respectively. The expression as following is

Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure. . .

77

the limitation that helps to restrict efficiency to exceed 100% as the other decision units used the weights of “k” amount of decision unit. s P r¼1 m P

urk Y rj 1

j ¼ 1, 2, . . . , n

vik X ij

i¼1

The following is the limitation that the input and output weights to be used are not negative: urk  0;

r ¼ 1, . . . , s

vik  0;

r ¼ 1, . . . , m

To convert this set of inequalities into a linear programming model and reach a solution, the denominator of the objective function in the maximization form must be equal to 1 and made a constraint. The model resulting from “Charnes-Cooper transformation” is as follows: max hk ¼

s X

urk Y rk

r¼1 s X r¼1

urk Y rj 

m X

vik X ij  0; j ¼ 1 . . . , n

i¼1 m X

vjk X ik ¼ 1

i¼1

urk vik Yrk Xik Yrj Xij

urk  0;

r ¼ 1, . . . , s

vik  0;

r ¼ 1, . . . , m

Weight of output r assigned by decision unit k Weight of input i assigned by decision unit k Output r produced by decision unit k Input i used by decision unit k Output r produced by decision unit j Input i used by decision unit j

The model above should prepare for “n” amount decision unit with each of their parameters and solve n times. In the analysis of efficiencies, taking into account certain periods of the production process, the changes (over time) in the efficiency of some or all of the factors can be calculated by utilizing the TFP literature (the Malmquist TFP Index). The result

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obtained from the different functions for both periods describes the deviations from the maximum average output. The Malmquist TFP index (m0) is the most commonly used approach to predict the required distance functions. This index calculates the relative distance ratios of each data point according to the common technology and measures the change in the TFP (the technical progress and the technological change) between the two data points. Distance function based on output represented by S that is possible output set of y by using input x. n   o y ds0 ðx, yÞ ¼ min δ : ES δ If d s0 ðx, yÞ ¼ 1; value of vector y is in the set S, if d s0 ðx, yÞ > 1; value of vector y is in the set S but it is not technically effective, if d s0 ðx, yÞ < 1; and value of vector y is not in the set S. The index is expressed as follows:   m0 yt , xt , ytþ1 , xtþ1 ¼

 t tþ1 tþ1   tþ1 tþ1 tþ1  12 d 0 ðy , x Þ d ðy , x Þ : 0 t t t dt0 ðyt , xt Þ d 0 ðy , x Þ

In this index, the base year and the following year are shown with periods t and t + 1, respectively. In this equation, the dt0 ðytþ1 , xtþ1 Þ notation represents the distance from the (t + 1) observations to the technology of (t) period. tþ1 tþ1 dtþ1 ,x Þ 0 ðy t t t d 0 ðy , x Þ

"

! !#12 dt0 ðytþ1 , xtþ1 Þ d t0 ðyt , xt Þ : tþ1 t t tþ1 , xtþ1 Þ d tþ1 d 0 ðy , x Þ 0 ðy

If the value of the (m0) is greater than 1, it indicates that the TFP has increased from the period (t) to the period (t + 1), and vice versa (Kara, 2011; Kök & Deliktaş, 2003).

3 Results In the study, the CRm, the HHI, and the EI scores calculated for the competition structure of the top 6 football leagues in Europe demonstrated parallel results and supported each other. When the average values of the CR2 and the HHI for the years 2009–2018 are examined from Table 2, it is seen that Europe’s most competitive football leagues were French, Italian, English, Spanish, Turkish, and German, respectively. However, according to the EI, the most competitive football leagues were French, Italian, English, Spanish, German, and Turkish, respectively. These results show that the French league had a relatively competitive structure within

Leagues German French English Spanish Italian Turkish German French English Spanish Italian Turkish German French English Spanish Italian Turkish

2009 16,114 15,272 16,874 15,610 15,120 16,194 0,061 0,054 0,056 0,054 0,054 0,060 2,844 2,957 2,941 2,961 2,954 2,850

Source: Authors’ own table

EI

HHI

Indices CR2

2010 16,226 14,382 16,522 18,660 15,607 17,305 0,060 0,054 0,056 0,056 0,054 0,061 2,850 2,954 2,932 2,942 2,958 2,839

2011 16,725 14,257 14,674 17,719 15,192 19,477 0,059 0,053 0,053 0,055 0,054 0,062 2,859 2,968 2,968 2,953 2,956 2,832

2012 18,355 15,601 17,001 18,260 16,031 17,221 0,061 0,054 0,055 0,055 0,054 0,060 2,842 2,960 2,945 2,952 2,956 2,843

2013 18,690 14,951 16,182 17,519 15,957 15,846 0,062 0,053 0,056 0,055 0,055 0,059 2,838 2,964 2,941 2,947 2,943 2,861

Table 2 The Concentration index results of the football leagues (2009–2018) 2014 18,852 16,376 16,008 16,793 17,810 16,607 0,063 0,055 0,056 0,056 0,057 0,059 2,829 2,950 2,935 2,942 2,934 2,860

2015 17,703 15,019 15,855 17,731 15,499 18,106 0,060 0,054 0,055 0,057 0,055 0,062 2,853 2,958 2,951 2,923 2,946 2,838

2016 19,599 15,601 14,714 17,271 16,555 18,214 0,061 0,054 0,054 0,056 0,055 0,061 2,843 2,955 2,951 2,944 2,946 2,840

2017 17,654 17,400 16,951 17,412 16,792 17,626 0,060 0,055 0,057 0,057 0,057 0,061 2,851 2,947 2,931 2,922 2,923 2,846

2018 17,605 16,571 17,387 16,319 17,597 17,314 0,060 0,055 0,056 0,056 0,057 0,062 2,849 2,944 2,936 2,937 2,925 2,829

Average 17,752 15,543 16,217 17,329 16,216 17,391 0,061 0,054 0,055 0,056 0,055 0,061 2,846 2,956 2,943 2,942 2,944 2,844

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these football leagues. In other words, the French league had not been in the hegemony of certain football teams during the mentioned years, or there had been no significant score difference between the teams. On the contrary, football leagues were dominated by certain teams in Germany and Turkey according to the results obtained from the concentration indices. This is a clear indication that these leagues were relatively lacking in competition. In the study, technical efficiency and the TFP results were obtained according to the HHI scores of the six football leagues (Tables 3 and 4). The HHI technical efficiency results which were the output variable could measure the competitive situation of the markets. The input variables affecting the output variable (the HHI technical efficiency scores) were the number of spectators, transfer expenditures, and market value of the leagues (Table 3). According to the results, French and Turkish football leagues (with an average value of 1) reached the highest technical efficiency level even they had minimum spectator, transfer expenditure, and market value in all seasons. In the model where the HHI results accepted as output variable, all leagues increased their productivity levels (TFP ¼ 1.058 > 1) on average by years. In other words, according to the HHI Malmquist TFP results (Table 4), all leagues increased their competition levels in the relevant period. In time, the highest increase in the level of productivity had been realized in the German league (1.0922). However, the lowest productivity changes had been in Italian (1.019) and Turkish (1026) leagues. In addition, the seasons in which the highest productivity level was reached in these leagues are as follows: German: 2009–2010, French: 2015–2016, English: 2010–2011, Spanish: 2010–2011, Italian: 2010–2011, and Turkish: 2009–2010. The technical efficiency and the TFP results of the six football leagues calculated according to the EI scores are shown in Tables 5 and 6. In the model, indicators (input variables) affecting the output variable (EI scores) were the number of spectators, transfer expenditures, and market value of the leagues as in the HHI. According to the EI technical efficiency results (Table 5), French and Turkish football leagues (with an average value of 1) reached the highest output value (competition or efficiency) with the lowest input (spectator, transfer expenditure, and market value). Italian (0.9957), English (0.9953), Spanish (0.9952), and German (0.9665) leagues followed the French and Turkish leagues, respectively. The German league had the lowest EI technical results. In other words, the German football league was significantly less effective and less competitive than the other five leagues. Considering the average values, the German league had the highest productivity (competition) growth (1.091). However, the Italian and Turkish leagues had the lowest productivity (competition) growth (1.024 and 1.029, respectively). In addition, the seasons in which the highest productivity level was reached in these leagues are as follows: Germany: 2017–2018, France: 2015–2016, England: 2010–2011, Spain: 2010–2011, Italy: 2010–2011, and Turkey: 2009–2010. When the analysis results are evaluated together, the French League which had the highest competition level according to the HHI, the CR2, and the EI values (Table 2),

2011– 2012 0.888 1 0.993 0.961 0.975 1 0.969

2012– 2013 0.88 1 0.972 0.980 0.995 1 0.971

2013– 2014 0.892 1 0.956 0.962 0.965 1 0.963

2014– 2015 0.873 1 0.972 1 0.967 1 0.969

2015– 2016 0.923 1 0.984 0.936 0.982 1 0.971

2016– 2017 0.882 1 0.997 0.971 0.980 1 0.972

Source: Calculated by using data from https://www.mackolik.com/puan-durumu/ and https://www.transfermarkt.com.tr/

HHI technical efficiency results 2009– 2010– Leagues 2010 2011 German 0.892 0.899 French 1 1 English 0.960 0.956 Spanish 1 0.963 Italian 0.991 1 Turkish 1 1 Average 0.974 0.970

Table 3 Technical efficiency scores of the football leagues according to the HHI 2017– 2018 0.930 1 0.976 0.966 0.968 1 0.973

2009– 2010 0.963 1 0.982 0.995 0.969 1 0.985

Average 0.9022 1 0.9748 0.9734 0.9792 1 0.9717

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2011– 2012 1.018 1.049 1.002 1.187 1.006 1.074 1.054

2012– 2013 1.109 0.892 0.964 0.951 0.963 0.599 0.897

2013– 2014 1.118 1.061 1.092 1.712 1.053 0.972 1.168

Source: Authors’ own table Note: The Malmquist index averages are geometric means

HHI Malmquist TFP results 2009– 2010– Leagues 2010 2011 German 1.129 1.037 French 1.176 1.096 English 1.111 1.334 Spanish 1.041 1.216 Italian 1.069 1.100 Turkish 1.857 0.724 Average 1.204 1.066 2014– 2015 1.187 1.049 1.049 0.448 1.005 1.142 0.936

Table 4 TFP index scores of the football leagues according to the HHI 2015– 2016 1.001 1.286 0.981 1.173 0.890 1.025 1.051

2016– 2017 1.067 0.952 1.055 1.018 1.045 1.154 1.047

2017– 2018 1.176 1.144 1.159 1.166 1.060 1.112 1.135

Efficiency 1.033 1.009 1.034 1.017 0.990 1 1.014

Technological efficiency 1.057 1.063 1.042 1.043 1.029 1.026 1.044

TFP 1.092 1.073 1.078 1.062 1.019 1.026 1.058

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Source: Authors’ own table

EI technical efficiency results Leagues 2009 2010 German 0.961 0.964 French 1 1 English 0.993 0.990 Spanish 1 0.996 Italian 0.997 1 Turkish 1 1 Average 0.992 0.992

2011 0.963 1 1 0.993 0.997 1 0.992

2012 0.959 1 0.993 0.997 1 1 0.992

2013 0.972 1 0.993 0.997 0.993 1 0.992

Table 5 Technical efficiency scores of the football leagues according to the EI 2014 0.959 1 0.997 1 0.993 1 0.992

2015 0.972 1 0.997 0.986 0.997 1 0.992

2016 0.959 1 0.997 0.993 0.997 1 0.991

2017 0.971 1 0.993 0.990 0.990 1 0.991

2018 0.985 1 1 1 0.993 1 0.996

Average 0.9665 1 0.9953 0.9952 0.9957 1 0.9922

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2011– 2012 1.043 1.069 1.036 1.189 1.007 1.043 1.063

2012– 2013 1.121 0.884 0.971 0.960 0.977 0.587 0.900

2013– 2014 1.128 1.085 1.103 1.925 1.075 0.977 1.182

Source: Authors’ own table Note: The Malmquist index averages are geometric means

EI Malmquist TFP results 2009– 2010– Leagues 2010 2011 German 1.120 1.027 French 1.174 1.075 English 1.116 1.271 Spanish 1.081 1.192 Italian 1.065 1.103 Turkish 1.886 0.733 Average 1.213 1.052 2014– 2015 1.148 1.036 1.023 0.459 0.980 1.183 0.930

Table 6 TFP index scores of the football leagues according to the EI 2015– 2016 1.019 1.293 0.973 1.145 0.896 1.018 1.050

2016– 2017 1.051 0.970 1.096 1.041 1.071 1.147 1.061

2017– 2018 1.178 1.141 1.158 1.141 1.060 1.129 1.134

Efficiency 1.029 1.008 1.033 1.018 0.992 1 1.013

Technological efficiency 1.060 1.066 1.045 1.047 1.032 1.029 1.047

TFP 1.091 1.075 1.079 1.065 1.024 1.029 1.060

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also had the highest score according to the results of technical efficiency (Tables 3 and 5). In other words, France football league had the most competitive and the most efficient. On the contrary, German football league, which had the lowest level of competition (Table 2), also faced the same negative situation according to the results of the technical efficiency (Tables 3 and 5). In this context, it can be said that the German football league was relatively the least competitive and the least efficient. However, although Turkish football league had also a relatively low level of competition (according to the HHI, the CR2, and the EI values), it had high technical efficiency, unlike the German football league. In short, the German football league was less competitive and less efficient, and the Turkish football league was less competitive but quite effective.

4 Discussion The aim of this study was to examine the competition structure, efficiency, and productivity of Europe’s most advanced six football leagues (English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Turkish) between the years 2009 and 2018. In this context, market concentration analysis was conducted in order to determine the competitive balance of these football leagues. The HHI, the CRm, and the EI were used for this analysis. In addition, the DEA and the Malmquist TFP index methodologies were applied to perform efficiency and productivity analysis of these football leagues. In the study, it is observed that the CR2, the HHI, and the EI scores calculated to determine the competition structure of these football leagues supported each other. Furthermore, it has emerged in the 2009/2010–2017/2018 seasons in almost all of Europe’s top six football leagues, the tendency to increase in concentration and deterioration in the competitive balance. The reason for this was the general increase in the CR2 and the HHI scores, and the overall decrease in the EI results (Table 2). The results of the CR2, the HHI, and the EI analyzes are in parallel with many studies for sports leagues, especially football leagues (Eckard, 2018; Hobbs, 2015; Kara et al., 2017; Pehlivan et al., 2018; Ruiz & Cano, 2018). When the concentration levels of the football leagues are examined by years, it is seen that there was not any football league with increasing the EI scores and decreasing the HHI and the CR2 scores. That is, although the average of the Concentration index values of these football leagues was different from each other, the concentration had steadily increased and the level of competition had steadily decreased. However, among the most popular European leagues, relatively the most competitive was the French league. In this regard, Italian, English, Spanish, German, and Turkish leagues followed the French league, respectively. Concentration analysis on the competition structure of these football leagues shows that the concentration levels of these leagues increased and became more unbalanced. In other words, the unbalance of these leagues means that the structure of competition deteriorated (Ferraresi, Cebrian, & Lopez, 2018). This shows that

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Europe’s most popular football leagues were increasingly dominated by several clubs and that these clubs had high financial power differences with the lowerranking teams. For example, even in the English Premier League called the cradle of football, the competition balance had been deteriorating. The most important reason for this was the significant strengthening of some clubs and their increased ability to spend. The acquisition of some clubs in the UK, France, and other countries by foreign capital investors could be seen as one of the most important reasons for the differences in financial power and deterioration in the competitive balance between clubs. As such, superstar player transfers of some clubs with high financial power tended to deteriorate the competitive structure (Hobbs, 2015). As a result of the differences in financial power, this situation resulted in the fact that there were significant points of differences between the football clubs in the top ranks and the lower ranks. Although the results show a general tendency about the level of competition of the football leagues on a country basis, some issues should be taken into consideration when reviewing the literature applications. The variables such as the length of the season in the leagues, the number of matches of the football teams, the number of teams in the top league, the number of teams participating in international organizations, and the distance traveled by the teams going to the away matches can also affect the competitive structure and competitive balance of the leagues. In some countries and in sports branches, the conditions of transition from lower leagues to upper leagues also vary. The effects of this situation on the competition level of the leagues should not be ignored. In more sensitive studies on competition level, the effects of such criteria on concentration indices should be investigated and, if deemed necessary, index values should be corrected by some qualitative applications such as “competitive balance ratio.” In the study where the efficiency and productivity levels of the six most advanced football leagues in Europe were associated with concentration indices, and the number of spectators, market values, and transfer expenditures of these football clubs were used as input variables. Efficiency and productivity values were also used as output variables. In order to analyze efficiency and productivity, the DEA and the Malmquist TFP index methodologies were used. In this context, the article shows that the DEA and the Malmquist TFP index can be suitable tools for measuring the efficiency and productivity of the football clubs in parallel with the literature (Barros et al., 2014; Escuer & García-Cebrián, 2008; Guzmán & Morrow, 2007; Pyatunin et al., 2012; Sánchez, 2007; Zhao, 2013). In these studies, the relationship between efficiency/productivity and different financial and sportive indicators (variables) such as costs, the geographical remoteness, sources of revenue, market value, the struggle to qualify for international competitions, changes in the ownership structure and governance, marketing, and sponsorship were analyzed. In this study, the efficiency and productivity analysis of the football clubs were used together with input variables such as the number of spectators, market values, and transfer expenditures. Furthermore, the TFP and the technical efficiency scores of the football leagues were calculated according to both the HI and the EI. In this context, it can be said that the study is original.

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Technical efficiency scores of the football leagues according to the HHI show that French and Turkish leagues were relatively more effective (with an average value of 1). Italian (0.9792), English (0.9748), Spanish (0.9734), and German (0.9022) leagues followed the French and Turkish leagues, respectively. While the Spanish league provided technical efficiency in 2009 and 2014, the Italian league was only technically efficient for 2010. However, there was no year in which technical activity was achieved in the German and English league. The EI technical efficiency results were also similar to the results of the HHI technical efficiency. Accordingly, technical efficiency was provided in the French and Turkish league. According to the results, the French and Turkish football leagues (with an average value of 1) reached the highest levels of technical efficiency with the lowest spectator, transfer expenditure, and market value. Italian (0.9957), English (0.9953), Spanish (0.9952), and German (0.9665) leagues followed the French and Turkish leagues, respectively. In addition, while technical efficiency was provided in 2010 and 2012 in the Italian League, the Spanish and English leagues provided it in 2018. In the German league, which had the lowest level of activity according to the average values, there was no year in which technical efficiency was provided. The TFP scores calculated according to the HHI indicate that the average factor productivity of these six leagues was 1.058. On the basis of the countries considered, there was increasing productivity in the football industry. The league that increased its efficiency by years was German (TFP ¼ 1.092). Productivity increased in the German league most by years. Based on average values, the German and English leagues had the highest TFP. However, the lowest leagues in terms of TFP were Italian and Turkish leagues, respectively. Nevertheless, the TFP scores were higher than 1 in both of the leagues. That is, the productivity level of these two leagues was absolute satisfactory but relatively low (compared to other countries). On a yearly basis, productivity was generally at the lowest level in 2012–2013 (yearly average TFP ¼ 0.897) and 2014–2015 seasons (yearly average TFP ¼ 0.936). Moreover, when we look at the components of the TFP, it is seen that all countries crossed the efficiency limit (average 1.014) and provide technological change (average 1.044). When Turkey’s TFP scores are examined, it is observed that productivity levels decreased in 2010–2011, 2012–2013, and 2013–2014 seasons and increased in other seasons. As in the technical efficiency results, the EI–TFP scores and the HHI–TFP scores were similar in terms of productivity results. Because, when the TFP scores calculated according to the EI are examined, the average factor productivity of the 6 leagues was 1.06. The fact that the average factor productivity of the countries was more than one means that there was an increasing productivity situation in the football industry. TFP scores of the football leagues according to the EI, the highest increase in productivity was in the German league (TFP ¼ 1.091). The German league was followed by English (TFP ¼ 1.079) and French leagues (TFP ¼ 1.075). The lowest TFP was in Italian (TFP ¼ 1.024) and Turkish leagues (TFP ¼ 1.029). However, the average TFP scores of both leagues were above 1. When evaluated on a year-by-year basis, it is observed that the productivity in these leagues was at the lowest level in 2012–2013 (yearly average TFP ¼ 0.900) and in 2014–2015 seasons (yearly average TFP ¼ 0.930). Moreover, when the components of the TFP are

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examined, it is seen that all leagues increased the efficiency limit (average 1.047). Only the Italian league could not raise the efficiency limit (average 0.992). However, it is seen that countries provide technological change (average 1.047). Although the results of the TFP scores of the football leagues according to the EI and the HHI results are mostly close to each other, some differences are possible (Nawrocki & Carter, 2010; Ukav, 2017). This difference arises from the fact that concentration indices handle the market concentration from different angles. The EI focuses more on product diversification than the HHI. These differences cause different index results, albeit in small dimensions.

5 Conclusion The purpose of this study was to determine the level of competition, efficiency, and productivity of Europe’s top 6 football leagues (English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Turkish) by using the Concentration index, the HHI, and the EI. In addition, in this study, it was investigated how indicators such as number of spectators, transfer expenditures, and market values that are important in today’s industrial football affect the level of competition of the football leagues mentioned. As a result, it was analyzed how the efficiency and productivity indicators of the football leagues change over time. The analysis showed that the French and the Italian leagues were the most competitive and football clubs in these leagues converged with each other in the relevant period (2009–2018). However, the German league had the lowest competition level. In conclusion, this study revealed that the French football league was the most competitive, the most efficient, and the most productive. In this context, the French league could reach the highest competitiveness, technical efficiency, and productivity with a minimum spectator, transfer expenditure, and market value. In order to improve the competition structure of football leagues, it is necessary to ensure a fairer distribution among teams from sponsor revenues, advertising revenues, and similar revenues obtained from national leagues and international organizations. In this context, a number of regulations must be put into effect by the relevant federations and FIFA. Our findings can be used by club managers and analysts, national and international football federations, sports media, club supporters, and academicians working on sports economics to be able to compare competitiveness, technical efficiency, and productivity of football clubs at local and international platforms. Further research is needed to confirm the findings of this study and to reveal its differences for other football and sports leagues.

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Makonnen, T. (2012). Determinants of export commodity concentration and trade dynamics in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Economics Association Ethiopian Economics Policy Research Institute (EEA/EEPRI). Manasis, V., Ntzoufras, I., & Reade, J. (2015). Measuring competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome hypothesis in European Football. arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.00634. Nawrocki, D., & Carter, W. (2010). Industry competitiveness using Herfindahl and entropy concentration indices with firm market capitalization data. Applied Economics, 42(22), 2855–2863. Owen, C. A., & Owen, P. D. (2017). Simulation evidence on Herfindahl-Hirschman indices as measures of competitive balance. University of Otago Economics. Pehlivan, M., Tiryaki K., & Kara, O. (2018). Türkiye’de Futbol, Basketbol ve Voleybol Liglerinin Rekabet Yapısının Analizi. Türkiye Ekonomi Kurumu, 6. Uluslararası Ekonomi Konferansı, 3-5 Kasım, Antalya. Pehlivanoğlu, F., & Tekçe, E. (2013). Türkiye elektrik enerjisi piyasasında Herfindahl-Hirschman ve CRm endeksleri ile yoğunlaşma analizi. Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 13(2), 363–385. Pyatunin, A. V., Vishnyakova, A. B., Sherstneva, N. L., Mironova, S. P., Dneprov, S. A., & Ramchandani, G. (2012). Competitiveness of the English Premier League (1992–2010) and ten European football leagues (2010). International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 12(2), 346–360. Ruiz, T. F., & Cano, A. A. (2018). Measuring competitive balance in the major European soccer leagues. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 18, 1335–1340. Samen, S. (2010). A primer on export diversification: Key concepts, theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence. Growth and Crisis Unit World Bank Institute. Sánchez, G. I. M. (2007). Efficiency and effectiveness of Spanish football teams: A three-stageDEA approach. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 15(1), 21–45. Tegene, A. (1990). Commodity concentration and export earnings instability: The evidence from African countries. The American Economist, 34(2), 55–59. Theil, H. (1967). Economics and information theory (No. 04; HB74. M3, T4.). transfermarkt. (2018, June 22). https://www.transfermarkt.com.tr/ Türkkan, E. (2001). Rekabet teorisi ve endüstri iktisadı. Turhan Kitabevi. Ukav, İ. (2017). Market structures and concentration measuring techniques. Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, 19(4), 1–16. Zelenkov, Y., & Solntsev, I. (2017). Measuring the efficiency of Russian Football Premier League clubs. Electronic Journal of Applied Statistical Analysis, 10(3), 773–789. Zhao, D. (2013). Measuring technical efficiency of the Japanese Professional Football (Soccer) league (J1 and J2). University of South Florida Scholar Commons.

Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alaçatı Sample Yavuz Yıldız and Kadir Yıldız

Abstract The purpose of this study is to develop a model related to dimensions of surf destination and determine the opinions of sport tourists toward surf destinations. In this research, Alaçatı surfing center was selected, as a surf destination, because Alaçatı is the most famous surf destination of Turkey and different international and national competitions were organized in there. Personal information form and Destination Brand Equity Scale were used for data gathering. Researchers conceptualized the destination brand equity as five dimensions: brand awareness, brand image, brand quality, customer value, and brand loyalty. The study group consisted of 270 surfers (156 male, 114 female). Reliability and validity analyses and structural equation modeling was used for analyzing data. According to the results of the structural equation modeling, destination brand awareness, brand image, brand quality, and customer value levels of females are greater than males. It found that the destination brand awareness of married surf consumers is greater than single surf consumers and the destination customer value increase, if the education level increase. In addition, the level of destination brand loyalty of surf consumers, who want to visit again Alaçatı destination, is greater 1.13 times than other surf consumers, who do not want to visit again Alaçatı destination. According to research findings, destination brand awareness has a positive and meaningful effect on destination brand image and destination brand quality, same as destination brand image and destination brand quality have a positive and meaningful effect on destination perceived value and destination perceived value has a positive and meaningful effect on destination brand loyalty. It found that the proposed model is a valid and useful model. In surf destinations, marketing activities are organized in order to develop the product and service quality, enhance the value of this destination for surf consumers. In addition to this, destination brand loyalty will increase and it will be provided that the surf consumers preference this destination more than others.

Y. Yıldız (*) · K. Yıldız Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Sport Management, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_6

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1 Introduction Branding theory has recently become a phenomenon that encompasses nations, destinations, cities, regions, and towns beyond the product and service sector (Hanna & Rowley, 2008). The concept of destination, which incorporates abstract and concrete elements from these phenomena, has an important place in terms of the qualities it has. Brand value is one of the key issues in recent marketing research. A brand with high brand value has many advantages such as more profitability, brand extension facilities, stronger communication activity, and increasing the purchasing intention (Buil de Chernatony & Martínez, 2008; Cobb-Walgren, Ruble, & Donthu, 1995; Keller, 1993). The concept of brand value includes the value of a product with a brand name, which occurs when compared to a similar product without a brand name (Aaker, 1991). Brand value is created in the mind of the consumer (Keller, 2003). Therefore, being aware of the perceptions of a brand in the market area is necessary to reveal the brand value because rising competition, differentiation, and branding concepts have important roles in revealing the brand value. Major sports events have an important role in the creation of the destination brand. Sports events tend to provide significant benefits for the host city, region, and related country. Hence, tourism significantly benefits from sports events that provide significant investment and mobility (Trošt, Klarić, & Ružić-Dropulić, 2012). It has been seen that there are a number of international events that have recently hosted a number of sports activities and can be described as a tourism destination point. The investments of these activities in the countries where these activities are performed have special importance in the branding of the countries. Rio 2016, held in Brazil, Pyeong Chang 2018 held in South Korea, and Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games are the most recent examples of sports tourism destination points. Sports tourism, which includes activity areas such as surf tourism, has become a spreading and growing phenomenon worldwide. There are studies in the literature indicating that past experiences have an impact on location selection (Dolnicar & Fluker, 2003). In the field of sports tourism, it is important to investigate the characteristics of sports destinations, to determine the reasons why sports tourists prefer these points and to develop related services.

2 Literature Review 2.1

Destination Brand Equity

Destination brand value is one of the important research topics in tourism literature in recent years. The definitions related to the tourism destination brand (Blain, Levy, & Ritchie, 2005; Cai, 2002; Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2003) were created by being influenced by marketing theory. Destination brand is defined as abstract elements

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(pleasure, entertainment, success, socialization, esthetic and visual pleasure, etc.) and concrete elements (means of transportation, nature, accommodation, sea and wind, surfing materials, food and beverage, etc.) (Aaker, 1991; Clifton, 2003; Murphy, 1998; Ward, Light, & Goldstine, 1999). For this reason, the prevalence of a brand is assessed in terms of tourism characteristics and destination characteristics in destination research. Tourists perceive a destination as a product of cognitive, symbolic, and experiential elements (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999). Therefore, the characteristics of the destination brand have an important impact on the destination selection process of tourists. In the field of sports tourism, it is important to investigate the sports destinations and the characteristics of these destinations, to determine the reasons why tourists prefer sports tourists and to develop products and services accordingly. The destination brand is complex because of its interdisciplinary nature, highly competitive market conditions, various stakeholder needs and priorities (Kotsi, Balakrishnan, Michael, & Ramsøy, 2016). The existence of destinations in a globally competitive environment depends on their ability to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This requires strong brand images of destinations. Destination brand image is gaining power from the cooperation of tourism stakeholders and creating their plans and strategies together (Ertaş & Taş Gürsoy, 2016). In terms of the destination concept, attachment is defined as the emotional ties that occur between the individuals visiting the destinations and that destination (Hidalgo & Hernandez, 2001). The concept of destination attachment has been dealt with in two dimensions as “destination dependence” and “destination identity” (Lee & Shen, 2013). The “destination identity” refers to the harmonization of the conscious or unconscious feelings, thoughts, preferences, goals, and abilities of the visitors with that destination, while the “destination dependence” is explained by the fact that the visitors visit the same destination despite the existence of alternative destinations (Türkeri, 2014). Competition in the tourism sector further increases the importance of branding. Instead of marketing the countries as a single destination and a single touristic product, the perception of the regional and urban tourism promotion and marketing has gradually increased by highlighting the touristic product identities of certain cities of the regions and the various regions. Therefore, being a brand of each touristic product, creating brand value and gaining an identity means being one-step ahead of the competition. Therefore, the brand image of a destination is a crucial point in terms of the marketing success of the destination. In this context, a key role of marketing is the development of the destination in the direction of branding. Destination marketers try to understand fully the characteristics of images hidden in individuality and organizations in order to create a more positive brand image (Dereli & Baysakoğlu, 2007; İlban, 2008). There are some characteristics that a city needs to have in order to be a tourist destination. These characteristics can be described as cultural, physical, and social characteristics related to regional identity, tourism infrastructure, which will support regional tourism development, and the institutions and organizations that will be leading in tourism planning by supporting tourist

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attractions and the developments in the region in order to attract tourists to the region (Güçer, 2010). For example, it is stated that outdoor activities are effective for individuals to decide where to go on holiday (Danaher & Arweiler, 1996). Destination brands can be successful in providing benefits to consumers, giving them confidence, having loyal customers, using their resources properly, creating new sources of income, and talents. It is stated that the seashore is an unusual and exotic environment for many people (Atherton & Wilks, 1994). These places are thought to satisfy individuals in terms of their desire such as arousal, mobility, or spiritual recovery. Especially coastal areas offer important opportunities to meet the needs of tourists with water-based sports activities. For example, activities such as diving, surfing, and rafting can be interesting for tourists. Water sports such as diving, surfing, and rafting are both an experience for tourists and one of the critical elements for the continuation of the tourism industry (Morgan, Moore, & Mansell, 2005). Boo, Busser, and Baloğlu (2009) have classified the Destination Brand Value in terms of brand awareness, brand image, brand quality, customer value, and brand loyalty. On the other hand, despite the increase in the importance of destination brands, it is seen that conceptual and experimental research focus on the awareness of destination in general (Cai, 2002; Prebensen, 2007; Tasci, Gartner, & Cavusgil, 2007).

2.2

Sport Destination Brand Equity

Today, there are many elements which show that the roles of sports activities change over time. Sports activities now also play a role in bringing people together and promoting a place beyond economic returns and developing marketing strategies about that place. In the literature, especially in the field of tourism and hotel management (Sahin & Baloglu, 2011) in such Olympic cities as Seoul (Ahn, 1987) and Beijing (Gibson, Qi, & Zhang, 2008), the studies about the value of the destination brand have been often examined in recent years; however, it can be said that the studies about sport destinations have also increased in the body of literature (Kaplanidou, 2009; Lee, Taylor, Lee, & Lee, 2005; Liu, 2013; Liu & Gratton, 2010; Tasci, Hahm, & BreiterTerry, 2016). Researching sports and sport destinations which have a significant place in tourism is important in terms of the implementation of this concept to sport destinations and determination of which elements are important in sport destinations. In the destinations where sports events are organized, priority is given to reveal the attractive aspect of that destination in the planning of these events. In sport destinations, it is also important that the climate, geographical structure, and ecological environment of the place are suitable for sports activities. Xing and Chalip (2006) suggest that the effect of hosting an event may depend on the degree to which events and the destination are suitably matched. The fact that the activity to be carried out in sports destinations in line with the related destination will increase the social and economic impact of the activity. Surfers are described as people who are

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in search of perfect waves and therefore tend to travel constantly, spend time, and make effort to surf (Barbieri & Sotomayor, 2013). In terms of Alaçatı destination, it can be said that there are wind and sea conditions that allow surfing qualitatively as surfers expected. Alaçatı, which is the destination examined in this research, is often preferred due to convenient surfing conditions for climate and geography and it is seen as a destination brand in the world and Turkey and it also hosts the European championship. Despite the different characteristics and economic importance of surf tourism apart from other tourism types, little is known that surfing is a serious free time activity and has effects on surf tourism (Barbieri & Sotomayor, 2013). Determining the important characteristics of the destinations which want to take advantage in the international field with sports activities and using them effectively can be considered as an important marketing strategy. The aim of this study is to present a reliable and valid model by measuring brand value in surf destination brands, to contribute to the literature by examining the purchasing behaviors of surf consumers and to provide suggestions to sports marketers.

3 Materials and Methods In this research, relational and descriptive screening model was chosen from the general screening methods of quantitative research methods. In the research, Alaçatı Surf Center which is a favorite tourist destination and where the World, Europe, and Turkey Surfing Championships are held was chosen as a surf destination. Within the scope of PWA World Windsurfing Tour 2016, surf athletes who constitute a total of 270 (156 men, 114 women) with an average age of 26.93 (sd ¼ 9.62) participating voluntarily in this study and determined by random sampling in Alaçatı surf destination during the summer season include working group. The personal information form and the Destination Brand Value Scale developed by Boo et al. (2009) were used as data collection tools. The Destination Brand Value Scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of 21 items and 5 sub-dimensions. In the measurement tool, the destination is conceptualized in five dimensions as brand value, brand awareness, brand image, brand quality, customer value, and brand loyalty. SPSS 22 package program was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics and frequency analysis were used to analyze demographic data. In the analysis of the research data, reliability and validity analysis, t-test, ANOVA analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling were used.

4 Results The findings of the statistical analysis of the data obtained in this part of the research are given. In Table 1, it is seen that the Cronbach alpha value is between 0.68 and 0.80 as a result of the reliability analysis of the dimensions that constitute the scale. Nunnally

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Table 1 Validity and reliability analyses results of destination brand value scale Variables Destination Brand Awareness DBA1 DBA2 DBA3 DBA4 Destination Brand Image DBI2 DBI3 DBI4 Destination Brand Quality DBQ2 DBQ3 DBQ4 Destination Brand Value DBV1 DBV2 DBV3 DBV5 Destination Brand Loyalty DBL1 DBL2 DBL4

Mean 4.08

S. D. 0.77

AVE 0.63

Factor loads

Cronbach alpha 0.80

0.87 0.85 0.70 0.74 3.80

0.86

0.62

0.70 0.76 0.87 0.73

4.01

0.75

0.64

0.74

0.51

0.49 0.53 0.46 0.68

0.66 0.83 0.72 0.63 4.11

0.71

0.70 0.68 0.52 0.56 0.50 0.62 0.38

0.71 0.75 0.82 0.81

3.70

Item total cor.

0.69

0.42 0.57 0.39 0.43 0.76

0.89 0.86 0.73

0.59 0.54 0.53

Source: Authors’ own table

and Bernstein (1994) have stated that the Cronbach alpha coefficient should be 0.70 and above, it can also be acceptable that the coefficient is 0.60 and above in the studies conducted in different cultures. It is expected that the scale dimensions of the AVE value are greater than 0.50 (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988) and its factor loads are greater than 0.50 (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998) in order to determine the validity. It is seen that the scale is a valid scale according to the values in Table 1. According to Table 2, it was determined that the research variables did not conform to the normal distribution and non-parametric tests were used in the analysis. As seen in Table 3, it has been tested whether the points of the Destination Brand Value scale subdimensions differ according to the gender variable. As a result of the Mann Whitney U test, a statistically significant difference in the subdimension points of Destination Brand Image (U ¼ 6984, p < 0.05), Destination Brand Quality (U ¼ 7146, p < 0.05) and Destination Brand Value (U ¼ 7470, p < 0.05) was found in favor of women. When Table 4 is examined, the significance of p-value for the model chi-square value indicates the existence of the relationship between the predicted variable and the combination of predictive variables.

Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alaçatı Sample Table 2 Compliance with normal distribution test for destination brand equity subscales results

DBA DBI DBQ DBV DBL

97

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Statistic Sd Sig. 0.210 270 0.000 0.107 270 0.000 0.138 270 0.000 0.104 270 0.000 0.138 270 0.000

Shapiro-Wilk Statistic Sd 0.857 270 0.936 270 0.920 270 0.959 270 0.921 270

Sig. 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Source: Authors’ own table Table 3 Analysis of subscales of destination brand value in terms of sex

Variables n Mean rank Destination brand awareness 156 143 Femalea Male 114 124 Destination brand image Femalea 156 147 Male 114 118 Destination brand quality Femalea 156 146 Male 114 120 Destination brand value Femalea 156 144 Male 114 123 Destination brand loyalty Female 156 134 Male 114 136

Mann-Whitney U

p

7686

0.05

6984

0.00

7146

0.00

7470

0.02

8730

0.79

Source: Authors’ own table Difference is in favor of women

a

Table 4 Omnibus test results related to model coefficients

Step 1

Step Block Model

Chi-square 36,306 36,306 36,306

df 5 5 5

p 0.000 0.000 0.000

A moderate and significant relationship was found between the whole subdimensions of the destination brand value scale and the desire to visit the destination location again (R ¼ 0.323, R2 ¼ 0.104, F(5, 240) ¼ 5.594, p < 0.000). The frequency of visit and subdimensions of the destination brand value scale have explained about 10% of the fixed variable. When Table 5 is examined, it is seen that Destination Brand Awareness and Destination Brand Loyalty are a significant predictor of the frequency of visits. The order of relative importance on the frequency of visit of predictive variables according to standardized regression coefficient (β) is as follows: Destination Brand Awareness (DBA), Destination Brand Loyalty (DBL), Destination Brand Quality

98 Table 5 Logistic regression analysis result for the wish of visiting Alaçatı again

Y. Yıldız and K. Yıldız β 1.38 1.51 0.13 0.64 0.96 1.13

Model Constant DBA DBI DBQ DBV DBL

Wald 83.02 16.92 0.14 3.47 0.05 6.31

p 0.00 0.00 0.70 0.06 0.82 0.01

Exp β 0.25 4.55 0.87 0.52 0.90 0.32

Source: Authors’ own table Fig. 1 Results of structural equation modeling of destination brand equity. Source: Authors’ own figure

DBI .53

.62

.30

.35

DBA

DBV

.46

DBL

.27

.43 DBQ

(DBQ), a Destination Brand Image (DBI), and a Destination Brand Value (DBV). In order to determine the interactions of Destination Brand Awareness (DBA), Destination Brand Loyalty (DBL), Destination Brand Quality (DBQ), Destination Brand Image (DBI), and Destination Brand Value (DBV) as well as their effects on Destination Brand Loyalty, the structural equation modeling is presented in Fig. 1. In the CFA analysis, it is stated that the chi-square test examines the hypothesis “there is no difference between the observed covariance matrix and the factor covariance matrix (Özdamar, 2002). If the chi-square/degree of freedom is less than 3, the model has a very good fit and if the value is less than 5, it is accepted that the model has a goodness of fit (Byrne, 1998). According to the confirmatory factor analysis results conducted to test the measurement model, it was found as RMSEA ¼ 0.000, X2/sd (2.96/3) ¼ 0.98, CFI ¼ 1.00, GFI ¼ 1.00 AGFI ¼ 0.98, NFI ¼ 1.00 NNFI ¼ 1.00. According to these findings, it can be stated that the model shows good fit values according to RMSEA, X2/sd, CFI, and AGFI criteria (Schermelleh-Engel & Moosbrugger, 2003).

5 Discussion and Conclusion Research findings show that female surf consumers have a higher perception than male surf consumers in terms of other brand value components apart from brand loyalty. Considering the fact that women can make a more detailed and careful evaluation in terms of destination brand awareness, brand image, destination brand quality, and economic value of destination compared with men, it is seen that men

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directly focus on surfing while women focus on surfing experience in terms of destination marketing, and therefore determining an economic value-oriented marketing strategy, image, and destination quality of service may be useful. Based on the research findings, it can be said that brand awareness (4.55 times) and brand loyalty (0.32 times) from the destination brand value components have increased the desire to revisit the related destination compared with other components. In addition, it is thought that Alaçatı destination should be supported with marketing activities (4P + 4C) in terms of destination brand image, brand quality, and economic value, and the quality of service (transportation, accommodation, eating, and drinking) should be increased. Ferns and Walls (2012) have stated in their study that the destination brand value has a significant effect on the intention of tourists to visit the destination again. They have also found that visitors’ benefit from the destination has a positive effect on their participation in travel. Chen and Myagmarsuren (2010) have stated that the destination image has a strong impact on visitor satisfaction and loyalty. In the same study, it has also observed that there is a strong relationship between destination satisfaction and destination loyalty. Chekalina, Fuchs, and Lexhagen (2018) report that tangible, intangible, and social destination resources affect the value in use and value for money, and the value in use and value for money positively affects the loyalty of destinations. In the same study, it is seen that destination brand satisfaction increases the intention to (re)visit, loyalty, and willingness to spend money. Pike and Bianchi (2016) state that the destination brand salience, destination brand quality, and destination brand value have a positive effect on destination brand loyalty. The results of the present study indicate that satisfaction affects destination loyalty positively. As a result, tourists who are satisfied with their experiences of visiting will most likely have a desire to visit the same place again. Providing a high level of tourist satisfaction will increase customer/tourist loyalty to the related destination and cause visitors to visit the same destination again and recommend it to others. In this study, it was found that women perceived destination brand awareness, destination brand image, destination brand quality, and destination brand value at a higher level compared to men. This finding reveals that women find Alaçatı Surf Center more successful in terms of branding. Chen, Green, and Miller (2008) have reported that female customers perceive the brand loyalty and perceived quality of the two markets and the total brand value of a market at a higher level than the men in their study regarding the brand value of four different hypermarket brands. Musekiwa, Runyowa, and Chikosha (2014) have also found in their study about a supermarket brand that women’s brand value perception is higher than that of men. Field literature research indicates that sport can have positive effects on the recognition, professionalism, and international reputation of countries that host a major event (Hemmonsbey & Tichaawa, 2018). This situation shows that sport plays an important role in the international branding of countries and determining the activities as destination centers. As a result, this study shows that Alaçatı has destination brand equity with a reliable and valid model. In this study, it is also found that the components of destination brand value consist of destination brand awareness, brand quality,

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brand image, brand value, and brand loyalty. Another concept which brand value is related to is a brand personality (Aaker, 1997). In a study conducted by Sahin and Baloglu (2011), the destination image and brand personality of the city of Istanbul were evaluated and 28 brand personalities (livable, exciting, crowded, entertaining, friendly, etc.), which define Istanbul were determined. In the studies on destination brand value, it is important to determine the factors that reflect the brand image and personality and to produce results, which will shed light on the marketing efforts to improve them. It is also expected that the current research results will address other developing tourism destination points in the context of sports tourism and guide future research about the impact of major sporting events.

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A Gender Perspective of Sport-Based Entrepreneurship Vanessa Ratten

Abstract Purpose: Sport-based entrepreneurship is a new theory developed to understand how sport is inherently entrepreneurial. The aim of this chapter is to develop further this theory by taking a gender approach. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews are conducted with female athletes who are entrepreneurs in order to understand the processes and context of sport-based entrepreneurship. Findings: The findings suggest that female athletes conceptualise sport-based entrepreneurship in a different way to males, which is based on the challenges they face in becoming entrepreneurs. Moreover, there are gender imbalances in sportbased entrepreneurship that can help further develop the theory. Research limitations/implications: As few empirical studies have been conducted on sport-based entrepreneurship, this study is amongst the first to take a gender perspective. Therefore, it further extends sport-based entrepreneurship theory and links the sport, gender and entrepreneurship literature. Practical implications: As more female athletes become entrepreneurs, this chapter provides a way to understand the barriers they face and how policymakers and practitioners can further encourage gender equality in sport-based entrepreneurship. Originality/value: There are limited studies on female athlete entrepreneurs so this chapter is amongst the first to take into account an interdisciplinary perspective that combines the gender and sport-based entrepreneurship literature.

1 Introduction The sport literature has discussed the lack of women in a range of contexts such as administration, coaching and leadership (Fink & Pastore, 1999) but not in the entrepreneurship context. Sport organisations have typically had a culture orientated to males and this has limited the opportunities of female athletes (Doherty & V. Ratten (*) Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Marketing, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_7

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Chelladurai, 1999). Although the participation rate of women in sport is increasing there are still cultural values favouring men in business activities, especially regarding entrepreneurship. This has affected the way sport is organised in society and perceived as a career choice (Alvesson, 1987). The sport industry has traditionally had an institutionalised masculinity setting that has favoured male athletes to the detriment of female athletes (Shaw & Frisby, 2006). Whilst there has been increased access and participation rates for women in sport there is still a lack of females in higher-level business leadership roles (Lapchick, Costa, Sherrod, & Anjorin, 2012). The gender gap in sport is prevalent in females being more likely to leave coaching positions and have shorter job tenure rates (Pastore, 1993). In addition, men are more likely to coach female teams than women further limiting the number of female role models (Acosta & Carpenter, 2012). Women struggle to gaining access to the organisational cliques in sport and find it hard to establish post-sport careers. An inability of women to enter predominately men’s networks has further limited the business opportunities available to them. Despite this, there have been increased efforts to promote gender equity in sport from both an administrative, athletic and business perspective (Zdroik & Babiak, 2017). Women entrepreneurs are understudied in the general entrepreneurship literature and are virtually non-existent in the sport management literature. The paucity of research on women in sport has been somewhat addressed by recent literature but interestingly not much of this work has focused on entrepreneurship. Thus, the gender gap in sport but especially sport-based entrepreneurship is still apparent. This chapter offers a genderaware framework for sport-based entrepreneurship thereby breaking new ground in the research. This will enable future research and policy to focus more on female sport entrepreneurship. To do this, the following research question was formulated: Research question: How do gender roles influence sport-based entrepreneurship and sport business perspectives? Following this introduction, I explain the theoretical framework of the study, which is based on sport-based entrepreneurship and women’s entrepreneurship. The methodology is then examined in terms of data collection and analysis techniques. The last section discusses the conclusions, implications and future research suggestions.

2 Theoretical Framework: Sport-Based Entrepreneurship As the sport context has unique characteristics including its emphasis on non-profit or social forms of sport as well as professional ones it requires its own entrepreneurship theory. Sport-based entrepreneurship theory involves understanding how the mindsets of people or organisations in the sport context are entrepreneurial in nature (Ratten, 2012). This means focusing on the distinct opportunities those in the sport industry receive based on their social networks and position in society. The context of the sport sector is important as it naturally is aligned with the competitive nature endemic to entrepreneurship. Whilst the theory of sport-based entrepreneurship has evolved there is a lack of empirical work on the topic (Hemme, Morais,

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Bowers, & Todd, 2017). Traditionally, the sport management and entrepreneurship literature have been distinct bodies of literature and only recently have they been combined. This is due to more cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research becoming popular in the social science context. Sport has special features such as individuals having an emotional connection and loyalty that transcends cultural boundaries (Smith & Stewart, 2009). This has meant that sport is sometimes considered a language as it goes beyond social barriers and can be understood in different geographic contexts. Lim and Envick (2013) in a multi-country study found that gender does influence entrepreneurial orientation. There is a stereotype of entrepreneurs being male, which is similar to athletes being portrayed as males. In sport, these beliefs have been translated into both overt and covert actions and discriminatory policies regarding women’s participation in sport. In the past, society has tended to attach lower value to female athletes and their business endeavours. This is reflected in the problem of invisibility for female athletes that they might not have the same kind of connections as male athletes. Certain parts of the rules and regulations in sport such as fair play lean towards accepting diversity. Despite this perceived fairness in sport, female athletes can fail to capitalise on their links to business. It seems natural that female athletes who are used to competition seek another avenue for their skills through entrepreneurship. Despite the practical importance of female athletes becoming entrepreneurs, there has been little analysis of how gendered processes influence firms to focus on certain industries (Mirchandani, 1999). Reviewing the literature on sport-based entrepreneurship, there is a lack of linkage to women’s entrepreneurship that indicates a need to move conceptually the field forward. To advance both empirically and theoretically in the sport-based entrepreneurship field a gender perspective is required.

