University of Barcelona School of Economics: May 2024

On 15th May 2024, we were delighted to present our paper 'Temporality and Virtual Organisations in Business History', to a packed room of the School of Economics at Universitat de Barcelona.

Drawing upon our published work, we explained how the study of historic sport mega projects allows for the enrichment and improved understanding for the fields of project management studies as well as for business, management and economic history.

We each presented for thirty minutes, in other words an hour-long presentation, to outline our ideas and explain some of the concepts and frameworks developed and refined from our own studies.

We also found time to explore the University district which was a five minute walk from the Barcelona FC neighbourhood. This was an amazing time to be in the area, as the famous Campo Non stadium is renovated and modernised.  Surrounded by cranes, this was a golden opportunity to witness Barcelona's famous stadium under such a scale of development, and we were able to take photos to share with our readers.

Sadly, the famous La Masia Academy, where so many stars such as Lionel Messi, were developed, was also shut and off-limits.  We hope that is has new life breathed into it soon, and believe that it should be preserved as an important heritage site.

Of course, we also made time to experience the 'La Rambla Del Barca', the street packed with Barcelona FC shops, restaurants and the museum (currently in abbreviated form). This area outside of the stadium had a real buzz about it, but shall also be cleared to make way for a new walkway and facilities.

As historians of football clubs, administration and broadly speaking their 'business', the museum was of particular interest. Many fascinating items were contained within, spanning the entire history of the club from its formation, the Spanish civil war, world wars, and the post-Cruyff era to the present day. The below images really just scratch the surface of what you can expect to find. Needless to say, the trophy collection alone requires its own large room.   The collections include mens and womens football as well as handball, basketball, and any others sports that the club has been represented at.

On our final night we were treated to a walk around historic Barcelona, taking in Las Ramblas, and famous buildings such as a house designed by Gaudi.  The importance of sport to the people of Barcelona is perhaps best summarised by the inclusion of the FC Barcelona club badge in this stained glass window of the Santa María del Mar church (middle panel, bottom row):

We wish to thank our hosts at the School of Economics at Universitat de Barcelona, especially to Tomas Fernandez De Sevilla Mansanet, for inviting us.  Please check out his superb publications on the business and sporting history of FC Barcelona, especially his recent paper in Management and Organizational History, of which he is probably the best scholar on the topic.

Study the business history of the FIFA World Cup.....for FREE

Soccermadboffins with University of York proudly present a new three-week duration online course all about the business history of the FIFA World Cup.

The course is available to enroll on free of charge (or for a modest fee for extra perks and opportunity to earn a certificate).

The course begins on 29th January 2024 and requires no prior university education.

For more information watch the above video and visit this link.

Africa Business of Sport Podcast

The Soccer Mad Boffins were thrilled that our recent book chapter on the business history of the FIFA World Cup was the subject of discussion for a recent podcast by the Africa Business of Sport podcast.

Hosts Edem Spio and Jabu Mtwa had really enjoyed reading our work and their in-depth coverage of our chapter, and of others which formed the basis for subsequent episodes, is a great endorsement of the book.

Hear the episode here.

The Africa Business of Sport Podcast offers dynamic African perspectives on the biggest topics, stories, developments and talking points in the global sports business industry from the leading figures in the African sport business.

The Africa Business of Sport Podcast is an Africo Media Network production.

New Chapter: Business History of the FIFA World Cup

We have a chapter all about the history of the business of the FIFA World Cup, in this new book '

'The Business of the FIFA World Cup' edited by Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop, Christos Anagnostopoulos, and Daniel Parnell. Published by Routledge.

We have written Chapter 2, a summary history of the World Cup and its variations.

More information here

Paper published in Journal of Management History

Now that the World Cup is over and summer is coming to an end, we at Soccer Mad Boffins think it a good time to reflect on a few achievements from the past few months.

As usual, we shall publish a summary of all our summer speaking events and conferences soon, but before that we'd like to bring your attention to a paper published recently in the Journal of Management History, in which we look at the institutional logic of professional soccer clubs and how attempts to work with local government were frustrated by the particular character of professional sport, using the near-bankruptcy of Middlesbrough football club in the 1980s as a case study.

In the paper we propose two concepts: 'Shadow Hybridity' and 'Institutional Logic of Professional Sport' which extend existing theories about organizational hybridity and also institutional logic.  

The paper should be of interest to anyone studying these areas, as well as sports and public management more generally.

