Michigan Center for Sport Management (MCSM)
Dr. Kathy Babiak
Dr. Bettina Cornwell
Dr. Rodney Fort
Dr. David Moore
Dr. Bruce Watkins
Dr. Jason Winfree
1402 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2013
Phone: (734) 615-1710
Short Description
Our goal is to be the preeminent center for:
- researching sport industry organizations — equipment manufacturers, apparel makers, media, services (e.g., agents, event managers), sponsors and advertisers — as well as teams.
- disseminating knowledge concerning the practice of sport management.
Drawing upon the expertise of faculty and graduate students from a number of units at the University of Michigan, the Center will pursue the following objectives:
- attract high quality, cross-disciplinary, teams of scholars to collaborate on sport management research;
- provide academic and professional enrichment through seminars, executive education, lectures, and conferences;
- promote our undergraduate and graduate sport management programs by supporting experiential education through on-site internships and projects; and
- raise funds necessary to support the Center’s research activities and to attract excellent Masters and Ph.D. students.
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Center Initiatives
1. Attract high quality, cross-disciplinary teams to collaborate on sport management research.
A number of exciting research projects have been completed or are underway:
Professional Sports and Corporate Social Responsibility; the purpose of this research is to address the content, processes and outcomes of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of professional sport teams. Because of their dependence on the communities in which they operate, many professional sport organizations turn to CSR activities to enhance their public image. Two examples of such initiatives are ‘Read to Achieve’, a program developed by the National Basketball Association and ‘The Volunteer Playbook’, a program developed by the National Football League to promote community volunteerism. Collaborators in this research are Kathy Babiak and Richard Wolfe, the Center for Sport Management.
Managerial Efficiency in Major League Baseball; the purpose of this study is to determine: (a) the contribution of managers to baseball team performance, and (b) the attributes of those managers who contribute the most to team performance. We employ the most current methods for measuring team offensive and defensive resources and utilize data envelopment analysis--the preeminent methodology for assessing the relative efficiency of decisions makers. Collaborators in this research are Dennis Smart of Texas A&M University and Jason Winfree and Richard Wolfe, the Center for Sport Management.
The Turn-Around Of Sport Franchises; this initiative is an extension of the Managerial Efficiency in Major League Baseball work described above. The question to be investigated is: “what differentiates turnaround efforts that succeed from those that do not?”. Representative of this extension is a symposium to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, August, 2005: “A New Vision of Management for the 21st Century: Moneyball as a Reframing Phenomenon.” Among the colleagues who will be involved in this work are Michael Johnson and Kim Cameron of the Michigan Business School.
Application Of The Consumer Satisfaction, Loyalty, Profitability Model To Sport; in this stream of research we are investigating the application of the S-L-P model to a number of sport contexts (e.g., consumer touch points at sport events, the recruitment of student athletes). We are currently analyzing data from a professional sport team to assess the applicability of the S-L-P model to consumer touch points at sport events. Collaborators in this research are Michael Johnson, Michigan Business School, and Richard Wolfe, the Center for Sport Management.
Image Matching. This stream of research focuses on an element of sponsorship “image matching” which concerns the extent to which a sponsored sport property and a sponsoring corporation project congruent images. In an initial investigation (Gladden & Wolfe, 2001), we found that individual corporations tend to sponsor intercollegiate athletics programs which project very different images. It appears, therefore, that sponsors frequently do not achieve image matching. In addition to assessing the extent to which image matching occurs in sport sponsorship, a second important focus in this research is the development of an approach which prospective sponsors could use to determine what sport properties provide appropriate image matches. Collaborators in this research are Jay Gladden, University of Massachusetts, and Richard Wolfe, the Center for Sport Management.
