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1 – 10 of 235
Article
Publication date: 7 June 2018

Grazia Lang, Torsten Schlesinger, Markus Lamprecht, Kaisa Ruoranen, Christoffer Klenk, Emmanuel Bayle, Josephine Clausen, David Giauque and Siegfried Nagel

The purpose of this paper is to identify types of professionalization in Swiss national sport federations (NSFs) and analyze organizational characteristics associated with…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify types of professionalization in Swiss national sport federations (NSFs) and analyze organizational characteristics associated with specific types of professionalization. Such types reveal common patterns among the increasingly complex organizational designs of NSFs and thus contribute to the understanding of professionalization in NSFs.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey of all Swiss NSFs was conducted to identify types of professionalization in these organizations using hierarchical cluster analysis, based on a multi-dimensional framework of professionalization.

Findings

The analysis revealed four types of professionalization: formalized NSFs managed by paid staff, NSFs managed by volunteers and a few paid staff off the field, NSFs with differing formalization and paid staff on the field, and moderately formalized NSFs managed by volunteers. The types differ in terms of the NSFs’ organizational characteristics, in particular, size, financial resources, Olympic status, and performance.

Originality/value

Applying factor and cluster analysis is a new approach to analyzing professionalization in NSFs that makes uncovering distinctive organizational patterns among a large number of NSFs possible. These results lay the foundation for understanding the professionalization of NSFs, counseling NSFs on their organizational development, and conducting future research on the design types of sport organizations.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 May 2016

Gerd Lupp, Linda Heuchele, Christina Renner, Ralf-Uwe Syrbe, Werner Konold and Dominik Siegrist

Implementing climate change adaptation measures immediately is considered both to minimize considerably negative impacts on biodiversity as well as on outdoor recreation in…

Abstract

Purpose

Implementing climate change adaptation measures immediately is considered both to minimize considerably negative impacts on biodiversity as well as on outdoor recreation in protected area management. This study aims to give answers, why, however, climate change issues receive very limited implementation by practitioners in day-to-day-management.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a motivation model by Rheinberg (2006), a more differentiated understanding was gained why stakeholders took almost no action regarding climate change adaptation. A participatory spatial scenario method including a map exercise was used to motivate stakeholders to develop, discuss, exchange and negotiate strategies under different possible future developments and their implementation in protected area management.

Findings

According to the motivation model, taking action is dependent on a number of factors and will only happen when all correlations are positive. It can be shown that for adaptation to climate change, concerning almost all of the various factors, no stimuli existed or actors expected a positive outcome when taking action. More motivation was generated for halting the loss of biodiversity and visitor management. In the participatory spatial scenario planning work, stakeholders from different sectors and decision-makers found consensus to implement integrated strategies, considering adaptation to climate change, reduction of greenhouse gases, better protection of biodiversity and different future developments in outdoor recreation activities.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates the importance of single motivation factors such as perceived competence, abilities to act and perceived positive outcomes including rewards for taking action. Using participatory spatial scenario planning methods can be powerful tools to stimulate joint action, though implementing organizations must be willing to make real use of the outcome of such work.

Details

International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-8692

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 July 2018

Maurizio Valenti, Nicolas Scelles and Stephen Morrow

Women’s football has received increasing attention in the academic literature, partly due to its growing popularity worldwide. However, women’s football research remains scattered…

2812

Abstract

Purpose

Women’s football has received increasing attention in the academic literature, partly due to its growing popularity worldwide. However, women’s football research remains scattered across numerous academic domains. Focusing on the social sciences, humanities and management disciplines, the purpose of this paper is to map and organise contributions, and to identify research directions for future studies within these disciplines.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the keywords “women”, “girls”, “female” and “football” or “soccer” to initially identify articles, an integrative approach was followed to evaluate and analyse relevant literature. In all, 117 academic journals were classified and subsequently divided into 26 themes according to the subject area, topic and level examined.

Findings

Results of this integrative review show an increasing trend of journal publications since 1998, with a large representation of studies related to historical and sociological research, where qualitative methods are dominant. Articles investigating economic, managerial and marketing areas appeared in more recent times. Women’s football has been researched from different perspectives (players, fans, sport organisations) and across various countries.

