IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cra/wpaper/2012-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Influence of Superstars on Organizational Identification of External Stakeholders: Empirical Findings from Professional Soccer

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Högele
  • Sascha L. Schmidt
  • Benno Torgler

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of superstars on external stakeholders’ organizational identification through the lens of sport. Drawing on social identity theory and the concept of organizational identification, as well as on role model theories and superstar economics, we develop several hypotheses regarding the influence of soccer stars on their fans’ degree of team identification. Using a proprietary dataset including archival data on professional German soccer players and clubs as well as survey data of more than 1,400 soccer fans, we find evidence for a positive effect of superstar characteristics and role model perception. We further find that players who measure up to the definition of a superstar are more important to fans of established teams than to fans of unsuccessful teams. The player’s club tenure, however, seems to have no influence on fans’ team identification. We argue that the effect of soccer stars on their fans is comparable to that of CEOs on their organizations’ external stakeholders and consequently apply our results to the business domain. Our results contribute to organizational identification research by extending the list of determinants related to individual persons.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Högele & Sascha L. Schmidt & Benno Torgler, 2012. "The Influence of Superstars on Organizational Identification of External Stakeholders: Empirical Findings from Professional Soccer," CREMA Working Paper Series 2012-18, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2012-18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.crema-research.ch/papers/2012-18.pdf
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.crema-research.ch/abstracts/2012-18.htm
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2007. "Disagreement, tastes, and asset prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 667-689, March.
    2. Leif Brandes & Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2008. "Local Heroes and Superstars," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(3), pages 266-286, June.
    3. repec:bla:kyklos:v:45:y:1992:i:1:p:3-24 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Christopher F Baum, 2006. "An Introduction to Modern Econometrics using Stata," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, number imeus, March.
    5. Empson, Laura, 2004. "Organizational identity change: managerial regulation and member identification in an accounting firm acquisition," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 759-781, November.
    6. Carmichael, Fiona & Forrest, David & Simmons, Robert, 1999. "The Labour Market in Association Football: Who Gets Transferred and For How Much?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 125-150, April.
    7. Danny Miller, 1991. "Stale in the Saddle: CEO Tenure and the Match Between Organization and Environment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 34-52, January.
    8. Bush, Alan J. & Martin, Craig A. & Bush, Victoria D., 2004. "Sports Celebrity Influence on the Behavioral Intentions of Generation Y," Journal of Advertising Research, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 108-118, March.
    9. Cornwell, T. Bettina & Coote, Leonard V., 2005. "Corporate sponsorship of a cause: the role of identification in purchase intent," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 268-276, March.
    10. Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2012. "Talent And/Or Popularity: What Does It Take To Be A Superstar?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 202-216, January.
    11. David J. Berri & Martin B. Schmidt & Stacey L. Brook, 2004. "Stars at the Gate," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 5(1), pages 33-50, February.
    12. Adler, Moshe, 1985. "Stardom and Talent," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 208-212, March.
    13. Bernd Frick & Robert Simmons, 2008. "The impact of managerial quality on organizational performance: evidence from German soccer," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 593-600.
    14. John G. Cullis & Alan Lewis & Adrian Winnett, 1992. "Paying To Be Good? U.K. Ethical Investments," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 3-23, February.
    15. Stefan Szymanski, 2003. "The Assessment: The Economics of Sport," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 19(4), pages 467-477, Winter.
    16. Leif Brandes & Egon Franck & Stephan Nuesch, 2006. "Local Heroes and Superstars - An Empirical Analysis of Star Attraction in German Soccer," Working Papers 0007, University of Zurich, Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA), revised 2007.
    17. John Antonakis & Samuel Bendahan & Philippe Jacquart & Rafael Lalive, 2010. "On making causal claims : A review and recommendations," Post-Print hal-02313119, HAL.
    18. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2005. "Identity and the Economics of Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 9-32, Winter.
    19. Stephen Dobson & Bill Gerrard & Simon Howe, 2000. "The determination of transfer fees in English nonleague football," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(9), pages 1145-1152.
    20. Deepak K. Datta & James P. Guthrie, 1994. "Executive succession: Organizational antecedents of ceo characteristics," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(7), pages 569-577, September.
    21. MacDonald, Glenn M, 1988. "The Economics of Rising Stars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 155-166, March.
    22. McCracken, Grant, 1989. "Who Is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(3), pages 310-321, December.
    23. David J. Berri & Martin B. Schmidt, 2006. "On the Road With the National Basketball Association's Superstar Externality," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 347-358, November.
