"This is the most important award in Europe for the field of sport management," says Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer in regard to the prize for junior researchers from the European Association for Sport Management (EASM). The Chair of Sport and Health Management, directed by Prof. Königstorfer, even achieved a double victory. The doctoral candidates Felix Wemmer and Wojtek Kulczycki obtained the first (Wemmer) and second place (Kulczycki ) prizes for junior researchers.
According to Königstorfer, Dean of Studies of the TUM Department of Sport and Health Sciences, "The EASM, together with its American equivalent, the NASSM, is the most important conference on this topic worldwide".
A distinction for doctorates and post-doctorates
The prize was awarded in the course of the 23rd EASM Conference held in Dublin on Saturday September 12. The prize is endowed with €600.-. Honored here are doctorates and post-doctorates with the best theoretical or conceptual research papers in the field of sport management.
The applicants first submitted an abstract of about five pages in length. From these, the jury nominated three candidates who were then to submit a full paper. At the congress they held a twenty-minute presentation on their research project and answered questions from the jury for another ten minutes.
Cooperence in sport clubs
Wemmer presented his article on "Cooperence-supported, open innovations and their influence on the success of a sport club". "'Cooperence' is an invented word which stands for both cooperation and competition," explains the 31-year-old. Sport clubs have had to increasingly assert themselves in recent years against commercial competitors, such as gyms. "The clubs have stagnated in Europe in the past decade, while commercial offers constantly improve their membership figures and profits. There is a danger that the clubs might entirely disappear in the long run," explains Königstorfer to sum up the situation. However, what influential factors affect the success of clubs?
Online survey in cooperation with the University of the Saarland
To answer this question, an online survey of board members of sports clubs was carried out in the Saarland in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Eike Emrich from the University of the Saarland. A total of 300 questionnaires were answered. "Specifically, we looked at how teams with competitors cooperate and how they thereby acquire knowledge and put this into innovations," says Wemmer. Innovations were thereby defined at three levels:
- service innovations, for example, in the event of new sports or marginal programs
- business models, such as new areas that are opened such as children's sports schools
- Process innovations, for example through new online registration processes
Sports clubs: An opening for cooperation and innovation
A structural equation model shows that 18% of the success can be explained through the use of external knowledge. The know-how acquired through cooperation, on the one hand, acts directly on the success and, on the other hand, through the innovations that thereby result. "The effect is significant over two mediators," says Wemmer and explains that, "Teams are more successful when they dare to innovate and if they do not shy away from entering into partnerships with competitors. Because, among other things, they can thereby obtain a great deal of knowledge which then helps them."
Königstorfer recommends, "If clubs want to increase their success, they need to better define those who they want to reach as a target group - and with what offers. Secondly, it must be open to innovation, for example in the field of payment models for membership fees."
Study on the effects of corruption on attitudes involving sponsorship
Kulczycki shares the second prize with Joon Sung Lee of the University of Michigan. The study presented by the doctoral student from the Chair of Sport and Health Management was devoted to the impact of corruption on their sponsors in the context of major sporting events. Last year, in the course of the EU-funded project CARNiVAL, he spent four months in Rio de Janeiro. There, Kulczycki interviewed a total of more than 800 locals at different times before, during and after the Soccer World Cup. "We were able to show that corruption, both on the part of an organizer, as well as an association, has a negative impact on the attitude towards sponsorship," explains Königstorfer. If an association performs Corporate Social Responsibility measures - such as the "Fair Play Campaign" of the soccer world governing body, FIFA - this effect can indeed be mitigated but not entirely neutralized.
Paper submission in the European Sport Management Quarterly
The contributions from Wemmer and Kulzycki will now be revised with the feedback of the EASM jury and then submitted as a paper to the renowned European Sport Management Quarterly Journal. The journal has been rated in the Journal Guide of the Association of Business Schools' Academic 1401 Business and Management Journals and classified there as the best sport management journal.
"I am very happy to see that Munich is recognized in the field of Sport Management. The results also show that we and our scientific projects can compete with a university like the University of Michigan, which has fourteen professors alone for Sport Management," sums up Professor Königstorfer on the award attained by his two doctoral students.
The homepage of the Chair of Sport and Health Management
The Homepage of the EASM Congress
The EASM journal European Sport Management Quarterly
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer
Chair of Sport and Health Management
Uptown Munich, Campus D
Georg-Brauchle Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Tel.: 089 289 24559
Email: info.mgt(at)sg.tum.de