Can I be a sportsperson and a worker? Analytics on athlete and coach dual careers

In 2007, the European Commission introduced the term “dual career” (DC) to indicate the specific challenges elite sportspersons face in combining a sports career with a work career. Considering that companies are encouraged to have a social role through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the implementation of DC could contribute to the advancement of the European DC discourse through internal strategies that are aligned with the communicated CSR-based external image. Thus, the present study aims at understanding employees-sportspersons’ perceptions and their potential contributions to the value of the brand they work for. Starting from a knowledge base of 22 in-depth interviews administered to a sample of athletes and coaches from eight different European countries, a content analysis has been conducted using the hermeneutic approach and qualitative datamining through a CAQDAS tool (T-Lab). Results show that employee-sportspersons possess specific capabilities, such as time management and teamworking, which could significantly contribute to the brand value. However, these capabilities are not sufficiently recognized by the employer brand, showing a misalignment between the promised brand social commitments and the actual delivery of such promises, thereby undermining the authenticity of the brand’s social-driven aims and the overall authenticity of the brand’s CSR-based commitments.