Search results

To understand the football industry in its entirety, a supply chain management (SCM) approach is necessary. This includes the study of suppliers, consumers and their collaborations. The purpose of this study was to present a business management model based on supply chain management.

Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 12 academic and executive football experts. After three steps of open, axial and selective coding based on grounded theory with a paradigmatic approach, the data were analysed, and a football supply chain management (FSCM) was developed. The proposed model includes three managerial components: upstream suppliers, the manufacturing firm, and downstream customers.

The football industry sector has three parts: upstream suppliers, manufacturing firm/football clubs and downstream customers. We proposed seven parts for the managerial processes of football supply chain management: event/match management, club management, resource and infrastructure management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, cash flow management and knowledge and information flow management. This model can be used for configuration, coordination and redesign of business operations as well as the development of models for evaluation of the football supply chain's performance.

The proposed model of a football supply chain management, with the existing literature and theoretical review, created a synergistic outcome. This synergy is presented in the linkage of the players in this chain and interactions between them. This view can improve the management of industry productivity and improve the products quality.

While some football clubs are recognised as popular brands, little is known about the way they leverage their brand in their merchandise retailing. To address this gap the purpose of this paper is to investigate retail branding strategies used by professional football clubs through brand equity and supply chain management. In particular, it analyses the type of product merchandised, the reasons for selling certain products and the ways through which football clubs merchandise, including their partners in distribution channels.

A qualitative approach was undertaken involving content analysis of 22 Scottish professional football clubs’ websites and annual reports, and semi-structured interviews with seven football clubs retail managers and four supply chain partners. Transcribed data were coded and thematically organised through an inductive process using the qualitative data analysis software NVivo 10.

Three types of merchandise have been identified: basic, fashion and short season. Building brand equity is considered the main motive for retailing merchandise. Some football clubs use intermediaries or outsourcers to respond to sudden consumer demands and to ensure high levels of service, whereas others have an integrated supply chain which allows for greater control.

This paper contributes to the discussion on the role of retailing in football club brand equity. It suggests initiating intermediaries in the distribution channels to build brand equity thus enabling clubs to become more responsive to consumer demand.

This is the first paper to look at retail branding strategies of professional football clubs.

Football is deployed into various segments and consists of a complex value chain, with interrelationships and circularities. It is relevant in various segments and therefore it is important to understand the structure. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a model of a football value chain and the managerial implications inherent to this chain.

This research used a field study as its methodology, developing a semi-structured questionnaire containing open-ended questions about the representativeness of the football value chain. In-depth interviews with specialists in football were performed to collect data.

The results of the interviews indicated that the theoretical model is representative. Furthermore, through validation, the relevance and representativeness of the football value chain was shown, as well as its interrelationships with the other commodity and service segments. In addition, it was found that this segment is relevant and influential in the national and international market, and can be considered a factor of economic and social development.

This paper provides a view of the actors who make up the football value chain, and also supplies a complementary view to the models of chains presented in the theoretical review, enabling the provision of evidence on the axis with greater added value as a new step. The limitation of this research involves the context approached, because as identified throughout the investigation, this context is complex and dynamic. In this way, the linear approach used to construct this chain led to a reduced view of reality and of present relationships.

The model shows the presence of the main actors and the structure for the transformation of raw material into a final product, and is useful to understand the existing relationships and the layers of added value.

The evaluation of the conceptual model of football value chain confirms that this is a professionalized chain, which generates a significant number of direct and indirect jobs.

The authors propose a model of a football value chain which is complementary to the theoretical review developed, exposing a linkage of the players present in this chain and at what stage they are present, and supplies the managerial implications inherent to this.

Much of the extant literature has focused heavily on the recruiting aspects of college sports (Beamon, 2008; Broughton, E., & Neyer, M. (2001). Advising and counseling student athletes. New Directions for Student Services, 93, 47–53). Far less attention has been given to the supply chain of athletic departments from a macro-level perspective. A supply chain is a stream of information or goods from a supplier to an end customer. This study will provide a synthesis of previous literature, which will be integrated into a conceptual framework explaining the college athlete supply chain and its impact on Black males. We will also utilize secondary data to examine the organizational development of college recruiting and the conceptual nature of college athlete suppliers and manufacturers. The chapter will conclude with recommendations on how best to address the issues of the supply chain where revenue in college football has taken precedence over the collegiate experiences of many Black male student-athletes. This knowledge will be essential to all stakeholders within college athletics, particularly administrators, athletes, recruiters, coaches, and parents of athletes.

This paper explores the relationship power, appropriateness in relationship management and the commercial outcomes in buyer and suppler exchange by analyzing the recent history of the involvement of BSkyB in particular, and television companies in general, in the English football supply chain network. The paper describes the major players in the chain and where and how value flows commercially between the major protagonists in the network. The paper shows that although the Premiership football clubs have received an enormous increase in revenue over the last ten years this has not been translated into higher (or in some cases any profits). This is because the club's ability to leverage their customers is not capable of being used against their key suppliers – the players. It is the players (or at least those perceived to be the most talented and saleable) who have been appropriating the major share of value in this supply chain network.

Football is significant in the global economic context. However, the same significance is not identified in the value added to the chain, as the elements that make it up act in a disintegrated and independent manner with undesired effects. Consequently, it is necessary to structure the undesired effects to seek the basic causes that sustain this problematic situation. Thus, this paper aims to use a CRT to structure the undesired effects and basic causes that limit the positive economic impacts of the south Brazilian football value chain.

A semi-structured questionnaire was applied with questions about the existing constraints. Based on the answers in the interviews, the current reality tree was elaborated, premised on identifying the basic causes that sustain the undesirable effects detected.

Among the main results, it was identified that management problems of the traditional leaders of football clubs and federations are considered the main reason why south of Brazil football cannot fully exploit its economic potential.

It is evidenced that the paper shows the undesired effect that has the most impact on the development of this chain, and it is important to propose improvements to its root causes, aiming at greater efficacy of the resulting actions.

The relation between sport and sustainability is a topic that has recently raised a lot of interest among both academics and practitioners. However, in the academic literature, very few studies have investigated which solutions are implemented in football, despite its popularity, to reduce the environmental impact of its events. This study contributes to filling this gap by exploring how stadium managers tackle environmental issues for football events.

The authors have analyzed 94 sustainability reports of major sports events and conducted 6 case studies in 6 different major league stadiums around Europe in the framework of research supported by UEFA and three EU National Football Associations.

The heterogeneity of practices and goals at both the governance and operational level denote that stadium managers pursue environmental objectives mainly voluntarily and under local pressures. Efforts toward environmental improvement appear to depend on an economic and efficiency rationale, which translates into the adoption of technologies and operational practices characterized by short-term economic returns (i.e. energy and resources savings). As a result, operational practices outnumber governance-level practices.

The analysis clearly highlights that the fragmentation of operational practices derives from a lack of maturity of governance structures, especially when multiple actors have different – yet mutually influencing – responsibilities on the infrastructures or the planning and staging of football events.

Building on the notion of the holistic approach to environmental sustainability in sport management the research differentiated environmental practices according to the operational and governance dimensions. While operational practices tackle environmental aspects directly associated with football events (e.g. waste, energy consumption, water usage, etc.), governance-level practices relate to the systemic allocation of environmental roles and responsibilities within the management structure underlying football events.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Journal of Product & Brand Management is split into ten sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing strategy; Customer service; Pricing; Promotion; Marketing research; Product management; Channel management; Logistics and distribution; New product development; Purchasing.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Journal of Product & Brand Management is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing strategy; Customer service; Pricing; Promotion; Marketing research, customer behavior; Product management.