Managing Organisations in Sports Labor Markets

The Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA) in cooperation with the ETHZ and USI regularly invites guest lecturers as part of the Swiss Doctoral Program for Research in Sports for Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Important - Application (Deadline 27 January 2019)

UZH Ph.D. students (advanced Master's students are also welcome to apply) can fill in the form on the ETHZ Course Website. After you receive your acceptance e-mail, please make sure that you book the module in the official UZH module booking tool. Should you have any questions with regards to your application, please contact the assistant that is responsible for your home institution.

About the Lecturer:
Dr. Thijs Velema is assistant professor at the Department of Business Management at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. His research focuses on the transfer market in European professional football analyzing the relations between social structures in the market, the careers of individual players, and the performance of professional football organizations. His most recent publications seek to understand how players move through the market and how professional football teams act and learn on the market. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from National Taiwan University.

Syllabus: Managing organizations in sports labor markets (PDF, 279 KB) 
How does the labor market for modern football players and other athletes really work? This question lays at the heart of this course and has been examined from an economic and a sociological perspective. For economists, sports labor markets are a prime example of an efficient market, where talent is observable and teams have all the information they need to make rational decisions. For sociologists, sports labor markets are a place of exploitation where mala fide player agents and club directors buy and sell players from around the world with the goal of reaping high profits. 

At the end of this course, you are able to:

1. Understand the main sociological theories about the labor market in professional football
2. Compare key differences between sociological and economic theories on sports labor markets
3. Identify new directions and research opportunities for organizational scholars to sports labor market.
4. Assess how research to sports labor markets can contribute to management theory

Date/Time: 11 February – 15 February 2019 (Time: 10h-12h & 14h-16h, Room: tba)

Credits: 3 ECTS
Assistant at Chair UZH: Anil Özdemir
Assistant at Chair ETHZ: Surabhi Pasarakonda