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

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:

Student research projects (group task) Students are assigned randomly to five groups working on a competitive research project in the soccer industry. In the winter term 2021, the special topic of the course is social media. Data Collection Students receive a data file from previous courses. The data file includes financial information on clubs. Student groups should add social media data on clubs to this file. Students should collect social media data from

• Google Trends (use globaltrends package)
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook

Data Analysis Group research projects include two tasks:

1. First ALL student groups should conduct an empirical analysis of the relationships between

a. Social media and club financial performance

b. Social media and club sport performance

2. Second, EACH student group should think of two additional hypotheses to test empirically. Therefore, each group should collect min. of two variables for the sample of clubs (or a more restrictive subsample). Students should be creative in their hypotheses and can focus on any aspect of soccer.

The analysis is presented in the touch-down event. A written seminar paper is not required. Grading criteria for presentations of group projects:

• Analytical rigor 40%
• Data support for business case 40%
• Professionalism in Presentation 10%
• Creativity 10%