Competitive vs coopetitive strategies: lessons from professional sport leagues

摘要

Usually associated with goods or services, purchasing strategies are used to improve a buying organization's competitive advantage. Researchers have not yet devoted sufficient effort to examining the purchasing strategies used by professional sport clubs. The economic reality of professional teams is clear: the most talented players are a rare resource, which cannot be duplicated; those key players are at the center of sport performance, but also one of the main contributors to the successful financial situation of clubs, including TV rights and products associated to the team. By examining professional football (soccer), we can see that, in Europe, the primary market of star players results in a continuous overbid process by the wealthiest clubs. Actually, one could say that purchasing strategies used for players are coherent with the human capital model as described by Becker (1964), including obtaining rare and difficult-to-imitate resources, an absolute requirement for any success-bound European business club.