Research limitations/implications

The restricted scope of this review (i.e. its focus on social sciences) and the manual classification of articles represent two limitations of this study. However, the synthesis of academic literature provided may assist scholars who are interested in women’s football and women’s sports research to fill identified research gaps and contribute to further advance academic investigations in this area.

Originality/value

This paper provides an overview of salient research avenues and represents the first attempt to critically appraise the direction of academic contributions in women’s football for the purpose of advancing scholarly inquiry in this sport.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 8 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Benjamin Thomas Egli, Torsten Schlesinger, Mariëlle Splinter and Siegfried Nagel

The purpose of this paper is to foster a better understanding of how decision-making processes work in sport clubs and to develop appropriate advisory concepts or management tools…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to foster a better understanding of how decision-making processes work in sport clubs and to develop appropriate advisory concepts or management tools in order to successfully realize structural changes in sport clubs. This paper examines the decision-making processes associated with an external advisory programme. Based on the assumption of bounded rationality, the garbage can model is used to grasp these decision-making processes theoretically and to access them empirically.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a case study framework, an in-depth analysis of the decision-making and implementation processes involved in an advisory programme was performed in ten selected football clubs. Guided interviews were conducted on the basis of the four streams of the garbage can model. The interviews were analysed with qualitative content analysis.

Findings

Results show that three types of club can be distinguished in terms of their implementation processes: low implementation of the external input; partial implementation of the external input; and rigorous implementation of the external input. In addition, the analysis shows that the participants in the advisory programme are the key actors in both the decision-making process and the implementation.

Originality/value

The paper provides insights into the practicability of advisory programmes for sport clubs and the transfer to the clubs’ practical decision-making routines. Additionally, it shows how sport clubs deal with (external) advisory impulses, and which different decision-making practices underlie these processes.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2017

Helmut M. Dietl, Anil Özdemir and Nicolas Schweizer

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain why some professional sports organizations outsource their sponsorship-related activities to sports marketing agencies…

1057

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain why some professional sports organizations outsource their sponsorship-related activities to sports marketing agencies, whereas others purposely retain these activities in-house.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper applies transaction cost economics (TCE) and the resource-based view (RBV) to outsourcing of sports sponsorship activities. It examines the extent determinants descending from these theories influence the sourcing choice of professional sports organizations.

Findings

This paper argues that determinants derived from TCE and the RBV are useful to understand the factors likely to influence an outsourcing decision and to analyze which sponsorship-related activities are more or less likely to be outsourced. However, these determinants are insufficient to shed light on why sports organizations arrive at different conclusions about their internal and external environments. With recourse to contingency theory, the authors propose two additional contingencies that affect the sourcing decision: a sport organization’s size and its degree of professionalism. This integrative conceptual framework improves the understanding of sports sponsorship outsourcing, makes several propositions, and paves the way for future empirical research in sports sponsorship.

Originality/value

This is the first paper to apply classical theoretical concepts to outsourcing sports sponsorship activities. As a conceptual paper, it hopes to stimulate further research on outsourcing in sports sponsorship and on the relationship between sports organizations and sports marketing agencies.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1992

John Conway O'Brien

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…

1150

Abstract

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 19 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1983

R.G.B. Fyffe

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and…

11005

Abstract

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 3 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2001

Anina Mischau

Focuses on questions such as “what does the situation of women at universities look like in Europe?” and “What does inequality mean today?” Continues by asking how has the…

560

Abstract

Focuses on questions such as “what does the situation of women at universities look like in Europe?” and “What does inequality mean today?” Continues by asking how has the situation changed recently and which national measures have been initiated in recent years and questioning their success. Answers some of these questions in a comparative way and provides a number of examples from Germany.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 21 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2002

Pawan Budhwar, Andy Crane, Annette Davies, Rick Delbridge, Tim Edwards, Mahmoud Ezzamel, Lloyd Harris, Emmanuel Ogbonna and Robyn Thomas

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce …

57604

Abstract

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

Details

Management Research News, vol. 25 no. 8/9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0140-9174

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

1 – 10 of 235