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Sport in business studies: A state-of-the-art literature review

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DOI: 10.1108/SBM-09-2017-0042

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 Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal
Sport in business studies: a state-of-the-art literature review
Christofer Laurell, Sten Soderman,
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Sport in
Sport in business studies: business
a state-of-the-art literature review studies
Christofer Laurell
Handelshogskolan i Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden and
Internationella Handelshogskolan, Jonkoping, Sweden, and
Sten Soderman
Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of articles on sport published in
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leading business studies journals within marketing, organisational studies and strategy.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a review of 38 identified articles within the subfields of
marketing, strategy and organisation studies published between 2000 and 2015, the articles’ topical, theoretical
and methodological orientation within the studied subfields were analysed followed by a cross-subfield analysis.
Findings – The authors identify considerable differences in topical, theoretical and methodological
orientation among the studied subfields’ associated articles. Overall, the authors also find that articles across
all subfields tend to be focussed on contributing to mature theory, even though the subfield of marketing in
particular exhibits contributions to nascent theory in contrast to organisation studies and strategy.
Originality/value – This paper contributes by illustrating the current state of research that is devoted or
related to the phenomenon of sport within three subfields in business studies. Furthermore, the authors
discuss the role played by leading business studies journals vis-à-vis sport sector-specific journals and offer
avenues for future research.
Keywords Strategy, Marketing
Paper type Literature review

1. Introduction
One of the main traits of modern sport is its ever-increasing commercial character. As stated
by Slack (2004, see also 1996), this is evident as the number, frequency and intensity of links
between sport and business have increased considerably over the past 40 years. Stadium
naming rights programmes have proliferated over the past two decades and it is now a
common practice that stadiums bear the names of businesses (Becker-Olsen, 2003). Sports-
shirt sponsorships in which commercial sponsors’ logos appear on athletes’ clothing and
equipment is now well institutionalised (Rosson, 2001). Media companies spend vast sums
on broadcasting rights; a development that has had significant effects on both the
broadcasting sector and sports leagues around the world (Cave and Crandall, 2001). Cities’
investments to compete for hosting major sporting events or to attract professional teams
has increased (Gratton et al., 2006) and challenges related to alignment between cities and
events have become increasingly studied (Chalip and McGuirty, 2004). Because of these
developments, it has become obvious that globalisation and advances in communications
technology, notably satellite television and internet, have greatly expanded the potential
marketplace for professional sport which already generates $700bn yearly, or 1 per cent of
global GDP (A.T. Kearney, 2014).
Even though this is the case, mainstream academic literature has tended to suggest that
sport should be studied in specialist niches on the grounds that it is “not generalisable”
(Dolles and Söderman, 2011, p. 4). Indeed, one of the dominant dimensions of sport is that it
is a heterogeneous and temporary experience (Smith and Stewart, 2010). This is also one of
the main reasons for professional sports organisations’ (e.g. Beech and Chadwick, 2013) long Sport, Business and Management:
An International Journal
tradition of integrating historical events and stories of their successes and setbacks into © Emerald Publishing Limited
2042-678X
their community (Davis, 2012; Hill and Vincent, 2006). As this integration, however, has also DOI 10.1108/SBM-09-2017-0042
 SBM tended to situate professional sports organisations increasingly in the commercial domain,
this is deemed to offer potential for generating new insights within the wider setting of
business studies and its respective subfields.
Even though extant literature drawn from the respective subfields of business studies has
provided structured reviews on the usage of sport in particular domains, such as the study by
Wolfe et al. (2005; see also Slack and Parent, 2006) which analysed sport and organisational
studies, attempts to uncover the contemporary state of the interplay between sport and the
array of subfields included in business studies is still lacking. More specifically, studies such
as Wolfe et al. (2005) contribute to a helpful – but incomplete – body of knowledge on how
sport is used within different subfields of business studies and little is yet known about how
the state of different subfields with regards to sport varies across business studies.
In view of this discussion, this paper provides a systematic review of articles on sport
published in leading business studies journals within marketing, organisational studies and
strategy. Based on a review between 2000 and 2015, which identifies considerable
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differences in topical, theoretical and methodological orientation across the studied

subfields, this paper contributes to extant literature within sports management by
illustrating the current state of research that is devoted or related to the phenomenon of
sport within the three subfields of business studies in question.
This paper is organised as follows. First, a brief note on the methodology used for
carrying out the literature review is provided. This is followed by the presentation of each
respective subfield reviewed within business studies. Third, we link the results of our
reviews from the respective subfields and, by doing so, present a cross-subfield comparison
that illustrates the ways in which usage of sport varies across subfields. In the final sections,
we briefly discuss the role played by leading business studies journals vis-à-vis sport sector-
specific journals, present avenues for future research and offer a concluding remark.

