Empirical Evidence of Stakeholder Management in Sports Clubs: The Impact of the Board of Directors

Abstract

A major challenge for non-profit sports organizations is how to raise resources from their stakeholders. The present article empirically assesses how the management of stakeholders can affect the resources raised by non-profit sports organizations. The moderating effect of particular characteristics of the Board of Directors is also considered. Evidence is obtained by surveying a large sample of sports clubs from Catalonia, Spain. Results indicate how the quality of relations between sports clubs and their external stakeholders relate positively to the financial and non-financial contributions of stakeholders. A club's financial resources are also positively linked to the amount of time its Board of Directors is willing to invest. Our results represent a major contribution to the management of sports clubs, demonstrating that sports organizations should prioritize the management of their external stakeholders.

Keywords:

• Stakeholder's management
• upper echelons theory
• board of directors
• non-for-profit sports organizations

Acknowledgements

Research for this article was carried out as part of a project of the Observatori Català de l'Esport financed by the Secretaria General de l'Esport de la Generalitat de Catalunya. The authors are grateful for helpful comments from the Editors, and from two anonymous reviewers.