Interesting location for a 'socially distanced' meeting

The Covid pandemic has had a significant effect on the ability of fans to attend soccer games, and resultantly a significant effect on clubs' finances, a topic in the news in recent weeks (campaign to help football and its 'grass roots' ).

Similarly, the need for social distancing extends to other activities at clubs and their grounds, as I (Alex) found out last week.

A meeting with the Commercial Manager of York City FC was conducted not in the office, or even in the Boardroom. Rather, we met pitch-side, sat on the managers dugout/subs bench (and wearing face masks).

We talked about our research on football supporters (segmenting soccer fans by 'value'), football finance and history (Journal of Management History article) and project management (Dynamic sublimes ).  We also talked about York City FC's development of a new stadium.

We also discussed exciting opportunities for research, teaching, and other opportunities between our university work and the football club. Watch this space for more details.

New Article Alert: The Rise of Marketing

A quick newsflash to announce a new text, 'The Palgrave Handbook of Management History' (Palgrave, due August 2020) print edition is available now to pre-order.  The electronic version is available now, and will be made available to anyone that pre-orders the print edition.  The book is edited by a team of top management history experts led by the editor of the Journal of Management History Bradley Bowden, as well as Jeffrey Muldoon, Anthony M. Gould and Adela J. McMurray.

Although we have not written any sport or soccer-specific content for this book, we have co-authored a chapter entitled 'The Rise of Marketing' which focuses on the era from the early 20th century until the 1980s.  This is an area of management and theory we have of course written about in papers published elsewhere, about marketing and soccer clubs and the world cup.  

Kevin has provided another couple of chapters on 20th-century management, focusing on the work and impact of the paradigm creating business historian Alfred D. Chandler, as well as a chapter about the history of strategic management writing, and edits a section of the book focusing on the history of management between 1940 and the 1980s, a period considered the height of modernity.  Other authors who appear in the section include Jim Philips writing about Industrial Relations, Alice White discussing the rise of Organizational Psychology, Kaylee Boccalatte and Bradley Bowden on Keynes' rivalry with Hayek, and John Quail, focusing on the struggles of British management after World War Two.  This will be a useful contextual section for sports historians to draw on.

The book more broadly contains chapters by the editors and other scholars on both classical topics for management historians including (but not limited to) the industrial revolution, the impact of Ford and Taylor, and the Tavistock Institute. It looks at a broad selection of less well-trodden periods and geographical contexts too, from antiquity to the medieval, and early modern, from China and Russia to Africa.  There is likely to be something of interest to everyone in the book!  Click here to see a list of chapters already finalized.

•  “The most comprehensive and in-depth examination of its subject matter in the market place.”

• - Spans management history thought and traditions

• - Maps the discipline both temporally and geographically

• - Engages with pre-modern ideas and post-industrial concepts

Overall, it is an extensive reference book of around 1200 pages, and is priced to appeal to libraries rather than individuals.  The chapters are useful summaries which can get students up to speed on a variety of topics.  So if this looks interesting to you please request to your university librarian that they purchase for their collection:

Click here to find out more (and please share this link with your friendly librarian/library purchasing officer): 9783319621135