2. Method
To enable a systematic review (e.g. Booth et al., 2016) of articles on sport in leading business
studies journals, the Academic Journal Guide published in 2015 (Chartered Association of
Business Schools, 2016b) was utilised as our point of departure. What characterises this guide,
besides being commonly used within business studies, is that it is based upon peer review,
editorial and expert judgements, following the evaluation of many hundreds of publications as
well as being informed by statistical information relating to citation (Chartered Association of
Business Schools, 2016a, b). In addition to providing a classification of 22 subfields within
business studies, it ranks journals within these respective fields in five distinct categories
ranging from 1 to 4* (Academic Journal Guide, 2015).
As the present study sought to review articles on sport in leading business studies
journals, the scope in terms of journal rankings was delimited to category 4 (“All journals
rated 4 […] publish the most original and best-executed research” (Academic Journal Guide,
2015, p. 7)) and category 4* ( Journals of Distinction […] are recognised world-wide as
exemplars of excellence (Academic Journal Guide, 2015, p. 7)).
After this delimitation had been carried out, the subsequent step consisted of delimiting
the study with regards to which subfields to study. The rationale for choosing subfields was
related to the scope of the ABS 2015-ranked sector journals within sport. More specifically,
within the subfield category of sector studies in ABS 2015, 14 journals devoted to the
empirical field of sport are ranked: European Sport Management Quarterly; Journal of Sport
Management; Journal of Sports Economics; Sport Management Review; International Journal
of Sport and Society; International Journal of Sport Finance; International Journal of Sport
Management; International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing; International
Journal of Sport Policy and Politics; International Journal of Sports Marketing and
Sponsorship; Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education; Journal of Sport
 and Tourism; Sport Marketing Quarterly and Sport; and Sport, Business and Management: Sport in
An International Journal. When taken together, these journals deal with a relatively broad business
array of sport topics, utilising different theoretical bases as well as different methodological studies
approaches. Despite their diverse character, many of these journals deal with issues which
regards organisation studies and marketing while also including strategy within their
scope. Therefore, three out of the 22 subfields available in ABS 2015 in terms of marketing,
organisational studies and strategy was chosen to mirror some of the dominant research
streams found within sport sector-specific journals. Table I presents the three subfields and
the journals that are ranked in category 4 and category 4* in each respective subfield.
After the three subfields and the associated journals had been chosen to function as the
scope for the present study, articles on sport published between 2000 and 2015 were
identified. This was carried out by reviewing each journal’s website and searching its
archive for articles that contained “sport” or “sports” in the title, abstract, keywords or in
any other section of their published articles. This search identified a total of 54 articles that
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we downloaded. In order to determine whether the identified articles concerned sport to any
significant extent, each article was in a first round read to determine the degree to which it
was devoted to sport. This procedure identified 16 articles that did not deal with sport at all
but instead focussed attention on other phenomena. Therefore, these articles were excluded
from the study at hand. Table II presents the distribution of the remaining 38 articles in
terms of their frequency per subfield and journal between 2000 and 2015.
After articles on sport published in leading business studies journals between 2000 and
2015 had been identified, the material was analysed in two steps. In the first step, articles
published in each respective subfield of business studies were reviewed separately. This was
carried out by utilising an adapted version of the analytic framework employed by Wolfe et al.
(2005) which analysed how sport was used within organisation studies. Therefore, each article
was reviewed in four main dimensions: the general topic of the article; its theoretical bases;
applied methods; and the sport setting/s studied. By doing so, this allowed for the analysis of
common traits within the three respective subfields in terms of these four dimensions.
In the second step, each analysed subfield was compared with the others with the aim of
determining the state of the subfield with regards to its focus on sport. First, the number of
published articles over the studied time period was measured for each respective year for
the three subfields. This was followed by applying the analytic framework utilised by
Edmondson and McManus (2007) which seeks to analyse the maturity of research and
theoretical advancement in a given area. This was done by analysing methodological fit

