From Sport Club To Stock Company: Does Legal Form Matter For Professionalised Management in Sport?

Abstract

In many sports, non-profit and for-profit sport organisations compete against each other. For example in tennis, fitness, and snow sports, (non-profit) clubs and (for-profit) centers often offer the same courses. Previous literature has set theoretical comparisons of non-profit sport organisations (NSOs) and for-profit sport organisations (FSOs) and identified the advantages and disadvantages of these institutional arrangements (e.g., Auld & Cuskelly, 2012). Such research defines NSOs as traditional, hindered by volunteer work, and little competitive. However, to date, empirical comparison between non-profit and for-profit sport organisations has rarely been conducted. The assumption is that NSOs in such highly competitive sports have become business-like, shifting their member-orientation towards a customer-orientation that requires increasingly diverse services. The question then arises as to whether, and to what extent, forms of professionalised management differ between business-like NSOs and FSOs. Swiss Ski Schools (SSS) are characterised by their diversity of legal forms, from clubs (NSOs) to stock companies (FSOs). They are therefore suited to a comparison of legal forms and professionalised management. In this study, professionalised management includes the employment of paid staff as well as the strategic management and the implementation of formalised management instruments and documents. According to Nagel, Schlesinger, Bayle, & Giauque (2015), professionalised management leads to performance enhancement. To address this assumption, specific performance measures were examined and compared.