Star Players Research Articles

Sport brands' attraction factors and international fans

PurposeThe overall aim of this study is to improve our understanding of the strength of attraction factors of professional football club brands with foreign fans, and of the influence of demographics and individual characteristics on the influence of these factors in the context of sport spectatorship services.Design/methodology/approachThis research was based on a quantitative study surveying 1,160 Chinese fans of English Premier League clubs and its results were produced through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. They identify the relative importance of 21 organisation– (e.g. star players, charismatic managers, team kits, partnerships and alliances, etc.), market and environment– (e.g. peer influence, TV coverage, etc.), and experience– (e.g. personal bonds, past attendance, etc.) induced service brand attraction points that were categorised into six main factors: star players, on-the-field performance, brand identity, marketing and merchandising, localism and experience.FindingsOrganisation-induced factors are the most important club brand attraction factors for Chinese fans. ANOVA analysis showed that demographic (i.e. gender, age, and education) and individual (i.e. brand identification and loyalty levels) characteristics influence the importance of attraction factors for fans. For instance, fans who had previously supported a different club brand rated the marketing and merchandising dimensions lower, localism higher, on-the-field performance lower and brand identity lower than those who had always supported the same club.Originality/valueThese results emphasise the importance of segmentation when considering consumer attraction to professional sport brands. They also provide specific practical knowledge that is useful when expanding into new foreign markets.

Madame executive: baseball the Manley way

ABSTRACTEffa Manley, arguably the most demanding matriarch in baseball history, was a pioneer in many respects. As the first female owner of an American professional baseball team, she helped hone the skills of numerous star players while negotiating contracts with several of the most savvy team owners within Major League Baseball. Her plaque in Major Leagues Baseball’s Hall of Fame is a testament to her dedication to the sport, steadfast resolve, and administrative leadership.

Sustainability Challenges in Professional Football: The Destructive Effects of the Society of the Spectacle

For a long time considered as a simple means of entertainment, football (soccer) has now become a main element of the society of the spectacle, with huge economic and financial stakes. A series of competitions are managed to generate significant revenues shared by international institutions (including FIFA), private companies and star players. This paper points out that professional football is engaged in a headlong rush, including the irrational use of non-renewable resources and frantic consumption among fans, especially of licensed merchandise. Dialogue between football stakeholders and the advocates of sustainability has become difficult, as evidenced by the conditions under which the 2022 FIFA World Cup will take place in Qatar, with three major controversies: initial controversies in the choice of host country; environmental controversies about stadium air conditioning; and future controversies regarding the importance of sustainability in the allocation of the next FIFA World Cups.

Injury Analysis Based on Machine Learning in NBA Data

It is a commonplace that the injury plays a vital influence in an NBA match and it may reverse the result of two teams with wide strength disparity. In this article, in order to decrease the uncertainty of the risk in the coming match, we propose a pipeline from gathering data at the player’s level including the fundamental statistics and the performance in the match before and data at the team’s level including the basic information and the opponent team’s status in the match we predict on. Confined to the limited and extremely unbalanced data, our result showed a limited power on injury prediction but it made a not bad result on the injury of the star player in a team. We also analyze the contribution of the factors to our prediction. It demonstrated that player’s own performance matters most in their injury. The Principal Component Analysis is also applied to help reduce the dimension of our data and to show the correlation of different features.

Evolution of a Player: Transitions in NBA Player Classifications

Using principal components analysis (PCA) and hierarchal clustering, I classify all professional basketball players in the NBA since the 2000-01 season and observe their classification transitions under a Markov transition matrix framework. Player attributes—including shot type and location distributions, usage, assists, rebounds, steals, and other offensive and defensive statistics—are used to identify five principal components of basketball playing styles: “Inside vs Outside,” “Offensive Aggressiveness,” “Efficiency vs Midrange,” “Midrange Facilitator” and “Floor Stretching.” Hierarchal clustering on the principal components identifies twelve unique player classifications. The model successfully characterizes how players evolve and develop over time. Certain early-career classifications are more likely to transition to higher-skilled classifications. Star players tend to begin their careers in higher-skilled classifications and are more stable within their classifications than average or marginal players. Player classifications are found to be less stable for rookies than for the player population as a whole.