Rank Chartered Association

Subfield Name of journal of Business Schools, 2016b

Marketing Journal of Consumer Psychology 4*

Journal of Consumer Research 4*
Journal of Marketing 4*
Journal of Marketing Research 4*
Marketing Science 4*
International Journal of Research in Marketing 4
Journal of Retailing 4
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 4
Organisation studies Organization Science 4*
Human Relations 4
Leadership Quarterly 4 Table I.
Organization Studies 4 Reviewed journals
Organizational Research Methods 4 in the three
Strategy Strategic Management Journal 4* respective subfields
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SBM

Table II.
Frequency of

2000 and 2015

journal between
per subfield and
sport-related articles
Subfield Journal/Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total

Marketing (25) Journal of Consumer Psychology 1 2 1 1 5

Journal of Consumer Research 0
Journal of Marketing 1 1 1 3
Journal of Marketing Research 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
Marketing Science 1 1 1 3
International Journal of Research in 1 3 4
Marketing
Journal of Retailing 1 1
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 1 1 2
Organisation Organization Science 1 1 1 2 1 6
studies (10) Human Relations 0
Leadership Quarterly 1 1 1 1 4
Organization Studies 0
Organisational Research Methods 0
Strategy (3) Strategic Management Journal 1 1 1 3
Total 5 1 2 0 4 4 1 1 4 2 3 2 3 1 4 1 38
 (Edmondson and McManus, 2007, p. 1155), i.e. applied methods and its fit to the theoretical Sport in
bases for each individual article for each respective subfield. By doing so, this procedure business
enabled the comparison of how sports studies contribute to their respective subfields in studies
business studies and whether sports studies, for example, are used for the purpose of
explorative research to build new theory or to contribute to existing and mature theory.

3. Marketing
In total, 25 articles on sport were identified to have been published in leading business
studies journals in marketing between 2000 and 2015. Table III presents the characterising
traits of the articles in terms of their topic, theoretical bases, methods and sport settings.
In terms of the topics these articles analyse, nine articles are focussed on retail and
consumption studies in retail environments, thus representing a major category (Bradlow
and Rao, 2000; Chen et al., 2008; Kozinets et al., 2002; Lam et al., 2001; Moorthy and Zhang,
2006; Peñaloza, 2000; Sainam et al., 2010; Sherry et al., 2004; Yang et al., 2012). In addition to
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this category, four articles deal with sponsorship (Cornwell et al., 2005; Mazodier and
Quester, 2014; Speed and Thompson, 2000; Yang and Goldfarb, 2015) and two articles
concern adverting (Gijsenberg, 2014a, b; Joshi and Hanssens, 2010). With regards to the
remaining ten articles, these deal with a relatively wide variety of issues falling outside the
scope of the three identified categories.
With regards to methodologies, a majority of 18 out of the 25 articles reviewed in
marketing apply quantitative methods such as experiments (e.g. Bradlow and Rao, 2000;
Moore and Homer, 2000; Yang et al., 2012; Sainam et al., 2010) or modelling approaches
(Gijsenberg, 2014a; Yang and Goldfarb, 2015; Yang et al., 2009). In parallel to quantitative
approaches, one article applies a mixed-methods approach (Madrigal, 2008), three are
qualitatively oriented ( Joshi and Hanssens, 2010; Sherry et al., 2004; Kozinets et al., 2002)
and three articles are written in the form of comments (Gijsenberg, 2014b; Mazodier and
Quester, 2014; Novemsky and Kahneman, 2005).
In terms of the empirical sport settings studied, a relatively wide variety is used as the
empirical field of investigation. Most commonly, as identified in 11 articles, individual sports
such as basketball (Madrigal, 2008), baseball (Lewis, 2008) or a combination of sports such as
cycling and jogging (Moore and Homer, 2000) or football and racing (Wood and Bettman,
2007) are utilised as the empirical scope. In addition to this category, yet another popular
empirical field dealt with sports events (Gijsenberg, 2014b; Kozinets et al., 2002; Mazodier and
Quester, 2014; Sherry et al., 2004; Speed and Thompson, 2000) as well as sports products (Chen
et al., 2008; Lam et al., 2001; Moorthy and Zhang, 2006; Novemsky and Kahneman, 2005).

