Measuring robustness: sustainable success factors affecting professional football clubs

Abstract

Purpose

Many factors influence success at a professional football club, as each club has an exclusive definition and interpretation of success. Using the Football Management Q-Score as a foundation, the authors set out to prove the framework's robustness in the industry's current environment.

Design/methodology/approach

To determine the purpose, the authors conducted interviews with Bundesliga experts. Using the Gioia Method, the authors could condense interview feedback into aggregate themes reflecting the main findings of the analysis process.

Findings

From 1,025 codes, three main contributions resulted – the concept of intercorrelation, a more balanced and dynamic framework, and four new key drivers.

Originality/value

Expert feedback validated the framework as robust, and the further main contributions gave the framework a wider application to a larger range of clubs, allowing the users of the framework to infer a greater context. Interview results proved the inclusion of Kaplan and Norton's original framework with vision and strategy.

Citation

Cruz, J.M., Schregel, J.P. and Zülch, H. (2022), "Measuring robustness: sustainable success factors affecting professional football clubs", Sport, Business and Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 323-341. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-03-2021-0041