MA471 Key concepts in Sport Management (15 ECTS) 

Course facts

Course code
MA471
Course title
Key concepts in Sport Management
ECTS
15 ECTS
Semester
Fall
Course language
English
Academic responsible
Anna Maria Strittmatter
Prerequisite
The course is limited to students in the Master's program in Sports and Social Sciences and international exchange students.

Introduction

This course provides in-depth knowledge of theories that are relevant within the academic field of sport management. The students will study perspectives rooted within organizational theory, leadership, marketing and public policy. Through case-based assignments and discussions, the students will be able to understand how theoretical understanding is important in analyzing and solving problems within and among organizations in the sport sector. 

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student will be able to

  • identify and analyse contemporary problems and research related questions connected to organization and leadership of sports
  • analyse how different actors in sports work with marketing, sponsorships and communication.
  • explain decision-making processes within Norwegian and international sports on different levels: societal, organizational, group and individual level.
  • explain and critically reflect about existing theories and methods in sport management
  • develop and examine a relevant research problem and develop practical implications for sport management, independently and in collaboration with others

Learning styles and activities

  • Mix of lectures, group discussions, and case work including student presentations.
  • 3 interdisciplinary seminars
  • The students shall participate actively and sufficiently in the classes

Mandatory assignment

  • Mandatory submission of short reflections (individual and in small groups) in Canvas
  • Mandatory participation at the seminars
  • Mandatory participation at group presentations

Approved submissions and attendance are prerequisite for being able to sign up for the oral exam.

Presentations and discussions in class must be in English.

Assessment

  • Written assignment, pass / fail
  • Group presentation, pass / fail
  • Oral exam at the end of the course, pass / fail

Core material

PARTS FROM 1 BOOK:
Strittmatter, A-M., Fahlen, J. & Houlihan. B. (Eds.). (2022). Stakeholder analysis and sport organisations. Routledge.
Please read chapter 1, 2, 4, 6, 11 and 13:
* You can borrow the book from the Library, here: ORIA
** This book is also availeable online: Click here to download.
*** NB! To open the electronic book off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

1 DIGITAL COMPENDIUM - available through Canvas:
Strittmatter, A-M. (Ed.). (2022). MA471: Key concepts in sport management: Fall 2022 [Digital compendium].
* This PDF is available through Canvas.

Table of contents (reference list), alphabetically in APA-style, 7th ed.:
Ferkins, L., & Shilbury, D. (2020). Theoretical underpinnings of sport governance. In D. Shilbury & L. Ferkins (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of sport governance (pp. 18-32). Routledge.

Horbel, C. (2021). The commercial context. In S. S. Andersen, P. Ø. Hansen & B. Houlihan (Red.), Embedded multi-level leadership in elite sport (pp. 48-62). Routledge.

McKinley, W., & Mone, M. A. (2003). Micro and macro perspectives in organization theory: A tale of incommensurability. In H. Tsoukas & C. Knudsen (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organization theory (pp. 345-372). Oxford University Press.

Nicholson, M. & Sherwood, M. (2016). Sport and the media. In R. Hoye & M. M. Parent (Red.), The Sage handbook of sport management (pp. 323-344). Sage. 

North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge Univeristy Press. 
* Pages 3-10.

Pedersen, P. M., Laucella, P., Geurin, A., & Kian, E. (2020). Strategic sport communication. Human Kinetic.
* Pages 79-108 and 139-174.

Seymour, A., & Blakey, P. (2020). Digital sport marketing: Concepts, cases and conversations. Routledge.
* Pages 40-58 and 84-126.

Shilbury, D., & Ferkins, L. (2020). An overview of sport governance scholarship. In D. Shilbury & L. Ferkins (Eds.), Routledge handbook of sport governance (pp. 3-17). Routledge.

Thornton, P. & Ocasio, W. (2008). Institutional logics. In R. Greenwood,  C. Oliver, K. Sahlin & R. Suddaby (Red.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 99-129). Sage.

Yoo, S. K., Smith, L. R. & Kim, D. (2013). Communication theories and sport studies. In P. M. Pedersen (Red.), Routledge handbook of sport communication (pp. 8-19). Routledge.

25 ELECTRONIC ARTCLES FROM JOURNALS:

* NB! To open electronic articles off campus, you must use the following VPN connection: Click here to download.

Billsberry, J., Mueller, J., Skinner, J., Swanson, S., Corbett, B. & Ferkins, L. (2018). Reimagining leadership in sport management: Lessons from the social construction of leadership. Journal of Sport Management, 32(2), 170-182. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2017-0210
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Bodemar, A., Strittmatter, A. M., & Fahlén, J. (2020). Doomed to fail? A study of how junior managers at a major sport event cope with leadership issues. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 20(3-4), 271-288. https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJSMM.2020.110845
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken. 