3 Gender Theory Previous research has suggested that there are gender differences in terms of entrepreneurs evaluating opportunities. Entrepreneurship traditionally was associated with masculine behaviour in terms of being risk-taking and competitive (Greene, Han, & Marlow, 2011). This resulted in much research assuming the entrepreneur was male rather than taking into account distinct gender characteristics (Ahl, Berguland, Petersson, & Tillmar, 2016). More recently, there has been an emphasis on understanding the role gender plays in entrepreneurship. This is due to the increased interest in women in the global economy and the role feminine characteristics play in entrepreneurship (Franco & Piceti, 2018). In conjunction with this change regarding gender roles in entrepreneurship has been the increased opportunities given to females in sport. More sport are including females in competitions and also leadership positions. In addition, some of the most well paid and famous athletes are females and are known for their entrepreneurial businesses. In conjunction with these trends have been sport products and services specifically tailored to females. However, given the increased role females are playing in sport business there is a lack of research

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specifically looking into female and sport entrepreneurship. The sport environment provides an intriguing context to study female entrepreneurship as the gender and sport domains are intrinsically intertwined. Although the number of women in business has increased, there are still gender differences in the type and size of these businesses. Minnitti, Arenius, and Langowitz (2005) found that the number of women starting a business is significantly lower than men. A variety of different reasons for gender differences have been suggested by past research including risk tolerance (Jianakoplos & Bernasek, 1998), social capital (Greene, 2000) and social factors (Lombard, 2000). Lefkowitz (1994) found that the gender differences disappear when socio-economic factors are taken into account. However, another study by Langowitz and Minniti (2007) found that men and women react in the same way in early stage entrepreneurial activity. Women naturally face an environment that is difficult and more suited to men in terms of business activities. The existence of a hostile environment for women means that they struggle to obtain financing for new businesses. Women entrepreneurs can sometimes be at a disadvantage in the marketplace due to the existence of gender stereotypes. In the sport industry, women face both visible and invisible workplace barriers that affect their career trajection (Zdroik & Babiak, 2017). In many workplaces, the visible barriers such as lack of flexible workplace practices and organisational structures limit women’s involvement in business (Sturm, 2001). The invisible barriers include cultural factors that discourage women from having a place in business settings. These workplace practices inadvertently are genderbiased and are evident in all sectors of the economy but more so in a sport context. Therefore, the work positions available to women may be structurally at a lower position and make it hard for women in terms of career advancement. Research on gender entrepreneurship has been criticised for focusing solely on biological sex rather than incorporating other environmental factors (Ahl & Nelson, 2015). Biological sex can help explain differences between males and females in entrepreneurship but is limited in its application. More researchers are using a gender lens to understand entrepreneurship but are cognisant of other variables affecting behaviour (Marlow & McAdam, 2015). This chapter will study the way gender is constructed in sport-based entrepreneurship and how it can influence entrepreneurial activity. Moreover, it will theorize that athletes are more likely to be entrepreneurs because of the support and resources in the sport. However, if these athletes are females it is suggested that there are other environmental determinants that need to be taken into account. Since birth, individuals learn gender stereotypes that affect their behaviour. This process of gender socialization affects the types of careers women have. Contemporary society has somewhat changed in terms of gender stereotypes but there is still a long way to go before gender equality. This is due to the sex segregation of occupations acts as a social force in communities (Marlow & Patton, 2005). In this chapter, I seek to understand better how women engage in sport-based entrepreneurship. In particular, I am interested in how sport-based entrepreneurship is perceived and developed by women. An often ignored aspect of sport-based entrepreneurship is the use of gender theory to describe the process. Therefore,

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gaining a better understanding of how gender shapes sport-based entrepreneurship is important. The next section will discuss the research methodology of this study.

4 Research Methodology In order to explore gender roles in sport-based entrepreneurship, a qualitative research approach was used. The advantage of a qualitative approach is that it provides a richness of information to the phenomena under investigation. Potential participants were identified from local sport organisations. An initial list of more than 143 participants was obtained on female athletes and were contacted to request their involvement on a voluntary basis. Participants who were interested were told the reason for the study and the type of questions that would be asked. A total of 34 interviews were conducted with 10 participants. Data saturation was achieved based on the information appearing in the interview transcripts. Based on guidelines suggested by Guest, Bunce, and Johnson (2006) when the interviews have provided sufficient data to analyse and there is no new information emerging the number of interviews is sufficient. Interviews lasted between 30 and 60 min and were conducted in person, via Skype or phone. Most of the interviews were in person and were longer than the other formats. The locations for the in-person interviews were at mutually agreed locations normally coffee shops at neutral locations. Table 1 lists the individual and sociocultural attributes of the female athletes who were interviewed for this study. Qualitative studies focus on constructing a conversation between the interviewee and the researcher. Thus, the emphasis in qualitative studies is on interpreting the information by using an exploratory approach. All the interviews were transcribed before being analysed. Thematic analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts in order to classify the main topics emerging from the data. Following the approach suggested by Braun and Clarke (2008), the thematic analysis consisted of the following phases: familiarisation, organising and mapping. The familiarisation phase involved noting down initial thoughts and reading through the data numerous times. Organising involves putting the data into certain groups. This involves searching for recurring concepts. Mapping involved separating the data into main factors. To ensure the trustworthiness of the data member checking and peer debriefing was utilised (Zdroik & Babiak, 2017). Member checking involves asking participants clarification about the meaning of their responses (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Throughout the interviews and in the analysis stage, the responses were checked to make sure the intended meaning was being conveyed. Peer debriefing involves understanding how personal values affect the respondent’s answers (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). This is important in minimising bias in the results by accounting for cultural conditions. Sometimes the responses might need to be contextualised by the respondent’s history and experience so peer debriefing is a way to increase the reliability of the results.

Source: Ratten and Miragaia (2019)

Type of professional sport played Year of business establishment Number of business ventures Key business theme Size of main business (number of employees) Motivation for starting the business

Beatriz Athletics 2015 2 Education 4

Family

Alex Tennis 2011 1 Retail 5

Financial

Social

Carly Swimming 2010 1 Social 1

Table 1 Individual and sociocultural influences of female athletes

Be close to family

Dani Golf 2016 1 Retail 1 Social

Evelyn Tennis 2017 3 Social 1 Financial

Frieda Swimming 2005 5 Retail 15 Family

Gina Golf 2010 2 Educated 3

Family

Heloise Athletics 2017 1 Retail 1

Financial

Ingrid Swimming 2017 1 Retail 2

Financial

Jacqui Surfing 2005 1 Retail 3

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5 Results and Discussion Three main themes were identified that describe the role of gender in sport entrepreneurship: conceptualisation of sport-based entrepreneurship, challenges for female athletes and gender imbalances in sport-based entrepreneurship. These themes are discussed below in terms of representative quotes and linkage to the literature.

6 Conceptualisation of Sport-Based Entrepreneurship The first theme uncovered focused on sport-based entrepreneurship. Respondents were asked to define sport-based entrepreneurship and discuss how it differed to other types of entrepreneurship. Women discussed the key characteristics being sport related in terms of connection with the competitiveness and social networks endemic in sport. For example, Evelyn stated ‘entrepreneurship is a lot like sport. Both involve competing for time and money’ in which she highlights the complementary goal of both sport and entrepreneurship. Carla stated ‘sport-based entrepreneurship in my opinion is about the distinct nature of sport. Sport for many females provides a connected way to express emotions and so does business’. Another linkage between entrepreneurship and sport was referred to by Frieda as ‘the way sport develops is by itself innovative. To win we need to progress’. Most of the respondents felt that the sport environment had more industry and social connections than other industries, which was reflected in the type of entrepreneurial ventures sport organisations engaged in. This was reflected in Dani stating ‘I love sport because it provides a social outlet. But unlike other industries sport combines profit and social goals and there is more non-profit involvement’. Women focused on how to leverage the relationships built from sport contacts in their business pursuits as Gina said ‘Networking happens on a daily basis in sport. Online networking is popular and a way to promote my business interests’. She further went on to link how women in sport have special needs in terms of clothing and equipment that gives rise to business opportunities. Thus, there seemed to be an emphasis on opportunity seeking as part of sport-based entrepreneurship that women athletes wanted to capitalise on in terms of future business ventures. The results and suggestions in terms of sport-based entrepreneurship can be interpreted in two main ways. First, female athletes are subject to different contextual factors such as public relations training that enable them to market their products better than non-athletes. Thus, there is an increased chance of female athletes becoming entrepreneurs due to their competitive nature. The differences in entrepreneurial behaviour are not due to gender but rather are sport-related. Hemme et al. (2017: 100) states ‘being a sport entrepreneur is a multi-faceted experience’. Another alternative can be argued that female athletes have already had competitive training and many are from female teams, which has influenced their entrepreneurial propensity. Thus, the probability of female athletes starting a business is high due to their competitive nature from being a prior athlete. This is linked to expectancy theory, which proposes that if an individual believes they can do something then this

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will influence whether they undertake an action (Minniti & Nardone, 2007). Therefore, female athletes expect competition and by starting their own businesses can emulate the competitive environment in a business setting. This is in line with Baron, Markman, and Hirza (2001) who found that if women believe they have the requisite skills for entrepreneurship then they are more likely to start a business. This chapter lends support to the use of distinct sport-based entrepreneurship theory and the findings can help to understand the process of sport-based entrepreneurship.

7 Challenges for Females The second theme reflects the challenges for female athletes in building their businesses. Women entrepreneurs face a range of difficulties in starting a business including inadequate training, inability to find capital and a lack of societal support (Maden, 2015). For example, Dani mentioned ‘we are use to scheduling our time for sport so this business is an extension of that. The challenge is to get customers’. Evelyn felt that the barrier was in start-up financing as she stated ‘I self funded the website and business. I tried to get funding but most funds were for already existing companies. I went to start up days and mentoring events but I funded this myself’. Other respondents felt that there was an aspect of chance as to whether their business would succeed. For example, Beatriz said ‘there is a game of error and chance. I like my product and think others will but who am I to say this? I hope people like what I’ve done but only time will tell’. Alex supported this sentiment by stating ‘there are so many new companies that fail. But I have practiced and experimented with my idea. I talked to dozens of people in the sport industry who thought this was a good idea’. The notion of being the first or having a novel idea in the market was also highlighted by respondents. For example, Gina said ‘it is crucial to get there first. My idea has not been done before. But the time it takes to get to market can be long. There is a lot of paper work to fill in’. Others referred to time as being the main challenge as stated by Ingrid ‘the ABN (Australian Business Number) and getting a brand name takes time. Unlike, the USA, Australia makes it hard for sport entrepreneurs. Maybe next time I just start in the USA’. The women’s responses to the difficulties and hardships they faced were more from the business side rather than being gender related. The responses ranged from having trouble managing their work/life balance to lack of resource availability. From the responses, it can be inferred that being a women entrepreneur is not generally seen as a factor but more as a characteristic. Women’s entrepreneurship can be understood through the traditional entrepreneurship constructs (market, money and management) but with the two additional ones pertaining to women (motherhood and meso/macro environment) (Brush, De Bruin, & Welter, 2009). People tend to see themselves as having more feminine or masculine characteristics and this might be more pronounced in some people and be reflected in their perceptions of hardship. Female athletes might identify more with masculine personality traits due to the nature of the sport industry. Few empirical studies have directly examined entrepreneurial intentions in female athletes.

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The findings indicate that female athlete’s entry into entrepreneurship may be enhanced by their previous sport experience. Entrepreneurship is socially constructed as influenced by societal conditions. The findings suggest that how gender is perceived is based on cultural conditions and influences intentions to become an entrepreneur. Existing sport and entrepreneurship research is flawed by a reluctance to combine both disciplines into an understanding of sport-based entrepreneurship. The findings highlight that a gender perspective of sport-based entrepreneurship is needed that can extend current literature. The sampling approach has the advantage of focusing on female athletes but more comparison with male athletes might be useful. Whilst athletes, in general, tend to share a common bond there are different perceptions across the genders that may limit the generalizability.

8 Gender Imbalances in Sport-Based Entrepreneurship This theme focused on how gender impacts sport-based entrepreneurship. Research has shown that gender influences entrepreneurial intentions and behaviour. In sport contexts, women often play different kinds of sport that influences their socialisation patterns. Gender can be a way in which social capital is built and then used to start a business venture. As there is a perceived lack of gender diversity in sport, it is thought to affect entrepreneurship rates amongst women. Women discussed how it was hard to access the right networks to help their careers. For instance, Ingrid said, ‘I have many connections through sport contacts and they are good in a sport area but not many from business’ and Frieda said ‘my contacts for business are different to that from my sport club. Some are the same and the linkages from sponsorship deals are good’. The women felt that the sport they played limited their access to the business connections needed to open up doors. This was indicated in the discussion around how they had good partnerships with community organisations but this stifled their access to commercial entities. The consequences of these gender imbalances meant once a woman retires or left a sport club they then felt they had to find new business contacts. On the other hand, the women felt the men because of the sport they played had already existing contacts that made it easier for them to become entrepreneurs. This was stated by Beatriz, who said ‘The men who play football already are connected strategically with business. Many male football players have endorsement deals with companies that let them market their own products’. Therefore, the sentiment coming from the women was that the sport club culture and workplace norms limited their ability to be sport entrepreneurs. They felt that sport clubs and sponsors should try to make more provisions for female athletes wanting to start their own businesses. This could include accommodating more women in sport leadership positions as a way to facilitate meaningful ways to network. This opens the door for further ways that sport policy can decrease the gender gap in entrepreneurship. One way to do this some of the women felt was through mentoring. For example, Alex stated ‘if we had more access to mentors, previous athletes who are now entrepreneurs that would give us strength’.

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The main purpose of the interviews was to identify individuals who at the time of the interviews were owning a business or intended to start one. Minniti and Nardone (2007) suggest that women’s employment choices are based on local environmental contexts. Much work has been done on understanding differences in entrepreneurship behaviour between males and females but limited research has focused on the sport context. It is, therefore, possible that differences in entrepreneurship instead of being based on gender are a result of the environmental context. The analysis shows that being involved in the sport industry and starting a business can depend on gender but also on other factors unique to the sport context. The findings confirm the importance of the sport industry context for entrepreneurship. More work in the area of gender and sport entrepreneurship is needed. Entrepreneurship is embedded within the environment that it exists. In order to study women’s entrepreneurship, there needs to be a focus on how it is embedded based on norms and values. Research in the women’s entrepreneurship and sportbased entrepreneurship have been using qualitative methods as the topics are based on context and require the building of theory to unravel the relationships. Societal values need to focus on women’s entrepreneurship as being important and part of increasing the well-being of their citizens. As entrepreneurship is socially constructed, it needs to be recognised by society as being important. There are gender differences in the way women recognise and exploit opportunities. Men are more likely to have better opportunities due to their prior work experiences and social contacts. Experiences shape the way an individual discovers opportunities and this is facilitated through obtaining better information. Bird and Brush (2002) suggest that women are less likely to take a deliberate and rational approach to decision-making. Women perceive opportunities differently to men due to information asymmetries and socialization effects (De Tienne & Chandler, 2007). Women are positionally disadvantaged in social networks due to their social roles (Welter, Smallbone, Mirzakhalikova, Schakirova, & Maksudova, 2006). Men, on the other hand, are likely to have more useful networks that exchange information on a regular basis. This makes them better at identifying relevant business opportunities for sport products. Men are more likely to have men in their networks that have a similar professional status and who are entrepreneurs (Allen, 2000). When it comes to understanding sport-based entrepreneurship care must be taken to consider gender factors. This will contextualise sport-based entrepreneurship and enrich future scholarship on the topic.

9 Conclusions, Limitations, Future Research and Implications In order to explain the way gender influences sport-based entrepreneurship, this study examined entrepreneurship practices. The findings suggest that there are gender-specific attributes that influence how females use entrepreneurial passion in

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a sport context. Previous studies have utilised sport-based entrepreneurship as a theory to understand entrepreneurship in a sport context (e.g. Hemme et al., 2017) but this study is amongst the first to focus on gender effects on sport-based entrepreneurship. It is important to reference the role gender plays in sport-based entrepreneurship and how the culture of sport has an impact on entrepreneurial intentions. Women athletes highlighted how their gender was both an advantage and disadvantage in their entrepreneurial careers but the competitive training and teamwork learned from sport helped them more than non-athlete entrepreneurs. The differences between genders in entrepreneurial attitudes and practices were explored. This provided a way to contribute to the nascent literature on sport-based entrepreneurship by highlighting how gender and entrepreneurship contribute to an individual’s capacity to build a business. Being a female but also an athlete had an impact on women’s perceptions of their ability to be entrepreneurs. My contribution to the understanding of gender in sport but also how the sport environment shapes entrepreneurship can be a key to career advancement for women. The findings support previous work that suggests women and men approach entrepreneurship in a different way. The experience of being an athlete and dealing with the media provides key capabilities helpful in entrepreneurship. It was found that gender and being an athlete support entrepreneurial behaviours. There are a number of practical implications coming from this study that can enable more female athletes to perform better in business ventures. At the policy level, governing bodies of sport such as the International Olympic Committee need to encourage more women athletes into entrepreneurship. At the international level, sport governing bodies can offer opportunities for women to start their own business and provide appropriate educational programs. This can provide a platform for women athletes to build on their social networks but to enter new careers. This would help take the barriers of uncertain futures for female athletes once they finish their professional careers. This could be supplemented with local and regional sporting bodies providing entrepreneurial training to female athletes. These policies could provide strategic ways for women to stay connected to sport communities but develop their business careers. Whilst we are confident in the trustworthiness of the data collection analysis and results, there are still limitations like all research studies that need to be noted. This study studied only female athlete entrepreneurs as the area of interest was on gender and sport entrepreneurship. Thus, the conclusions are a result of female opinions and need to be validated from other sources. This is an area for future research in that performance data from female-owned sport enterprises could be compared to see if there is a gender effect. Whilst the data we derived from the study was rich and provided numerous examples about the impact gender has on sport entrepreneurship, other types of methodologies such as surveys and longitudinal research could be conducted. However, the data obtained from the in-depth interviews enabled a coherent narrative to be conducted.

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Online C2C Interactions with Sports Brands: Insights from the #Mo Salah Brand Noha El-Bassiouny, Sara Hamed, Hadeer Hammad, Hagar Adib, and Nesma Ammar

Abstract Online customer-to-customer interactions with sports brands on social media are gaining momentum in recent years. The salience of online brand communities in influencing sport spectators’ attitudinal dispositions warrants further investigation into the phenomenon of sports and athlete brand development. The Mo Salah brand has been emerging as an iconic athlete brand in both popular offline and online/social media. Based on the brand’s resonance online, which is a reflection of high brand equity, this research aims at exploring the cognitive, affective, and conative attitudes of football fans affiliated with the Mo Salah brand and extrapolating on the image of the brand in terms of athletic performance, attractive appearance, and marketable lifestyle as an extension to the work of Arai, Ko, and Ross (Sport Management Review 17:97–106, 2014). The research utilizes qualitative methods; particularly netnography and content analysis of online communications on social media for the #Mo Salah brand.

1 Introduction Uber Egypt has transformed the way people move around in Egypt and I am excited about featuring with a brand that is so passionate about football—said Mo Salah—iconic English Premier League soccer player (Bassam, 2018).

The mutual relationship between sports fans, sportsmen, and mega corporations is on the rise (Bassam, 2018; Scoop Empire Online, 2018; Think Marketing, 2017). Recently, the iconic Egyptian football premiere league figure, Mo Salah, has agreed to the sponsorship of Uber marketing activities (Bassam, 2018) with the Mo Salah brand. Previously, it was announced that Vodafone Egypt would also endorse Mo Salah as a sports celebrity and portray him on the 2018 Vodafone marketing campaign (Scoop Empire Online, 2018). The reason is that sports fans in Egypt and globally have come to love Salah and Liverpool, the football club which he represents, and have developed an emotional attachment with the Mo Salah brand. N. El-Bassiouny (*) · S. Hamed · H. Hammad · H. Adib · N. Ammar German University in Cairo, New Cairo City, Egypt e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_8

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Salah had moved to Liverpool last summer of 2017 for 42 million euros (Think Marketing, 2017). Ever since, he has been a symbol of success, perseverance, and dedication; a motto that dreams can be realized with passion and hard work. He has, therefore, been able to reach the hearts of millions of soccer fans globally. The Mo Salah phenomenon is, therefore, worthy of investigation in the context of an ever-globalized world where online customer-to-customer interactions with sports brands are increasingly important for both sportsmen and companies alike. Recent literature has highlighted how sports sponsorship has a significant impact on fans’ behavioral/purchase intentions (Koronios, Psiloutsikou, Kriemadis, Zervoulakos, & Leivaditi, 2016). Recent literature has also attempted to develop scales that measure and assess fans’ love and respect to iconic sports brands (Shuv-Ami, Vrontis, & Thrassou, 2018). Kunkel, Doyle, and Funk (2014) highlighted that sports brand development strategies significantly affect the associations that consumers/fans make with these brands. Global brand management strategies for sports had also been shown to have a significant impact on success in the digital world (Hill & Vincent, 2006). Given the global digitalization phenomenon, this chapter aims at assessing the online customer interactions with the iconic Mo Salah brand. Given the scarcity of research on sports branding, the paper will bridge with extant literature on online customer interactions as well as brand development. The paper will be structured as follows: First, the literature on online customer-to-customer interactions, sports brand development, and emotional attachment with sports brands will be surveyed. This will be followed by highlighting the concept of anthropomorphism in the context of the Mo Salah brand. The chapter will put forth a conceptual framework that will guide the empirical study. This will be followed by methodology, results, and conclusion.

2 Theoretical Background The theoretical background of the present research will be divided into four sections as a backdrop to the present research. First, the literature on online customer interactions will be surveyed. This will be followed by sports brand development and, then, fan emotional identification with sports brands. Finally, the concept of anthropomorphism in the context of branding, and the Mo Salah brand, will be defined.

2.1

Online Customer-to-Customer Interactions

Recent literature has stressed on the importance of word-of-mouth research in C2C interactions (Libai et al., 2010). This word-of-mouth research has been conceived as possible during-the-service experience as well as post-consumption experience

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(Rahman, Karpen, Reid, & Yuksel, 2014). The study of Rahman et al. (2014) shows that word of mouth during-the-experience significantly affects customer brand perceptions and emotional reactions. Libai et al. (2010) highlight the importance of C2C research with respect to online brand communities. They stipulate the richness of these new kinds of data with respect to enriching C2C research (see also Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010; Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels, 2009). Just as companies and service providers create online brand communities, and therefore stimulate word-of-mouth and online C2C interactions, likewise, recent literature also shows the salience of the reverse effect, that is, the significance of positive fan experiences on the stimulation of electronic word-of-mouth marketing, especially on social media platforms (Wakefield & Bennett, 2017). Filo, Lock, and Karg (2015), a study recognized as one of the most cited review articles in Sport Management Review, stressed on the importance of sport management and marketing on social media for relationship marketing efforts specifically because it allows for customer cocreation and user-generated content that creates an emotional bond between sport fans and sport brands. Recent research has also looked into the potential impact of social media on customer relationship management and found that online company–customer interactions reduce churn rate (Maecker, Barrot, & Becker, 2016). Hennig-Thurau et al. (2010) suggest the importance of further examination of the potential impacts of online C2C interactions. Globally, more than 1.2 billion consumers follow Facebook, for instance, to interact online with companies (Maecker et al., 2016). Gruner, Homburg, and Lukas (2014) posit the salience of the relationship between online brand communities and the success of new products. Research that addresses during-the-experience, as well as post-consumption experience with respect to online sports fan communities was not conducted previously, however. Our study would be classified under “user-focused” research at the intersection between social media and sport management research according to Filo et al. (2015) review.

2.2

Sports Brand Development

In sports, the factors that shape consumer attraction and behavior are no longer limited/restricted to winning or team performance (Karjaluoto, Munnukka, & Salmi, 2016). Sports teams are now competing for having a bigger share of their consumers’ minds (Yousaf, Gupta, & Mishra, 2017). Strategic brand management has emerged as a critical issue in the last decade. This is mainly attributed to consumers’ emotional commitment as supporters identify themselves with the organization’s vision and values. As a result, they become more concerned with the organization’s growth. Since supporters tend to be attached to the brand, branding is now considered to be one of the most crucial strategies for ensuring sustainable growth for sports organizations (Baena, 2016). Yet, some researchers debate this view suggesting that supporters hate or resist the idea of branding their favorite football clubs (e.g., Chadwick & Beech, 2007; Chadwick & Holt, 2006; cf. Abosag et al.,

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2012). This is mainly due to the elevated level of identification supporters have with their clubs. Having a strong emotional bond makes supporters more sensitive to the overcommercialization of their favorite clubs. On the other hand, it is argued that the growing commercialization in the football industry has highlighted the importance of branding to supporters who wish to see their clubs competing at higher levels. Supporters reached a point where they realized that the wealthier the club, the higher its capability of attracting/buying better players (Abosag et al., 2012). A number of sport teams were able to establish themselves as valuable global brands beyond their on-field performance. According to Forbes in 2015, Real Madrid was on the top of the world’s most valuable sport teams with a value of $3.26 billion, followed by Dallas Cowboys ($3.20 billion), New York Yankees ($3.20 billion), Barcelona ($3.16 billion), Manchester United ($3.10 billion), and others (Yousaf et al., 2017). Sports brand managers should work on understanding factors beyond success that will ensure significant brand longevity and long-term revenue (Karjaluoto et al., 2016). Three streams of research are identified related to brand management in sports marketing literature. The first stream is concerned with the brand equity of sports organizations. Researchers interested in this stream have proposed a number of industry-specific frameworks and measurements for brand equity. They also investigated a number of factors (i.e., fan support, players) that enhance brand equity and hence the organization performance. The second stream of research aimed to understand brand associations in a sports setting, whereas the third stream focused more on brand loyalty. For instance, researchers have been specifically interested in examining the association between brand loyalty and brand equity components along with the influence of brand associations as unique predictors for brand loyalty (Giannoulakis & Apostolopoulou, 2011). Ansoff (1957) matrix remains to be one of the popular frameworks for growth strategies and has been applied in various settings including the sports setting (e.g., Kunkel et al., 2014). Ansoff (1957) proposed four main strategies known as market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification. The market penetration strategy aims at elevating sales through integrated marketing communications that increase consumers’ exposure to the core product (Kunkel et al., 2014). The core product for football clubs includes the players, the coaches, the venue, the equipment, and finally the rules of the games, whereas anything else is considered extensions (Abosag et al., 2012). As for the market development strategy, it aims at extending the product to new markets (Ansoff, 1957). This could be achieved by attracting international players with high marketing profiles. This strategy has been used widely by a number of football clubs, however, high-profile players from foreign countries are rather scarce representing a constraint for successful development (Chanavat & Bodet, 2009). The product development strategy, on the other hand, involves a modification or an update in the organization core product for new or existing consumers (Ansoff, 1957). This could be done by recruiting higher skilled players/coaches or by introducing minor modifications in the club rules. Finally, the diversification strategy is concerned with introducing a modification to the characteristics of the product to target a new market (Ansoff, 1957). In a sports setting, this strategy involves partnerships with other clubs or asset

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takeovers in new markets. A sports brand can choose to stick to one of the strategies or use a combination of these strategies based on the organization goals and objectives (Kunkel et al., 2014). Personal brand development for top stars also holds great market potential for football sports clubs, but only if it is managed with caution. Social networks, in this case, play a central role as an interactive platform for communicating with fans. Although personal branding can be an integral part of the clubs’ overall brand management, it is normally criticized for its short shelf life. Not only are top players’ lifecycles dependent on their performance but also the sequence of events in their commercial lives is foremost unplanned (Green, 2016). Similarly, Baena (2016) confirms that although the players are considered significant assets to clubs, nonetheless, sports managers need to direct their attention on managing the team’s brand as it represents one of the top assets of the sport organization.

