Economic, social and stakeholder-related analysis in sport facility management

Abstract

The importance of resource management has grown in recent years. Challenged by economic and societal changes, universities must think of new ways to gain requisite resources for research and teaching. The topic of this doctoral thesis belongs mainly to the field of social sciences of sport, as it deals with the importance of resource allocation in sports management at the University of Jyväskylä (JYU) in Finland, the University of Umeå (UU) in Sweden, and the German Sport University (GSU) in Cologne. The aim of this project is to ascertain whether these universities are able and willing to market themselves via their sport facilities. In terms of how the means of managing sport facilities can be improved—for example, possible extrinsic ascendancies of the private and third sectors—and how new sources of income can be created, this is a worthwhile case for analysis. The theoretical framework is based on studies of entrepreneurship and stakeholder management, namely effectuation, knowledge intensive organisations (KIO), and knowledge intensive business services (KIBS), which were executed by Sarasvathy (2008), Yläranta (2006), and Mukkala (2011). The corporate strategy employed by the university determines which economic and non-economic input is going to be made to its share- holders, customers, and associated communities. Such an approach can be labelled as one that is adopted by KIO’s. Further, KIBS is believed to be one of the main drivers of technological change and economic progress. The universities may act to fulfil a two-fold role: to serve as an external knowledge source and to contribute to innovations in their clients’ organisations. Sarasvathy’s (2008) studies of effectuation belong to strategic entrepreneurship. The logic of effectuation takes a set of means and focuses on selecting among possible effects that can be created. It implies improving the current product for the universities—for example, research opportunities—or finding a better system of ‘producing’ the particular product. The data for this study was collected through 24 qualitative semi-structured interviews designed in biannual sessions between 2010 and 2012. The received data was examined through narrative discourse analysis (Viehöver, 2001), thereby allowing the interviewees a personal analysis. In attempting to see the world from the interviewees’ viewpoints, it is also important to try and understand how individuals construct social reality in relation to their own interests (Sparkes, 2002). Inductive research can be considered to be more conjunctive with interpretative, qualitative studies. The results showed that there are various money problems, lack of strategic management, and a potential research specialisation of universities within the next decade. Other potential revenue streams apart from sports facilities include the implementation of tuition fees, sponsoring from other universities, emergent orientation towards entrepreneurship by the universities, and the merging of campuses using joint venture strategies.