Ice Hockey
Olle Wallberg & Anton Kalte (2021)
Abstract: Financial distress is a common challenge facing professional sports clubs, where high player salaries, amplified by intense player bidding, aggravate the situation. High salaries and performance bonuses are central to the clubs' reward systems, aiming to attract and motivate players to perform. However, some research on motivation and rewards suggests that extrinsic rewards risk reducing motivation through the 'crowding-out effect'. If such effects are detected among professional athletes, the rewards not only cause financial distress but also deteriorate motivation and performance. This thesis explores how the current reward systems in Sweden's top hockey league, the SHL, cohere with player motivation. A qualitative, single-case study has been conducted through semi-structured interviews with six players and three general managers. The empirics have been analyzed through a theoretical framework derived from several motivation theories. Our research confirms a large monetary focus in the reward systems but concludes that this aligns well with the players' extrinsic motivation without negatively affecting their intrinsic motivation. Nevertheless, the focus on extrinsic rewards might be unnecessarily high in relation to the composition of the players' motivation. From these conclusions, we argue that shifting the focus more towards non-monetary rewards could reduce the club's financial distress without necessarily altering player motivation.
Olle Göransson & Carl Hedström (2019)
Abstract: This study examines the current role of the finance function in Swedish football and ice hockey clubs. We make three contributions to the previous literature. First, by building on Janin's (2016) study on management accountants at a French football club, our work conduces advancements within an uncharted area of research within sports & accounting, namely, business partnering within the finance function. Our empirical findings reveal that the role of the finance function in Swedish football and ice hockey clubs varies across clubs, but also that distinct differences explained by environmental uncertainties are observed between the two sports. Second, we find that the level of business partnering exerted by the CFO is mostly dependent on three contingent variables: industry culture (external), environmental uncertainties (external), and organizational structure (internal) (Otley, 2016). These contingent variables influence the role expectations sent from other organizational members, which in turn shape the role of the CFO. Third, inspired by Byrne & Pierce (2007), we build on the framework developed by Katz & Kahn (1978) by incorporating independent contingent variables. We claim that the extension of the framework facilitates a holistic analysis of roles within complex organizations that are significantly impacted by external, industry-specific variables.
Mind over Body: A study on mental training in elite ice hockey clubs (BSc)
Joel Birging & Fredrik Börjeson (2018)
Abstract: This study examines how the phenomenon of mental skills training in sport is facilitated in Swedish elite hockey clubs. The study investigates two main areas: In which ways do hockey clubs integrate the area of mental skills training into their organization and what types of attitudes towards mental skills training exist in the clubs, and how they are affected by the cultural context. A qualitative method is used by interviewing 12 employees distributed in three different clubs, with a focus on players, coaches, mental coaches, and managers. The aim is to receive a deep understanding of the subject through the perspective of people working with it. The findings show that there is a variation between the clubs in how they choose to apply mental skills training in their organization. The main difference is between choosing a top-down structural approach, where a mental coach is hired to develop a program that is applied throughout the organization, and a bottom-up approach, where coaches are given responsibility to work with mental skills training in their teams. Findings regarding the existing attitudes show that there is a general shift in the sport with positive attitudes emerging, and a view where mental skills are regarded as developable. Even though there is a general shift underway, the masculine culture of hockey is still present with a social stigma related to talking about mental difficulties and a willingness to display strength towards members of the organization.
Nahom Ogbazion & Tilda Sander (2018)
Abstract: This thesis investigates Swedish ice hockey fans and which factors that impact their intention to attend ice hockey games in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Ten independent variables, including sports, economic, entertainment, stadium, and social factors, were examined in relation to the dependent variable of purchase intention. This was done through a survey study, gathering responses from individuals who were members of ice hockey forums online. The results show significant differences between individuals on the basis of gender, geodemographics, and attendance frequency.
Carl Magnus Behm & Erik Hedensiö (2018)
Abstract: This paper examines the role of management control for the governance and coordination of the implementation of an innovation in the Swedish Hockey League - a collaborative network of competing hockey clubs, including a permanent governing body. By integrating the concepts of self-regulating and orchestration mechanisms (Mouritsen & Thrane, 2006), we analyze the role of these mechanisms during the implementation process and how they influence each other. In line with previous research, our findings suggest that self-regulating mechanisms automatically manage the financial flows to allow for interaction between firms to occur unobtrusively. Moreover, orchestration mechanisms enable network relationships and facilitate decision making. However, we contribute to the literature on management control and innovation in networks by showing that self-regulating and orchestration mechanisms are interdependent. The self-regulating mechanisms create prerequisites for the permanent governing body to coordinate the network collaboration by using orchestration mechanisms. Furthermore, we make an empirical contribution to the literature on actor-network theory in inter-organizational management accounting by studying the collaboration between the original network and a new actor temporarily included in the network. We claim that the collaboration between the original network and this new actor may be understood as a dyadic relationship, and that control mechanisms in such a relationship may be of little importance if inadequately designed.
Top corner shot – at what cost? (BSc)
Andreas Lindström & Malin Helgman (2017)
Abstract: Through a multiple case study, this paper presents the budgeting process in the teams of the top Swedish ice hockey league, SHL. The overall structure is derived from the budgeting process model by Bergstrand and Olive (1996). More specifically, we contribute to current research by exploring the implications of the context in SHL and its ongoing development on budgeting. By applying a theoretical framework based on traditional budgeting research, sports economics, and business analysis, the paper presents a complex economic environment and a budgeting process that heavily relies on volatile components. A particularly striking result concludes that the logics in SHL, despite the high level of professionalism, entail a process that clearly lacks long-term sustainability. The combination of traditional budgeting and the properties of ice hockey organizations in the SHL enriches the field of budgeting research. Our findings and the probability of future development contribute to further research in both ice hockey and other sports organizations.
Elina Hämäläinen (2015)
Abstract: Even though talent management has received more and more attention in recent years, the research around it is still young and lacking, especially in empirical research in different kinds of organizational environments. The aim of this study is to broaden the scope of talent management research by examining how talent is managed, acquired, and developed in professional ice hockey organizations in Sweden. In order to do this, an explorative multiple-case study was planned. Four Swedish ice hockey clubs playing in the SHL, the highest ice hockey league in Sweden, were included in the study. Altogether, 19 people were interviewed in these clubs with the intention of getting an understanding of the talent management practices applied. The results of the study show that a variety of talent management activities are undertaken by these organizations and that the clubs themselves exhibit approaches very similar to each other in identifying, selecting, and developing talent.
Johan Hanström & Caroline Lundström (2015)
Abstract: This paper explores, through a single-case study, the budget uses and roles of budgeting within a professional ice hockey organization that encompasses different and sometimes diverging logics. We identify a sport and a managerial logic to enable an exploration of how different logics affect budget uses and roles of budgeting within the case organization. Drawing upon recent work by Amans et al. (2015), we find that sport and managerial logics shape the budget uses in various ways. Further, we find that budgeting plays certain roles during three different processes studied: budget setting, monitoring, and revision. A particularly noteworthy role unfolds during the budget setting process, as a tension between the two logics arises when the size of the player budget is to be decided. By deploying the Guardian and Advocate terminology of Wildavsky (1975), we illustrate how different organizational actors help manage the co-existence of multiple logics during the budget setting process, which in turn plays the role of an arena for discussion, allowing for compromise (cf. Chenhall et al. 2013). We use previous literature on the roles of budgeting to discuss and substantiate our findings, which contribute to the growing field of budget research in organizations facing institutional complexity (Ezzamel et al., 2012; Amans et al., 2015).