Farmers league: squad structure and resource dependency
Sport, Business and Management
ISSN: 2042-678X
Article publication date: 1 December 2023
Issue publication date: 10 April 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This research aimed to measure the influence of resource dependency (trading and/or shareholder's dependencies) squad age structure by building archetypes to identify strategic dominant schemes.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the Ligue 1 football clubs from the 2009/2010 season to the 2018/2019 data, the authors use the k-means classification to build archetypes of resource dependency and squad structure variables. The influence of resource dependency on squad structure is then analysed through a table of contingency.
Findings
Firstly, the authors identify archetypes of resource dependency with some clubs that are dependent on the transfer market and others that do not count on sales to balance their account. Secondly, they provide different archetypes of squad structure choices. The contingency between those archetypes allows to identify three main strategic schemes (avoidance, shaping and adaptation).
Originality/value
The research tests an original relationship between resource dependency of clubs and their human resource strategy to respond to it. This paper can help to provide detailed profiles for big clubs looking for affiliate clubs to know which clubs have efficient academy or player development capacities.
Keywords
Citation
Feuillet, A., Terrettaz, L. and Terrien, M. (2024), "Farmers league: squad structure and resource dependency", Sport, Business and Management, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 330-359. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-04-2023-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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