Player Transfers & Talent Development
Elias Johnsson & Jonas Engström (2023)
Abstract: Football has shifted from being a sport owned and played by the working class to being the most commercialized sport in the world, with clubs buying players for hundreds of millions of Euros. In Sweden, this commercialization is affected by the 51%-rule, a rule stating that the members of a club have to own a majority of it. While this affects the monetary interests of Swedish football, Swedish elite football clubs are still subject to the institutional logic inferred by the increasing commercialization, a logic that in this paper is called business logic. In its core, football clubs are also subject to the institutional logic of inherently wanting to win football games, a logic that in this paper is called sports logic. This leaves the question of how these clubs manage the sports and business logic in specific decision-making situations. One situation where the interaction between these can be said to be very tense is during player transfers, where the Swedish clubs interact with the heavily commercialized clubs outside of Sweden, with investors expecting a return on their investments. Our findings show that clubs manage these tensions by extensive stakeholder management, having experienced executives with a background in both sports and business, and having strong cultural traditions that force the clubs to act according to certain norms.
Purchasing passion: A case study on the valuation of football players in Swedish clubs (BSc)
Johan Hägerström & Martin Wahlström (2022)
Abstract: Every year, football clubs across the world spend billions of dollars combined on acquiring new players. To purchase a player from another club, a transfer fee must be paid. Putting a monetary value on a human requires significant consideration. This case study investigates the valuation process in Swedish football clubs. Similar research on the valuation process has been done in art, and a theoretical framework introduced in this setting was used when the research question was investigated. The case study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with people involved in the transfer process at Swedish clubs. The study found that the valuation process follows four steps: setting up the valuation, informing the valuation, forming a value opinion, and offering a value opinion. The first step starts with either a need or an opportunity, and both can be influenced by sporting, business, or fan logic. In the second step, information is gathered and analyzed with benchmarking and gut feeling. Thirdly, considerations are made for the factors surrounding the player. The final step focuses on how clubs use information in negotiating with other clubs. Our analysis shows that the procedures for valuing a player are more based on feeling and experience than on data analytical models. Another key finding was the existence of a third logic, fans' logic, where the will of the fans is an important consideration for clubs.
Football Player Acquisitions (BSc)
William Gjerulf & Mike Pettersson (2020)
Abstract: The previous decade has experienced a large increase in football player transfer fees, more than quadrupling for the top five European Leagues. In light of this development, our thesis examines the effect on share prices of the top four publicly listed football clubs, following the announcement of a new player purchase during the period of 2009-2019. In line with the selected top clubs´ strong brands and high investor expectations, we hypothesize that, in contrast to previous findings, the abnormal returns ought to be positive when solely investigating top-ranked clubs. By conducting an event study on 174 player purchases, we find empirical support for positive abnormal returns five days post an announcement. Complemented by a Spearman´s rank correlation test, we present strong empirical support for a positive interrelatedness between transfer fee expenditures and commercial revenues. Overall, the results indicate different outcomes when solely examining more equal clubs compared to addressing a larger sample, as in previous literature.
Cultural dynamics with a vision of a talent factory (BSc)
Niklas Samuelsson & Jakob Lyckenvik (2017)
Abstract: The war for talent is a battle where organizations are fighting to put the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, in order to get a competitive advantage. For this reason, the question of how to manage and develop talent is of great importance for any organization. Within the context of sport, this type of research has increased since the end of the 20th century. One major reason for this is that the world of sports tends to fascinate people, both commercially and because of the pure athletic performance. By studying sports, we can accumulate knowledge that can be applied in other contexts, such as corporate organizations. Research emphasizes dominant features that are crucial for talent to develop and reach full potential, where one of those features is the existence of an appropriate organizational culture. For this reason, it is of interest to see what happens if one combines the findings of organizational culture in talent management with the world of sports. This study aims to investigate the cultural dynamics in two famous Swedish football academies. One is successful and has a strong culture, whereas the other one is less successful and therefore is trying to change the organizational culture. The purpose is to understand the (re)production of organizational culture in these two organizations.
Make or Buy? Talent development in Swedish elite football clubs (BSc)
Oskar Alktun & Freddie Jidling (2016)
Abstract: In the past decades, the footballing industry has experienced a period of commercialization and professionalization. Huge increases in club revenues, as well as fundamental changes in the rules regarding player transfers, have made the footballing labor market far more flexible than that of the wider labor market. Today, player transfers are one of the main business tasks of an elite football club. Though all players need to be developed and educated by a club, clubs can also buy players on the transfer market. So why do clubs develop and educate players when they can purchase already educated players instead? This essay analyses the purpose of talent development in Swedish elite football clubs by examining two Swedish clubs. The effects on the purpose of the commercialization of the footballing industry and how the clubs deal with these effects are also analyzed. Three theoretical fields are used: sport economics, talent management, and institutional theory. By bridging these previously separate subjects, a nuanced analysis of the topic emerges, as well as contributions to the theories. The essay describes four institutional logics (Thornton and Ocasio, 2008) that explain the empirical data: the logic of sports, the logic of idealism, the logic of commercialism, and the logic of the media. Each of these logics has their intents and purposes of talent development within the clubs. The effects of these logics have been analyzed, focusing on two phenomena: the effects of commercialization and the debate about the relationship between elite and breadth in Swedish football. The essay then goes on to use the institutional logics to analyze the clubs from a talent-management perspective, as well as to analyze the clubs using theories of sport economics. Finally, the implications of the findings are discussed.