2.3

Fan Identification with Sports Brands

Academics and practitioners alike have delved into the significance of emotional brand attachment for the potential impact that it has on consumer psychology, behaviors, and purchase intentions (Park, MacInnis, Priester, Eisingerich, & Iacobucci, 2010). Park et al. (2010: 2) define brand attachment as “the strength of the bond connecting the brand with the self.” Starting with the premise that brand knowledge can affect consumer purchases, Esch, Langner, Schmoitt, and Geus (2006) actually found that brand image directly affects consumer purchases. Carlson and Donavan (2013) looked into the concept of human athlete brands by examining athlete brand personality and consumer identification. Their research shows that when consumers identified with an athlete brand, they experience brand attachment with the athlete. Karjaluoto et al. (2016) also found that athlete brand personality has a strong effect on brand loyalty among fans. Given that Social Identity theory postulates that people understand their identities based on their perceptions of group membership and affiliations (Hogg, 2016), the present research, therefore, builds on the importance of brand image, and consequently brand identification and attachment, especially in the context of athlete brands. With the importance of the sense of commitment among sports fans and the significance of attachment to their favorite teams, social identity represents the primary aspect of brand relationships in the sports industry (Munnukka, Karjaluoto, Mahlamäki, & Hokkanen, 2017). Social identification refers to an individual’s cognitive judgment of coherence and sense of belonging/fitting in resulting from group membership and affiliation (Watkins, 2014). The social identity theory represents the underpinning framework explaining identification (Carlson, Todd Donavan, & Cumiskey, 2009). The theory postulates that group membership contributes to shaping one’s social identity (Hogg, 2016). Individuals strive to identify with sports teams to proclaim harmony and similarity between their identities and the teams’ identities (Carlson et al., 2009). Such similarity can be based on self-

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expressive or self-enhancement desires to reflect one’s actual-self or ideal-self, respectively (Carlson & Donavan, 2013). Fan identification is, hence, a representation of social identification in the sports context (Watkins, 2014). A stream of research supports that team identification is based on the consideration of sports teams as brands that have personality characteristics. Brand personality—the collection of human attributes consumers associate with the brand—is said to shape one’s identification with sports teams (Carlson et al., 2009; Karjaluoto et al., 2016). Desirable/favorable brand personalities form the prestige and distinctiveness of sports teams; the two main facets predicting one’s identification. The team’s prestigious status and uniqueness motivate individuals to strive to identify and connect with the team as a means for enhancing their image, transferring the positive traits on their self-concept and improving their status (Carlson & Donavan, 2013; Carlson et al., 2009). Analogous to the concept of team identification, the emergence of the notion of athlete human brands has lead individuals to identify with individual athletes (Thomson, 2006). Sports fans are usually stimulated to identify with prestigious and distinctive athletes to express their self-identities, to reflect affiliation with desirable personality traits, and to symbolize aspirational goals and appearances (Carlson & Donavan, 2013). Fan identification results in the development of fan communities. Sport fan communities are acknowledged to be significantly beneficial for the success of sports teams. Fan community identification increases the sense of connection among fan members and elevates the sense of distinctiveness from non-members (Yoshida, Gordon, Heere, & James, 2015). Fan communities are formed for successful athletes to associate with hoped for reference groups and to pursue the conveyance of positive traits into one’s self-identity (Carlson & Donavan, 2013). Social media platforms are considered to be a growing potential avenue for the creation and advancement of sports fan communities. The interactive and communicative nature of social networks is said to have a significant influence on various facets of customer-brand relationships (Munnukka et al., 2017). Building online fan communities, where fans can provide feedback, interact with others, discuss their opinions, and share their feelings, is an important means for uplifting fans’ sense of community belonging (Stokburger-Sauer & Teichmann, 2014). Using social media channels by sports teams was found to strengthen and increase fan identification (Watkins, 2014). Social media platforms were also found to increase the engagement, closeness, and sense of connection with celebrities (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016). The creation of online blogs and chat rooms, that allows fans to have a direct contact with the athlete, helps in satisfying fans’ belonging desires and developing fan identification (Thomson, 2006). Fan identification denotes a prerequisite condition for the development of emotional attachment to sports teams and the demonstration of behavioral consequences that signify their association to the teams (Karjaluoto et al., 2016). Similarly, consumers’ identification with the athlete was found to shape feelings of emotional attachment to the athlete (Carlson & Donavan, 2013). The brand attachment was initially conceptualized by Thomson, MacInnis, and Park (2005) as an emotional bonding. However, the conceptualization of brand attachment has developed to

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incorporate both emotional as well as cognitive connections between the self and the brand reflecting the brand-self connection. Brand-self connection, sometimes referred to as self-brand connections, reflects the relevance of the brand to consumer self-concept (Japutra, Ekinci, & Simkin 2014; Japutra, Ekinci, Simkin, & Nguyen, 2014). Brand-self connection is parallel to the concept of consumer-brand identification (Japutra, Ekinci, Simkin, & Nguyen, 2014). The coherence with the brand, resulting from incorporating the brand into one’s self-concept and identity, innately arouses emotional feelings toward the brand (Park et al., 2010). Recently, the notion of brand prominence has been added to the conceptualization of brand attachment. Brand prominence refers to the “salience” of the bond that connects the brand to the self through the perceived accessibility and frequency with which the thoughts and feelings come to consumers’ minds (Japutra, Ekinci, & Simkin, 2014). Despite that brand-self connection is regarded to be the integral component in brand attachment conceptualization, brand prominence is argued to contribute to measuring the “strength” of the bond between the brand and self (Park et al., 2010). The significance of emotional brand attachment arises from the potential impact that it has on consumer psychology, behaviors, and purchase intentions (Park et al., 2010). A stream of research evidence supports that identification and emotional attachment motivate consumers to engage in behaviors that manifest their associations with the teams such as gift buying, game attendance, watching games, purchasing souvenirs and retail items, and supporting the team (Carlson et al., 2009; Stokburger-Sauer & Teichmann, 2014). Fan identification, rather than satisfaction with team performance, was even found to have a more prominent effect on loyalty (Stokburger-Sauer & Teichmann, 2014). Emotional attachment to sports brands, along with the positive perceptions held in consumers’ minds, was found to have a positive impact on the brand equity of sports teams. The ultimate goal of branding efforts of sports organizations is to build the team’s brand equity (Watkins, 2014). According to Li, Jin, and Yuan (2011), sports brands indeed have brand equity. Based on Keller’s Customer-Based Brand Equity model (Keller, 1993), brand resonance is at the top of the brand equity pyramid and a brand achieves this status through having customer interactions that emphasize the relationship between customers and their brands. The interactive nature of social media platforms and online chat rooms, that open arrays of communications and connections for sports fan, has a positive influence on team’s brand equity (Watkins, 2014). The Mo Salah brand has achieved this status as a lot of online fan communities are found just by searching the hashtag #Mo Salah on social media platforms like Facebook.

2.4

Anthropomorphism and the Mo Salah Brand

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to brands, which reflects on consumers’ perceived personality of these brands (Guido & Peluso, 2015). Once brands take on a human persona, consumers are able to identify with

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them and relate to their attributes. The Mo Salah brand is commonly perceived as a symbol of perseverance, success, dedication to the profession, and an Islamic icon. Anthropomorphism is defined as “the tendency to imbue the real or imagined behavior of nonhuman agents with human-like characteristics, motivations, intentions, or emotions” (Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2007: 864). It is considered a universal tendency (Hart, Jones, & Royne, 2013). Individuals tend to humanize things like personifying their pets and talking to computers (Letheren, Kuhn, Lings, & Pope, 2016; Tuškej Lovšin & Podnar, 2018). Marketers are using such anthropomorphic technique in their advertising (Laksmidewi, Susianto, & Afiff, 2017). Anthropomorphism is usually used as a brand positioning strategy, which facilitates the creation of a positive brand image (Puzakova & Kwak, 2017). Humanized brands are powerful since they are attributed in the consumer’s mind with intelligence and emotions (Hart et al., 2013; Laksmidewi et al., 2017). Such attribution of human characteristics has been related to positive product evaluation (Hart et al., 2013). Moreover, several research studies have confirmed that the usage of anthropomorphism increases the liking of the product and reduces product switching (Laksmidewi et al., 2017; Letheren et al., 2016). The concept of brand anthropomorphism is commonly used as a metaphor for a human being (Hart et al., 2013; Tuškej Lovšin & Podnar, 2018). Consumer perceptions of anthropomorphic brands could be divided into two different dimensions, yet, they are not mutually exclusive. The first type is the perceived similarity between the brand and the human physical characteristics (Rauschnabel & Ahuvia, 2014). According to this dimension, humanization of the brand depends on the extent of human-like external appearance the object has. Specifically, products are more likely to be anthropomorphized when they are able to stimulate human appearance in the consumers’ mind (Guido & Peluso, 2015). For example, advertisements that resemble human features such as the toys that speak (Laksmidewi et al., 2017). Self-brand congruity is the second dimension of brand anthropomorphism; that is the extent of correspondence between the products and the consumers’ self-concept (Guido & Peluso, 2015). Other studies relate to this dimension as “mentalizing,” which attribute human traits to non-human objects (Rauschnabel & Ahuvia, 2014). Self-concept refers to how consumers perceive themselves. Such a concept includes different views of oneself: “actual self-concept,” which is the view of who you think you are, “ideal self-concept,” this refers to the one who you wish to be, “social selfconcept,” that is the one who you believe others think you are, and “ideal social selfconcept,”, which is the one you wish others think you are. Thus, consumers’ perception of the anthropomorphic brands depends on the level of consistency between the brand and their actual, ideal, social, and ideal social self-concept (Guido & Peluso, 2015). In other words, consumers tend to select brands that reflect their own selves because they like to see part of themselves in the brands they purchase. In such a case, consumers build a personal relationship with the brands (Aggarwal & McGill, 2011; Guido & Peluso, 2015; Portal, Abratt, & Bendixen, 2018). Similarly, recent studies have supported how brand attributes and consumer identities influence buying decisions (Karjaluoto et al., 2016).

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In the current study, Mo Salah brand symbolizes a community pride, who is a successful, enthusiastic, and dedicated person. By tying brands to Mo Salah, marketers hope to transfer his positive personality attributes to the brand (Aggarwal & McGill, 2011; Letheren et al., 2016). This supports the idea that anthropomorphism is a unique part of building a brand personality (Portal et al., 2018; Stinnett, Hardy, & Waters, 2013). Particularly, the commercialization of sports icons had received greater attention from the media due to the success of associating sports athletes with brands. Being a fan of Mo Salah brand is linked to self-identity and a sense of belonging and this is postulated to influence purchase behaviors (Karjaluoto et al., 2016). Similarly, extant literature has supported that usage of anthropomorphic character has a positive effect on consumer attitudes toward a brand, increase brand trust, and enhance brand identity, and thus, purchase intentions (Hart et al., 2013; Laksmidewi et al., 2017).

3 Conceptual Framework As previously noted, brand resonance is at the tip of Keller’s (1993) seminal Customer-Based Brand Equity pyramid as indicated by customer interactions and online user-generated content. Therefore, conversely, studying online customer interactions and attitudes would reflect on a brand’s equity. Based on the tri-component attitude model, consumers’ attitudinal reactions to brands are divided into cognitive, affective, and conative attitudes (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2004). Our research, therefore, aims at assessing the online comments of sports spectators related to the Mo Salah brand (hashtag #Mo Salah) with respect to these three dimensions; cognitive, affective/emotional, and conative/behavioral responses and extrapolate the salience of these factors for the brand resonance component of brand equity. Since recent literature had conceptualized particular components for the athlete brand image (Arai, Ko, & Ross, 2014), we analyzed the fans’ three types of comments in terms of these proposed attributes as a contribution and operationalization to past literature. In particular, Arai et al. (2014) had noted that athlete brand image is a function of “athletic performance,” “attractive appearance,” and “marketable lifestyle” (see Fig. 1). Athletic performance covers attributes such

Online Mo Salah Sports Fan Communities

Cognitive Attitudinal Comments

Athletic Performance

Affective Attitudinal Comments

Attractive Appearance

Conative Attitudinal Comments

Marketable Lifestyle

Fig. 1 Conceptualization of the research framework (Source: Authors’ own figure)

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as “athletic expertise,” “competition style,” “sportsmanship,” and “rivalry.” Attractive appearance covers “physical attractiveness,” “symbol,” and “body fitness.” Finally, “marketable lifestyle” includes “life story,” “role model,” and “relationship effort” (Arai et al., 2014).

4 Methodology Qualitative research involves the analysis of data in unstructured manners and in ways that do not incorporate quantitative approaches. Recently, qualitative research was also conducted online through Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). According to Dholakia and Zang (2004), techniques like netnography are abundantly utilized in online qualitative research. Netnography is a term coined by Kozinets (2002) which basically means ethnography on the Internet. The technique involves the online “unobtrusive” observation and interpretive analysis of textual discourse in chat rooms and online communities. According to Kozinets (2002: 61), netnography “provides information on the symbolism, meanings, and consumption patterns of online consumer groups,” and is a technique that is faster and cheaper than traditional ethnographic research. After obtaining observation data through netnography, content analysis presents itself as another qualitative research technique that involves the systematic analysis of the content of communication or textual discourse. The process of inference building using content analysis occurs through classifying observed textual data into categories and endowing these categories with meaning. Themes and patterns are then drawn from these categories. Since we start off with a theoretical base on which to code our content analysis of online textual discourse, we are using the directed content analysis method (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). Our aim in this case, according to Hsieh and Shannon (2005: 1281), is to validate or “extend conceptually a theoretical framework,” which is in this case, that of the athlete brand image developed by Arai et al. (2014). Previous literature had used qualitative research techniques in sports marketing and management research (Hoeber & Shaw, 2017; Kunkel et al., 2014). This research will, therefore, couple netnographic techniques with content analysis of textual discourse publicly available online in chat rooms and online brand communities associated with the hashtag #Mo Salah. To ensure being comprehensive in our approach, we included several keywords that are becoming common in Egypt with respect to Premiere League icon and football player Mohamed Salah. These included #King of Egypt, #Mo Salah (in Arabic and English), as well as #Mohamed Salah. The 14 biggest (in terms of size) associated online brand communities were under study. These included both Egyptian and international official pages and groups as well as those created by fans of Mohamed Salah and Liverpool. Three hundred and thirty-seven fan comments on different posts were collected and analyzed in terms of the nine conceptualized components of the athlete brand image. Posts analyzed were all from March and April 2018. These included text-based posts, photos shared,

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videos, and a combination of all three. The analysis utilized coding with the NVivo 12 qualitative analysis software.

5 Findings Analysis of fan comments started by categorizing each comment under one of the nine-factor combinations established through the conceptual framework. This analysis would thereby help in identifying how online brand communities affect sport spectators’ attitudes and the brand resonance of the Mo Salah brand. The nine-factor combinations were named as follows: cognitive  athletic performance; cognitive  attractive appearance; cognitive  marketable lifestyle; affective  athletic performance; affective  attractive appearance; affective  marketable lifestyle; conative  athletic performance; conative  attractive appearance; and conative  marketable lifestyle. The analysis was based on coding to collect frequencies for each factor combination. Accordingly, each comment was assigned to only one of the respective factor combinations. The total score under each combination was then calculated to identify how brand resonance is formed in the case of the Mo Salah brand/athlete. Table 1 shows the frequencies associated with every component with the attitudinal reactions as the guiding skeleton for the division. The majority of the comments have an affective nature, followed by cognitive content, and finally conative attitudes. More specifically, the majority of comments fall under cognitive  athletic performance followed by affective  athletic performance. Cognitive comments related to Mo Salah’s athletic performance showed content revolving around his number of goals and his performance in the games. Content of comments also Table 1 Total scores of brand attitude for brand resonance components of Mo Salah fan comments

Total

Total

Total

Cognitive Cognitive  attractive appearance 4 155 Affective Affective  athletic performance 94 167 Conative Conative  athletic performance 7 15

Source: Authors’ own table

Cognitive  attractive appearance 4

Cognitive  attractive appearance 4

Affective  athletic performance 94

Affective  athletic performance 94

Conative  athletic performance 7

Conative  athletic performance 7

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revolved around comparing Mo Salah’s performance to other top players around the world such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Other comments revolved around analyzing how the success of Liverpool would not have been possible without Mo Salah’s athletic performance. Although cognitive in nature, these comments show the emotional attachment of fans and online spectators to Mo Salah’s (in addition to Liverpool’s) vision and values and their focus on the growth of the athlete and his football club. In terms of the Ansoff (1957) matrix, there is a clear focus on the players as the core product of the football club. This attachment to the core product should be utilized in sports brand development strategies to ensure ongoing fan support and sport organizational growth on the long-run. Affective comments related to Mo Salah’s athletic performance showed that the content of comments revolved around showing love and admiration for Mo Salah. Fans are fascinated by him and refer to him mostly as the “Egyptian King.” Most Egyptian comments revolved around prayers for him for further success in his athletic career. Many comments also included a reference to Mo Salah’s personal characteristics such as being humble, generous, and positive. Some of the comments going along these lines would indicate that Mo Salah has become a role model for many people. These comments would also include a wish for other athletes and practitioners to have the same characteristics to make the world a better place. Reference to Mo Salah’s personality indicates the strong brand loyalty of fans (Karjaluoto et al., 2016), as fans are not only focusing on the athletic performance of the athlete but rather relate to him on an emotional and personal level. With reference to the Social Identity theory, fans agree together and support the personal characteristics of Mo Salah, which creates a harmonious social brand community with the same characteristics depicted through the athlete (Hogg, 2016). This, in turn, creates coherence and the sense of belonging referred to by Watkins (2014) and Hogg (2016) among the fans of these online brand communities. Many comments, especially from Egyptians and Arabs, showed how proud fans are of the player as an Egyptian Muslim who is a good representation for the country and religion. This links to the anthropomorphism of the Mo Salah brand. Fans believe there is high consistency between their culture, ideal-selves, and actualselves and the characteristics shown through Mo Salah as an athlete. Based on Guido and Peluso (2015), it can be explained that sport fans are admiring the Mo Salah brand on a deep emotional level as they see a reflection of themselves in him. These comments reflect the community pride associated with the Mo Salah brand. Therefore, many brands as Uber, Vodafone Egypt, and Pepsi are using Mo Salah as a brand ambassador for them. Results shown in Table 1 show that affective  marketable lifestyle is the third highest category with comments. If findings are to be divided based on the brand image components, Table 2 would be developed as seen next. The highest amount of fan comments showed appreciation and admiration for the player’s athletic performance, which conforms to the results in Table 1. Deeper analysis shows that the marketable lifestyle received a total of 96 when all components (cognitive with 35, affective with 54, and conative with 7) are added together to come in second place after an athletic performance. Content analyzed

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indicated that fans regard Mo Salah as a role model that they look up to. Reference was made several times as well to kids taking Mo Salah as their role model in life. One fan’s comment (when translated from Arabic) states: My drawing with ballpoint pen to Mohamed Salah (reference is made to an attached drawing of Mo Salah). Salah is the best in the world. I am trying to be like you but in the field of drawing. I will try with all my power to become someone recognizable. Thank you for giving us hope again. May God bless you.

This comment shows that people take Mo Salah as a role model, not only in an athletic sense but in the sense of achieving one’s aspirations and life goals and dreams. This comment, among others, indicates how sports fans try to relate with distinctive and unique athletes to express their aspirations in terms of personal characteristics and goals. Such comments also show the self-enhancement desires of fans in terms of improving their actual state or their desires and ideal-self (Carlson & Donavan, 2013). According to Thomson et al. (2005), linking one’s ideal-self and desires to an athletic figure can be reflected in a cognitive and emotional manner, which creates the brand-self connection. This can also be deduced from Table 2. Comments under the marketable lifestyle were mostly of an affective (with 54 comments) and cognitive nature (35 comments). Fans admiring Mo Salah’s personal characteristics and lifestyle referred to these characteristics and their worthiness in life (cognitive) or wished to do the same and reflected on their personal dreams (affective). The self-enhancement desires that are apparent in these comments further show conative attitudinal reactions of fans toward changing and prospering in their careers and passion. This supports evidence provided by Stokburger-Sauer and Teichmann (2014) and Carlson et al. (2009) about how strong emotional attachments with sports brands can create behavioral intentions within consumers to follow the same

Table 2 Total scores of brand image for brand resonance components of Mo Salah fan comments

Total

Total

Total

Athletic performance Cognitive  athletic performance 116 217 Attractive appearance Cognitive  attractive appearance 4 24 Marketable lifestyle Cognitive  marketable lifestyle 35 96

Source: Authors’ own table

Affective  athletic performance 94

Conative  athletic performance 7

Affective  attractive appearance 19

Conative  attractive appearance 1

Affective  marketable lifestyle 54

Conative  marketable lifestyle 7

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Fig. 2 Mo Salah brand resonance map (NVivo 12 output) (Source: Authors’ own figure)

footsteps of athletes and their teams. This is why social marketing campaigns in Egypt, such as anti-drug campaigns, are currently making use of this iconic athlete to affect positively people’s behaviors in the society. Based on Spencer (2018), there was a 400% increase in applications for rehab in Egypt due to the Mo Salah inspirations reflected in those campaigns. In spite of these actions, findings from Tables 1 and 2 indicated that fans do not clearly communicate their conative attitudinal responses. Comments also focused the least on Mo Salah’s appearance. Figure 2 next visualizes the different brand resonance components based on the attitudinal reactions and brand image components analyzed in Tables 1 and 2.

6 Conclusion and Implications This research started on the premise of the importance of customer-to-customer interactions in online brand communities and the need for more research in this domain with respect to sports brands. The research built on the tri-component attitude model, well used in the consumer behavior literature, to identify and dissect fan reactions to the newly conceived and popular Mo Salah brand as a reflection of its customer-based brand equity. The research also utilized Arai et al. (2014) conceptualization of athlete brand image. We utilized the netnography technique in conducting interpretive online observations to all online brand communities relevant to the hashtag #Mo Salah. Our investigation is thus unique and novel in both aim and approach. Our findings show that athletic performance and marketable lifestyle are the most prominent components of the #Mo Salah brand image with the affective attitudinal component gaining precedence. Our research can be useful to sports marketers interested in utilizing effective appeals in marketing the Mo Salah brand or using it as a marketing tool. Emphasis of the ads, in this case, should be placed on Mo Salah’s athletic performance as well as his lifestyle. Our findings particularly show that Mo Salah is regarded as a role model for the young segment. Future research can further look into dissecting every component of the athletic brand image and uncovering the details relevant to it. Given the qualitative nature of our investigation, our results are particular to the #Mo Salah brand and should be generalized with caution.

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The Future for Sport Entrepreneurship Ted Hayduk III

Abstract There has been quite a bit of attention devoted to sport entrepreneurship—especially in recent years. Thus, it is time to reflect on what has been articulated so far, to explain why the sport industry’s unique characteristics make it an ideal context for the continued study of entrepreneurial phenomena, and to suggest a roadmap for future work. In suggesting future work, this chapter makes the case that for sport entrepreneurship to maintain and enhance its impact, there will need to be an increased focus on the role of technology in sport. The chapter articulates opportunities for future work in technological entrepreneurship using Ratten’s (International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal 7(1):57–69, 2011) model as a guide. In sum, the chapter suggests five key focus areas: (1) sport organizations’ business strategy, (2) the continued evolution of the sport product, (3) the use of sport analytics, (4) the development of new sport offerings, and (5) the sustainability and social impact of sport.

