Understanding talent management for sports organizations - Evidence from an emerging country

Abstract

Talent Management (TM) has emerged as a key strategic issue for global organizations. Despite the growth of global sports entities, research on TM in this context is scarce. This paper addresses this research gap and investigates major challenges in TM faced by organizations in professional sports business and makes an increasingly significant contribution towards the global economy. The question of what constitutes ‘talent’ in sports and how it can be strategically managed is a matter of concern which expands the knowledge and understanding of Talent Management practices in a unique and rapidly developing sector. The current study explores the scope and boundaries of TM practices for professional sports entities in the context of emerging economies. The study uses case study approach to examine TM for the Nepal based Everest Premier League (EPL) The study draws on the Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Human Capital Theory (HCT) to understand talent management practices and demonstrates how differing natures of socio-economic exchange can be observed across actors and stages of TM in the business of sports.

Keywords:

• Talent management
• Social exchange theory
• Human capital theory
• Sports organizations
• Emerging market
• Case study

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr. Aamir Akhtar, Founder and Managing Director of the Everest Premier League for his support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [Deepa Sethi], upon reasonable request.