Analyzing the relationship between stadium location and attendance: A location modeling of Major League Baseball (MLB)

The location of a sports facility is one of the significant factors in economically operating and maintaining the facility. The present study used a location theory model to examine the influence of the Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium location on attendance (N=348) for the 2006-2017 MLB regular seasons, taking into consideration the population, median income, and distance between the stadium and the population center of counties nearby the stadium. The optimal location model was determined as the inverse proportion of the squared distance of the first nearest county, and location significantly influenced the attendance (p<.05). Then, based on the results of the location model, the current study analyzed the relationship between the MLB attendance and other attendance determinants by using hierarchical linear modeling. Among 14 different determinants, six variables (i.e., stadium capacity, ticket price, season, as well as the home team’s quality, payroll, and star players) were revealed in the findings to have a significant influence on the MLB attendance (p<.05).

La relación como valor estratégico en comunicación organizacional entre los clubes de fútbol y jugadores estrella en redes sociales/The relationship as a strategic value in organizational communication between football clubs and star players in social net

ResumenLa investigación se ha enmarcado en el estudio de la gestión de la comunicación organizacional en el deporte, con el enfoque en las redes sociales como canales estratégicos para establecer las relaciones con los fans de fútbol. Olabe (2012) y Ginesta (2011) han estudiado su influencia en la comunicación con los distintos públicos de las entidades deportivas. Sin embargo, son limitados los estudios de valor de la presencia e interacción mutua entre los clubes y sus jugadores estrella en sus respectivas estrategias digitales de comunicación corporativa basadas interactividad, influencia y publicity. El objetivo del estudio es demostrar la relación estratégica de la comunicación digital de los clubes de fútbol más importantes en la Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Real Madrid CF y FC Barcelona), con sus deportistas más mediáticos (Cristiano Ronaldo y Leo Messi) en Facebook, Twitter e Instagram. Para ello, se ha utilizado una triangulación metodológica, centrada en analítica Web 2.0 y análisis del contenido, abarcando el periodo de la competición de la LFP y descanso. Los resultados demuestran un alto rendimiento de perfiles en cuanto a actividad, popularidad y valor publicitario. Las conclusiones confirman la relación comunicacional entre los jugadores profesionales con sus respectivos clubes, desarrollando una clara visión de su estrategia comunicativa. Los clubes estudiados realizan estrategias distintas para sus jugadores; así como los jugadores estudiados tienen una marcada diferencia en cuanto a el objetivo de sus publicaciones en redes sociales. Palabras clave: relaciones públicas, comunicación organizacional, deporte, redes sociales, Real Madrid CF, FC Barcelona. AbstractThe research framework are studies of the management of organizational communication in sport, with the particular focus on social networks as strategic channels to establish relationships with football fans. Olabe (2012) and Ginesta (2011) demonstrated the influence of communication with different audiences of sports entities. However, there we can observe the limited number of studies on the mutual interaction between football clubs and their star players in their respective digital strategies of corporate communication based on interactivity, influence, and publicity. The objective of the study is to demonstrate the strategic relationship established via digital communication of the most important football clubs in the Professional Football League (Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona), with their most popular athletes (Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi, respectively) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The choice of these networks is motivated by the wide use and application in case of both clubs and players (except for the FC Barcelona player, Messi who does not have a Twitter profile by the time of the study). A methodological triangulation has been used, centered on Web 2.0 analytics and content analysis of social networks, covering the period of the LFP competition and the time directly afterwards. In this way, we cover sporting period and vacation rest. In this way, we can determine the strategies of the players and their greater or lesser link to their club of relevance depending on the sport and competition activity. In order to accomplish the objective of the present study, we have used the online monitoring and measurement tools of social networks: FanPage Karma, Likelyzer and Twitonomy, so we have been able to collect a large amount of data, otherwise impossible to gather. The results show a high performance of profiles in terms of activity, popularity and advertising value. The data confirm the communication relationship between professional players and their respective clubs, developing a clear vision of their communication strategy. The study reflect the commitment and publicity value of football clubs and reveal the ways in which the players use it for their own businesses or sponsorships. In the case of both clubs, the players provoke the greatest interaction on the part of the followers, but they are not mentioned in messages through the hashtags, but key words. In addition, the clubs perform different strategies for their players. Additionally, the players have shown a marked difference in terms of the purpose of their publications on social networks. Among the conclusions, it is advisable to redesign the strategies of the social networks in order to include the conversation, dialogue and reciprocal relationship between clubs and their star players for the mutual communicative and promotional benefit, beyond the commercial effect. In short, the use of social networks by players and sports entities is based on objectives within their own separate communication strategy and business interests. However, it is advisable to cross the strategies of both players and entities to amplify the messages and optimize the strategies different actors of communication.Keywords: public relations, organisational communication, sports management, social networks, Real Madrid CF, FC Barcelona.