4. Organisation studies
In total, ten articles on sport were identified to have been published in leading business
studies journals in organisation studies between 2000 and 2015. Table IV presents the
characterising traits of the articles in terms of their topic, theoretical bases, methods and
sport settings. In terms of the topics these articles analyse, the dominant category sharing a
theoretical base throughout this subfield relates to leadership (Allison et al., 2009; Bothner
et al., 2012; Graffin and Ward, 2010; Olivola et al., 2014; Rowe et al., 2005; Zacharatos et al.,
2000). Beyond this category, no other clear category across the remaining articles can be
identified, each addressing instead their own respective topics and theoretical bases.
With regards to methods, a majority of nine out of the ten articles reviewed apply
quantitative methods such as experiments (e.g. Allison et al., 2009; Olivola et al., 2014) or
questionnaires (Zacharatos et al., 2000). In parallel to quantitative approaches, the remaining
article applies a qualitatively oriented approach (Harrison and Corley, 2011).
In terms of the empirical sport settings studied, a relatively wide variety is used as the
empirical field of investigation similar to the subfield of marketing. The majority of articles,
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SBM

Table III.
Identified articles

marketing and their

characterising traits
within the subfield of
Study Topic Theoretical bases Methods Sport setting(s)

Wood and Durability bias Consumer psychology; purchase Experiment; survey Football; sports cars
Bettman (2007) decisions; affective forecasts; affect
regulation
Madrigal (2008) The importance of disentangling Cognition; consumers’ emotional One study in a naturalistic Basketball
effect arising from attributions reaction; causal attribution; setting; second study using an
and appraisals in predicting appraisals experiential approach
emotions
Sherry et al. (2004) Consumption of spectacular Retail spaces; performance of Multifaceted ethnographic ESPN Zone Chicago
experience occurring in themed consumptions inquiry
environments
Mowen (2004) Trait of competitiveness and its Control theory, evolutionary Confirmatory factor analysis; Sport participation
consumer behaviour psychology principles; elemental consumer panel
consequences traits; compound traits; situational
traits; surface traits
Moore and Homer Dimensions of temperament The commodification of the Three experiments Bicycling and jogging
(2000) American West
Peñaloza (2000) The commodification of the Culturally productive work; Critical ethnographic methods Cattle show
American West and the marketers as cultural mediators
production of cultural meanings
Bart et al. (2005) Drivers and role of online trust Trust; internet strategy; Questionnaire; online panel; NBA; Sportline; Nike
for websites and consumers behavioural intent; antecedents of structural equation analysis
trust; website category
Joshi and The direct and indirect effects of Brand equity; spillover effect; Event study methodology Nike and Reebok
Hanssens (2010) advertising spending on firm signalling
value
Yang et al. (2012) The role of process and outcome Experience consumption Three experiments Basketball and tennis
in experience consumption evaluations; process; the role of a
participant in the experience
Bradlow and Rao A hierarchical Bayes model for Standard models of random utility; Experiment Sports in general; Sports Illustrated
(2000) assortment choice balance model
Novemsky and Intentions and loss aversion Intentions; loss aversion; Comment Sports memorabilia
Kahneman (2005) moderation; emotional attachments

(continued )
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Study Topic Theoretical bases Methods Sport setting(s)