The paper can be found by clicking on this link although you or your institution will need a subscription to the journal in order to read it.


Here is the full abstract and citation details:

Purpose

Existing studies of the finance of English Association Football (soccer) have tended to focus on the sport’s early years, or on the post-1992 Premiership era. The authors examine a case from the turbulent 1980s charting the struggle for economic survival of one club in a rapidly changing financial, economic, political and demographic landscape. The purpose of this paper is to examine not only the financial management of a football club during this time, but also the interventionist role of the local authority during this turbulent period.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors investigate the financial difficulties of a sport business, Middlesbrough Football and Athletic Company Limited, examining the broader economic context, drawing on unseen archival sources dating from the 1980s to analyze the relationship between club, local and national government and the regional economy.

Findings

They not only examine the financial management of the football club but also analyse the interventionist role of the local authority in supporting the club which had symbolic value for the local community.

Practical implications

This paper is relevant to policymakers interested in the provision of local sports facilities and the links between elite sport and participation.

Originality/value

The authors show that professional sports clubs are driven by a different institutional logic to state organizations and the findings enable them to define these differences, thereby refining Thornton et al.’s (2012) typology of institutional orders. Furthermore, the case study highlights practices involving informal partnership between state and sport that the authors label as shadow hybridity.

Keywords:

Cross-sector collaboration, Institutional logic, Hybrid organizations, Professional sport, Public sector intervention

Citation:

Alex G. Gillett, Kevin D. Tennent, (2018) "Shadow hybridity and the institutional logic of professional sport: Perpetuating a sporting business in times of rapid social and economic change", Journal of Management History, Vol. 24 Issue: 2, pp.228-259, https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-11-2017-0060

First Explorations into Business History: Forfar Athletic Year Book 1961-62

In the first of an occasional series of articles about Forfar Athletic, Kevin looks at one of his earliest publications...

The 2018 FIFA World Cup has ended and the Scottish League Cup Group Stages are the main game in town! The Scottish League 1 Club Forfar Athletic hit the headlines on Sunday after winning 4-5 on penalties against East Fife, in the group stages of the Scottish League Cup.  This gained attention south of the border as it fulfilled a famous tongue twister allegedly invented by Eric Morecambe to tease his friend James Alexander Gordon, who read out the football results on BBC Radio for many years.  The joys of Scottish lower league football are little known south of the border; most English fans have probably only heard of clubs such as Forfar, or their Angus rivals Brechin City, Arbroath and Montrose via the football results. Indeed, Jonathan Meades called a 2009 documentary on small-town Scotland The Football Pools Towns in reference to this phenomena.

But these clubs and indeed these lovely little towns do have an existence outside of the teleprinter and the classified football results.  I discovered this as a history undergraduate at the University of Dundee, when a friend with a car decided we should start going to some lower league matches. We went to Station Park, home of Forfar for a Tuesday night fixture against Queens Park which the Loons won 3-0, and I and another of my fellow students kept going back.  And back.

This new addiction led to me contributing a few times to a fanzine, The Loonatic, and here is one of my first attempts at business history - a review of the club's 1961-62 yearbook, published in the summer of 1961:

Click images to enlarge

Perhaps it is time for some more business history on the topic of the Loons, or at least Scottish football as a whole?

For all their summer optimism, the Loons' hopes that Mr Christie might help their young team get promoted came to nothing, as they finished the second division in 16th, the 'Bully Wee' winning the championship and 'Doonhammers' being runners-up. But at least Brechin were bottom and Angus bragging rights maintained!

Soccer Mad Boffins 2018 Summer Tour!

Soccer Mad Boffins are pleased to announce the following appearances over the next few months - more being added all the time - watch this space!

June 1st 'England 1966, USA 1994 and the World Cup: Thoughts on populism, the popular and public indifference' 

Populism and the Leisure Spectacle: A BSA Leisure & Recreation Study Group Workshop 

Venue: University of Bath

https://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/key-bsa-events/populism-and-the-leisure-spectacle/

 

June 12th 'The Business of World Cup Football'

co-presented with Greg Dyke (former Chairman of the Football Association)

Venue: York Festival of Ideas (tickets available from the below link)

http://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2018/talks/business-world-cup-football/



June 20th 'Project Managing and Marketing the Soccer World Cup: 1966 and 1994'

Venue: Aston Business School 



June 22nd Poster Presentation: 'Using Archival Research in University Teaching'

Venue: University of York Teaching and Learning Conference 

https://www.york.ac.uk/staff/teaching/community/events/annual-conference/2018/



September 4th-6th 'Management and Business History Track'

Venue: University of the West of England, Bristol

Soccer Mad Boffins will be helping to run the track as well as presenting a paper - come and say hello!

https://www.bam.ac.uk/civicrm/event/info?id=3337


We are hoping to give more talks and media appearances to tie in with the 2018 FIFA World Cup - please get in touch if you would like to book us!

