Media, Communication & Messaging
Lisen Lundvall & Styrbjörn Roald (2022)
Abstract: Football is one of the most followed sports globally, and its communication reaches a large audience, including both fans and other stakeholders. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Swedish football clubs in the top league, Allsvenskan, ascribe causes to their wins and losses in the match reports published online. The analysis of the club's communication was based on the attribution theory and its three most frequently applied dimensions, locus, stability, and controllability. A content analysis was conducted, and the selected sample consisted of 169 randomly chosen match reports from the 2021 season. The results only showed tendencies and differences in the locus and controllability dimension. Plausible explanations for the revealed attributional tendencies are cultural differences, where the effects of impression management and cognitive bias are discussed. Feelings such as pride and responsibility were speculated to have an impact when football clubs explain their outcomes in match reports.
Alexander Pagot & Lennart Reje (2021)
Abstract: The purpose of the study was to explore the degree to which Swedish football fans believe in the idea that managerial change leads to greater results in football. It also investigates how much fan loyalty affects this belief. The study roots itself in previous work on managerial change literature and examines the phenomenon from a new perspective of fan loyalty. The thesis is of an empirical nature, and data were collected about the opinions of fans through a survey, distributed through Swedish football internet forums. The results show that Swedish football fans seem to believe in the idea that managerial changes lead to improved results. The results also suggest that there might exist a correlation between this belief and the level of fan loyalty. The belief in managerial change among football fans is suggested to be an explanation as to why football clubs often fire the manager in times of poor results. This, even though statistics on managerial change in sports show no clear positive impact on results. The potential correlation between fan loyalty and the belief in managerial change suggests that football clubs should communicate decisions made differently to different groups of fans.
(Mis)conceptions About the Product Allsvenskan Football (BSc)
Emma Sahlin & Steven Nehme (2018)
Abstract: The purpose of this Bachelor's thesis was to empirically study three popular cognitive beliefs associated with the product Swedish football. Our ambition was to confirm or discard each cognitive belief and discuss what measures Swedish football clubs and the Swedish Football Association can take in terms of marketing endeavors with the aim of improving the product. Data from 1198 games during the seasons 2013-2017 of the Swedish football league Allsvenskan was utilized. The results show that there is a systematic home bias of Swedish referees, that the conception of momentum in Allsvenskan is a myth, and that changing a team's coach does not improve team performance. Given our results, the thesis finishes with proposals of marketing efforts that Swedish football clubs and the Swedish Football Association can consider in order to improve the product of Swedish football for consumers.