BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Corporate governance of the football industry - the stakeholder approach towards the game’s marketisation and professionalisation in China

    Liang, Yiyong (2014) Corporate governance of the football industry - the stakeholder approach towards the game’s marketisation and professionalisation in China. Doctoral thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

    [img]
    Preview
    PDF
    Fullversion-2014LiangYphdBBK.pdf.pdf - Public Version

    Download (2MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Sports governance has been given greater consideration over the course of the last 30 years due primarily to the global trend of the increasing levels of sports commercialisation, and professionalisation. Despite this, there are varieties of sport governing models existing in different countries built against the difficult backgrounds of their own historical, cultural and economical development. The stakeholder approach has become a trend for improving not only corporate governance standards in many industries but also in sports worldwide. The application of stakeholder theory to sports governance ensures sports are developed within a necessarily transparent system and a balanced power structure. More importantly, it ensures that decisions are made based on the interest of the majority of stakeholders and for the best interest of sports. When this approach is applied to sport management, it helps a sports organisation increase commercial awareness in terms of addressing the needs of different stakeholders and thus benefits the organisation’s overall goal development and its long-term success.Alongside the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, sports development in China has also gradually attracted interest from the West. With regard to Chinese football - the most popular sport in the country, and the first sport to go the professional route under the market economy, the Chinese football market has been seen as an untapped territory with big business potential. It is not only attracting domestic investors but also global firms. This thesis explores the impact of transitional changes within China’s football modernisation process and the governance structure, by looking at the Chinese response to the football development trend of professionalisation and commercialisation. It is a novel explorative study on Chinese football, employing the framework of stakeholder theory to illustrate the transitional process. The data collected from interviews with other sources available in both Chinese and English, was qualitatively analysed and the findings provide evidence of stakeholder relationships between the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and local football associations (FAs), between the CFA and clubs, and between clubs and fans, which identify modern conflicts, occurring within the current Chinese football industry during this development phase. The discussion, based on evidence, is also able to suggest appropriate governance responses for the Chinese game at different levels in order to face challenges ahead.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Thesis
    Copyright Holders: The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted.
    Depositing User: Acquisitions And Metadata
    Date Deposited: 25 Sep 2014 09:11
    Last Modified: 01 Nov 2023 12:14
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40090
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00040090

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    1,292Downloads
    6 month trend
    853Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item