Moorthy and Price matching by vertically Vertically differentiated retailers’ Retail directory; probit Sporting goods
Zhang (2006) differentiated retailers incentives; price matching regression
guarantees; Bayesian equilibrium;
signalling
Yang and A two-sided matching model to Sponsorships; strategic alliances; Two-sided matching model Shirt sponsorship of English Football clubs
Goldfarb (2015) investigate the consequences of brand alliances and estimation method
banning controversial sponsors
Lewis (2008) Individual team incentives and Competitive balance; heterogeneous Structural dynamic Major League Baseball
managing competitive balance resources; league sustainability; programming model
customer equity; compensation and
coordination issues
Sainam et al. Ticket pricing mechanism in Consumer options; pricing Experiment Division I men’s basketball tickets
(2010) sports markets, in which there is mechanism
uncertainty about the teams that
will play in a final event
Lam et al. (2001) Evaluating promotions in Sales response; attraction; A joint model of four One sports apparel store and one sporting
shopping environments conversion; spending effects; simultaneous equations goods retail chain
consumers’ decision; shopping
process
Chen et al. (2008) Assessing the consequences of a Channel efficiency; strategic Sequential estimation Gatorade
channel switch differences between channels; approach
impact of a channel; competing
producers; heterogeneous channel
structures
Yang et al. (2009) Estimating the value of brand Brand alliances; random utility Structural two-sided NBA; NFL; NHL
alliances in professional team models matching model using a
sports maximum score method
Yang and Shi Investigating the evolution of Personal brands; brand alliances; Tobit regression and hazard Star athletes, using data from the NBA
(2011) star status in professional team product life cycle; product diffusion model
sports

(continued )
business
studies
Sport in

Table III.
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SBM

Table III.
Study Topic Theoretical bases Methods Sport setting(s)

Gijsenberg (2014a) Investigating the (non) sense of Consumer packaged goods; Modelling approach 2002 Winter Olympic Games; 2002 FIFA
increased advertising around advertising to increase sales; events World Cup; 2002 Commonwealth Games;
major sports events 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup; 2003 IRB
Rugby World Cup; 2004 UEFA European
Football Championship; 2004 Summer
Olympic Games; FA Cup Final; AELTC
Championships Wimbledon
Gijsenberg (2014b) Comment: Measuring marketing Consumer packaged goods; Comment Major sports events
effectiveness around major advertising to increase sales; events
sports events
Mazodier and A comparison of sponsorship Consumer packaged goods; Comment Major sports events
Quester (2014) and sport event advertising advertising to increase sales; events
Kozinets et al. Themed flagship brand stores in Experience economy; the flagship Field study ESPN Zone Chicago
(2002) the new millennium brand; themed retail brand store;
experience
Cornwell et al. The relationship between major- Official product; sports Multiple regression analysis NFL; MLB; NHL; NBA; PGA
(2005) league sports’ official sponsorships; stock prices; major-
sponsorship announcements and league sports
the stock prices of sponsoring
firms
Speed and Determinants of sports Consumers’ attitudes; sport events; Survey; regression analyses Sport events
Thompson (2000) sponsorship response sponsor–event fit; sponsorship
response
 Downloaded by Edith Cowan University At 21:12 07 October 2018 (PT)

Study Topic Theoretical bases Methods Setting(s)

Zacharatos et al. Development and effects of The development of leadership; social learning framework; Questionnaire Basketball, volleyball,
(2000) transformational leadership inparental modelling on the development of adolescents’ badminton, touch football
adolescents leadership and rugby
Rowe et al. (2005) The impact of leader succession on
Between-season succession (ritual scapegoating theory); Panel data; NHL
organisational performance within-season succession (vicious-circle theory); team regression
performance methodology
Allison et al. (2009) Positivity and negativity biases in Psychology on terror management mechanisms; social Five experiments Individual athlete (Florence
evaluations of dead leaders psychological theory on the processes underlying human Delorez Griffith Joyner, an
judgements of morality and competence American track and field
athlete)
Olivola et al. (2014) Inferring leadership domain from Facial appearance; leadership domains; discrimination Two experiments NFL and college football
facial appearance between leaders in one domain and those in another
Washington and Institutional support mechanisms Institutional mechanisms; incorporation of organisational Logistic Basketball, ice hockey, and
Ventresca (2004) in the incorporation of higher strategies; adoption of organisational strategies and regression with a lacrosse programmes
education visibility strategies structures; idiosyncratic structures or local strategies gain logit function
public standing and diffuse widely or rapidly; field-level
struggles and conflicts; innovation strategies
Graffin and Ward Third-party quality signals help The reputation of actors; performance at the organisation Regression Baseball
(2010) build an actor’s reputation even in a level; executive compensation at the individual level methodology
context where the performance of
an actor is easily observable
Harrison and An open-systems perspective of Inductive, grounded approach to theory building; Interpretive case Rock climbing and skiing
Corley (2011) culture organisational culture; managerial literature on culture; a study
closed system view
Bothner et al. Status as an asset vs status as a The effect of status on performance; organisational theory; Panel data; Professional Golf
(2012) liability sociological literatures; tangible and intangible resources regression Association (PGA) and the
methodology National Association for
Stock Car Auto Racing
(NASCAR)
Flynn and The influence of co-actor status on Presence of co-actors; boost task effort and individual Experiments, Professional golfers
Amanatullah individual performance productivity; specific characteristics of co-actors; focal regression competing in the Masters
(2012) actor’s performance on an independent task methodology Tournament
Shamsie and Tacit knowledge as an Resource-based perspective; knowledge as a source of Panel data; Major League Baseball
Mannor (2013) organisational resource sustainable advantage; explicit type; tacit type; tacit regression teams
knowledge; tacit knowledge as a resource methodology
business
studies
Sport in