Quantile Insights on Market Structure and Worker Salaries: The Case of Major League Baseball

The vast majority of the empirical investigation of player marginal revenue product (MRP) and monopsony exploitation rates (MER) implicitly assumed that MRP is constant across the revenue distribution of teams. The few works that do attempt to capture the impact of revenue variation across teams do so via independent variable specification. We bring quantile estimation to bear that allows MRP to vary across the entire revenue distribution in Major League Baseball. Completely in keeping with economic common sense, MRP increases as total revenue rises (to higher and higher quantiles). As with past findings, there is interesting MER dispersion over the length of player tenure in the league and between star and mediocre players. Heretofore unexplored, we also find interesting dispersion in MRP and MER between larger revenue and smaller revenue markets. Our results suggest that independent variable specifications overstate MRP and MER for smaller revenue teams and understate the same for larger revenue team.

Dynamic brand evolution mechanism of professional sports teams: empirical analysis using comprehensive major league baseball data

In this study, we empirically examine the dynamic development mechanism of team brand equity by proposing a set of team brand equity development model and team brand demand models using comprehensive Major League Baseball data set. Taking advantage of the richness of the game-level data, we provide an alternative estimation approach to accurately measure team brand equity and identify its dynamic evolution process. We find various patterns to the brand equity development across teams over time. More importantly, we find a strong carry-over effect: team brand equity is 3.5–4.5 times larger when we consider dynamic impact, which implied serious underestimation in a static case. Also, we find that postseason performance is a vital element to construct strong team brand equity while seasonal performance has tenuous impact on the brand equity development. Furthermore, we find that a team’s brand community plays a critical role in developing its brand equity. A team that maintains 2–3 times larger brand community benefits from developing team brand equity as much as it achieves successful postseason performances (e.g., winning World Series). However, we find insignificant evidence of a star player to develop team brand equity. Also, we conduct several simulation analyses to provide meaningful managerial implications.

Difference, dissonance, and redemption in sport heritage: interpreting the tangled legacy of Pete Rose at two museums

ABSTRACTInduction into a hall of fame can be the ultimate accolade for an athlete. Arguably, the most famous of all sport halls of fame is the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (NBHF) in Cooperstown, New York. The NBHF is widely considered the primary authority concerning baseball enshrinement, although other baseball halls of fame may differ in their assessment of particular players. One such case involves Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time hits leader, who received a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball for gambling on his own games. Rose is omitted for consideration for the NBHF, however he is an inductee at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum (RHFM) in Cincinnati, Ohio where he was a star player. Major League Baseball and the Office of the Commissioner are the authorizing agents for both halls of fame and appear to support both perspectives. This research note explores the different approaches to Pete Rose at the NBHF and the RHFM. We consider the potential for dissonant narratives to be used as a management tool by the authorizing agent in order to gauge public opinion and assuage Rose’s fans whilst keeping the debate firmly in the public eye.

Process Flexibility in Baseball: The Value of Positional Flexibility

This paper introduces the formal study of process flexibility to the novel domain of sports analytics. In baseball, positional flexibility is the analogous concept to process flexibility from manufacturing. We study the flexibility of players (plants) on a baseball team who produce innings-played at different positions (products). We develop models and metrics to evaluate expected and worst-case performance under injury risk (capacity uncertainty) with continuous player-position capabilities. Using Major League Baseball data, we quantify the impact of flexibility on team and individual performance and explore the player chains that arise when injuries occur. We discover that top teams can attribute at least one to two wins per season to flexibility alone, generally as a result of long subchains in the infield or outfield. The least robust teams to worst-case injury, those whose performance is driven by one or two star players, are over four times as fragile as the most robust teams. We evaluate several aspects of individual flexibility, such as how much value individual players bring to their team in terms of average and worst-case performance. Finally, we demonstrate the generalizability of our framework for player evaluation by quantifying the value of potential free agent additions and uncovering the true “MVP” of a team. Data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.3004 . This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

Blinded by the sand of its burrowing? Examining fans’ intentions to follow one-day cricket on TV with a moderating effect of social influence

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of patriotism, nostalgia, drama and excitement of the game, and interest in star players to predict fans’ intentions to follow one-day cricket in near future. Furthermore, social influence is positioned as a moderator to enrich the understanding of fans’ motives to follow one-day cricket.Design/methodology/approachThe data are collected by means of a cross-sectional survey conducted among 609 university students enroled in Pakistani and Sri Lankan universities. The collected data are analysed by employing a structural equation modelling procedures to reach meaningful conclusions.FindingsThe variables of patriotism, nostalgic associations, excitement and drama of the game, and interest in star players are found to positively relate to the fans’ intentions to follow one-day cricket in near future. However, the moderating effects of social influence only moderated with interest in star players, which has practical and theoretical implications.Originality/valueThe study is an original contribution to the field of sports marketing. The proposed relationships are based on social identity theory paradigm. Furthermore, the moderating effects of social influence and a multi-country data are unique to this study. Finally, in previous studies, football fans’ motivation and test-match cricket fans’ motivations are studied, hence one-day cricket as a context is also unique to this study.