2. Academic and professional enrichment through seminars, executive education, lectures, and conferences.
In November, 2000, the workshop “Sport and Organizational Studies: Exploring Synergy” was held in the Executive Education Residence of the Michigan Business School. The workshop was attended by a number of leading Management and Sport Management scholars. Collaboration among the individuals who attended the workshop continues. We presented a symposium at the Academy of Management Meeting in Washington, August 2001 and have been invited to revise and resubmit two manuscripts: “Sport And Organizational Studies: Exploring Synergy” and “Sport as a Context for the Examination of Multi-level Evolution in a Nested Hierarchy.”
A second workshop, “Sport Management: Benchmarking Excellence” was held in July, 2002. While attendees of the 2000 workshop were leading management scholars, participants in the second workshop were members of the top management team of Palace Sport & Entertainment (owners of the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Shock, Detroit Fury, Tampa Bay Lightning).
The focus of the “Benchmarking Excellence” workshop was on understanding the dramatically changing environment of the sport industry as well as on considering professional sports as a service industry. Consistent with all of our initiatives, the workshop was based on applying the latest management/business models to the sport context. In this work-shop we applied the “Deep Change” (B. Quinn; Michigan Business School) and “Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Profitability” (M. Johnson; Michigan Business School) models to sport.
3. Promote the undergraduate and graduate sport management programs by supporting experiential education through on-site internships and team projects.
The first cohort of our revised Sport Management Masters program worked on a project for International Management Group, Motorsport Division, in the Fall of 2000. The project: a strategic analysis of the Detroit Grand Prix.
The second cohort of our Sport Management Masters program worked on a project for General Sport and Entertainment in the Fall of 2001. The project: a strategic analysis of General Sport and Entertainment’s Academy.
The third cohort of our Sport Management Masters program worked on a project for Palace Sports and Entertainment ( Detroit Pistons, Detroit Shock, Detroit Fury, Tampa Bay Lightning) in the Fall of 2002. The project: an analysis of how the Palace can best build synergy among its various sport properties.
The fourth cohort of our Sport Management Masters program worked on a project for the Detroit Lions/Ford Field in the Fall of 2003. The projects: assessments of the Lions’ data gathering, analysis, and presentation efforts as they relate to (a) guest service quality/satisfaction and (b) market research.
The fifth cohort of our Sport Management Masters program worked on a project for the University of Michigan Athletics in the Fall of 2004. The project: an analysis of how U of M Athletics can increase attendance at Men’s basketball games.
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Benefits To Be Derived from the Michigan Center for Sport Management
It is our objective to the the number one Sport Management program in North America. To achieve this, we must excel at teaching and research, and be recognized for same. The establishment of the Center is an important component of achieving the above in that it will:
- facilitate the establishment of mutually beneficial relationships with organizations in the sport industry. Such partnerships will contribute to teaching and our students by providing increased opportunities for:
- students to work on "real life" projects
- student internships
- career prospects for students
- faculty-industry interaction which will provide faculty with "state of the industry" knowledge;
- provide sites at which to conduct mutually beneficial research; and
- provide the visibility that, supported by the excellence of the work that will emanate from the Center, will contribute to acquiring the resources necessary to be competitive in attracting excellent Masters and Ph.D. students.
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Members
Faculty:
Kathy Babiak, Ph.D. (kbabiak@umich.edu)
Bettina Cornwell, Ph.D. (tbettina@umich.edu)
Rodney Fort, Ph.D. (rodfort@umich.edu)
David Moore, Ph.D. (djmoore@umich.edu)
Bruce Watkins, Ph.D. (bawa@umich.edu)
Jason Winfree, Ph.D. (jwinfree@umich.edu)
Collaborators:
Kim Cameron, Ph.D. (cameronk@umich.edu), U-M Business School
Jay Gladden, Ph.D. (jgladden@sportmgt.umass.edu) University of Massachusetts
Michael Johnson, Ph.D. (mdjohn@umich.edu), U-M Business School
Dennis Smart, Ph.D. (DSmart@cgsb.tamu.edu) Texas A&M University
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Links
The Sport Management Masters Program
MCSM poster on the Sport Management Masters Program (PDF)
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