within the subfield of

Table IV.

characterising traits
Identified articles

and their
organisation studies
 SBM as identified in nine cases, use individual sports such as the NHL (Rowe et al., 2005) and
baseball (Graffin and Ward, 2010), or a combination of sports such as rock climbing and
skiing (Harrison and Corley, 2011), or basketball, ice hockey and lacrosse programmes
(Washington and Ventresca, 2004) as their empirical scope. In the remaining case, an
individual athlete is used (Allison et al., 2009).

5. Strategy
In total, three articles on sport were identified to have been published in the leading business
studies journals in strategy between 2000 and 2015. Table V presents the characterising
traits of the articles in terms of their topic, theoretical bases, methods and sport settings.
As one of the identified articles is a comment on one of the other articles identified, these
two dominate across dimensions. Please see the table for further details on the articles’
topical, theoretical and methodological approaches.
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6. Cross-subfield analysis
Figure 1 presents published articles on sport per respective subfield between 2000 and 2015.
As the figure illustrates, no clear trend can be seen in terms of whether a general increase or
decrease for all subfields or individual subfields is present. Instead, articles on sport are
regularly published within the subfields throughout the period.
With regards to the different subfields’ associated articles and their applied methods,
and consequently methodological fit vis-à-vis their theoretical bases, Figure 2 illustrates the
degree to which the different subfields are distributed in terms of whether individual articles
seek to contribute to building new theory or to contribute to the existing theory. As the
figure illustrates, in light of their methodological orientation, there is a considerable
concentration of articles contributing to mature theory in all subfields. However, while
strategy and organisation studies have all, or nearly all, articles oriented towards this goal,
marketing exhibits a higher variance in relative terms as this subfield encompasses studies
seeking to contribute both to nascent theory and mature theory.

7. Analysis and discussion

In perspective to the presented results, the frequency to which articles on sport become
published in leading business studies journals within marketing, organisational studies and
strategy (cf. Figure 1 and Table II) can be considered relatively low in light of the $700bn
yearly, or 1 per cent of global GDP (A.T. Kearney, 2014), that the marketplace for
professional sport generates. In light of extant literature, three main interpretations can be
made with regards to these results.
First, sector studies within the field of sports management have only in recent years
started to increasingly explore the commercial aspects of sport, and in doing so, answered
the call by Slack (1996). One of the first contemporary contributions on this topic was
presented by Foster et al. (2006) who tackled sport as a unique institutional issue and offered
a list of features common to professional sport and business areas as well as where they
differ. They conclude that, whereas sport and business share a common concern for value
creation, branding, funding new sources of revenue, product innovation and market
expansion, sport is significantly concerned with beating rivals, winning trophies, sharing
revenues and channelling the passions of both players (the employees) and fans (the
customers). Later and more contemporary contributions have also illustrated thematic areas
where sport and business have become increasingly intertwined. Söderman and Dolles
(2013) presented a fivefold thematic clustering approach within the area of sport and
business: “Governance and performance”; “Media and technology”; “Place, time and
spectators”; “Club management and teams”; and “Sport branding and sponsorship”.
 Downloaded by Edith Cowan University At 21:12 07 October 2018 (PT)