1 Introduction There has been plenty of work conducted in sport entrepreneurship thus far, and these works have yielded sets of pertinent insights for sport managers, entrepreneurs, and academics. As a sub-stream of entrepreneurship and sport management research, sport entrepreneurship has gained insight and prominence. This began when Ratten (2010) initially formalized the themes found in prior work like Spilling (1996a, 1996b), Ball (2005), and Chalip and Leyns (2002). Ratten’s (2010) contribution was important because it solidified the position of sport within entrepreneurship frameworks. It did so by arguing that sport may be a catalyst for entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity. Ratten (2011) then proposed a framework that articulated the nine dynamic domains of sport that can benefit from the application of an entrepreneurial lens. This contribution also proposed several categories of sport entrepreneurship, such as community-based sport entrepreneurship, social sport T. Hayduk III (*) New York University, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_9

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entrepreneurship, and corporate sport entrepreneurship. Since these works, other scholarship has furthered the investigation of these frameworks and contributed to the field’s flourishing. However, there is still much work left to do if the field is to grow its practical and theoretical utility. The largest challenge facing sport entrepreneurship is the need to evolve at the same rate as the industry. Sport properties are becoming ever more mindful of innovative, dynamic ways to conduct business. Venture capitalist firms without traditional expertise in sport-specific sectors are now motivated to devote significant resources to sport startups. Athletes all around the globe like Steph Curry, Kobe Bryant, Thierry Henry, and Andy Murray are making successful investments in early stage companies with the help of financial advisors and professional money managers. Sport properties are also realizing their influence in the context of social entrepreneurship. Given the volume and rate of change as described here, there is a need for sport entrepreneurship to devote attention toward its future. To ensure that the field of sport entrepreneurship evolves alongside academic and industry standards, this chapter undertakes three main objectives. The first objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of sport entrepreneurship’s major contributions thus far. This is done to chart the current scope of work and highlight the accomplishments made until now. The intent is to provide a concise, non-exhaustive overview of important resources that future sport entrepreneurs can use to build theory, and frame empirical work. Second, the chapter aims to outline the elements of the sport industry that make it ideally suited for the continued investigation of entrepreneurship phenomena. This is undertaken in order to reinforce how the natural overlaps between sport and entrepreneurship can benefit parent disciplines like business and management. In essence, this objective hopes to stimulate the interest of two groups. The first is sport management scholars who are seeking to apply entrepreneurship theory to their work. The second is management scholars who wish to use sport contexts as a laboratory to study entrepreneurship and management phenomena. By inciting the mutual interest of both groups, sport entrepreneurship theories can actively contribute to parent disciplines in management, business strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurship. The third objective of this chapter is to suggest a non-exhaustive agenda for future research at the intersection of sport and entrepreneurship. Given that today’s sporting environments are technology dependent, this portion of the chapter focuses on understanding the role of technology in future sport entrepreneurship research. This is done in order to help ensure the planned progression of the sport entrepreneurship field and to hedge against the overdevelopment of any single sub-stream of sport entrepreneurship, because technology affects all of these areas equally. A balance of research topics and domain areas in sport entrepreneurship is important for the long-term stability of the field—it will also help scholars from various subfields of sport entrepreneurship be inclusive of one another’s work and to facilitate active communication that enhances the field for all. It is important to note that the suggestions for future research listed here are meant to inspire scholarly creativity, not to place bounds upon what “should” be researched.

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The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. First, an overview of the major theoretical and practical contributions in sport entrepreneurship is provided. This section discusses work prior to and after sport entrepreneurship was formalized conceptually. Next, the chapter explains why the continued use of entrepreneurship frameworks are ideal for investigating the sport industry. This section focuses on aspects of the sport industry that are unique and explaining the entrepreneurial phenomena that are most relevant. Last, the chapter describes the next steps for sport entrepreneurship by describing a research agenda. This section uses Ratten’s (2011) nine domains as a guide to highlight which areas of sport entrepreneurship have been a focus, and which areas are in greater need of development.

2 Theoretical Contributions Thus Far In the 1990s and early 2000s, there were several foundational articles that explored the overlap of sport end entrepreneurship. Spilling (1996a, 1996b) was the first to make the connection between the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics and the concept of an entrepreneurial system. He describes and the entrepreneurial system as an interacting set of actors, opportunities, and environmental factors that determine the entrepreneurial viability and performance of a region. Spilling (1996a, 1996b) documents how announcing Lillehammer as the host location set off a string of important developments among various stakeholders. He also highlighted the institutional and community outcomes these developments resulted in. He concluded that the announcement of the Olympics was generative of actors’ entrepreneurial orientation and overall increased productivity in the region. Similarly, Chalip and Leyns (2002) investigated whether small businesses acted entrepreneurially to produce additional revenue from a medium size-sporting event. The authors document that owners of these businesses did not recognize the opportunity or act entrepreneurially to leverage it. Ball (2005) acutely described the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation to sport tourism and advocated for increased application of entrepreneurship theories to sport management and education. Hall (2006) determined that the hosting of sport mega events stimulates urban entrepreneurship and innovation at the local and regional level. Finally, Gorse, Chadwick, and Burton (2010) explored how non-sport brands can execute entrepreneurial objectives via marketing of a sport product. However, sport entrepreneurship had existed only in a nascent stage until as recently as 2010. Current formalizations have melded sport and entrepreneurship more closely together, describing the construct of “sport entrepreneurship” as leveraging both sport and entrepreneurship to generate economic or social capital (Ratten, 2012). For example, a large sport enterprise is utilizing sport entrepreneurship when it makes the leading efforts to find and serve new geographic markets. These same organizations are employing sport entrepreneurship when they expand into new product categories such as eSports, or when they acquire new components of the sport value chain by managing their own distribution. Additionally, sport entrepreneurship can occur in small business contexts, as well. A sport technology

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startup is a form of sport entrepreneurship in that it is generating new value in a yetto-be exploited product category or using a new value proposition to compete with incumbents. Furthermore, sport entrepreneurship need not be profit focused. Sport entrepreneurship can also encompass community leaders providing sport programming for youth in order to teach leadership skills, sociability, etc. In all of these examples, individuals (i.e., sport entrepreneurs) show a willingness to accommodate risk, to think creatively about deploying constrained resources, and to reinvent old business models—which are the three foundations of entrepreneurship (Holt, Rutherford, & Clohessy, 2007). Ratten (2010) was first to identify formally the parallels between entrepreneurship and sport, highlighting how sport inherently requires the proactivity, resilience, and risk taking commonly attributed to entrepreneurial activities. This work highlighted that sport and entrepreneurship are both especially volatile and unpredictable endeavors, so it follows that skillsets and traits desirable for success in the former are likely helpful in the latter. Following this, Ratten (2011) drew attention to the dynamic and increasingly fragmented qualities shared by sport and entrepreneurship, including the development of business strategy, managing crises, predicting performance, impacting social issues, and others. In parallel with these contributions, research has highlighted how sport and entrepreneurship both depend on creativity and innovation. Ratten and Ferreira (2016) discuss in detail how innovation affects sport and entrepreneurship, denoting that innovation has long been a method by which sport organizations have enhanced performance on the field of play, increased their fanbases, procured additional services, and optimized revenue. Innovation and creativity are also integral to entrepreneurship. Schumpeter (1934) posits that entrepreneurship is accomplished via the “creative destruction” of traditional market dynamics, which is a view that has provided a foundation for nearly all subsequent entrepreneurship research. In sum, the body of work around sport entrepreneurship has progressed in recent years, and the field can now boast a strong foundation upon which to conduct empirical research.

3 Sport as a Laboratory for Entrepreneurship Research The formalization of sport entrepreneurship as a worthwhile construct has resulted in a flourishing of contributions to the field. At this writing, a search of Google Scholar returned 66 articles with the terms “sport” and “entrepreneurship” both present in the titles. Two-thirds (44) of these articles were published in the years since 2015, and one-third (22) were published since 2018. This distribution is a testament to the increased attention academics are paying to explore sport’s overlaps with entrepreneurship. Scholars are beginning to ground their investigations of sport organizations in entrepreneurship theory for a number of practical reasons. This section enumerates the unique elements of the sport industry that make this space uniquely insightful for the study of entrepreneurship phenomena. In sport, consumers are involved to a greater extent with innovations than in other industries because they are emotionally engaged, active participants as opposed to

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passive consumers (Newell & Swan, 1995). Sport consumers are more highly identified with the brands they align themselves with, and their patronage of those brands tends to run much longer than their associations with other brands (Underwood, Bond, & Baer, 2001). It is common in sport for a consumer to maintain a deep emotional commitment to a brand for their entire lifetime. This high involvement lends itself well to studying the entrepreneurial concepts of consumer-centrism, hypertargeting and hyper-segmentation of consumers, and managing brand evolution. Many new brands in traditional segments like consumer products, retail, and even commodities are attempting to emulate a service model of product delivery, wherein consumers and their preferences are positioned at the center of a firm’s business model and are being interwoven with the value chain. This shift is regarded as an entrepreneurial approach to doing business in relation to older methods. Therefore, the sport industry has led the way in his regard by tapping into fans’ emotional ties with the team and strong sense of social identification with sport brands. This has provided direct insights to other service industries like hospitality, retail, and tourism (Underwood et al., 2001), and is beginning to be applied to other industries by entrepreneurial and innovative firms willing to take risks by giving their consumers a direct role in product development and design. Also, the core sport product itself is intangible and its quality cannot be guaranteed (Blair, 2011). Sport brands are selling the excitement of viewing contests—either live or remotely via TV or streaming service. And, contests are more exciting to a broader audience when the outcome is more uncertain (Salaga & Tainsky, 2015). Problematically, there is no way to ensure that any given contest will be exciting—that is, there is no way for brands to ensure a close match. Consider, for example, the 2014 National Football League’s (NFL) Super Bowl—the most extravagant single-sport event in North America. This single contest generates in-game advertising revenues between $300 and $500 million. International media distributors are currently paying a total of $27 billion for the exclusive right to promote and broadcast the event. Yet, in 2014, the game was largely decided by halftime. The Seattle Seahawks would go on to beat the Denver Broncos in one of the most lopsided Super Bowls in history. Given that fans generally prefer competitive games to non-competitive games (Rottenberg, 1956; Sanderson & Siegfried, 2003), the risks attached to the sport product should be evident. Likewise, entrepreneurship is considered an especially risky form of business activity due to the disparate returns generated by new ventures compared to incumbents (Cochrane, 2005). Thus, scholarship has realized that there is a substantial benefit to exploring how risk attached to the sport product can inform other risky investments and emerging marketplaces. By studying the sport industry’s approach to handling and mitigating risk, other industry leaders can gain insight that may inform their own entrepreneurial orientation. Third, the sport industry is typically seen as intensely cyclical. Sport leagues and teams produce a seasonal product, fitness facilities and gyms gain the bulk of new membership in the first quarter of the calendar year, and sporting events generate distinct patterns and influxes of tourism, economic activity, and media attention (Chalip & Costa, 2005). Even participatory sport in many parts of the world is seasonal—high- and low-latitude locations have difficulty promoting and providing

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outdoor sports like golf and tennis during the winter months, for example. In conjunction with the cyclical nature of sport, elements of the sport industry value chain are unusual in that production, distribution, and consumption of the core sport product (i.e., the contests) occurs simultaneously. The on-field product occurs organically, and in that same moment, it is distributed around the world to fans who consume it. Moreover, on the heels of social media, fans can now provide product feedback in real time. This creates a value chain that is infinitely more rapid than in traditional linear industries. Distributors can make alterations in the packaging and distribution of the product on a weekly or even hourly basis, as opposed to quarterly or yearly basis. The cyclicality and immediacy of sport and sport-adjacent sectors create an ideal environment for scholars to examine entrepreneurship phenomena related to iteration, rapid prototyping, and agile management. These entrepreneurial concepts all share a common approach to product development in that they promote quick repetitions of product modifications and enhancements based on consumer feedback. Scholars studying entrepreneurial phenomena in this space can likely learn a lot from studying the sport industry’s rapid successions of product modifications and devotion to consumer insights. Last, sport is an activity that is deeply rooted in cultures all around the world and in all societies since the beginning of recorded history (Guttmann, 2004). Its ubiquity and importance make it an industry that is more attached to society than any other. Sport is commonly seen as a mechanism to deploy development initiatives (S4D; Kidd, 2013), diversity and inclusion efforts (Cunningham, 2017), and programs that break down social and cultural walls (Gemar, 2018; Gruneau, 1983). Nearly every professional and notable amateur sport organization conducts community outreach, social responsibility initiatives, and human rights campaigns. At the franchise level, teams commonly tackle issues relevant to their fellow community residents. For example, the San Francisco Giants have collaborated with Airbnb and Hamilton Families to help bring awareness to and fight the housing shortage currently affecting the Bay Area (hamilsonfamilies.org). In addition, members of the Detroit Lions recently donated 40,000 bottles of freshwater to the residents of Flint, Michigan, a city that has been facing water contamination concerns since 2016. At the league level, sport organizations have been aiming to provide aid and awareness to issues of national importance. The NFL Play 60 campaign has been in existence for over 10 years, and through their partnership with the American Heart Association, has been developing and providing programs to fight childhood obesity. Similarly, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) ‘NBA Cares’ initiative tackles issues of national significance like childhood education, military veteran support, and family development. While there is some voiced skepticism about the seriousness and legitimacy of these initiatives (Levermore, 2011), the same can be said of social responsibility efforts in any industry. The fact remains that sport properties, especially at the team level, are regarded as more trusted members of the community than firms in other industries. Within their communities, these sport organizations have recognized the platform upon which they are placed by residents, and have largely tried to uphold the trust and respect their exalted status comes with. In so doing, they have leveraged sport’s ability to captivate and to motivate large groups toward a

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common goal. Because of the close synergies between many sport properties and their communities, there is a significant potential for sport entrepreneurship to inform the study of social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship has grown in significance recently as a scholarship has attached a more rigorous definition to the construct. Martin and Osberg (2007) describe social entrepreneurship as direct actions that create and sustain new equilibriums in the “market for social advancement.” Imbedded in this definition is the fact that social entrepreneurs shoulder additional risk, both personally and professionally. They also seek to deliver a product or service that addresses a specific social problem, and many of them aim to do it at scale. To facilitate scalability, social entrepreneurs often explore new and innovative business models that incorporate elements of a for-profit business. In sum, sport organizations are uniquely positioned as for-profit enterprises that also encourage social cohesion and community development. Social entrepreneurship scholarship can study sport contexts to understand how non-sport firms can position themselves between these two worlds, or how they can use sport as a fulcrum to legitimize their social responsibility initiatives. In sum, there are natural fits between entrepreneurship processes and what is happening in the sport industry. The sport industry has undergone a radical change in the past 10 years, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. Distribution, consumption, production, and feedback loops are all fundamentally different than they were in the prior decade as the sport industry becomes increasingly dependent on new ways of doing business. As more scholars recognize the theoretical utility imbedded in the sport industry, two things will hopefully matriculate. First, entrepreneurship researchers will begin to think about the sport industry as a laboratory for the study of entrepreneurship phenomena. Simultaneously, sport researchers will see the benefit entrepreneurship theories can bring to sport research and begin to apply those frameworks more directly. For sport researchers to fully capture the phenomena they are investigating (which occur within this highly dynamic and rapidly disintermediated environment) formal entrepreneurship theories will prove helpful. This book represents one such manifestation of this process, as the topics covered here relate directly to entrepreneurial systems (Chapter “Entrepreneurship in Sport Policy: A New Approach”), social responsibility, and social entrepreneurship (Chapter “Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility in Team Sport Clubs”), leveraging sport properties for innovation (Chapters “Sport innovation: An opportunity for technological-based companies stimulated by the Brazil Olympics” and “Non-parametric Analysis of Factors Affecting the Competitive Structure of Europe’s Advanced Football Leagues”), entrepreneurial brand development (Chapters “Brand Equity on Surf Destinations: Alacati Sample” and “Online C2C Interactions with Sports Bands: Insights from the #Mo Salah Brand”), and using sport and entrepreneurship for inclusion (Chapter “A Gender Perspective of Sport-Based Entrepreneurship”). These contributions are unique and powerful, and the information contained in these passages will undoubtedly influence the further development of sport entrepreneurship, sport management, and entrepreneurship in general.

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4 Technological Disruption and the Future of Sport Entrepreneurship Research The third objective of this manuscript is to chart the next steps for sport entrepreneurship research with an eye toward technology. This is done by first discussing where most of the work has been concentrated so far, and then highlighting areas where more work is needed. This section is structured around Ratten’s (2011) model of the dynamic aspects of sport entrepreneurship. This model presents domains in which the application of an entrepreneurship framework would prove beneficial. Altogether, the model presents nine domains, some of which have received the bulk of attention while others have not. Thus far, research has first focused on the marketing domain, referred to as “promotional strategies” in Ratten’s (2011) model. This work has highlighted the importance of marketing innovations like social media channels (Brison, Byon, & Baker, 2016; Clavio & Walsh, 2014; Filo, Lock, & Karg, 2015; Santomier & Hogan, 2013). Another area of emphasis has been on athlete performance optimization (Burkett, 2010; Liebermann et al., 2002; Loland, 2002, 2009), which fits into Ratten’s (2011) model under the performance management domain. Despite these advancements, there is more work left to do. Entrepreneurship as enumerated by Schumpeter (1934) is not merely a theory of how to do business creatively—it is a theory of how technology can be used to exploit supply and demand inefficiencies. The outcome of such effort by enterprising firms leads to drastic changes in regional and national marketplaces. Schumpeter (1934) speaks to the centrality of creative destruction, whereby a market inefficiency is detected by an enterprising firm and leveraged accordingly to undercut or disintermediate the market status quo. From this disequilibria, additional rents can be extracted beyond that which the market would have supplied in a perpetual state of near efficiency (Acs, Desai, & Hessels, 2008). Therefore, technological entrepreneurship is a valuable framework because it provides a source of scalable economic growth beyond what entrepreneurs can create as creators of jobs and new business. Because of the central role that technology plays in creative disruption, this section focuses on the future of technology research in sport, and specifically, how technology will continue to help entrepreneurial startups and incumbents alter the market for sport products.

4.1 4.1.1

Technology in New Sport Contexts Business Strategy

First, scholarship in this area can benefit by exploring the application of sport technology to contexts beyond marketing and athlete performance. One promising area is assessing how sport organizations’ business strategy is being changed

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through entrepreneurial investments. Earlier, this chapter mentioned that many sport properties are investing in sport technology startups, and are implementing accelerator programs and incubators to source and vet these new opportunities. This represents a significant alteration to the traditional business strategy of sports’ teams and leagues. For most of these entities’ existence, revenue has been generated through one of four verticals: ticket sales, broadcast rights, licensing and merchandise sales, and sponsorships. In the past, most sport teams were privately owned by families. Now that an increasing number of teams are structured more creatively, there is a heightened emphasis on maximizing the returns to ownership via alternative investments. This shift in business strategy is congruent with placing greater emphasis on research and development (R&D), which is an expense not typically undertaken in the sport industry. By generating net new income from an investment vertical, sport properties are effectually engaging in horizontal diversification, which comes with additional portfolio management requirements. In as much, teams and leagues are also exploring and eventually owning distribution and production startups. These two functions reside further down the sport industry’s value chain, meaning teams and leagues must become more proficient in the execution of vertical diversification efforts. Developing expertise in this area of business strategy is also not easy, as the efficiency returns to be gained are counterbalanced by knowledge gaps and the emerging nature of the market for digital downstream offerings. Therefore, sport researchers can examine how entrepreneurship plays a role in teams’ and leagues’ decisions to pursue such initiatives. They can also begin to chart how the successful execution of these new business units is achieved in this turbulent, nascent market.

4.1.2

Product Innovation

Product innovation is another pertinent domain of Ratten’s (2011) model that sport entrepreneurship researchers can investigate. Product innovation is related to business strategy in that sport properties are producing a wider range of products than previously thought as well as enhancing these products with new features more rapidly. Sport teams, in addition to their on-field product and branded merchandise, have successfully extended their brand into verticals like restaurants, bars and fine dining, home goods and furniture, physical fitness facilities, hotels and conference centers, and golf courses. Entrepreneurial sport properties are successfully able to extend their brand into such disparate product categories more so than firms in traditional industries are. This unique feature of sport brands lends itself well to entrepreneurship scholars who are studying entrepreneurial brand building as well as management and marketing scholars who are studying brand extension. And, sport marketing scholars studying sport brand extensions can find benefit in applying an entrepreneurship framework to their analyses. Moreover, the game product is being enhanced using technologies like advanced on-screen visuals, live analytics, super slow-motion video capture, and ultra-high definition cameras. IBM, for example, recently deployed its IBM Watson technology at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. In

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partnership with video analytics provider Opta, the technologies locate and track players on the pitch and allow commentators to produce on-screen statistical analyses updated in real time (Ogus, 2019). Product enhancements are also taking place as teams explore new modes of capture and distribution on social media. Highlights posted to Instagram and Twitter make game footage more digestible for fans on the go. They also provide a unique degree of access to behind the scenes footage not previously distributable en masse. In this instance, the combination of a technology platform and its software has successfully altered the way new generations consume and interact with sport properties (Funk, 2017). The live game product is another area where technologically focused enhancements are occurring at a fervent pace. Live sport consumption traditionally takes place in a stadium atmosphere—an area ripe for technological infusion. The development, construction, optimization, and sponsorship of these facilities is changing rapidly, but sport entrepreneurship research has not delved deeply into this area. Over 50 start-up firms are currently applying new technologies to enhance the stadium experience in areas like advanced building materials, connected device analytics, consumer behavior tracking, fan sentiment analysis, concessions and payments, ticket sales, crowd management and access control, and live gambling. Employing these technologies in a live game environment can help sport properties regulate tangible and intangible elements of the fan experience and increase engagement with the on-field developments. As Funk (2017) explains, the sport consumption experience as aided by technology has necessitated an expanded view of “live consumption,” whereby fans interact with the property long before arriving and long after they leave the event. Their consumption process is nearly perpetual and, once they arrive on location, much more fluid. Data capture and analysis using the types of technologies listed above will aid sport brands in their quest to understand the new behaviors entailed in live consumption. Moreover, there will be concerns related to data management and privacy as teams and their facilities amalgamate and process data at an exponential rate. Thousands of independent sensors connected via internet protocol (IP) networks (i.e., the Internet of Things: IoT) will require more advanced enterprise technology architectures and data management services. Each of these “edge” devices will require increasing levels of autonomy, reliability, and compute power due to the advanced nature of the AI algorithms they will need to run. These requirements that do not fit easily into the suite of services offered by traditional network solutions providers. This presents an opportunity for sport entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners to work together to investigate how these new network architectures can be deployed and to connect these technology enhancements to consumer perceptions and behaviors. Can intelligent inventory management increase merchandise purchases? Can intelligent computer vision decrease instances of fan violence, or reduce congestion during egress, or enhance coaches’ play calling decisions? Beyond that, sport researchers should ask questions like: How can a facility manage its brand using these edge devices? What do these technologies do to consumers’ feelings of attachment to the structure and its surroundings? Furthermore, modern sport facilities cannot be engineered and designed to accommodate a single type of entertainment experience; rather, the need for a

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range of modalities is required. New facilities are being designed that seamlessly integrate retail and dining, public parks and green space, residential complexes, community centers, and nightlife. Sport brands are being entrepreneurial in their recognition of the fact that modern sport fans crave multiple forms of entertainment simultaneously. As such, they are working to construct dynamic, modifiable physical spaces in which a range of entertainment options can be delivered. This development is made possible by advanced drafting technology that allows governments, architects, designers, developers, land managers, and facility tenants to interact seamlessly. These stakeholders can now integrate ideas digitally, model various scenarios using advanced algorithms, and estimate the dynamic fluctuations in resource requirements accordingly. Among the considerations, facility developers can now incorporate into digital modeling programs are assurances related to the facility’s safety and security and environmental sustainability. Software programs can now model how long crowd egress will take in the event of an emergency based on stadium dimensions, concourse widths, crowd composition, and exit locations. Advanced technological systems are also being used that minimize the use of electricity, gasoline, natural gas, and other important resources. The new Atlanta Falcons stadium, for example, utilizes a rainwater collection, retention, and filtration system that reduces the stadium’s dependency on public utilities and minimizes the facility’s footprint. Furthermore, the very meaning of “in-venue” consumption is evolving as spatial computing technologies like augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR) become commonplace. These technologies can and likely will alter the market for sport products from both distribution and consumption perspectives. Teams and leagues are now exploring ways to augment in-stadium consumption with spatial computing as well as bring the in-stadium atmosphere to remote locations. Research is needed that explores the attitudinal, psychological, and even neurological responses that consumers experience while using technology intermediated versus “real-life” modes of consumption. Exactly how much of the live game experience is replicable using spatial computing technology? Are consumers as engaged when using spatial computing technologies? How can spatial computing be engineered to optimize engagement? How can spatial computing be deployed in a venue to enhance the current offering? These questions and more will be imperative to answer as practitioners seek to optimize their use of these technologies. All the while, live venue atmospheres have had to compete with broadcast and digital distribution. That is to say, fans often find it easier to consume from the comfort of their home or local establishment. To compete with these environments, the live game atmosphere has been fundamentally altered by a string of entrepreneurial adjustments. Many venues are finding benefit in reducing the amount of seating in an effort to make the experience more intimate and comfortable for all fans in attendance. Music, light shows, halftime entertainment, post-event concerts, and other audio–visual enhancements have made the live sport product a truly multisensory experience. Other professional associations have made significant alterations to the live product in recent years, such as the establishment of Twenty20 Cricket. This new abbreviated format prevents multi-day matches common to the game’s old

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format, meaning fans can consume a cricket match in as little as half a day. Innovative sport leagues are also looking to alter fundamentally their core product by introducing more live, in-game engagement opportunities via mobile apps. Patrons can answer quiz questions, “check in” at the stadium, discuss the game in public forums, and predict game outcomes while the game is taking place. One American football league even aims to allow fans to vote in real time for each play called on the field. Fans watching the game would vote in between plays, and the play call with the majority of the votes would be called by the head coach. Other mobile apps now allow fans to order food and beverages from their seat and have it delivered by venue staff. The same apps can also alert fans to the restroom with the shortest line, or promote pregame activities, festivals, and concerts. All of these changes to the sport product—from horizontal diversification into new product categories, to vertical integration into product distribution, to enhance the live product—represent a significant opportunity for sport entrepreneurship researchers. Understanding how, when, and why sport properties undertake these initiatives is important. Researchers may also investigate how this process occurs across multiple organizations and develop a process model of entrepreneurship in professional sport organizations. Third, given the resource congruity between sport organizations resulting from league revenue sharing, entrepreneurship, and sport management researchers can more directly track the diffusion of entrepreneurial phenomena across competing firms and brands. One example is the adoption of advanced analytics and data science to make business and on-field decisions—a topic that provides foundation for future discussion later in this chapter.