For press and media enquiries please contact the University of York Press Office at pressoffice@york.ac.uk or call 01904 322029 or 01904 322153.

British Academy of Management 2018 Paper Submission Now Open!

The British Academy of Management (BAM) is the UK's premier management studies conference, attracting scholars from a broad sweep of management sub-disciplines, from supply chain management to strategy!

Kevin has been organizing the British Academy of Management' (BAM) Management and Business History Track, which focuses on promoting Management and Business History work of theoretical importance to the BAM audience, since 2011.  Last year Alex joined him, along with Roy Edwards from the University of Southampton and Joe Lane from LSE, to establish a BAM Special Interest Group for Management and Business History which will continue to help promote the best of Management and Business History to the BAM audience.  

The British Academy of Management's 2018 Conference will take place at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, from 4-6 September 2018.  This year's conference theme is Driving Productivity in Uncertain and Challenging Times.  Paper submission is now open until the 28th February.

The Management and Business History Track will run again this year, in addition to the SIG which is in its second successful year.  We encourage all theoretically motivated submissions in the broad management and business history field.  This year we particularly look to encourage the submission of workshops and symposia around a broad theme, as well as Full (5-7,000 word) and Developmental paper submissions (1-2,000 word).  Submissions from PhD students are also welcome, and we also encourage PhD students to apply to participate in the BAM Doctoral Symposium.  Please note that those submitting papers are also expected to contribute to the paper review process.

Papers on management history in sport are, of course welcome! 

The track CfP is as follows:

BAM Management and Business History Track 2018

This track aims to encourage the growing number of management and business historians who work in business schools and social science departments to engage in constructive debate with a wide range of management scholars. The 2018 conference theme, ‘Driving Productivity in uncertain and challenging times’, is an ideal opportunity to explore the value of historical study for management research. Histories of organizations, industries and institutions give us the opportunity to understand how managers have responded to uncertain and challenging times in the past, whether it be through war, economic crisis, scandal or other disruptions to their activities. Inspired by Fayol, Ford and Taylor managers also attempted to boost productivity, often with mixed results. In this track we specialize in chronologically or longitudinally motivated research. We welcome papers, symposia or workshop proposals either using new and innovative methodologies, or applying archival methodology to a new disciplinary context. We are also interested in context specific papers using more traditional historical methodology but which take innovative approaches to relate their findings to wider social science concerns. In addition, we appreciate papers dealing with the legacy of uncertainty in the past in business and management more generally, and how it has influenced the diversity of experience in present day businesses, regions and communities.

This year we encourage cross-disciplinary papers and workshop submissions that link different Tracks, while the main conference theme ought to feature prominently in all submissions. As a group we are inherently multi-disciplinary and believe in the application of theory to historical analysis, and there is no single epistemology for approaching this. We aim to encourage theoretically orientated social science history with a clear relationship to present day debates in the management discipline.

Some theoretical and empirical examples of the genre of work that we seek to welcome include:

Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Clegg, S.R., 2016. Conceptualizing historical organization studies. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), pp.609-632.

Cummings, S. and Bridgman, T., 2011. The relevant past: Why the history of management should be critical for our future. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 10(1), pp.77-93.

Edwards, R., 2010. Job analysis on the LMS: mechanisation and modernisation c. 1930–c. 1939. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 20(1), pp.91-105.

Mollan, S. and Tennent, K.D., 2015. International taxation and corporate strategy: evidence from British overseas business, circa 1900–1965. Business History, 57(7), pp.1054-1081.

Tennent, K.D. and Gillett, A.G., 2016. Foundations of Managing Sporting Events: Organising the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Routledge.

More details about this year's conference and venue can be found here goo.gl/nPZLe7 and you can find the paper submission website here goo.gl/V5VTwm.

We hope to see you at Bristol in September!