Study Topic Theoretical bases Methods Sport setting(s)

Powell (2003) Varieties of Continuous profit rates; short-term profit Gini coefficients for 21 US manufacturing industries for Over 80 sport sectors
competitive parity rates tend to emphasise firm-specific the 20-year period 1980–1999, taken from Fortune 500 ranging from
advantages; firm performance as “winning” data; 20-year performance data in a variety of Wimbledon to Ryder
non-industrial competitive domains (sports, games, Cup
politics, etc.)
Powell and Lloyd A general theory of Same as Powell (2003) Extends the analysis in Powell (2003), and develops Same as Powell (2003)
(2005) competitive tools and methods for a general theory of competitive
dominance dominance
Holcomb et al. Managerial ability as The effects of managerial ability, human Panel; regression analysis NFL
(2009) a source of resource resource stocks, and managers’ actions on
value creation resource value creation
business
studies
Sport in

Table V.

characterising traits
Identified articles

strategy and their

within the subfield of
 SBM 5

4 4

3 3 3 3

2 2 2 2
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1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Figure 1.
Published articles on 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
sports per respective 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
subfield 2000–2015
Marketing Organisation Studies Strategy

Quantitative Marketing
Organisation Studies
Strategy
Data/Methods

Hybrid

Figure 2.
The distribution of
Qualitative
individual article
orientation in terms of
data/methods and Nascent Intermediate Mature
theory per subfield
Theory

Similar divisions of management can also be found amongst the contributions by Chadwick
(2009), who proposes 19 areas, and Smith and Stewart (2010) who offer three distinctive
clusters or subfields. In view of these contemporary contributions, which all share a
common point of departure in sector studies within the field of sports management, one
reason for the relatively low degree to which articles on sport become published in leading
business studies journals within marketing, organisational studies and strategy could,
therefore, be that the sport sector in relative terms has not yet become acknowledged as a
 sector of business relevance within the wider setting of business studies in contrast to the Sport in
ways it has come to evolve within the field of sports management. business
Second, as many of the articles published in leading business studies journals within studies
marketing, organisational studies and strategy contribute to mature theory within their own
respective subfields (Figure 2), this result indicates that the respective subfields vis-à-vis sector
studies on sport seemingly are decoupled from each other which would indicate a potential for
future cross-field integration. Even though this article has not set out to analyse this particular
issue in detail, a previous attempt dealing with leader succession literature and its relevance
for sport management (Gammelsæter, 2013) has illustrated how leadership research tends to
be strongly underpinned by assumptions concerning leadership essentially being
generalisable across industries. As illustrated by Gammelsæter (2013), however,
idiosyncrasies of team sport and its management highly questions the generalisable
character of leadership across industries. As the results of this study indicates that articles
devoted to contributing to mature theory have their own subfield-related rationales
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(see Tables III–V ), the second interpretation could, therefore, be that not only leader
succession literature (Gammelsæter, 2013) but business studies in general have their own
rationales which can explain the ways in which the broader interplay between subfields of
business studies and the specific setting of sport management manifest. More specifically, a
difference in rationales can potentially explain why the contemporary and vibrant literature
stream on the commercial aspects of sports in sector studies within the field of sports
management does not seem to have sparked a similar topical and explorative approach in
subfields of business studies sharing many of the same general research interests.
Third, sport management’s hybrid character in terms of being situated in both sport and
business studies as illustrated by Costa (2005), can in light of the presented result, pose a
considerable challenge in this context. As the majority of the reviewed articles seek to contribute
to mature theory within the respective subfields, this tendency challenges the potential ways in
which interdisciplinary research can be carried out between sport management and business
studies’ associated subfields. This especially becomes the case given that the end goal of
interdisciplinary research endeavours is to publish in leading journals in business studies, as the
theoretical bases needs to be adapted to the theoretical domain of a particular subfield in
question which is likely to force sport management to stand back.