    24. Mathew L. A. Hayward & Violina P. Rindova & Timothy G. Pollock, 2004. "Believing one's own press: the causes and consequences of CEO celebrity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(7), pages 637-653, July.
    25. Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "The Economics of Superstars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 845-858, December.
    26. Francis J. Flynn & Barry M. Staw, 2004. "Lend me your wallets: the effect of charismatic leadership on external support for an organization," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 309-330, April.
    27. Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio & Francesc Pujol, 2007. "Hidden monopsony rents in winner-take-all markets-sport and economic contribution of Spanish soccer players," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 57-70.
    28. Hausman, Jerry A & Leonard, Gregory K, 1997. "Superstars in the National Basketball Association: Economic Value and Policy," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(4), pages 586-624, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kotrba, Vojtěch, 2019. "Direct preferences of sports fans: Is there a superstar effect in the fantasy league?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 89-97.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Högele & Sascha L. Schmidt & Benno Torgler, 2012. "The Influence of Superstars on Organizational Identification of External Stakeholders: Empirical Findings from Professional Soccer," CREMA Working Paper Series 2012-18, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    2. Brad R. Humphreys & Candon Johnson, 2020. "The Effect of Superstars on Game Attendance: Evidence From the NBA," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(2), pages 152-175, February.
    3. Scott M. Kaplan, 2022. "Putting a price on popularity: Evidence from superstars in the National Basketball Association," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1357-1381, July.
    4. Müller, Oliver & Simons, Alexander & Weinmann, Markus, 2017. "Beyond crowd judgments: Data-driven estimation of market value in association football," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 263(2), pages 611-624.
    5. Alex Bryson & Giambattista Rossi & Rob Simmons, 2014. "The Migrant Wage Premium in Professional Football: A Superstar Effect?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(1), pages 12-28, February.
    6. Chmait, Nader & Robertson, Sam & Westerbeek, Hans & Eime, Rochelle & Sellitto, Carmine & Reid, Machar, 2020. "Tennis superstars: The relationship between star status and demand for tickets," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 330-347.
    7. R. Todd Jewell, 2017. "The Effect of Marquee Players on Sports Demand," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(3), pages 239-252, April.
    8. Leif Brandes & Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2008. "Local Heroes and Superstars," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(3), pages 266-286, June.
    9. Brad Humphreys & Candon Johnson, 2017. "The Effect of Superstar Players on Game Attendance: Evidence from the NBA," Working Papers 17-16, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    10. Wen-Jhan Jane, 2016. "The Effect of Star Quality on Attendance Demand," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(4), pages 396-417, May.
    11. Budzinski, Oliver & Kohlschreiber, Marie & Kuchinke, Björn & Pannicke, Julia, 2019. "Does music quality matter for audience voters in a music contest?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 122, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    12. Michael R. Ward & Alexander D. Harmon, 2019. "ESport Superstars," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(8), pages 987-1013, December.
    13. Julianne Treme & Samuel K. Allen, 2009. "Widely Received: Payoffs to Player Attributes in the NFL," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(3), pages 1631-1643.
    14. Franziska Prockl, 2018. "The Superstar Code - Deciphering Key Characteristics And Their Value," Working Papers Dissertations 38, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    15. Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2005. "Talent, Past Consumption and/or Popularity - Are German Soccer Celebrities Rosen or Adler Stars?," Working Papers 0005, University of Zurich, Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA), revised 2006.
    16. Budzinski, Oliver & Pannicke, Julia, 2017. "Does popularity matter in a TV song competition? Evidence from a national music contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 106, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    17. Leif Brandes & Egon Franck & Stephan Nuesch, 2006. "Local Heroes and Superstars - An Empirical Analysis of Star Attraction in German Soccer," Working Papers 0007, University of Zurich, Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA), revised 2007.
    18. Rachel Scarfe & Carl Singleton & Paul Telemo, 2021. "Extreme Wages, Performance, and Superstars in a Market for Footballers," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 84-118, January.
    19. Daniel H. Weinberg, 2016. "Talent Recruitment and Firm Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(8), pages 832-862, December.
    20. Herm, Steffen & Callsen-Bracker, Hans-Markus & Kreis, Henning, 2014. "When the crowd evaluates soccer players’ market values: Accuracy and evaluation attributes of an online community," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 484-492.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Organizational identification; superstars; role model; fans; soccer;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2012-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anna-Lea Werlen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cremach.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.