Celebrity attraction in the minors: the case of Tim Tebow

The movement of former college football star and NFL player Tim Tebow to the sport of baseball attracted considerable attention in 2017. Although many viewed his desire to play baseball as a publicity stunt, the athlete repeated stated his desires and intention to play baseball by working his way up through the minor leagues. Tim Tebow is not a normal sports figure, as he tends to be highly polarizing based mainly upon his willingness to voice his Christian faith in the public arena. This study examines the role of Tim Tebow on attendance by specifying various attendance models that relate to the teams and leagues in which he participated during the 2017 season. His mere presence was shown to substantially increase attendance, both at home and on the road, and the findings reveal that his actual performance did not significantly alter fan preferences to watch him play.

빅데이터 분석을 활용한 골프의류 인식에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to investigate awareness of golf apparel by using big data of social media. For this, blogs, cafes, intellectuals(tips), news and web document provided by “Naver” and “Daum” were selected as analysis channels and a searching key “Golf apparel” was extracted as main word. Data analysis period was limited to 3 years from 1st of January, 2015 through 31st of December, 2017. For data collection and analysis, frequency and metrics data were extracted through Textom, social metrics program and the degree of the relationship was quantified by analyzing the connection structure and connection degree centrality between words using Ucinet6. For visualization, NetDraw function of Ucinet6 was used to visualize the network between words related to keyword. In addition, CONCOR analysis was conducted to drive cluster formed by words having similarity. The result of analysis are as follow. First, as a result of analyzing the key words through the upper words using golf apparel as a keyword, “golf apparel”, “brand”, “male”, “female”, “sports” appeared among the top 5. Second, the median of connectivity values showed “woman”, “brand”, “man”, “discount”, “Titleist” were listed on top 5. Third, as a result of conducting N-GRAM network graph using “golf apparel” as a keyword, golf apparel/golf apparel, woman/golf apparel, sports/golf apparel, golf apparel/man, golf apparel/brand listed on top 5. Fourth, As a result of CONCOR analysis, “professional golf apparel”, “sponsor”, “man prefer fashion”, “brand and purchasing factor”, “star player fashion” groups were formed.

Searching for Judgment Biases Among Elite Basketball Referees.

An attacking basketball player initiating significant physical contact with a defender who has already established a legal and stationary position, should be called with an offensive foul. Offensive foul situations are particularly ambiguous and complex, making the referee’s task a difficult one. In such conditions of complexity and constraints of time, the referee is likely to be prone to systematic biases, as has been documented by previous research in other sport settings. We analyzed the referees’ decisions in 250 instances of collisions between an attacking player and a defender. In these collisions the defender fell, and potentially an offensive foul could be called. We found no evidence of favoritism granted to the home team, to star players, or to high-reputation teams, or of small players being tackled by significantly larger opponents. The findings suggest that these biases are not very robust, and are sensitive to the context, and that proper training of referees and enhanced awareness can help to alleviate referees’ biases.

Unfolding the Twitter scene of the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final: social media networks and power dynamics

ABSTRACTResearch question: This study investigated the Twitter networks of the Champions League hashtag (#UCL) across the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final. Through an examination of network parameters and shifting structures, the analyses disclosed patterns of attention and power distributed among various sport stakeholders and fans. It advanced the inquiry of sport social media ecologies by engaging in theoretical discussions of media gatekeeping and power dynamics.Research methods: The study employed a social network analysis. A data scraping software was utilized to collect all conversations attached to #UCL during the pre-match, halftime, and post-match. Overall, the data included 19,869 posts for pre-match, 3276 posts for halftime, and 5691 for post-match.Results and findings: The #UCL network emerged with relatively low density and heterogeneous communication interest during the pre-match, and then moved towards higher density. Meanwhile, emergent game dynamics played a meaningful role in structuring the networked relationships. Large sport entities and star players, including the Champions League and Cristiano Ronaldo, had relatively stable and privileged positions in organizing the networks.Implications: The results indicated that the Twitter network structures allowed the prominence of large sport entities to be further recognized and legitimated, whereas individual citizens had constrained capacity to generate influence. This finding holds implications for sport teams and their stakeholders as it underscores the relational and dynamic nature of digital networks and the importance of strategically managing social media as a critical communication resource.