Soccer Mad Boffin Has Two Book Reviews Published By Business History

Dr Alex Gillett has authored two new reviews of sports related books, and both reviews have been published in the prestigious academic journal Business History.

The reviews focus on the following two books:

- Budd, C., 2017. Sport in Urban England: Middlesbrough, 1870–1914. Lexington Books.

 

-  Shropshire, K.L., Davis, T. and Duru, N.J., 2016. The business of sports agents. University of Pennsylvania Press.

 

 

Both reviews are available online (click links above) although you or your institution need to subscibe to the journal in order to read.  They should be published in a forthcoming print / hard copy edition of the journal in due course, ETA 2018

 

Generic photo of a back issue of Business History (note: this is the specific edition that the book reviews will be in!)

Soccer-mad-boffins help to launch BAM SIG!

BAM’s Management and Business History Track was restarted in 2011 by Kevin from with help from Dr Roy Edwards, of the University of Southampton, and John Wilson, now Pro-Vice Chancellor for Business and Law at Northumbria University. The track, which encourages scholars to engage with the historical study of management and business topics, has grown over the years and has also seen many successful PDW sessions associated with it. Now, the SIG is being launched with Dr Tennent and Dr Edwards acting as co-chairs, and joined by Alex as secretary and Joe Lane from LSE as treasurer. The SIG aims to continue the work of raising the profile of historical research within BAM and the wider Management Studies field, representing management historians working in UK business and management schools and working with other SIGs to help illustrate the potential of history as a research method. We also seek to encourage the use of history in teaching "mainstream" business and management disciplines and in particular the development of case studies based on archival material. Every field of management studies has a history and the potential to be researched from a historical perspective, and the SIG aims to bring scholars together from across BAM who have an interest in historical methods.

We presented a soccer-mad-boffins paper at BAM at Newcastle last year and will be submitting a paper this year.  The 2017 conference takes place at the University of Warwick between the 5th and 7th of September.  Both full (5-7,000 word) and developmental (1-2,000 word) papers as well as workshop submissions are welcome.  Find out more here https://www.bam.ac.uk/civicrm/event/info?id=3178 and the Management and Business History Track Call for Papers is reproduced below:

Reconnecting management research with the disciplines: shaping the research agenda for the social sciences (BAM 2017) 

This track aims to encourage management and business historians who work in business schools and social science departments to engage in constructive debate with a wide range of management scholars. The 2017 conference theme calls for management scholars to re-engage with social science disciplines. This provides an excellent opportunity for management historians to consider the role that history can play in influencing management knowledge and practice, as well as contributing to wider theory in the disciplines of economics, strategy, accounting, finance, law and sociology. In this track we specialise in chronologically or longitudinally motivated research. This year we particularly welcome papers relating to the economic or social history of business or management, or applying archival methodology to a new disciplinary context. We are also interested in context specific papers using more traditional historical methodology but which take innovative approaches to relate their findings to wider social science concerns.

In the spirit of pluralism we also encourage cross-disciplinary papers and workshop submissions that link different Tracks, while the main conference theme ought to feature prominently in all submissions. As a group we are inherently multi-disciplinary and believe in the application of theory to historical analysis, and there is no single epistemology for approaching this. We aim to encourage theoretically orientated social science history with a clear relationship to present day debates in the management discipline.

Networking the World Cup

The latest in a line of attempts to ‘measure’ the world cup in a quasi-academic fashion comes from The New York Times, where graphics editor Gregor Aisch has developed a series of network diagrams to show the ties between clubs and countries. In his latest diagram, Aisch aims to show how many clubs have two or more players at the world cup playing for different teams.  The logic seems to be that clubs with the widest diversity in terms of national team representation (i.e. Man Utd and Real Madrid) sit in the middle of the diagram, while clubs with less diversity sit towards the edge.  The diagram can also be used backwards, to show the clubs that contributed players to each national team.  The diagram is relatively intense, but some countries, such as Iran and Australia, qualified with fewer players at well networked clubs than most.

It would be tempting to say that this is a predictor of form based on Australia already being out of the tournament, and Iran having only one point so far - but Australia will

face much better networked Spain in tonight’s dead-rubber. Perhaps the explanatory power of network diagrams in football can only go so far, on the pitch at least?

