This course focuses on the internationalization of professional sports as a particular international business context. In the first part of the course, students complete theory sections as online lecture casts and read the course textbook. We discuss internationalizations of soccer on three different dimensions. First, we address internationalization within clubs, with a specific focus on the challenges and opportunities stemming from increased diversity and adjustments to foreign contexts. Second, we address internationalization across professional sports clubs and analyze the potential and challenges of internationalization along the value chain. Third, we analyze the international dimension of international sports events, such as world championships in different sports.

After the introductory sessions, we invite practitioners to provide insights into soccer business. Classes will be held in a synchronous hybrid mode with students either participating virtually or physically. Please refer to syllabus for detailed information on each class.

In a final step, students use the international soccer industry as an empirical setting to conduct a student research project. Students go through the entire research process from data collection, analysis and presentation.

During this course, students will:

· learn to analyze internationalization opportunities and challenges in professional sports;

· learn to provide recommendations for the internationalization in professional sports;

· learn to analyze international competition to learn for a home-market;

· improve their skills to work in teams;

· develop analytical and methodological skills for academic research

· improve their presentation skills and

· improve their skills to discuss, defend, and develop their own work in discussions

Students must be present for all synchronous course sessions and complete asynchronous sessions according to schedule.

This course uses a combination of different online teaching methods, such as

• Student research project (group)
• Online lectures
• Online practitioner content
• Online coaching

Student research projects

• Group
  • Interim presentation   20%
  • Final presentation      60%
• Individual
  • Multiple choice test   20%

The final presentation will be graded by instructors but points will be distributed to group members according to internal peer-review by the group

Prerequisites for WU students: completed course 1 (Foundations) and course 2 (Applications).

None

Because the entire course is held partially as a distance course, students are encouraged to use the learn@wu forum and NOT contact the instructors via e-mail. A forum allows for open group conversations and is more effective than one-on-one written correspondence

Research Projects:

In the winter term 2020, students are assigned to 5 groups, representing different soccer leagues (clubs). Students are tasked with collecting data on the clubs using a pre-distributed data sheet template in EXCEL. Data collection must be finished by the deadline XXX so that all data can be distributed to students for analysis.

Once the shared data is collected, students start with their research project answering the following research questions:

1) General

a. Which clubs are financially most successful? (descriptive analysis)

b. Which characteristics influence financial success? (analytical analysis)

c. How do sport success and financial success connect? (analytical analysis)

2) Covid – Impact

a. What soccer-related measures were taken?

b. What was the financial impact of COVID?

c. What other impacts did COVID have on teams?

d. What innovative strategies have clubs devised to counter the financial fallout from Covid?

Students should use the collected data but should also collect more detailed, case-level data for, especially for the second part of the research question.