4.1.3

Sport Analytics

The adoption of sport analytics will continue to inform the formation and execution of sport organizations’ business strategy and product improvements. Sport analytics are an important technological consideration in the context of sport entrepreneurship because analytics can be applied to any decision a sport organization needs to make (Harrison & Bukstein, 2017). Thus, sport analytics is a broad term that refers to the use of statistical and otherwise quantitative methods sport properties use to inform decision-making (Miller, 2016). Moreover, sport analytics can refer to a range of analyses, from relatively simple descriptive statistics carried out in piecemeal for a specific question, to highly complex machine learning (ML) algorithms that run perpetually in virtual servers (i.e., “the cloud”) and produce real-time streams of intelligence. As it relates to the game product and the athletes that produce it, sport analytics can aid coaches in deciding which play to call, which player to draft, or what starting lineup is likely to be most productive. In the front office, sport analytics can inform marketers which season ticket holders are most at risk of churn, which Tweet will produce the highest levels of engagement, or how to price tickets for an upcoming contest. The entire history of sport analytics has been rooted in an entrepreneurial mindset. Bill James was the earliest proponent of quantifying the game of baseball.

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His annual Baseball Abstract (published in 1984 and updated in 2001) was a source of advanced and detailed statistics (for the time), and it began to usher in a new approach to thinking about the game. By the mid-2000s, MLB teams were receptive to a data-driven approach to player evaluation. For many industries, this would have been a relatively benign shift, as the upsides were documentable and objective. In professional baseball, though, this represented a monumental change to the status quo, where talent scouts used almost exclusively subjective (and thus highly variable) methods to make personnel and game decisions. What resulted was a minority group of innovative organizations leveraging new technology to disrupt, and perhaps even destroy, the prior way of conducting business—a direct case study of Schumpeter’s (1934) seminal theory of entrepreneurship. The debate over the use of quantitative versus qualitative decision-making in sport has not entirely gone away, but organizations across a range of sports have collectively recognized the usefulness of sport analytics. Today, advanced analytics have proven useful across a wide range of use cases. Coaches analyze the rate of spin pitchers can impart on the ball, the angle of a batter’s swing plane, and even the speed and distance traveled by an outfielder to make a diving catch. They also help stadium managers monitor foot traffic and congestion, patrol for safety and security threats, anticipate the demand for concessions in real time, and deter fan violence in the parking lots. Sport scholars studying the consumption experience can find benefit in considering the role of analytics more explicitly. Research questions that future work in sport entrepreneurship can address regarding analytics are: • • • • •

How are analytics shaping business decisions on the field versus off the field? What are front office and on-field efficiencies can analytics help generate? How does a “culture for data” affect an organization’s on-field performance? How does the use of analytics disseminate from one organization to another? How do analytics affect the fan experience, both in a live game environment and remotely?

4.1.4

Development of New Sport

Another domain of Ratten’s (2011) model that is deserving of more attention is the development of the new sport. In one sense, the development of new sport can mean the establishment of new leagues. Because digital distribution has drastically reduced entry barriers for sport content producers, there has been a flourishing of new sport leagues around the world. Examples include the previously mentioned AAF, the Xtreme Football League (XFL; which is set to begin in 2020), the Premiere Lacrosse League (PLL), the Drone Racing League, and all of the international eSport leagues such as the League of Legends World Championship, Overwatch League, ELeague, and the Electronic Sports League (ESL). Digital distribution of this sport content is sometimes straightforward, wherein network-affiliated digital channels are available for streaming online or on mobile devices. Other digital distributors take a more creative angle, providing consumers more ways to interact during the

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broadcast. Twitter offers a way for sport fans to stream content while also discussing the event with a community of users. Twitch is structured as a platform for producers of content to interact with consumers of content in real time during a sport event. Content producers can answer questions from fans and even compete against fans in real time. As can be seen, technology is the force that has underwritten the development of new sport. Technologies have provided a new route to market for many new and incumbent sport properties, and have facilitated the near ubiquity of sport content.

4.1.5

Sustainability and Social Issues

Many international sporting events (i.e., sport mega events or SMEs), governing bodies, and facility development projects have been placed under extra scrutiny in the past two decades. Most of the concerns about these sport properties stem from the events’ or facilities’ effects on municipal budgets, social institutions, and the physical environment. In as much, there are a plethora of sustainability concerns related to the social and economic impact of these sport properties. Research has shown that these events and facilities are typically very costly for taxpayers, and that benefits are disproportionately accrued not to the community, but to the sport property as a private enterprise (Long, 2005). Additionally, research has documented that these facilities require large amounts of natural resources and fundamentally disrupt the surrounding natural habitats (Mallen, Adams, Stevens, & Thompson, 2010). Additionally, some research has drawn attention to the displacement effect caused by events and facilities, whereby local residents are crowded out temporarily (due to increased crowding) or permanently (due to increasing property values) (Hodur, Bangsund, Leistritz, & Kaatz, 2006). This work in sport relates directly to both the “sustainability concerns” and “social issues” components of Ratten’s (2011) model. Luckily, these are areas where technology focused sport entrepreneurship research can shed additional light. Technology is playing a role as international sport events are increasingly seen as leverageable resources for host regions (Chalip, 2004, 2006). Event leverage is a framework by which municipalities and other stakeholders collectively decide ex ante the outcomes that are most desirable for their host community. They then work to combine strategically the location’s unique resources with that of the sport event or facility in ways that encourage the predetermined outcomes. In this scenario, it is surmised that these events and facilities can be used to stimulate technological advancement in a host location. Technology-driven projects such as enhancing communications networks and digital connectivity, updating electrical grids and utility services, and replacing outdated infrastructure are important projects that can leave a city more technologically advanced than it was prior to the event or facility. These technologies are important because they can help minimize resource consumption, reduce congestion, and enhance safety and security. In as much, they provide upsides as public goods that help facilitate information transfer and business efficiency. If it can be documented that these sport properties can be leveraged for

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technological gain, sport management research may be able to assess more accurately their value to and place within society. Work in sport entrepreneurship has only tangentially addressed this. As a start, it would be helpful for work in this area to assess how SMEs and facilities can be leveraged for entrepreneurship and business innovation. Spilling’s (1996a, 1996b) work found that SMEs can be generative of entrepreneurship in host regions. Furthermore, classic work in entrepreneurship has discussed how entrepreneurial processes can affect national economic performance (Baumol, 1968; Wennekers & Thurik, 1999). Therefore, some work is beginning to investigate whether SMEs can be leveraged for entrepreneurship and, in turn, whether SMEs can be linked to economic development (Hayduk, 2019). However, there is still plenty of work left to do in this regard. First, multiple operationalizations of entrepreneurship outcomes will need to be investigated. Hayduk (2019) investigated the patterns of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow in the years surrounding SMEs, but entrepreneurship is a multidimensional construct. Other macroeconomic outcomes that are relevant to technological entrepreneurship such as high technology exports, revenue from intellectual property, and the number of patents can be framed as important dependent variables. At the microlevel, investigating the effect of SMEs on local firms’ research and development (R&D) expenses may be another way to examine technology development in a region. The availability of venture capital and private equity are two other ways to proxy technological entrepreneurship in a host locale. Within this framework, investigations should also devote special attention to whether governments, non-profits, schools, and social institutions interact to facilitate entrepreneurial orientation (see Anderson, Kreiser, Kuratko, Hornsby, & Eshima, 2015) among residents in the years surrounding an SME. Nations’ developmental status has been shown to affect strongly the potential benefit regions can gain from hosting an SME (Matheson & Baade, 2004). Importantly, developing host regions are ill-suited to host an SME because they require much larger investments in infrastructure, have a higher opportunity cost of capital, and face more skepticism from potential tourists than developed regions (Humphreys & Prokopowicz, 2007). Do these entities view SMEs as opportunities to engender technological entrepreneurship? If so, how do they procure entrepreneurial skills and resources? What political, social, logistical, and cultural challenges do they face? Can these challenges be overcome with education and other resources? Answering these questions will provide important clues for understanding whether and how SMEs legacies can be structured for technological entrepreneurship.

5 Conclusion Sport entrepreneurship is a young field that is growing in prominence. Since Ratten’s (2010, 2011) foundational contributions, we have witnessed increased attention being paid to the intersection of sport and entrepreneurship—both in the academia and in the public sector. Work is only beginning to uncover how sport can be utilized

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as a mechanism for entrepreneurship and all of the social, economic, and political maturation that comes with it. Moreover, those studying the sport industry have borne witness to several sea changes as of late. Sport properties have become more innovative, athletes have become more entrepreneurially minded, and venture capitalists have recognized the unique power of sport startups. Moreover, technological entrepreneurship has motivated these shifts, either in the background or on the center stage. Given the rate and volume of change occurring in the sport industry, there is a need for sport entrepreneurship to assess its past and present in an attempt to shape its future. Thus, this chapter undertook three related goals. The first objective of this chapter was to provide an overview of sport entrepreneurship to date. The second objective was to reinforce how unique elements of the sport environment make this industry an attractive context in which to investigate entrepreneurship and innovation phenomena. It was suggested in this section how entrepreneurship researchers can investigate certain phenomena using a sport context. The last and most focal objective was to chart a path forward. This was undertaken using Ratten’s (2010) model of the dynamic components of sport entrepreneurship as a guide. New areas of research suggested here focus on addressing how technology is affecting five key areas: (1) business strategy of sport organizations, (2) the enhancement of live and remote sport products, (3) sport analytics, (4) the development of new sport offerings, and (5) sustainability and social impact concerns. Producing work in these areas will serve to provide balance for sport entrepreneurship, as current work with a strong technology focus relates primarily to (1) marketing and promotional strategies and (2) evaluating the performance of athletes. By preventing the overdevelopment of any single area of Ratten’s (2011) model, sport entrepreneurship research will be able to develop a robust slate of important insights about how technology will reach all sectors of sport—not merely a select few. In doing so, the field will be able to develop a powerful framework for both academics and practitioners.

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Loland, S. (2002). Technology in sport: Three ideal-typical views and their implications. European Journal of Sport Science, 2(1), 1–11. Loland, S. (2009). The ethics of performance-enhancing technology in sport. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 36(2), 152–161. Long, J. G. (2005). Full count: The real cost of public funding for major league sports facilities. Journal of Sports Economics, 6, 119–143. Mallen, C., Adams, L., Stevens, J., & Thompson, L. (2010). Environmental sustainability in sport facility management: A Delphi study. European Sport Management Quarterly, 10(3), 367–389. Martin, R. L., & Osberg, S. (2007). Social entrepreneurship: The case for definition. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Retrieved July 25, 2019, from http://www.ngobiz.org/picture/File/Social% 20Enterpeuneur-The%20Case%20of%20Definition.pdf Matheson, V., & Baade, R. (2004). Mega-sporting events in developing nations: Playing the way to prosperity? Regional Studies, 38(4), 343–354. Miller, T. W. (2016). Sports analytics and data science. In Winning the game with methods and models. Old Tappan, NJ: Pearson Education. Newell, S., & Swan, J. (1995). Professional associations as important mediators of the innovation process. Science Communication, 16, 371–387. Ogus, S. (2019). FOX sports and IBM Watson expand production capabilities of women’s world cup broadcast. Forbes. Retrieved June 26, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonogus/ 2019/06/25/fox-sports%2D%2Dibm-watson-expand-production-capabilities-of-womensworld-cup-broadcast/#4e67c4061fda Ratten, V. (2010). Developing a theory of sport-based entrepreneurship. Journal of Management and Organization, 16(4), 557–565. Ratten, V. (2011). Sport-based entrepreneurship: Towards a new theory of entrepreneurship and sport management. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 7(1), 57–69. Ratten, V. (2012). Sport entrepreneurship: Challenges and directions for future research. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 4(1), 65–76. Ratten, V., & Ferreira, J. J. (Eds.). (2016). Sport entrepreneurship and innovation. London: Taylor & Francis. Rottenberg, S. (1956). The baseball player’s labor market. Journal of Political Economy, 64(3), 242–258. Salaga, S., & Tainsky, S. (2015). The effects of outcome uncertainty, scoring, and pregame expectations on Nielsen ratings for Bowl Championship Series games. Journal of Sports Economics, 16(5), 439–459. Sanderson, A. R., & Siegfried, J. J. (2003). Thinking about competitive balance. Journal of Sports Economics, 4(4), 255–279. Santomier, J., & Hogan, P. (2013). Social media and prosumerism: Implications for sport marketing research. In S. Soderman & H. Dolles (Eds.), Handbook of research on sport and business (pp. 179–201). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Schumpeter, J. (1934). Capitalism, socialism, and democracy. New York: Harper & Row. Spilling, O. R. (1996a). The entrepreneurial system: On entrepreneurship in the context of a megaevent. Journal of Business Research, 36(1), 91–103. Spilling, O. R. (1996b). Mega event as strategy for regional development: The case of the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 8(4), 321–344. Underwood, R., Bond, E., & Baer, R. (2001). Building service brands via social identity: Lessons from the sports marketplace. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 9(1), 1–13. Wennekers, S., & Thurik, R. (1999). Linking entrepreneurship and economic growth. Small Business Economics, 13(1), 27–56.

Sports Innovation: A Bibliometric Study João J. Ferreira, Cristina Fernandes, Vanessa Ratten, and Dina Miragaia

Abstract The study of sports innovation has become an important area of business research, which has led to a growing number of publications on the topic in academic journals. Despite the increasing interest in research on sports innovation the literature is still fragmented with a diverse array of disciplinary perspectives. This chapter utilises a bibliometric analysis approach to synthesise the research that helps to provide a better understanding of the topic so it has more contextual focus. The literature is analysed and critiqued in terms of its interdisciplinary nature, which leads to a discussion of promising areas for future research. This helps build the field of sports innovation as a distinct discipline that connects the literature on sports with innovation management studies. As the field is rapidly gaining popularity, this chapter will play an important part in mapping current research that provides suggestions and advice to future research about sports innovation.

1 Introduction Many innovations and entrepreneurial business ideas develop in the sports industry due to the emphasis on competitiveness (Ratten & Ferreira, 2017a, 2017b). The sports industry is a recipient of scientific and technological innovations that have altered the way sports is played and its impact on athlete performance. Innovation is J. J. Ferreira Management and Economics Department, University of Beira Interior & NECE—Research Unit, Covilhã, Portugal C. Fernandes University of Beira Interior & NECE—Research Unit, Covilhã, Portugal V. Ratten (*) Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Marketing, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] D. Miragaia Sport Management Department, University of Beira Interior & NECE—Research Unit, Covilhã, Portugal © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_10

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considered a key part of individual and group performance in sports and has become more sophisticated with emerging technology (Ratten, 2018). However, the adoption and usage of new innovations are dependent on the resources an organisation has in terms of time, funds, sponsors, and administration. Despite the need for innovation in sports especially that involving technology, there has been little research about innovation processes and how they are different in a sports context (Giannoulakis, 2015). Sports innovation is an emerging area of research that has gained prominence in the past couple of years due to the internationalisation and commercialisation of the sports industry (Potts & Ratten, 2017). The origins of the field are old due to the role of health in sports but have changed in importance with the increased usage of technology (Ratten, 2017a). Santomier, Hogan, and Kunz (2017) suggested that many innovations in sports are occurring because of information communications technology and social media, which have transformed the sports industry. Moreover, Brison, Byon, and Baker (2017) state that social media is a major innovation in the sports industry that has changed the marketing communications for sports brands and athletes. Thus, increasingly sports is being viewed as having an innovation perspective (Ratten, 2018). Innovation can occur in sports in a variety of ways that include product, process, service and technological (Goorha, 2017). This diversity of sports innovation has meant that there are increasing policy initiatives around developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the sports industry (Ratten, 2017b). These policy changes have meant more interest in sports innovation both for academic inquiry but also due to its practical significance. To evaluate these changes it is helpful to see how research about sports innovation has changed as a way to understand its history but also predict its future. The aim of this chapter is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of sports innovation as a way to assess current research but also see gaps that can help improve future research directions. The structure of this chapter is as follows. First, the methodology of this study is stated then the analysis is discussed. This includes focusing on the co-citation and networks existing in the sports innovation research. A thematic analysis is then conducted that results in three key fields of interest in sports innovation becoming apparent: knowledge, research and sociology. The chapter concludes by stating some shortcomings in the existing literature and suggestions for future research.

2 Methodology The citation and co-citation data were collected from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Social Science Citation Index (A & H CI) compiled by online databases of Thomson/Reuters-ISI. These databases contain thousands of scholarly publications and bibliographic information about the authors, affiliations and quotes. The survey was conducted

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in the database Web of ScienceTM Core Collection, without any chronological filter. A search was carried out in 2016 using the expression (‘sports’ and ‘innovation’) and only references in English were used. The data analysis produced 475 references (218 articles, 214 proceedings papers, 24 reviews, 15 editorial materials, 2 meeting abstracts, 1 book Review and 1 news item). The analysis focused more on the peerreviewed journal articles due to the knowledge that these articles had been already evaluated by the academic community (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Bachrach, & Podsakoff, 2005). This study uses a combination of bibliometric techniques such as citations, co-citations, co-word analysis and social networking to analyse the scientific field of ‘sports and innovation’. A bibliometric analysis is currently the method universally used to assess the research carried out in a field (Mutschke, Mayr, Schaer, & Sure, 2011). This is because it covers the application of quantitative analysis and statistical publications such as articles and respective citations (Thomson Reuters, 2008). Increasingly bibliometric analysis is being used in the performance evaluation of research as it provides information on all the activities of a scientific area. In addition, the bibliometric analysis provides summaries of data, which provide a broad perspective on the activities and impact of research, especially in terms of most cited researchers, articles, countries and universities (Hawkins, 1977; Osareh, 1996). The statistical and analytical methods to analyse the database initially was performed using descriptive analysis of 475 articles resulting from research using mainly the graphical methods, frequency tables and descriptive measures (mean and standard deviation). This enabled an analysis of the most relevant journals and analysis of citations. In addition, further analysis was used to assess potential patterns among the articles in terms of how the articles are cited together. When a set of articles are co-cited often this usually indicates common ideas between these items and generally represents the core issues and intellectual structures of an area of knowledge (Leydesdorff & Vaughan, 2006). Co-word analysis is based on the assumption that the keywords of an article constitute an appropriate description of its contents. The occurrence of two keywords within the same article are an indication of a link between the issues referred to (Cambrosio, Limoges, Courtial, & La Ville, 1993; Evans, Foster, & Guo, 2013; Nel et al., 2011) and reveals patterns and trends in a specific discipline measuring the strengths of association representative in terms of relevant publications produced in this area. In terms of the graphical mapping of references (co-citations) and keywords (co-words) we used the theory of networks, which also calculated the main centrality measures (degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality) to assess the positioning of an article in the co-citations network or a keyword co-words network (Borgatti, 2005; Freeman, 1978; Otte & Rousseau, 2002). An applied analysis hierarchical clusters approach was utilised in view of the grouping of items and keywords in different sets, which used the network for display of main groups. All calculations were performed with the use of Microsoft Excel 2010 software (Microsoft Corporation, Washington, USA), IBM SPSS version 22.0 (IBM Corporation, New York, USA), IBM SPSS Text Analytics for Surveys 4.0

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(IBM Corporation, New York, USA), UCINET version 6554 (Borgatti, Everett, & Freeman, 2002) and NetDraw version 2148 (Borgatti, 2002). The next section will discuss the results of the bibliometric analysis.

3 Results 3.1

Evolution of Publications

Figure 1 shows the annual changes in the number of published references, as well as the number of citations. The average year of publication is 2009.4
5.3, which indicates the emergence of a new research area. Although, the first reference was published in 1968 (Loy, 1968) and 52.2% (n ¼ 248) references have been published from 2011 to 2015. The years 2010 (70 articles) and 2014 (72 articles) were the ones that had published more articles, and the years 2013 (441 citations) and 2014 (527 citations) correspond to years in which there were the most frequently mentioned use of the words sports innovation. In order to identify the main sources of studies on ‘sports and innovation’ articles that have the greatest influence in shaping the content and the search field are identified. The publications with the most references (Table 1) were Engineering of Sport (17 references), British Journal of Sports Medicine, Journal of Sport Management and Proceedings of the 2012 International Symposium—Innovation and Development of Sports Universities and Colleges (8 references each). Table 2 presents the journals with the most number of citations. These were Research Policy (276 citations), Academy of Management Review (232 citations) Articles

100

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73 78 6

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Fig. 1 Evolution in terms of number of references and citations

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Table 1 Journals with the most publications Journal Engineering of Sport British Journal of Sports Medicine Journal of Sport Management Proceedings of the 2012 International Symposium—Sports Innovation and Development of Universities and Colleges International Journal of the History of Sport Proceedings of 2010 International Symposium—Sports Science and Engineering 2013 International Symposium—Common Development of Sports and Modern Society Technovation Journal of Product Innovation Management Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Revue De Geographie Alpine-Journal of Alpine Research Harvard Business Review Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Journal of Sports Sciences Journal of Teaching in Physical Education Proceedings of the 2010 Conference on Computer Science in Sports R&D Management Sports Medicine

No. of articles 17 8 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Table 2 Journals with more citations Journal Research Policy Academy of Management Review Journal of Product Innovation Management Progress in Human Geography R&D Management Geoforum Technovation Journal of Sports Sciences Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Sport Education and Society Sports Medicine Journal of Business Research International Regional Science Review Organization Science Sociology of Sport Journal

No. of citations 276 232 190 185 163 125 115 109 105 101 86 85 82 71 68

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Table 3 Journals with the highest number of citations per published reference Journal Research Policy Academy of Management Review Progress in Human Geography Journal of Business Research International Regional Science Review Organization Science Geoforum Sport Education and Society Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers Mit Sloan Management Review R&D Management American Sociological Review Journal of Product Innovation Management Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review Marketing Letters

No. of citations by article 276.0 232.0 185.0 85.0 82.0 71.0 62.5 50.5 44.0 43.0 40.8 39.0 38.0 37.0 36.0

Table 4 List of core literature based on total citations Article Franke and Shah (2003) Tallman, Jenkins, Henry, and Pinch (2004) MacKinnon, Cumbers, and Chapman (2002) Franke, von Hippel, and Schreier (2006) Piller and Walcher (2006) Henry and Pinch (2000) Luthje (2004) Ennis (1999) Fueller, Jawecki, and Muehlbacher (2007) Oinas and Malecki (2002)

No. of citations 276 232 185 129 127 102 102 91 85 82

and Journal of Product Innovation Management (190 citations). This indicates that most of the research on sports innovation is occurring in the more general management journals and there is little in specialised subject matter journals. As for the number of citations by reference (Table 3), it appears that Research Policy (276 citations per paper), Academy of Management Review (232 citations per paper) and Progress in Human Geography (185 citations per paper) are the most cited. However, it is important to note that these articles only tended to publish one or two articles about ‘sports and innovation’. Table 4 presents the articles with the most citations in terms of ‘sports and innovation’ and Table 5 presents the articles with the highest number of citations per year.