Buser, M., Woratschek, H. & Schönberner, J. (2020). ‘Going the extra mile’ in resource integration: Evolving a concept of sport sponsorship as an engagement platform. European Sport Management Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2020.1820061
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Chien, P. M., Cornwell, T. B. & Pappu, R. (2011). Sponsorship portfolio as a brand-image creation strategy. Journal of Business Research, 64(2), 142-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2010.02.010
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Cornwell, T. B. & Kwon, Y. (2020). Sponsorship-linked marketing: Research surpluses and shortages. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(4), 607-629. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00654-w
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Cornwell, T. B., Weeks, C. S. & Roy, D. P. (2005). Sponsorship-linked marketing: Opening the black box. Journal of Advertising, 34(2), 21-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2005.10639194
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited, institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147-160.
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Fahlén, J., Eliasson, I. & Wickman, K. (2015). Resisting self-regulation: An analysis of sport policy programme making and implementation in Sweden. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 7(3), 391-406. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2014.925954
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken. 

Fahlén, J., & Stenling, C. (2019). (Re)conceptualizing institutional change in sport management contexts: The unintended consequences of sport organizations’ everyday organizational life. European Sport Management Quarterly, 19(2), 265-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2018.1516795
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken. 

Ferkins, L., Shilbury, D. & O’Boyle, I. (2018). Leadership in governance: Exploring collective board leadership in sport governance systems. Sport Management Review, 21(3), 221-231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.07.007
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken. 

Gammelsæter, H. (2010).  Institutional pluralism and governance in ‘‘Commercialized’’ Sport Clubs. European Sport Management Quarterly, 10(5), 569-594. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2010.524241
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Haveman, H. A. & Wetts, R. (2019). Contemporary organizational theory: The democraphic, relational, and cultural perspectives. Sociology Compass, 13(3), e12664. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12664
* Denne PDF-en ligger i Canvas.
(OK iflg. Kopieringsavtalen jf. §15 / AGG - Bibl.)

Hayhurst, L., & Frisby, W. (2010). Inevitable tensions: Swiss and Canadian Sport for Development NGO perspectives in partnerships with high performance sports. European Sport Management Quarterly, 10(1), 75-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184740903554140
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Houlihan, B. (2005). Public sector sport policy. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 40(2), 163-185. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690205057193
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken. 

Kerwin, S., Doherty, A. & Harman, A. (2011). "It's not conflict, it's differences of opinion": An in-depth examination of conflict in nonprofit boards. Small Group Research, 42(5), 562-594. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1046496411398395
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

May, P. & Winter, S. (2007). Politicians, managers, and Street-Level Bureaucrats: Influences on policy implementation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 19(3), 453-476. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum030
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Meyer, J. & Bromley, P. (2013). The worldwide expansion of ''organization''. Sociological Theory, 31(4), 366-389. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275113513264
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Peachey, J. W., Zhou, Y., Damon, Z. J. & Burton, L. J. (2015). Forty years of leadership research in sport management: A review, synthesis, and conceptual framework. Journal of Sport Management, 29(5), 570-587. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2014-0126
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Popp, B., Horbel, C. & Germelmann, C. C. (2018). Social-media-based antibrand communities opposing sport-team sponsors: Insights from two prototypical communities. International Journal of Sport Communication, 11(3), 339-368.
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Sherwood, M., Nicholson, M. & Marjoribanks, T. (2017). Access, agenda building and information subsidies: Media relations in professional sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 52(8), 992-1007. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690216638545
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.

Stenling, C. & Fahlén, J. (2016). Same same, but different? Exploring the organizational identities of Swedish voluntary sports: Possible implications of sports clubs' self-identification for their role as implementers of policy objectives. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 51(7), 867-883. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690214557103
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken. 

Stenling, C., Fahlén, J., Strittmatter, A. M. & Skille, E. (2020). Hierarchies of criteria in NSO board-nomination processes: Insights from nomination committees’ work. European Sport Management Quarterly, 20(5), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2019.1672204
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken. 

Toscani, G. & Prendergast, G. (2018). Sponsees: The silent side of sponsorship research. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 36(3), 396-408.
* Denne PDF-en ligger i Canvas.
(OK iflg. Kopieringsavtalen jf. §15 / AGG - Bibl.)

Utz, S., Otto, F. & Pawlowski, T. (2020). “Germany crashes out of World Cup” 1: A mixed-method study on the effects of crisis communication on Facebook. Journal of Sport Management, 35(1), 44-54. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2019-0430
* Denne PDF-en ligger i Canvas.
(OK iflg. Kopieringsavtalen jf. §15 / AGG - Bibl.)

Woratschek, H., Horbel, C. & Popp, B. (2014). The sport value framework: A new fundamental logic for analyses in sport management. European Sport Management Quarterly, 14(1), 6-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2013.865776
* Artikkelen finnes online: Klikk på denne lenken.