TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between governance structure and football club performance in Italy and England
AU - Ruta, Dino
AU - Lorenzon, Luca
AU - Sironi, Emiliano
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to verify the theoretical assumption about a weaker role of internal governance structures (namely, board and CEO) in determining sporting and financial performances in highly concentrated club ownership environment. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from the Italian and English football clubs playing in their national top divisions, over the period 2006–2015, the authors apply agency theory, property rights theory and win maximization logic to test the absence of a significant impact of internal governance structures on financial performances and clubs’ sporting performance. Ownership structure’s variables are used as control variable. Findings: Empirical findings document an overall poor impact of board structure and CEO features on financial performances, in comparison with the influence of ownership structure; the consolidation of win maximization logic of clubs’ owners has been demonstrated in this specific context. However, the authors found that some internal governance elements have also an impact on performance even if their contribute is limited: board size results negatively associated to club profitability, board independence and CEO tenure are positively related to sporting performance; in addition, CEO tenure also increases profitability. Originality/value: The originality of the paper lies on the contribution arising from this empirical research, since a scarcity of empirical studies analyzing the correlation between internal governance and performance in European football sector is noticed.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to verify the theoretical assumption about a weaker role of internal governance structures (namely, board and CEO) in determining sporting and financial performances in highly concentrated club ownership environment. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from the Italian and English football clubs playing in their national top divisions, over the period 2006–2015, the authors apply agency theory, property rights theory and win maximization logic to test the absence of a significant impact of internal governance structures on financial performances and clubs’ sporting performance. Ownership structure’s variables are used as control variable. Findings: Empirical findings document an overall poor impact of board structure and CEO features on financial performances, in comparison with the influence of ownership structure; the consolidation of win maximization logic of clubs’ owners has been demonstrated in this specific context. However, the authors found that some internal governance elements have also an impact on performance even if their contribute is limited: board size results negatively associated to club profitability, board independence and CEO tenure are positively related to sporting performance; in addition, CEO tenure also increases profitability. Originality/value: The originality of the paper lies on the contribution arising from this empirical research, since a scarcity of empirical studies analyzing the correlation between internal governance and performance in European football sector is noticed.
KW - Corporate governance
KW - Football clubs
KW - Performance
KW - Corporate governance
KW - Football clubs
KW - Performance
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/179425
U2 - 10.1108/SBM-10-2018-0081
DO - 10.1108/SBM-10-2018-0081
M3 - Article
SN - 2042-678X
VL - 10
SP - 17
EP - 37
JO - SPORT, BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
JF - SPORT, BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
ER -