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Table 5 List of core literature based on citations by year Article Franke and Shah (2003) Tallman et al. (2004) Gabbett, Jenkins, and Abernethy (2012) Varley, Fairweather, and Aughey (2012) MacKinnon et al. (2002) Franke et al. (2006) Piller and Walcher (2006) Fueller et al. (2007) Luthje (2004) Thevis, Kuuranne, Geyer, and Schaenzer (2011)

No. of citations by year 21.2 19.3 16.8 16.3 13.2 12.9 12.7 9.4 8.5 7.9

Table 6 List of top co-citations in terms of frequency Citation 1 Franke and Shah (2003) Franke and Shah (2003) Franke and Shah (2003) Franke et al. (2006) Franke and Shah (2003) Franke et al. (2006) Franke et al. (2006) Franke et al. (2006) Franke et al. (2006) Franke and Shah (2003) Fueller et al. (2007) Gabbett et al. (2012) Luthje (2004) Franke and Shah (2003)

3.2

Citation 2 Luthje (2004) Franke et al. (2006) Fueller et al. (2007) Luthje (2004) Piller and Walcher (2006) Schreier and Pruegl (2008) Piller and Walcher (2006) Schreier, Oberhauser, and Pruegl (2007) Fueller et al. (2007) Schreier et al. (2007) Luthje (2004) Varley et al. (2012) Piller and Walcher (2006) Schreier and Pruegl (2008)

Co-citations 59 50 33 30 29 24 22 19 17 16 16 16 16 15

Co-citation Network and Cluster Analysis

The articles that are cited less frequently may have less impact on the research of this field, so this analysis focused on articles published until 2009 that were cited at least 20 times and the articles published from 2010 with at least 10 citations, of which there have been 51 references. However, as 19 references did not have any co-citation, 32 articles were used for this co-citation analysis. The articles with higher co-citation frequencies are presented in Table 6, noting that items with more co-citations are: (1) Franke and Shah (2003) and Luthje (2004) with 59 co-citations; (2) Franke and Shah (2003) and Franke et al. (2006) with 50 co-citations; (3) Franke and Shah (2003) and Fueller et al. (2007) with 33 co-citations; (4) Franke et al. (2006) and Luthje (2004) with 30 co-citations and (5) Franke and Shah (2003) and Piller and Walcher (2006) with 29 co-citations.

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Based on co-citations a matrix was produced in terms of the network of co-citations (Fig. 2) and the centrality of measures was calculated to evaluate the core articles on ‘sports and innovation’. In Table 7 the centrality measures of network co-citations are displayed. The articles Hienerth and Lettl (2011) and Piller and Walcher (2006) simultaneously achieved the highest level of degree centrality and the centrality betweenness higher and lower closeness centrality. This indicates that the articles that were quoted were together with a greater number of articles as well as the various connections between these two articles. The positional terms were the closest to the centre of the network so that it plays a central role in the currently available research on ‘sports and innovation’. The grouping of articles appearing in the network of co-citations was determined through cluster analysis based on the hierarchical method of Ward. The articles included in each of the particular groups are presented in Table 8. A thematic analysis of the articles was conducted following the approach suggested by Liñán and Fayolle (2015). All the articles were classified according to the main issues discussed and categorised into three main categories: knowledge, sociology and research. A thematic approach in addition to a traditional bibliometric analysis was undertaken to provide a more objective overview of the field of study. Phillips et al. (2015:432) states that thematic analysis provides ‘an overview of what is known and establishing the degree of consensus that is shared across different themes’. The main themes were based on prior experience and issues coming from the bibliometric analysis.

3.3

Co-word Network and Cluster Analysis

Keywords can sometimes be less relevant for research so the analysis focused on the keywords, which have been stated in at least 5 articles with 48 being the number of keywords included in this co-word analysis. The higher frequencies of co-occurrences are shown in Table 9, noting that the keywords with the highest number of co-occurrences are: (1) ‘innovation’ and ‘sports’ with 28 co-occurrences; (2) ‘education/training’ and ‘innovation’ with 10 co-occurrences; (3) ‘education/training’ and ‘sports’ and ‘innovation’ and ‘management’ with 9 co-occurrences each. Therefore, we can conclude that we have two clusters whose name can be translated into innovation (cluster 1) and sports (cluster 2). Based on this analysis a matrix of co-occurrences with keywords was produced. This includes a co-words network and calculates the centrality of measures to evaluate the core keywords about ‘sports and innovation’ (Fig. 3). Table 10 depicts the centrality measures of co-words in the network. The keywords ‘sports’, ‘innovation’, ‘technology’ and ‘education/training’ simultaneously achieved the highest degree centrality and the centrality betweenness higher and lower closeness centrality. This indicates that the keywords were the most central on the subject as well as several of the connections between keywords passed near these and positional terms were closer to the centre of the network.

M acKinnon et al. (2002)

Henry and P inch (2000)

G abbett et al. (2012)

Fig. 2 Network diagram of the core literature and clusters

S aw hney et al. (2006)

O inas and M alecki (2002)

Lagendijk (2006)

Tallman et al. (2004)

M ay et al. (2001)

P inch and Henry (1999)

Heikkinen et al. (2006)

V arley et al. (2012)

A ndrew s (1993)

S tuermer et al. (2009)

P iller and Walcher (2006)

Hienerth and Lettl (2011)

Luthje (2004)

F ranke and S hah (2003)

S chreier et al. (2007)

F ueller et al. (2007)

M atheson et al. (2013)

Thev is et al. (2011)

S chreier and P ruegl (2008)

F ranke et al. (2006)

Thev is et al. (2010)

Thorpe (2009)

Thev is et al. (2009)

F auchart and G ruber (2011)

E nnis (1999)

G off et al. (2002)

Dy son (2002)

F inch (2011)

Kinchin and O 'S ulliv an (2003)

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Table 7 Top 10 articles with more centrality Article Hienerth and Lettl (2011) Piller and Walcher (2006) Franke and Shah (2003) Franke et al. (2006) Luthje (2004) Schreier and Pruegl (2008) Fueller et al. (2007) Schreier et al. (2007) Stuermer, Spaeth, and von Krogh (2009) Oinas and Malecki (2002) Tallman et al. (2004)

Degree 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 7 6 6 6

Closeness 91 91 91 91 91 91 92 93 95 106 106

Betweeness 11.5 11.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 11.0 0.0 0.0 1.8 1.8

Table 8 Groupings found cluster analysis of co-citations Sports sociology Andrews (1993)

Sports knowledge Henry and Pinch (2000)

Dyson (2002)

Lagendijk (2006)

Ennis (1999) Finch (2011)

MacKinnon et al. (2002) May, Mason, and Pinch (2001) Oinas and Malecki (2002)

Gabbett et al. (2012) Goff, McCormick, and Tollison (2002) Heikkinen, Mainela, Still, and Tahtinen (2007) Kinchin and O’Sullivan (2003) Matheson et al. (2013) Sawhney, Wolcott, and Arroniz (2006) Thevis, Kuuranne, Geyer, and Schaenzer (2009) Thevis, Kuuranne, Geyer, and Schaenzer (2010) Thevis et al. (2011) Thorpe (2009) Varley et al. (2012)

3.4

Pinch and Henry (1999) Tallman et al. (2004)

Sports research Fauchart and Gruber (2011) Franke and Shah (2003) Franke et al. (2006) Fueller et al. (2007) Hienerth and Lettl (2011) Luthje (2004) Piller and Walcher (2006) Schreier and Pruegl (2008) Schreier et al. (2007) Stuermer et al. (2009)

Main Themes Evident in Bibliometric Analysis

The grouping of the keywords that appear in co-words network was determined through cluster analysis based on the hierarchical method of Ward. The keywords included in each group are shown in Table 11. The main themes of the cluster analysis focused on knowledge, research and sociology. Each of these themes will now be discussed.

Sports Innovation: A Bibliometric Study Table 9 List of top co-occurrences of keywords in terms of frequency

3.4.1

Innovation Innovation Education/training Education/training Innovation Development Innovation Innovation Innovation Sports

163 Sports Sports Innovation Sports Management Sports Technology Performance Socialization Technology

Co-occurrence 28 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 7

Sports Sociology

Sociology is an important part of entrepreneurship and innovation studies (Reynolds, 1991). It is also commonly utilised in the sports context as it focuses on different types of behaviour within a certain environment. More emphasis on sports innovation is focusing on social inclusion to incorporate more culturally relevant topics (Ennis, 1999). Sports is often referred to as a science because of its distinctive nature and unique place in the social environment (Finch, 2011). Gabbett et al. (2012) found that in professional rugby training there needs to be consideration of the surrounding environment in terms of competition and use of technology. Innovation has been studied in a variety of contexts within the sports sociology literature. For example, Matheson et al. (2013) analyses how there are health-related innovations in sports that are derived from the prevention and management of diseases. This is supported by Thevis et al. (2010) who discuss the innovations in human sports drug testing. Thorpe (2009) discusses how physical culture is part of the sports environment and influences gender relations. Varley et al. (2012) suggest that sports is increasingly using new technology such as global partnering systems to measure performance. Andrews (1993) critically analysed sports sociology using a Foucault approach and emphasised the role of the human body in conceptualisations about sports. In addition, Dyson (2002) highlighted how physical education requires successful implementation of cooperative learning. A study by Goff et al. (2002) found that racial integration has been used as a form of innovation in sports. Increasingly there is more focus on the role of mobile services within a sports context (Heikkinen et al., 2007).

3.4.2

Sports Knowledge

Sports clubs, organisations and participants have specialised forms of knowledge. Henry and Pinch (2000) discuss how in the motorsport industry there is a knowledge community that enables the development of new products. Winard and

sport management

theory

innovation diffusion

athlete

publics

science

sports culture

design

analysis

sports

education/training

modeling

performance

teaching

cycling

Fig. 3 Network diagram of co-occurrence of keywords and clusters

injuries

humans

anatomy

universities

exercise

wintersport

physical education

football

olympics

socialization

information

research

development

regions

tourism

sport industry

events

industry

user innovation

sports tourism

management product development

knowledge

networks

sports teaching

sporting events

technology

innovation

learning

sociology

policy

combat sports

positive budget

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Sports Innovation: A Bibliometric Study Table 10 Top 10 keywords with more centrality

Keyword Sports Innovation Technology Education/training Socialization Analysis Performance Development Networks Knowledge

165 Degree 43 39 23 21 20 19 19 18 18 18

Closeness 51 55 71 73 74 75 75 76 76 76

Betweeness 266.0 192.0 38.7 38.3 24.2 30.0 25.2 23.4 18.6 18.4

Table 11 Groupings found cluster analysis of co-word Sociology Anatomy Athlete Events Exercise Humans Injuries Innovation Innovation diffusion Olympics Sociology Sporting events User innovation Winter sports

Knowledge Cycling Industry Information Learning Networks Physical education Positive budget Product development Publics Regions Science Sports Sports teaching Sports tourism Teaching Theory Tourism

Research Analysis Combat sports Design Development Education/training Football Knowledge Management Modelling Performance Policy Research Socialization Sports management Sports culture Sports industry Technology Universities

Anagnostopoulos (2017) found that in non-profit sports organisations it is important to encourage knowledge dissemination about the need to implement service innovations. This is an important part of the knowledge development profess in sports organisations who need to continually innovate in order to stay competitive. There is an increasing emphasis in spatial innovation systems about the evolution of technology required for regional development (Oinas & Malecki, 2002). Pinch and Henry (1999) highlight how the motorsport industry is reliant on technology innovation for competitiveness. This is supported by research by Reid (2017) who found that knowledge about innovation is needed for community sports social enterprises.

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Sports Research

Sports research focuses on the link between innovation and education, which is an important part of the sports curriculum (Gonzalez-Serrano, Hervas, Perez-Campos, & Calabuig-Moreno, 2017). Increasingly there has been more emphasis on integrating innovation teaching methods into sports pedagogy as a way to connect to the practical element of the sports industry. This has included the use of sports networks that are innovative to learn about the ecosystems that develop in a sports context. Gerke (2017) found that innovation in sports can take a network model due to the various stakeholders involved in the product innovation process. These stakeholders are part of the research in sports as they include areas such as tourism that are intrinsically linked to sports. Much of the research on sports innovation tends to focus on specific topic areas such as education or tourism. However, there is a growing link to other disciplines including non-profit or social studies. For example, Winard, Scheerder, Vos, and Zintz (2017) highlight how non-profits in addition to profit organisations innovate due to the influence of service innovation from regional sports federations.

4 Conclusion 4.1

Summary of Analysis and Shortcomings in the Existing Literature

The preceding analysis and discussions highlighted that there are three main fields within sports innovation research: knowledge, research and sociology. Within each of these fields, there are certain themes such as tourism and education that are important. However, given the importance and growth of sports worldwide, it is surprising that only recently has there been an increase in articles published on sports innovation. The sports industry influences other sectors and is an important provider of technology and employment. It is startling that there are some major gaps in the existing literature about sports innovation in terms of application and methodologies. The application of sports innovation theory has recently been applied by Ratten and Ferreira (2017a, 2017b) and is one of the first studies to use this theoretical framework. More studies need to take an innovation theoretical foundation in order to answer the contextual issues examined in sports research. To advance theory development it would be helpful to extrapolate sports-based entrepreneurship theory to new contexts such as amateur and public/private partnerships (Miragaia, Ferreira, & Ratten, 2017). There is also absence in the existing literature on mixed methods that look at different stakeholder perspectives in sports environments. There has been a rise in the number of publications in sports innovation. The increase in popularity has meant a diverse range of topics covered but the core literature on sports innovation is still developing. Thus, this study has provided an

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overview of the field and some suggestions about research gaps. This will help future researchers identify what areas need to be covered in order to advance our understanding of sports innovation. Based on the findings of this bibliometric analysis, sports innovation involves very practical topics with much relevance to current industry practices. To facilitate more innovation in sports many of the studies discussed refer to ecosystems needed to facilitate the transfer of information. These ecosystems involve a number of different stakeholders that encourage sports innovation such as governments, incubators, organisations and universities. The management of these stakeholders is important in enabling a co-creation approach to development in the sports ecosystem. It is important that the stakeholders in the sports network collaborate in order to influence the development of innovation systems. There needs to be more time and resources spent on sustaining the sports ecosystem to develop entrepreneurial behaviours. This is enabled by the use of start-ups and venture capital financing that facilitates public–private partnerships. Some of the studies discussed in this chapter refer to the increased interest in technological innovation within sports. Relationships with universities and other educational providers can provide training that helps develop the sports ecosystem.

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High-Performance Management Work Systems Vanessa Ratten, Joao J. Ferreira, and Cristina Fernandes

Abstract In this chapter, we aim to address the critique in the lack of comprehension about the emerging research in High-performance work systems (HPWS) by providing a systematic and analytic overview of the field. We aim to identify the key studies, identify main themes and provide suggestions for future research about HPWS. To do this we apply the bibliometric techniques of citation, co-citation and coupling to assess the scientific publications on the topic of HPWS. This will enable us to build a better understanding of the field in terms of geographic location of main authors and the key journals that are publishing on the topic. Based on our bibliometric approach, we find that HPWS is primarily centred around strategy, productivity, institutions and psychology. Moreover, we show that the HPWS research is centred around key authors in certain geographic locations that often work together. We interpret this as HPWS being a key field of research that will continue to grow in the future. In addition, our analysis indicates that there are gaps in the existing literature that can be filled by new sport-related theoretical and methodological approaches that take an interdisciplinary perspective.

1 Introduction In the past decade, the concept of high-performance work systems (HPWS) has developed into a promising area of human resource management (HRM) research (Shin & Konrad, 2017). The increased growth in HPWS is indicated by the fast growing number of articles on the topic (Fu et al., 2017). There are differing views V. Ratten (*) Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Marketing, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] J. J. Ferreira Management and Economics Department, University of Beira Interior & NECE—Research Unit, Covilhã, Portugal C. Fernandes University of Beira Interior & NECE—Research Unit, Covilhã, Portugal © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Ratten (ed.), Sport Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Contributions to Management Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29458-8_11

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on how to characterise and develop the emerging body of research on HPWS. This is due to the focus primarily on employee engagement that distinguishes the HPWS literature from traditional HRM literature. Huang, Ahlstrom, Lee, Chen, and Hsieh (2016: 297) define HPWS as ‘a coherent set of HRM practices that improve firm performance by promoting employee commitment to and involvement in their jobs and the goals of the organisation’. This definition is commonly referred to in many studies about HPWS but produces a criticism of existing research in the lack of knowledge about where the field is heading. The key difference between traditional HRM practices and HPWS is on the engagement of both managers and employees in the functioning of an organisation (Wei & Lau, 2010). HPWS refers to bundles of work practices focused on appraisal, training and reward systems (Shin & Konrad, 2017). Thus, HPWS when used in conjunction with an organisations strategy will enable better overall performance. HPWS involves a number of skills including information sharing, incentives, performance management and selective staffing (Gittell, Seidner, & Wimbush, 2010). Wang and Verma (2012: 408) states that HPWS’s ‘encourage employees to take part in the decision-making process and upgrade their skills to improve the organisation’s performance’. Therefore, the collaborative process between employees and managers is a distinguishing feature of HPWS. The main objective of this study is to map the scientific publications, intellectual framework and research trends related to HPWS. Secondary objectives include (1) to outline the intellectual framework of research on HPWS represented in the academic literature, (2) identify the fundamental contributions of research on the HPWS area, (3) determine the lines of inquiry that constitute the intellectual framework, (4) identify the journals with the highest impact in the area and (5) to identify the geographical distribution of knowledge in terms of universities and countries and collaboration structure. This chapter is structured as follows. In the next section, we discuss the literature about HPWS then the methodology of the study including the data analysis technique. Next, we present the results of the data analysis followed by a summary of the four main clusters appearing in the literature strategy, psychology, institutions and productivity. We then discuss the limitations and implications of our study for theory and practice.

2 Literature Review There is a debate in the literature about HPWS concerning the advantages and disadvantages of introducing new work practices in terms of managing efficiently time and resources (Fu et al., 2017). This is due to HPWS being a competitive asset as they enable better streamlining of essential work practices but also require organisations to change in their current behaviour. Boxall and Macky (2009) state that HPWS involve three distinct concepts performance, work practices and systemic effects. Performance involves evaluating the effectiveness and outcomes of change in an organisation. The conceptualisation of performance differs from learning to financial

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depending on the context. Given the diversity in types and forms of organisations, the issue about performance is complex. Moreover, different organisational stakeholders will determine what aspect of performance are the subject of interest (Huselid, 1995). Traditionally, performance has been viewed as an economic outcome but this has changed with increased interest in social outcomes (Boxall & Purcell, 2008). In addition, performance is based on workplace attitudes to issues including employee ability and reward systems that influence individual behaviour. Posthuma, Campion, Masimova, and Campion (2013) found that in HPWS the work practices that have been studied the most involve issues about compensation, benefits and work design. Fewer studies have focused on the role of appraisal and communication management (Guidice, Mero, Matthews, & Greene, 2016). In order for organisations to function efficiently, they need to use HR practices that improve employee skills. HR practices that involve aligning policies with strategic outcomes are considered having more importance to organisations. This involves setting goals in an organisation that incorporate appropriate feedback about how to improve (Locke, 1996). More organisations, particularly those in the knowledge economy are operating in complex task environments (Guidice et al., 2016). Employees in organisations need to be accountable for the actions they partake in as part of workforce characteristics. HPWS enables organisations to create a sense of synergy between the techniques they use and achievable outcomes. Systemic effects involve the combination of certain work policies that can create a better overall result (Delery & Shaw, 2001). This acknowledges the role of looking at different causes and effects of work practices that need to be evaluated together. For example, organisations in terms of HRM practices need to consider issues about governance mechanisms, supply chain systems and technological knowledge (Boxall & Macky, 2009). Some organisations will be more reliant on manufacturing technology or service capabilities, which makes a systemic evaluation of HR practices more appropriate. HPWS are a way organisations can motivate and retain valuable employees that contribute to their market performance (Tsao, Chen, & Wang, 2016). Previous research has suggested that HPWS influences organisational performance (e.g. Huselid, 1995; Tsao et al., 2016; Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001). This is due to the need for organisations to develop their capabilities in terms of their competitive advantage (Ulrich & Lake, 1990). Organisational capabilities differ depending on the type of industry but revolve around strategic HRM such as how to attract and retain employees. Boxall and Macky (2009) highlight how interest in HPWS comes from the need to have more advanced work practices in organisations. This helps improve organisational performance by incorporating new work systems. Work practices involve the way individuals behave in an organisation based on certain rules and regulations (Boxall & Macky, 2009). There are different types of work practices that come from employment conditions in an organisation and these are determined by industry contexts. HPWS enables managers to decide the HR practices that make the best use of their workforce (Meuer, 2016). Most research about HPWS emphasises the need for

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a configurational approach that takes into consideration the best fit of people within an organisation. The nature of HPWS means that there are certain HR systems that provide good results to organisations. Kehoe and Wright (2013) suggest that there are three main HR practices that enable a high-performance-enhancing approach: ability, motivation and opportunity. Ability enhancing practices focus on ways to improve productivity in terms of who is hired, retained and promoted. This can include selective interviewing, bonus pay and tailored training mechanisms. Motivation enhancing practices involves encouraging employees to work harder by providing positive feedback. This can be in the form of autonomy on the job or performance-related pay. Opportunity-enhancing practices refer to focusing on additions to workplace roles that can bring positive benefits to employees. These opportunities can be in terms of tasks or new challenges in the workplace. As we have discussed the core concepts of HPWS, the next section will state the methodology used to evaluate the published research on HPWS using bibliometric analysis techniques.

3 Methodology and Data 3.1

Methodology

The methodology of this study took a bibliometric approach as it involves the application of quantitative analysis and statistical publications such as articles and respective citations being used in the performance evaluation of research. This provides information on all the activities of a scientific area, and summaries of this data offer a comprehensive perspective on the activities and impact of research in the field. Thereby, helping to evaluate the impact of researchers, journals, countries and universities (Thomson Reuters, 2008). The co-citations analysis has been a methodology most frequently used to outline in detail the relationship of a certain field (Small, 1973) and serves for the delimitation of the main papers of the same scientific area (Zitt & Bassecoulard, 1994). Two documents are said to be co-cited when mentioned together in one or more articles published (Smith, 1981). The co-citation analysis also involves the number of joint quotes as a way of bringing together a representation of the literature and an area of knowledge in order to identify influential authors and display their interrelations (White & McCain, 1998). According to Verbeek, Debackere, Luwel, and Zimmermann (2002), co-citations assume that (1) quotation implies use; (2) quotation reflects the excellence, significance and impact; (3) quotes are taken to improve research; (4) a document cited is related to the document quotes and (5) all quotations are equal. Several studies have demonstrated the validity of the analysis of co-citations to understand the intellectual framework of a research area (Di Guardo & Harrigan, 2012). This bibliometric analysis involved focusing on the amount of articles in terms of co-citation analysis and then looking at the downstream results of the resulting

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research articles. This enables an analysis of co-citations from the references of the articles resulting from the search and analysis of co-citations. The articles surveyed were based on articles quoting these. These articles included in the co-citations analysis were then analysed through network analysis, which included the elusive network to the articles on HPWS and the network regarding the articles underlying the resulting research articles. In addition, the analysis involved the determination of groups of articles by cluster analysis. This involved one the authors of the co-citation analysis, as well as magazines that were cited in the articles on HPWS being classified into the networks of authors and journals as well as performing a cluster analysis for their groupings. The analysis of the organizational affiliation of the authors, the geographical location of such organizations and co-authorships was evaluated from the number of published works. In addition, the collaboration between organizations was analysed by all combinations of co-authors of organizations as collaboration and there is no balance between the authors in order of presentation in the article. For example, if an article is written by four different authors, in whom each author belongs to a different organisation, it considers relationships as six co-authors. The combinations are identified by organizations that have more relationships of co-authorship. The other analysis involved focusing on the country level in terms of the number of publications, as well as international co-authorship. In the case of authors belonging to organisations in different countries, the results were displayed in terms of the country of the author as a node and co-authoring relationship as a link between nodes. In all analyses, we used the VOSviewer version 1.6.2 software, which is a software package developed for the construction and visualization of bibliometric maps, which combines the VOS mapping technique with a strong visual component (Van Eck & Waltman, 2009, 2010). The determination of the clusters and their networks of references was performed using the methodological approach adopted by Waltman, Van Eck, and Noyons (2010).

3.2

Data

Data was collected from the indices Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Social Science Citation Index (A & H CI), compiled by online databases of Thomson/Reuters-ISI, which contains thousands of publications including academic and biographical information on the authors, affiliations and quotes. The survey was conducted in the ISI database Web of Science, in articles published in journals of the categories of management, business and economics, without any chronological filter being used to search the term ‘high performance work systems’ in the title, abstract or keywords. The analysis of this study unit are publications, collected variables corresponding to the authors and affiliation, magazine publishing, number of citations and references therein. The research carried out resulted in 161 articles with publication dates between 1992 (Article 1) and 2015 (15 articles).

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4 Results The results are divided into four sections. In the first section, we performed a characterization of the resulting research articles, including the chronological evolution in terms of the number of published articles and most relevant authors. In the second section, we performed an analysis of the journals in which articles are published and cited sources. The third section involved analysis in terms of organizational affiliation of the authors and respective networks of collaboration in terms of co-authorships. The fourth section analysed the geographic location of the authors and transnational networks of co-authorships.

