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Using the lens of upper echelons theory, this study examines the degree to which National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic department performance outcomes are associated with the personal characteristics and experiences of the athletic director leading the organization.

The authors match organizational performance data with athletic director and institutional characteristics to form a robust data set spanning 16 years from the 2003–04 to 2018–19 seasons. The sample contains 811 observations representing 136 unique athletic directors. Fixed effects panel regressions are used to analyze organizational performance and quantile regression is used to analyze organizational revenues.

The authors fail to uncover statistically significant evidence that athletic director personal characteristics, functional experience and technical experience are associated with organizational performance. Rather, the empirical modeling indicates organizational performance is primarily driven by differentiation in the ability to acquire human capital (i.e. playing talent). The results also indicate that on average, women are more likely to lead lower revenue organizations, however, prior industry-specific technical experience offsets this relationship.

In opposition to upper echelons research in numerous settings, the modeling indicates the personal characteristics and experiences of the organization's lead executive are not an economically relevant determinant of organizational performance. This may indicate college athletics is a boundary condition in the applicability of upper echelons theory.

The purpose of this editorial is to set the context for the first edition of this new sport business management journal, by identifying some key developments in the sport industry and establishing the parameters for papers that may be subsequently submitted to the journal.

The inaugural editorial is based upon the Editor's previous academic experience and his work with practitioners in the field of sport business management. As such, the commentary presented reflects a perceived need for high‐quality research within the field of sport business management.

On the basis of extensive experience working with leading business scholars, as well as senior managers from across sport, it is the Editor's view that the business of sport is a dynamic, increasingly complex industry that is generating a multitude of research opportunities but which at the same time requires sophisticated insights to be developed.

The editorial introduction defines the scope of the journal, setting the parameters for prospective authors seeking to submit papers to the publication.

Implicit within the editorial introduction is the notion that, while academically rigorous research is central to the development of sport business management, the practical application of this research is essential.

Fundamental to both the editorial introduction and the journal's scope is a firm belief that sport and the business of sport require good management principles to be developed and applied, thereby influencing policy and practice.

The paper invites prospective authors and readers to view sport in what will be, for some people, a new way. That is, seeing sport in managerial, commercial and industrial terms.

This study forces respondents to tradeoff between invasive human resource practices and salary.

Respondents evaluated 16 calibration profiles to estimate a conjoint model among four categories: pre-employment, employment at the office, employment outside the office, and salary. Each profile included one level from the four categories.

In a study of mostly full-time employees, conditions at work were paramount. Salary was second followed closely by pre-employment monitoring. Monitoring outside of the office was a distance last.

In a tight employment market, salary may not be the deciding selection factor for employment.

Employee monitoring is advancing dramatically and making human resource activities commonplace and invasive. This study forces respondents to confront these practices and determine whether salary can compensate for their acceptance.

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the authors analyzed how a major Canadian university sport brand was interpreted by its stakeholders and why the perception was so negative. Second, the researchers investigated how a dormant university sport brand could be revitalized.

A mixed-methods approach was designed. During the first year, a qualitative methodology was established. Researchers conducted 14 different focus groups, with students-athletes, students, coaches, university administrators, support staff and professors. In the second year, based on the initial findings, the researchers elaborated a quantitative protocol and built a multidimensional questionnaire which was administered to groups that were gravitating around the varsity brand. There were a total of 1,757 completed questionnaires.

The conclusions highlighted the weakness of the varsity brand and the limitations in leveraging the latter for the benefit of the institution. Contradictions in the marketing and branding decisions were noted, for which strategic recommendations were formulated.

In essence, the contributions of the paper relate to the strategic management of the brand and the mixed-methods approach borrowed in this research. Understanding how a brand is perceived is essential for managers in elaborating their strategy and, therefore, being able to connect effectively with their audience.

The potential strategic leverage of branding for universities becomes even more valuable as these institutions are increasingly using their varsity programs to compete with one another. This study specifically analyzes the case of a Canadian varsity brand whose values and resources differ greatly from other North American institutions.

The purpose of this research was to examine the role of intersectionality (multiple marginalized identities) in narratives used within online media coverage of women's sports. The authors adopted an intersectionality lens and drew from sports media literature to explore the representation of Black athletes in women's sport.

The authors conducted a quantitative content analysis of online articles from ESPN, CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated from the 2020 WNBA Season. The authors coded the number of times an athlete was mentioned in an article, the athlete's race, publicly disclosed sexual orientation and gender expression. The authors used hierarchical regression to examine the relationship between an athlete's social identities and frequency of media mentions.

Within mainstream online sport media, Black WNBA athletes receive less media attention than white WNBA athletes. Black athletes who do not present in traditionally feminine ways receive the least amount of media attention, while white athletes have the freedom to express their gender in a variety of ways and still capture media interest. Within league press releases, however, there is no difference in media mentions based on race, sexual orientation or gender expression.

The findings in this research are important for sport media professionals who write stories and player-activists who are pursuing racial justice. Outlets should commit to antiracist storytelling practices. Players, player agents and players' associations—all of whom have shown their power to create change for a more equitable industry and society—should also advocate for and organize around practices that create more equitable media coverage.

This study is one of the few empirical investigations of women's professional sport that examines the influence of intersecting social identities.

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.

As a tenured associate professor whose career has engaged various social justice issues, this chapter discusses the collaborative and shared decision-making process used to found and maintain basketball teams for seven years. The chapter also focuses on personal reflections of coaching club basketball as part of an auto-ethnography. The chapter explains the experiences that influenced a praxis focused on social justice as an attempt to infuse principles of equality and inclusiveness in opposition to harsh traditional coaching practices. Youth embraced an approach with little yelling, but some parents disapproved. Finally, this work discusses the limitations and successes of utilizing a social justice approach, including professional and health consequences.

Many of the largest athletics programs in the United States today are dependent upon revenue streams to sustain their teams. While still in the earliest stages, athletic professionals are finding ways to deepen the engagement with potential and current fans and donors with their department's mission and values. Social media is being used to put fans in the seats as well as create new paid content. No longer limited to the column inches in a newspaper or 30 seconds of highlights on the local news, athletics programs are breaking new grounds in the world of social media.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how simultaneous use of devices such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones impacts the sponsors that receive brand integration during the broadcasts. Advances in technology now allow fans to consume broadcasts of televised events almost anywhere via personal computers, tablets and smartphones. These devices are also frequently utilized as “second screens” to communicate with fellow consumers on social media, access additional content or otherwise multitask during televised consumption.

An initial study served to test the applicability of the theoretical framework of a dual coding theory in this new context, followed by a 3 × 2 between-subjects design utilized to advance understanding of the influence of second screens on brand awareness of the sponsors of televised events.

Results demonstrated that both brand recognition and recall were reduced by second screen activity across nearly all audio or visual consumption experiences. Further, while second screen use in an audiovisual setting did not interfere with consumers’ ability to recognize brands, indicating they were able to multitask and were not distracted, it inhibited their ability to recall brands from memory. This result provides evidence that second screen use may interfere with elaborative rehearsal and reduce cognitive capacity.

Given that marketers are investing more resources than ever to achieve brand integration during televised events, these findings suggest that brands face challenges in achieving a requisite return on their investments.

This study represents the first empirical investigation of the impact of consumers’ use of second screens in the academic literature, and has important implications for the sponsors of televised events.