Scoring from the sidelines: advertising and the world cup

The FIFA World Cup, and the associated excitement around it, has been a tool for marketers almost as long as the competition has existed.  Since the 1982 FIFA has had official commercial partners, usually ‘global brands' - not surprisingly Coca-Cola has been the longest serving of these, supporting FIFA for every world cup since 1982. Some, such as McDonalds, came later, in their case from 1994 onwards.  Others, such as FujiFilm, supported the organisation and the world cup loyally, but not even the world cup was exposure enough to save them from decline - technological in the case of Fuji, which supported FIFA from 1982-2006.    For the 2014 tournament there are six ‘FIFA Partners’, eight ‘World Cup sponsors’ and six ’National Supporters’, brands better known in the home country.  

Increasingly, FIFA and national organisers have insisted that stadiums and other activities organised to coincide with the world cup are kept free of any advertising or marketing activity from non-sponsors. Before FIFA did this, television authorities insisted that advertising be kept away from the pitch area, where it might easily be seen on TV. This has meant that ambush marketing as a tactic has a long history associated with the tournament, going back at least to the 1966 competition when Swiss fans carried banners advertising Swiss co-operative stores at Hillsborough stadium, in Sheffield (Chisari, 2007).  More recently, at the 2006 world cup, 1,000 Dutch fans watched their country’s match against Ivory Coast in their underwear after organisers confiscated their orange trousers, which had the logo of a Dutch brewery on them (Anheiser Busch’s Budweiser was the official beer - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5091154.stm).

This world cup has already seen a stream marketing and advertising campaigns related to to the world cup.  One of the most tangental has been Listerine who seem to be claiming that their product can deal with the damage to football fans’ teeth caused by the FIFA World Cup. On the other hand, Kia’s campaign for the USA would seem entirely tangential to the product being sold.  More local businesses have also attempted to take advantage of the world cup for marketing purpose;

the Frenchgate shopping centre in Doncaster offers a ‘World Cup Lounge’, which they claim allows shoppers to ‘cheer on England’, although presumably the shopping centre was not open for England’s 11pm BST kick-off against Italy on Saturday.   Perhaps this oversight is why England didn’t win.

Have you seen any tangential, esoteric, or otherwise strange world cup related marketing or advertising?  Let us know by commenting below.  More on this as the tournament progresses...

What would your Brazilian nickname be?

To get into the Brazilian spirit, here is an entertaining website which allows you to generate Brazilian football names.  Just for fun, we 'Brazilled' a few famous management gurus:

Micheal Porter = Michea
Gary Hamel = Hamito
Peter Drucker = Druckinho
Stephen Linstead = Claudio Linsteito
Bill Cooke = Felix Cookardo
Jay Barney = Barnito
Michel Foucault = Foucaimo Pau
Peter Starbuck = Petisco






Try converting your own name here: http://www.minimalsworld.net/BrazilName/brazilian.shtml

Soccer Mad Boffins Comment on the FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil - Part 1

Football is never far from the headlines at the moment thanks to this year’s FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil, and controversies surrounding the 2018 and 2022 competitions, to be hosted by Russia and Qatar respectively.

Academics in The York Management School, University of York, who have been conducting a pioneering management history research project of the 1966 FIFA World Cup believe that the game and its governing bodies could do well to heed the lessons of history.

Dr Kevin Tennent and Dr Alex Gillett, editors of the ‘Soccer Mad Boffins’ blog site, which will be launched this summer to coincide with the tournament in Brazil, identify that such controversies over the organisation of sports tournaments with international participation are not new for the sport.

According to Dr Tennent, “This is about cross-cultural management. How do cultural and language barriers effect the success – or otherwise – of tournaments like the FIFA World Cup?  We have seen innovations introduced as a result of such misunderstandings  -  the red and yellow card system was, for example, introduced as a consequence of problems of language and understanding during the 1966 FIFA World Cup when it was hosted in England.”

Dr Gillett adds: “We are told that we live in an increasingly globalised society, but as new ‘markets’ open up – or are opened – by industries including sport, the financial stakes as well as expectations, are raised.  This means that problems are closely scrutinised. Perhaps sport has never before been quite so under the microscope in terms of its accountability and transparency.  The question is, how will its governing bodies adapt?”

Dr Tennent and Dr Gillett’s year long study is supported by FIFA and the Centre International d’Etude du Sport in Switzerland through the João Havelange Scholarship scheme.  They are particularly interested in the organisation of the tournament in the years running up to 1966, the day to day management of the tournament itself, and the management of legacy after the tournament.