4.1

Articles and Authors

A total of 161 articles were found related to HPWS and can be observed in terms of the annual evolution of the number of articles published in Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. 1 they have an average publication year of 2009.4  5.3, which indicates it is a very new research area. In addition, the analysis indicated that the articles on the subject were published in the early nineties of the century but that frequency of publication has been diminished by the year 2005. After 2005, there was an increase in terms of the number of annual publications and since 2010, the number of annual publications has been greater than or equal to 10 articles. The years 2011 and 2013 were those in which it was observed had a greater number of publications in terms of published articles 21 and 20, respectively. 25 21 20

20 18

19

Nº of articles

15

15

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1

2

3

5

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2013

2014

2012

2011

2010

2008

2009

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2007

Fig. 1 Number of articles by year of publication

2005

Year

6

10

2

2004

2003

2001

2

2002

2

3

2000

1995

1996

1993

1994

1991

1992

2

1999

2

1997

1

3

1998

0 0

9

8

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In terms of citations, 161 articles had on average 26.7  78.9 citations, 27 articles (16.7%) did not have any quotation and 48 articles (31.8%) had been reported between one and five times. Table 1 shows the 30 items with the greatest number of research resulting in citations. The five articles with the greatest number of citations are: 1. Kogut, B., & Zander, U. (1996). What firms do? Coordination, identity, and learning. Organization Science, 7(5), 502–518. (888 Citations) 2. Datta, D. K., Guthrie, J. P., & Wright, P. M. (2005). Human resource management and labor productivity: Does industry matter? Academy Of Management Journal, 48(1), 161–145. (285 Citations) 3. Ramsay, H., Scholarios, D., & Harley, B. (2000). Employees and highperformance work Systems: Testing inside the black box. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(4), 501–531. (200 Citations) 4. Huselid, M. A., & Becker, B. E. (1996). Methodological issues in cross-sectional and panel estimates of the human resource-firm performance link. Industrial Relations, 35(3), 400–422. (159 Citations) Table 1 The most cited articles in the field of HPWS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Article Kogut and Zander (1996) Datta, Guthrie, and Wright (2005) Ramsay, Scholarios, and Harley (2000) Huselid and Becker (1996) Way (2002) Takeuchi, Lepak, Wang, and Takeuchi (2007) Wall and Wood (2005)

Total citations 888 285

16 17

Article Wood (1999) Wood and Wall (2007)

Total citations 60 54

200

18

Bryson, Forth, and Kirby (2005)

48

159

19

45

158 143

20 21

Messersmith, Patel, Lepak, and Gould-Williams (2011) Macky and Boxall (2008) Wu and Chaturvedi (2009)

135

22

123 119

23 24

115

25

10

Evans and Davis (2005) Takeuchi, Chen, and Lepak (2009) Boxall and Macky (2009)

11

Batt (2000)

97

26

12

Seibert, Wang, and Courtright (2011) Lynch and Black (1998) Gittell et al. (2010) Bae, Chen, Wan, Lawler, and Walumbwa (2003)

94 94 71 66

13 14 15

Harley, Allen, and Sargent (2007) d’Arcimoles (1997) Colvin (2003)

44 38 37 37 35

27

Guthrie, Flood, Liu, and MacCurtain (2009) Scotti, Harmon, and Behson (2007) Preuss (2003)

34

30

28 29 30

Chen, Lawler, and Bae (2005) Handel and Gittleman (2004) Berg (1999)

29 29 29

30

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5. Way, S. A. (2002). High performance work systems and intermediate indicators of firm performance within the US small business sector. Journal of Management, 28(6), 765–785. (158 Citations) In the aforementioned articles, Kogut and Zander (1996) used game theory, in particular, the prisoner’s dilemma to analyse the distinction between firms and markets, as coordination, communication and learning are located not only physically in the locality, but also mentally in a particular identity. Kogut and Zander (1996) argue that the underlying dynamics of the prisoners’ dilemma game reveals the problems of coordination, communication and conflicts in standards of justice when players are deprived of social knowledge and shared an identity. Similarly, determining the consistency of a company arises from the requirement of moral consistency in catgeorisation of its activities as opposed to a technological need. These ideas are illustrated by means of an empirical examination of the work in HPWS. Datta et al. (2005) examine how industry characteristics affecting the relative importance and value of HPWS, indicating the results that the impact of human resource systems on productivity is influenced by the capital-intensive industry, growth and differentiation. Ramsay et al. (2000) test the work management approaches that defend and criticise the HPWS. The results of this study confirm the relationship between high-performance work practices and systems of various performance measures at work. However, the results also show that the general assumption that performance results of high-performance positive working systems via the positive results of the employees have proved highly questionable. In addition, the results warn against work organisation theories that give priority to employee guidelines for working as an explanatory variable for organizational performance. In terms of contribution to the literature, Huselid and Becker (1996) analyse how those differ on factors such as capacity management, can lead to conventional estimates of the practical effects of HRM in the performance of the company may be overvalued. Moreover, the articles discuss how HR management practices are measured with error, estimates of its effects on the performance of the company to be undervalued. Huselid and Becker (1996) use longitudinal and transverse models to correct both biases, estimating that the increase of one standard deviation as defined for the HPWS increases the market value of the company about $15,000 per employee. Way (2002) presents conceptual and empirical evidence that HPWS in small US companies is associated with the results, so critical to the success of small US companies. Way (2002) also presents empirical evidence that in small US companies HPWS does not necessarily produce results that exceed the labour costs associated with the use of these systems. The initial sample of 161 articles was reduced to articles having at least 20 quotes, which resulted in 46 articles. This set comprises the 46 articles with at least 20 citations was quoted in full by 952 articles. On this basis, an analysis has been prepared for co-citations in terms of the 46 articles. The co-citation analysis was used to group the items into clusters 46 (Table 2), as well as building the respective network co-citations (Fig. 2).

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Table 2 Clusters resulting from the cluster analysis of citations of articles mentioning the 21 most cited articles Cluster 1—Strategy Bae et al. (2003) Barnard and Rodgers (2000) Berg (1999) Chen et al. (2005) d’Arcimoles (1997) De Menezes and Wood (2006) Guthrie et al. (2009) Handel and Gittleman (2004) Huselid and Becker (1996) Kling (1995) Lynch and Black (1998) Tsai (2006) Way (2002) Wood (1999) Yalabik, Chen, Lawler, and Kim (2008) Cluster 2—Institutions Boxall and Macky (2009) Bryson et al. (2005) Colvin (2003) Seibert et al. (2011) Shrednick, Shutt, and Weiss (1992) Wall and Wood (2005) Wilkinson and Fay (2011) Wood and Wall (2007)

4.2

Cluster 3—Productivity Aryee, Walumbwa, Seidu, and Otaye (2012) Batt (2000) Boxall and Macky (2007) Datta et al. (2005) Evans and Davis (2005) Gittell et al. (2010) Iverson and Zatzick (2011) Kogut and Zander (1996) Messersmith and Guthrie (2010) Messersmith et al. (2011) Posthuma et al. (2013) Takeuchi et al. (2009) Takeuchi et al. (2007) Wu and Chaturvedi (2009) Cluster 4—Psychology Bartram, Casimir, Djurkovic, Leggat, and Stanton (2012) Bonias, Bartram, Leggat, and Stanton (2010) Danford, Richardson, Stewart, Tailby, and Upchurch (2004) Harley et al. (2007) Macky and Boxall (2008) Preuss (2003) Ramsay et al. (2000) Scotti et al. (2007) Shih, Chiang, and Hsu (2006)

Thematic Areas in HPWS Research

To interpret and label the clusters, we followed the approach of Kovacs, Looy, and Cassiman (2015). In addition, we read the abstracts and introductions of each article in the cluster to ascertain under which theme it fitted. Based on this analysis, we labelled the clusters as (1) strategy, (2) institutional, (3) productivity and (4) psychology. We recognise that the labelling of these clusters into broad themes cannot fully capture the intricacy of each article but represents a good way to group similar articles together. In the next section, we discuss each of these clusters in terms of the main themes.

4.2.1

Cluster 1: Strategy

This cluster is the largest in terms of a number of articles and is labelled ‘strategy’. Most of the publications look at human resource strategy and the different forms of

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Fig. 2 Network co-citations and their clusters

work practices (Bae et al., 2003; De Menezes & Wood, 2006; Kling, 1995). The key topics in the cluster refer to flexible work systems and policies about HRM (Berg, 1999; d’Arcimoles, 1997). These studies explain the reasons why an organisation’s performance will improve from an emphasis on collaboration with employees. Other topics covered in the cluster include specific contexts like the semiconductor industry (Tsai, 2006), small business sector (Way, 2002) and Asia (Yalabik et al., 2008).

4.2.2

Cluster 2: Institutions

Most of the publications in this cluster refer to cooperative mechanisms and regulatory frameworks and is labelled ‘institutions’. This enables the studies to focus on trade unions (Bryson et al., 2005; Colvin, 2003) and their effect on organisational performance. Other topics studied include the role of stakeholders (e.g. Boxall & Macky, 2009). Articles in this cluster also focus on the antecedents of team empowerment (Seibert et al. 2011) and the interlinkages with other sectors (Wall & Wood, 2005). As institutions can be both formal and informal, the articles in this cluster tend to stress more the formal nature of inter-organisational collaboration that is required in HPWS. Although there is a shift towards also looking into the informal linkages needed in enabling support within and outside organisations for HPWS.

4.2.3

Cluster 3: Productivity

The articles in this cluster focus on issues around improving workplace systems and are labelled ‘productivity’. Most of the articles cantered around different perceptions of performance such as individual and branch level (Aryee et al., 2012), labour

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(Datta et al., 2005) and internal social structure (Evans & Davis, 2005). This suggests that organisational performance is determined by HPWS. In addition, relationships in organisations are important in facilitating the coordination needed for HPWS (Gittell et al., 2010).

4.2.4

Cluster 4: Psychology

Articles in this cluster cantered around issues on thoughts and actions so were labelled ‘psychology’. The articles focused on how behaviour in organisations affects HPWS. Psychological issues such as burnout (Bartram et al., 2012), empowerment (Bonias et al., 2010) and engagement in a healthcare context were amongst the articles included in this cluster. Other topics in this cluster focused on psychology in terms of subjective performance indicators such as customer satisfaction, service quality and work environment (Scotti et al., 2007). Another approach is the analysis of citations and quotations made by 161 articles resulting from research. A total of 161 articles had 6250 references of which 44 had at least 20 citations in all the resulting research articles. Articles with the most citations were Huselid (1995) with 104 quotes, MacDuffie (1995) with 70 citations, Guthrie (1998), Appelbaum (2000) and Arthur (1994) with 59 citations each. Co-citations based on the references resulting citations in the study were grouped in clusters (Table 3) as well as built into the respective coupling network (Fig. 3). With regard to authors and considering the 161 articles resulting from the research, the results revealed that 319 authors are responsible for these publications. Table 4 shows in a visualized map the 50 most cited authors, as well as the number of articles published and the average number of citations per paper. The most cited authors are Kogut and Zander with 885 quotes, Guthrie with 336 quotes, Lepak with 319 citations and Wright with 296 citations. Regarding the number of published articles, the most were Chen (6 articles), Boxall (5 articles) and Guthrie and Wright (4 articles each). We made an analysis of the authors cited by 161 articles resulting from the research, through co-citations methodology. A total of 161 articles were cited by 3995 authors of whom 66 were cited at least 20 times. The authors with the most citations were Podsakoff (174 citations), Godard (163 citations), Appelbaum (122 citations) and Guest and Purcell (94 citations). Based on the analysis of the authors, co-citations were grouped into 66 clusters with authors quoted in at least 20 (Table 5) and we then constructed the respective coupling network (Fig. 4).

4.3

Sources

With regard to sources, the 161 articles resulting from research have been published in 82 journals. Table 6 shows the journals with the most citations. The journals most cited were Organization Science (956 citations), the International Journal of Human

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Table 3 Clusters resulting from the cluster analysis of citations of articles cited by 161 Cluster 1 Appelbaum (2000) Arthur (1992) Arthur (1994) Becker and Gerhart (1996) Becker and Huselid (1998) Cappelli and Neumark (2001) Godard (2004) Guest, Michie, Conway, and Sheehan (2003) Huselid (1995) Ichniowski, Shaw, and Prennushi (1997) Lawler (1986) Macduffie (1995) Osterman (1993) Pfeffer (1994) Ramsay et al. (2000) Walton (1985) Youndt, Snell, Dean, and Lepak (1996) Cluster 2 Bae et al. (2003) Barney (1991) Delaney and Huselid (1996) Delery (1998) Delery and Doty (1996) Dyer and Reeves (1995) Way (2002) Wright and McMahan (1992) Wright (2002) Wright, Gardner, Moynihan, and Allen (2005)

Cluster 3 Baron and Kenny (1986) Rosemary Batt (2002) Blau (1964) Bowen and Ostroff (2004) Combs, Liu, Hall, and Ketchen (2006) Datta et al. (2005) Delery and Shaw (2001) Evans and Davis (2005) Gerhart, Wright, Mc Mahan, and Snell (2000) Guthrie (1998) Lepak, Liao, Chung, and Harden (2006) Macky and Boxall (2007) Sun, Aryee, and Law (2007) Takeuchi et al. (2007) Takeuchi et al. (2009) Wright et al. (2001) Zacharatos, Barling, and Iverson (2005)

Resource Management (471 citations), the Journal of Management (352 citations), the British Journal of Industrial Relations (320 citations) and the Journal of Applied Psychology (305 citations). Regarding the number of published articles, the most is the International Journal of Human Resource Management (36 items), Human Resource Management and the Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, Technovation with 8 published articles, succeeded by the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personnel Review with 6 published articles. As for the 2387 sources cited by the 161 articles resulting from research, 71 held at least 20 citations with the most frequently quoted being Academy of Management Journal (957 citations), International Journal of Human Resource Management (632 citations), Strategic Management Journal (632 quote), Journal of Applied Psychology (438 citations) and Journal of Management (387 citations). The co-citation analysis of sources with at least 20 citations revealed a grouping of five clusters (Table 7), identically outlined by the respective coupling network (Fig. 5).

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Fig. 3 Reference network of the 161 cited articles and their clusters Table 4 The most cited authors in the field of HPWS Author Kogut, B Zander, U Guthrie, JP Lepak, DP Wright, PM Datta, DK Takeuchi, R Harley, B Ramsay, H Scholarios, D Becker, BE Huselid, MA Way, SA Boxall, P Takeuchi, K Wang, HL Macky, K Wall, TD Wood, SJ Davis, WD Evans, WR Chen, SJ Chen, G

Total citations 885 885 336 319 294 285 262 200 200 200 159 159 158 157 143 143 143 135 135 123 123 120 119

Total articles 1 1 4 4 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 6 1

Mean citations by article 885.0 885.0 84.0 79.8 147.0 285.0 131.0 200.0 200.0 200.0 159.0 159.0 158.0 31.4 143.0 143.0 47.7 135.0 135.0 123.0 123.0 20.0 119.0

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Table 5 Clusters resulting from the analysis of the most cited authors in 161 articles resulting from research (in brackets shows the number of citations) Cluster 1 Appelbaum, E (122) Arthur, JB (92) Bae, J (85) Barney, J (84) Barney, JB (77) Baron, RM (74) Batt, R (61) Becker, B (55) Becker, BE (53) Blau, PM (53) Boselie, P (48) Bowen, DE (45) Boxall, P (40) Brewster, C (38) Bryson, A (37) Cappelli, P (36) Collins, CJ (31) Combs, J (30) Danford, A (29) Datta, DK (27) Delaney, JT (25) Delery, JE (23) Dyer, L (22) Evans, WR (22) Freeman, R (21) Gerhart, B (20)

4.4

Cluster 2 Godard, J (163) Guest, D (94) Guest, DE (83) Guthrie, JP (82) Hackman, JR (79) Harley, B (76) Hofstede, G (73) Huselid, MA (72) Ichniowski, C (63) Jackson, SE (58) Kaufman, BE (45) Lawler, E (39) Lawler, EE (29) Lepak, DP (29) Liao, H (26) Macduffie, JP (25) Macky, K (23) Messersmith, JG (22) Meyer, JP (22) Osterman, P (21) Paauwe, J (20) Pfeffer, J (20)

Cluster 3 Podsakoff, PM (174) Purcell, J (94) Ramsay, H (63) Schneider, B (46) Schuler, RS (43) Snell, SA (40) Spreitzer, GM (39) Sun, LY (38) Takeuchi, R (31) Wall, TD (29) Walton, E (29) Way, SA (27) Whitener, EM (27) Wood, S (21) Wright, P (21) Wright, PM (20) Youndt, MA (20) Zacharatos, A (20)

Organizational Affiliation

By analysing data from the 191 organizations that underlie the 161 articles published in HPWS domain (Table 8), it appears that organisations with strong expertise are mainly Anglo-Saxon and Asian in character. The University of Auckland (New Zealand) ranks the first in terms of published papers (8 articles), succeeded by Dublin City University (Ireland), La Trobe University (Australia), National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan) and Rutgers State University (United States) with 8 articles published each. No organisation in Africa and Latin America appears in the most cited list. Table 9 shows the organisational peers that have a larger number of co-authorships. The highest ratios of co-authorship are found between the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and the University of Kansas (USA) (6 co-authorships), Dublin City University (Ireland) and Griffith University (Australia) (5 co-authorships) and Dublin City University (Ireland) and University of Nebraska (Use) (5 co-authorships).

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Fig. 4 Network authors mentioned in 161 articles and their clusters

4.5

Countries

The main countries with research skills in the area of HPWS are presented in Table 10. The United States, United Kingdom, Australia and China are the countries with the highest number of publications. The United States is represented in about 40% of the 161 articles resulting from research with the number of authors of articles significantly higher than the others. European Union research competencies of its total represent 53 articles still considerably lower than publications by authors of the United States. In terms of co-authorships among countries, the authors of the United States have 10 published articles with authors from China, seven articles with authors from Ireland, 6 with authors from New Zealand and 5 with authors from South Korea. The Irish authors published five articles with authors of Australia. Figure 6 shows the co-authorships network between the countries, where organisations from the same country are grouped on one node and the size of each node is proportional to the number of countries with which there are co-authorships and the link between

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Table 6 Top sources with citations in HPWS domain Sources Organization Science International Journal of Human Resource Management Journal of Management British Journal of Industrial Relations Journal of Applied Psychology Academy of Management Journal Industrial Relations Human Relations Industrial & Labor Relations Review Human Resource Management Human Resource Management Journal Personnel Psychology Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources Health Care Management Review New Technology Work and Employment Scottish Journal of Political Economy Relations Industrielles-Industrial Relations Organization Studies Journal of Healthcare Management International Journal of Manpower MIS Quarterly Economic and Industrial Democracy Monthly Labor Review Journal of Advanced Nursing Personnel Review

Total Citations 956 471 352 320 305 297 211 177 174 127 121 119 109 58 50 48 38 37 30 29 28 26 26 20 19

Total articles 2 36 5 5 6 2 3 4 5 8 3 1 8 5 3 1 3 1 1 4 1 3 1 1 6

Mean citations by article 478.0 13.1 70.4 64.0 50.8 148.5 70.3 44.3 34.8 15.9 40.3 119.0 13.6 11.6 16.7 48.0 12.7 37.0 30.0 7.3 28.0 8.7 26.0 20.0 3.2

different countries, indicates that there is at least one co-authorship between countries.

5 Discussion Our bibliometric review of HPWS helps to understand how research in this area has grown and directions it might take in the future. Based on a co-citation, geographical and journal analysis of the references cited by HPWS publications, our analysis reveals that the most cited articles tend to focus on issues about strategy, productivity, institutions and psychology. In addition, our analysis highlights that the most cited articles tend to focus on generic issues like learning, turnover and systems. Our review also indicates that articles about HPWS can be clustered into five main

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Table 7 Group results of the most quoted sources in 161 articles resulting from research (in brackets shows the number of citations) Cluster 1 International Journal of Human Resource Management (632) Industrial & Labor Relations Review (281) British Journal of Industrial Relations (211) Industrial Relations (184) Human Resource Management Journal (182) Journal of Management Studies (120) Human Relations (115) American Economic Review (91) Personnel Review (72) Manufacturing Advantage (66) Human Resource Management Journal (64) Harvard Business Review (55) Human Resource Management Journal (50) Work, Employment & Society (40) American Journal of Sociology (32) The International Journal of Management Reviews (31) International Journal of Manpower (31) Strategy Human Resource (29) Employee Relations Management (26) Organization Studies (26) Economic and Industrial Democracy (25) Employee Relations (24) Journal of Operations Management (24) Relations Industrielles-Industrial Relations (23) American Sociological Review (22) High Involvement Management (21) Industrial Relations Journal (21) Oxford HDB Human Res (21) Asia Pacific Business Review (20) Journal of Industrial Relations (20) Cluster 2 Academy of Management Review (253) Journal of International Business Studies (86) Human Resource Management (61) Human Resource Management (23) Organizational Dynamics (22) Management International Review (21)

Cluster 3 Academy of Management Journal (957) Journal of Applied Psychology (438) Journal of Management (387) Personnel Psychology (241) Journal of Research in Personality (116) Administrative Science Quarterly (102) Journal of Organizational Behavior (100) Organization Science (84) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (46) Psychological Bulletin (41) Journal of Vocational Behavior (38) Journal of Business Research (31) Group & Organization Management (28) Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (28) Organizational Research Methods (26) Psychological Methods (25) Annual Review of Psychology (24) Research in Organizational Behavior (23) Multilevel Theory, Research, and Methods in Organizations (21) Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management (21) Exchange and Power in Social Life (20) Journal of Occupational Psychology, Employment and Disability (20) Cluster 4 Strategic Management Journal (157) Human Resource Management Journal (121) Human Resource Management Journal (59) Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (40) Journal of Small Business Management (39) Management Science (32) The Competitive Advantage of Nations (26) Journal of Marketing Research (21) Cluster 5 Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources (45) Medical Care (28) Academy of Management Perspectives (23) Journal of Healthcare Management (22) California Management Review (20)

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Fig. 5 Network sources cited in 161 articles and their clusters

journal areas that correspond to specific topic areas. These clusters indicate that research on HPWS can be published in diverse types of journals, unlike other subject areas that have a niche area. Another interesting finding is that the institutions with the most publications on HPWS are from New Zealand, Ireland and Australia, which indicates that the topic might have more popularity in countries with an Anglo-Saxon heritage. Although, interesting researchers from Taiwan are publishing a lot of research on HPWS. In terms of overall publications, the United States had the overall number of articles on HPWS, which is similar to other fields of HRM. However, China, Taiwan and South Korea had the fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, most published articles on HPWS. This indicates that Asia is a key geographic area interested in HPWS. The lack of European countries amongst the top countries publishing on HPWS is an interesting finding and contrasts with prevailing conceptions that Europe has a lot of research interest in HPWS.

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Table 8 Top institutions with publications in HPWS domain Organization University of Auckland (New Zealand) Dublin City University (Ireland) La Trobe University (Australia) National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan) Rutgers State University (USA) University of Illinois (USA) University of Kansas (USA) University of Limerick (Ireland) Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand) Griffith University (Australia) Korea University (South Korea) National University of Singapore (Singapore) University of Nebraska (USA) Victoria University (Australia)

No of articles 8 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5

No of authors 6 4 8 5 6 6 1 4 2 5 3 3 4 2

Table 9 Top institutions with publications co-authored in HPWS domain Organization 1 University of Auckland (New Zealand) Dublin City University (Ireland) Dublin City University (Ireland) National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan) National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan) National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan) University Of Limerick (Ireland) University Of Illinois (USA)

Organization 2 University of Kansas (USA) Griffith University (Australia) University of Nebraska (USA) University of Limerick (Ireland)

No. of articles 6 5 5 4

University of Illinois (USA)

4

Korea University (South Korea)

4

University of Kansas (USA) National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan)

4 4

6 Limitations and Implications for Future Research This chapter has several limitations that should be noted and addressed in future research. We focused on certain databases in the bibliometric analysis and ignored other types of publications that might report on HPWS. This means future research can explore from a multi-source perspective on how HPWS are being studied in more practitioner types of publications that might not appear in academic databases. As our article utilised, a bibliometric approach there is a researcher bias in terms of analysing the main clusters. According to our results, there are four main clusters that represent certain themes in the HPWS literature. Future research can examine

190 Table 10 Top countries with publications in HPWS domain

V. Ratten et al. Country USA UK Australia Peoples Republic of China Taiwan South Korea Canada Ireland New Zealand Germany Spain Netherlands Singapore Finland France Greece Malaysia Switzerland Denmark Italy Japan Portugal Sweden Tunisia Turkey United Arab Emirates

No. of articles 63 26 21 21 13 11 9 9 9 6 6 5 5 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

different rationales or conceptualisations for the key themes in the research. There may be different ways to understand the clusters that can be expanded by future research focusing on the emerging areas of interest in HPWS. Future research needs to look into whether different levels of analysis are cited more often than others in articles. Becker and Gerhart (1996) found that the level of analysis influences HRM and organisational performance. In addition, Meuer (2016) suggests that HPWS needs to be researched more in terms of the architectural and implementation level as it will enable the best HR practices to be analysed in terms of organisational performance. The main themes from the bibliometric analysis could be complemented by further analysis about the role of cultural and social factors that influence research on HPWS, This is in line with research by Paauwe (2009) who found that there are different methodological approaches to HRM that need to be contextualised. In addition, certain geographic locations might emphasise HPWS more than others. We did not empirically examine the antecedents or reasons why individuals are publishing on HPWS. Future research could supplement the findings of this

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Fig. 6 Collaboration network between countries

bibliometric analysis by using a case study and longitudinal data to see how academics perceptions of HPWS are changing. Such investigation could use a mixed methods approach including interviews with researchers about their thoughts on HPWS. However, as previously stated the bibliometric analysis produced a good overview about the current state of research that can give way to more research on this topic.

References Appelbaum, E. (2000). Manufacturing advantage: Why high-performance work systems pay off. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Arthur, J. B. (1992). The link between business strategy. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 45 (3), 488–506. Arthur, J. B. (1994). Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 670–687.

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