Abstract
The objective of this study is to analyse the efficiency of non-profit sports clubs and identify the perceptions of their directors with regards to the stakeholders that exert the greatest influence over club efficiency levels. In order to analyse the efficiency of these clubs, we made recourse to the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. We also applied the Mann-Whitney test, to identify whether there are significant differences between efficient and non-efficient clubs with regards to the influence held by their stakeholders. We thus report that the majority of clubs operate efficiently. Both the efficient and the non-efficient clubs classify the club managers, members, sponsors, fans and athletes as the most important stakeholders to their efficiency levels. The results convey how there are no significant differences among the management team perceptions on the role of stakeholders in attaining club efficiency. The study also details the respective procedures that inefficient clubs should adopt in order to approximate the efficiency frontier.
Highlights
The role played by sports clubs in promoting and developing physical and sports activities is gaining increased recognition in the literature (RATTEN, 2016)
We applied questionnaires in person with club managers/directors responding to two separate sections: the first approached information about the directors and their characteristics; whilst the second involved the evaluation, according to a Likert type five point scale (1 – not at all important to 5 – extremely important), of the perceptions held by club managers as regards which stakeholders most influence the efficiency of the clubs and the implementation of the variables deployed by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)
As this study seeks to evaluate the role played by stakeholders within the framework of the efficiency of amateur sports clubs in accordance with their managements’ perspectives, we first of all need to identify those sample clubs deemed efficient over the period under study
Summary
The role played by sports clubs in promoting and developing physical and sports activities is gaining increased recognition in the literature (RATTEN, 2016). There has been a rising level of interest in this topic from across the scientific community given the proposition that the sports performance directly interrelates with the way in which the club gets managed in a virtuous circle, given how sports success may aid in improving the respective club’s financial and operational performance (COELLI et al, 2005). This correlates with Sloane (1971) assertion that the main objective of sports clubs involves competitive results while ElHodiri and Quirk (1971) propose that financial profit was the main factor responsible for their survival. Vrooman (1997) details the importance of combining these two aspects for the evolution of sports clubs
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