Does high investment lead to high efficiency in Chinese Super League clubs?

ABSTRACT

The cost of operating Chinese football clubs has increased, prompting the need to examine their operating efficiency. Hence, this study proposes an integrated approach to analyse the efficiency of Chinese Super League (CSL) football clubs from 2014 to 2019. We used data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with three dimensions of output indicators and a bootstrap DEA model to find that CSL clubs, particularly high-input clubs, have low efficiency. These results are robust to other alternative estimation methods. Further research revealed that the scale of CSL club inputs is negatively correlated with operating efficiency, with low scale efficiency acting as a major impediment to the growth of CSL clubs. The comprehensive evaluation model proposed in this study provides an in-depth analysis of the overall efficiency of football clubs and helps managers evaluate and provide feedback based on the realities of the market.

KEYWORDS:

• Football
• efficiency
• CSL
• DEA

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• L83
• C14
• C15
• R11
• D20

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Notes

¹ SCU is not the first time it has been used (Haas 2003; Barros and Leach 2006). Recently, Zambom-Ferraresi, Lera-López, and Iráizoz (2017) incorporated the SCU into the DEA model to analyse the efficiency of EPL clubs over three seasons (2012/13–2014/15).

² SMII can measure the amount of engagement/interaction that social content receives relative to its reach or other audience group numbers.The study used its usual formula SMII = total number of post participants/total number of (social platform) followers×100. The data are based on the three most used social media platforms in China (Sina Weibo, Public WeChat, and Baidu Tieba).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Science Research Fund of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Grant No. [20BTY089].