Impact and Efficiency Ranking of Football Managers in the Italian Serie A: Sport and Financial Performance

Buzzacchi, Luigi; Caviggioli, Federico; Milone, Francesco Luigi; Scotti, Davide

doi:10.1177/15270025211012053

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(82 reference statements)

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“…Results from this model show that team winning percentage increased in the first five years after a new manager took over a team. Buzzacchi et al (2021) analyzed the impact of managers on total team points earned by teams in Serie A in Italy over the 1998 to 2018 seasons using manager fixed effects to capture manager decisions. Results from OLS regression models, Shorrocks-Shapley variance decompositions and the data envelopment analysis approach found that managers increase team points scored.…”

Section: Theoretical Context and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Sports team success and managerial decisions: the role of playing-time concentration

Cardazzi,

Humphreys,

Reddig

2024

IJSMS

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PurposeProfessional sports teams employ highly paid managers and coaches to train players and make tactical and strategic team decisions. A large literature analyzes the impact of manager decisions on team outcomes. Empirical analysis of manager decisions requires a quantifiable proxy variable for manager decisions. Previous research focused on manager dismissals, tenure on teams, the number of substitutions made in games or the number of healthy players on rosters held out of games for rest, generally finding small positive impacts of manager decisions on team success.Design/methodology/approachThe authors quantify manager decisions by developing a novel measure of game-specific coaching decisions: the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) of playing-time across players on a team roster over the course of a season.FindingsEvidence from two-way fixed effects regression models explaining observed variation in National Basketball Association team winning percentage over the 1999–2000 to 2018–2019 seasons show a significant association between managers’ allocation of playing time and team success. A one standard deviation change in playing-time HHI that reflects a flattened distribution of player talent is associated with between one and two additional wins per season, holding the talent of players on the team roster constant. Heterogeneity exists in the impact across teams with different player talent.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to examine playing-time concentration in the NBA. The results are important for understanding how managerial decisions about resource allocation lead to sustained competitive advantage. Linking coaching decisions to wins can help teams to better promote this core product.

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Section: Theoretical Context and Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Sports team success and managerial decisions: the role of playing-time concentration

Cardazzi,

Humphreys,

Reddig

2024

IJSMS

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“…Importantly, only a few papers have aimed to explain the determinants of inefficiency. These studies have mainly focused on the role of managers’ characteristics (Buzzacchi et al., 2021; Dawson & Dobson, 2002; Frick & Simmons, 2008), clubs’ value and debt (Halkos & Tzeremes, 2013), or type of club owners (Rohde & Breuer, 2018). We expand this literature by paying attention to the effect of the number of foreign players in the squad and some game statistics.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given a squad talent, managerial styles might produce important differences in team outcomes (Boto‐García et al., 2020; Bucciol et al., 2019). In this regard, some studies have used managers’ characteristics like experience or having been a good player as determinants of inefficiency (Bridgewater et al., 2011; Buzzacchi et al., 2021; Dawson & Dobson, 2002; Frick & Simmons, 2008; Hofler & Payne, 2006).…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign players, team production, and technical efficiency: Evidence from European soccer

Boto‐García

Varela-Quintana

Muñiz

2023

Bulletin of Econ Res

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As on‐field success is nowadays the main objective of European soccer clubs, good management needs to extract the highest sport success from the squad talent at hand. Because teams differ in their quality, performance needs to be compared with the best practice of comparable units. One remarkable source of heterogeneity across teams is the squad composition, which can produce gains from diversity together with communication costs. The paper studies the efficiency in sporting performance of soccer teams, paying attention to how the number of foreign players relates to productive inefficiency. Using data for 146 teams in the top 5 European leagues during 10 seasons, we estimate a double heteroskedastic True Random Effects Stochastic Frontier team production function. We find that (i) the number of passes, ball recoveries, and shots from the penalty area improve team efficiency, and (ii) a higher number of foreign players increase inefficiency. Our findings suggest that gains from squad diversity might be offset by communication costs.

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“…Depken and Globan (2021) collected and analyzed a sample of over five thousand player transfers – over a period of 14 years – and concluded that English clubs pay higher transfer fee premiums in comparison with clubs in other major European leagues; moreover, they identified the signing of TV rights contracts as the trend's causal factor. Finally, capital gains are implicitly considered by research focused on analyzing the contribution of club managers to the performance of football teams, in particular in the case of Buzzacchi et al. (2021), who include the increase in players' market value among the variables explaining the role played by managers (indeed, the rise in market value sustains the financial viability of the clubs through the capital gains emerging from player transfer operations).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capital gains from player transfers as a value creation tool: some evidence from European listed football clubs

Supino,

Marano

2023

SBM

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PurposeThis article explores the value creation process from player sales in football to understand if the related capital gains correspond to significant increases in the stock value of selling companies. In addition, it aims to detect any potential drivers for higher (or slower) abnormal stock returns.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze all the capital gains of the Italian and Portuguese listed football companies (the only ones for which, based on their annual reports, it was possible to trace the net book value for each player sold and, consequently, if any, the related capital gain) from 2012 to 2020 and use event study analysis to calculate the abnormal returns of the football companies' stocks. Moreover, the authors use a multiple linear regression model to identify the factors affecting investors' reactions and value creation process intensity.FindingsThe results show that, on average, the capital gains from player transfers in football are positive income components and produce statistically significant higher abnormal returns. In addition, the authors identified some relevant drivers related to their intensity which could guide the choices of corporate executives regarding future disposals of the multi-year performance rights of players in the roster.Research limitations/implicationsThis study considers only Italian and Portuguese football listed companies. It would be helpful to consider some of the companies from other countries which are also outstanding from the sports perspective, but, in practice, it was not possible due to the impossibility to trace the net book value of the single footballers sold in those clubs' public financial disclosure.Practical implicationsThe value relevance of the capital gains from player trading activities should increase their importance, creating cascade effects on several activities generating value for football clubs (youth sector management, player scouting, technical improvement of the players). In addition, financial data show that the capital gains from player transfers are a basic income of European football clubs nowadays. Their executives consider these operations recurrent and continually search for more valuable transfers. Hence, it is reasonable to think that they (will) choose the players to sell considering both sports and financial aspects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study exploring the effects of capital gains from player trading activities on professional football clubs' stock value. The results obtained are even more relevant if one considers the importance these income components have in the profit formula of professional football clubs nowadays, also because of the negative repercussions caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

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Impact and Efficiency Ranking of Football Managers in the Italian Serie A: Sport and Financial Performance

Cited by 8 publications

References 35 publications

Sports team success and managerial decisions: the role of playing-time concentration

Sports team success and managerial decisions: the role of playing-time concentration

Foreign players, team production, and technical efficiency: Evidence from European soccer

Capital gains from player transfers as a value creation tool: some evidence from European listed football clubs

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