Athlete personality characteristics and informal role occupancy in interdependent sport teams

ObjectivesThe current manuscript describes two studies that examined the relationship between athletes' big five personality characteristics and their occupancy of informal roles as identified by self-nominations and teammate-nominations. DesignA cross-sectional design was used to collect data on athlete personality and informal role occupancy. MethodData were collected from 340 French athletes (Study 1) and 195 Canadian athletes (Study 2). In both studies, MANOVA were conducted to compare the personality scores of self-identified role occupants vs. non-role occupants. In Study 2, multiple linear regression analyses were also conducted to assess whether athletes' personality characteristics predicted the degree to which they were identified by their teammates as role occupants. ResultsAcross the studies and role identification methods (i.e., based on self- and teammate-nominations), team comedians appeared to be more extraverted and team distracters appeared to be less conscientious. Those viewed as the team mentors tended to be more emotionally stable, and those viewed as the team star players were less agreeable. Verbal and non-verbal informal leadership roles showed mixed associations with athlete personality characteristics. Openness to experience did not relate to informal role occupancy, and the occupancy of the team spark plug, enforcer, team player, social convener, cancer, and malingerer roles did not relate to athletes' big five personality characteristics. ConclusionsThe current studies provide the first quantitative evidence that supports the theoretical propositions that athlete personality may underpin the processes by which athletes come to occupy informal roles on their teams.

Impact of international sports events on the attendance of domestic sports league games using Chinese Super League data

PurposeExperiences of high quality games between top-class sports teams could influence sports fans’ decision to attend the domestic sports games. For example, soccer fans who watched the World Cup games between the best national teams are likely to be disappointed with the performance of their domestic league teams after the World Cup event, while more people might be attracted to watch a soccer game because of their increased interest in soccer games. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the international sports event (i.e. the World Cup) influences the demand of the domestic sports league games in the non-hosting country.Design/methodology/approachTo test these antithetical hypotheses, the authors collect the Chinese Super League game-level data from 2004 to 2011. For analysis, the authors propose two empirical models rigorously developed based on previous sports marketing theories.FindingsThe findings are surprising compared to previous studies for the hosting countries or countries that performed spectacularly during the World Cup tournaments. The authors find that the international event negatively influences the attendance of domestic games. Specifically, it gives salience to the competitive quality of a match and helps enhance the impact of star players. Furthermore, the authors find evidence of dynamic effects of the international event.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the previous sports literatures by expanding our understanding of the effect of international sports events. Particularly, the results shed light on international events’ impact on the domestic sports league demand in more general conditions based on its influence on people’s behavior, rather than focusing on the effect caused by facility development or dramatic performance during the international event.

Optimal Team Contests to Induce More Efforts

We show that, if the team sports designer puts more weight on the performance of high-ability members (e.g., star players) than on low-ability members, the designer encourages the low-ability member to free ride on the high-ability members so that the high-ability members exert even greater efforts. Thus, the designer’s choice approximates the best shot team contest. With more weight on the low-ability member’s performance, the choice approximates the weakest link team contest to undermine the free riding. The approximations work better with more convex effort cost function and/or smaller heterogeneity of group members.

Dancing with the stars: Benefits of a star employee’s temporary absence for organizational performance

Research Summary: While research has focused primarily on stars as individual contributors, we examine organizational situations where stars must work closely with non‐stars. We argue that, in such situations, building teamwork around a star is an exercise in learning under complexity. In response, organizations prioritize interactions involving the star to simplify learning. This simplification, however, creates organizational myopia. We claim that a star’s temporary absence helps the organization overcome myopia by triggering a search for new routines. When he returns, the organization may combine these new routines with pre‐absence routines to improve teamwork and performance. We exploit injuries to star players in the National Basketball Association as an exogenous shock and find that on average, teams perform better after a star’s return than before his absence. Managerial Summary: This study examines the effect of the temporary absence of a star employee on organizational performance. We find evidence that a star employee’s temporary absence helps the organization overcome an over‐reliance on the star and improve teamwork. Improved teamwork, in turn, enables the organization to perform better upon the star’s return than it did prior to his absence. This result suggests that organizations might want to revisit the tendency to view stars as too valuable to lose, even for a short time. In particular, organizations may want to pull stars from ongoing projects and encourage them to attend professional development programs. A star’s temporary absence and return from such a program improves not only the star’s skills but also the organization’s teamwork.