Register now for this in person event on The origins and evolution of professional football clubs from a business, management, and organizational history perspective taking place on the 22nd – 23rd June at Birkbeck, University of London.
Professional football provides fertile ground for historians interested in exploring continuity and change. It has undergone considerable change and evolution in terms of its identification as an industry – historically football identified as a representative competition between locales, and in many countries profit or even turnover were not considered significant in the purpose of clubs. The entry of broadcasting and the opportunities for related entrepreneurship and licensing in the context of the game have created the opportunity for much of the change that the game has undergone, with a considerable increase the problem of “appropriability” (Buchanan, 1965; Demsetz, 1970; Coase, 1988), in which club owners have struggled to capture the benefits of these innovations, although they have often pushed to exploit them. Many of the benefits have flowed to players, who have seen increased status through the “economics of superstars” (Rosen, 1981) where highly talented played have seen their bargaining powers increase.
We invite papers looking at club football from a management and business history perspective, especially those drawing on archival or oral history research. Papers should seek to contribute to a developing stream of research including Dizin et al (2004), Walters and Hamil (2013), Gillett and Tennent (2017) and Fernández-de-Sevilla (2021). Secondly, following Gillett and Tennent (2020) we aim to broaden the realm of business and management history by providing opportunities to look at theoretical and empirical themes related to the professional football industry such as project-based enterprise, hybridity, or the role of not-for-profit organisations in business.
Benefits of attending
- Receive critical feedback on and review of in-progress academic work
- Network with academics and practitioners in the field with the potential to encourage impact collaboration
- Understand the current state of academic work on management and business in the football industry
Facilitators
- Professor Geoff Walters, Birkbeck, University of London
- Sean Hamil, Birkbeck, University of London
- Dr Kevin Tennent, University of York
- Dr Alex Gillett, University of York
Venue details:
- School of Business, Economics and Infomatics
- Birkbeck College
- Malet St,
- London
- WC1E 7HX
Event Fee
- BAM Members: £10
- BAM Student Members : Free (10 places available)
- Non -BAM Members : £20
If you are booking multiple paid events as a Non-Member, it may be cheaper for you to purchase a BAM Membership as nearly all BAM Events are free or at a discounted rate for Members.
For more information, please visit BAM Membership
To register please login to your account and proceed with the registration for the event by pressing the “book now” button on the top right side of the workshop page. Please complete the registration by the 23.59 UK time on the 8th June.
Please contact us via e-mail at eventsofficer@bam.ac.uk should you have any queries.
Organizational History Network 