8. Avenues for future research

In view of the frequency of articles on sports being published in leading business studies
journals within marketing, organisational studies and strategy, the character of the
reviewed articles, as well as how the comparison between the three subfields illustrates that
sport is applied for primarily the purpose of contributing to mature rather than nascent
theory, three main avenues for future research can be drawn.
First, developing theory is a central activity in business studies as illustrated by
Eisenhardt (1989) and an arduous process within sports management as “[…] creating
theory not only requires that we are fluent on the related theories developed by others, but
that we etch our own thoughts and perspectives into a pioneering explanation of
phenomena informed via the context of sport” (Fink, 2013, p. 17, see also Doherty, 2013).
Due to this shared emphasis on theory development, the need to track theory development
across the potential divide between sector studies within the field of sports management on
the one hand and articles on sport in business studies journals across different subfields on
the other, is essential. Therefore, the first avenue for further research is to analyse the
interplay between contemporary contributions in sector studies within the field of sports
management and their relationship to the topical, theoretical and methodological approach
across articles published in different subfields of business research, and the degree to which
the interplay diverges or converges over time.
 SBM Second, sport management as well as the scope of sector journals within sport is as
discussed previously relatively diverse as individual journals deal with a relatively broad
array of sport topics. Therefore, the second avenue for future research is to identify and
analyse articles on sport in other subfields among the 22 available in ABS 2015 beyond the
subfields of marketing, organisational studies and strategy and also include lower-ranked
business studies journals across different subfields as well. Doing so would add additional
pieces to the puzzle with regards to the interplay between sector studies within the field of
sports management, different subfields of business studies and differently ranked business
studies journals, and thus provide a richer analysis of where topical, theoretical and
methodological integration is present and where it is not. In light of the scope of the
14 ranked journals in ABS 2015 that are devoted to the empirical field of sport, the
exploration of subfields such as “General management, ethics and social responsibility”,
“Innovation”, “International business and area studies” and “Management development and
education” would be of particular interest to assess.
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Third, given that different subfields within business studies devote a relatively high
degree of interest towards sport and others do not, it would be relevant to explore alternative
approaches to the one applied in this paper. More specifically, one alternative approach that
could have potential to provide an expanded analysis of the interplay between different
subfields would be to utilise the work by Sutton and Staw (1995), creating a combination
cluster of research and by doing so assess the relative influence of business studies subfields
on the combination cluster at hand. Such an approach would enrich the understanding of
ways in which the interplay and potential divides between subfields manifest in contemporary
literature and where scholars both within sports management and business studies together
can contribute to moving both fields towards a common ground in which to continue the
process of understanding modern sport’s ever-increasing commercial character.

9. Concluding remarks
This paper has sought to provide a systematic review of articles on sport published in leading
business studies journals within marketing, organisational studies and strategy. Based on this
review, this paper has contributed to the extant literature within sports management by
illustrating the current state of research that is devoted or related to the phenomenon of sport
within the three of business studies’ associated subfields. The character of the respective
studies in each subfield, as well as the comparison between the three subfields, illustrates that
sport is applied for different theoretical and methodological purposes. In general terms,
however, the utilisation of sport as a field of empirical inquiry tends to be oriented towards
contributing to mature theory, in light of the methodological approaches of the reviewed
studies. As such, this suggests that the sport sector journals and leading journals within
business studies potentially fulfil two distinct roles. While sport sector journals might to a
higher degree allow for the exploration of novel phenomena, and by doing so contribute to the
development of nascent theory, the role of leading journals in business studies instead seems
to be to utilising sports studies to contribute to mature theory. The extent of this distinction
between roles, and how this potential interplay manifests across other subfields within
business studies, however, is yet an issue that remains to be explored.

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About the authors

Christofer Laurell is Jan Wallander Postdoctoral Researcher at Center for Sports and Business,
Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research, and Assistant Professor at Jönköping
International Business School. His research interests are focussed on institutional pressures created by
the rise of social media and its implications for marketing. Christofer Laurell is the corresponding
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author and can be contacted at: christofer.laurell@hhs.se

Sten Soderman is Professor Emeritus of International Business at Stockholm Business School,
Stockholm University and Affiliated Researcher at Center for Sports and Business, Stockholm
School of Economics Institute for Research. His research interests are focussed on market strategy
development and implementation.

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