Entrepreneurial growth in elite team sport SME’s in Finland
| Published date | 11 March 2019 |
| Pages | 22-39 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-03-2019-102 |
| Date | 11 March 2019 |
| Author | Aila Ahonen |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,Entrepreneurship,Business climate/policy |
Entrepreneurial growth in elite
team sport SME’s in Finland
Aila Ahonen
School of Engineering Science, LUT University, Lahti, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –Entrepreneurship in the sport sector has become an important discussion topic amongst public
policymakers in Finland, and the interface between entrepreneurial sport companies and the public sector is
crucialin the development of sport entrepreneurship. The purposeof this paper is to discuss the entrepreneurial
growth of two elite team sport companies in Finland by describing the entrepreneurial characteristics and
organizationaldevelopmentaffecting their growth.This paper aims at giving newinsights into the discussionof
growth entrepreneurship in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) in the team sport context.
Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative case study approach was chosen to best describe the
phenomenon of entrepreneurial growth in top sport team SME’s.
Findings –The results indicate that the entrepreneurial growth in these two cases comes from
entrepreneurial opportunities, growth orientation and growth ability. Industry-specific issues, organizational
characteristics, a favorable operating environment, entrepreneurially oriented owner-entrepreneurs and the
policymakers’capability of supporting the growth have affected the success of these team sport enterprises.
Research limitations/implications –This study is limited to the Finnish sport context and these
studied cases.
Practical implications –This paper explains the entrepreneurial growth of two successful Finnish team
sport enterprises and offers interesting insights for sport management and similar entrepreneurial sport
enterprises in the industry.
Originality/value –This paper contributes to the discussion of sport entrepreneurship, and, especially,
offers further understanding of growth entrepreneurship in SME.
Keywords Team sport, Sport entrepreneurship, Growth entrepreneurship, Sport entrepreneur,
Sport business management, Small- and medium-sized enterprise
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The importance of globally growing sport businesses for national economies has become
significant in many countries. This global development has been influenced by the
complexity of the industry, media, globalized marketplace, growing competition,
technological development, and the convergence of the global customer behavior
(Santomier, 2002). Sport tourism related mega-events or international events can produce
remarkable positive economic impacts on their hosting cities or countries (Preuss, 2007)
together with community development (Kaplanidou et al., 2013). Sport is unique by its
nature because it is a rather passionate industry area, its products and services are highly
dependent on the context, it is often seasonal and supported by public money. Governments
and organizations can influence sport through entrepreneurship, since it offers new
solutions for business operations and influences the society (Ratten, 2017a, 2018, p. 21).
Sport and physical activities have always had a great importance for the Finnish people
and society, and success in sports a has had a substantial impact on the national identity.
The sports culture has always been strong in Finland, both in terms of participating and
spectating sports. Lately, sport entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs have been in the
spotlight in the policymakers’discussions in Finland. Sport is part of politics and political
decisions affect the development of sport on the local and national level. Many projects on
the regional level rely on sports, and cities use sport as a tool for city branding (Knott et al.,
2015; Herstein and Berger, 2013). Developing sport entrepreneurship amongst elite sport is
Journal of Entrepreneurship and
Public Policy
Vol. 8 No. 1, 2019
pp. 22-39
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2045-2101
DOI 10.1108/JEPP-03-2019-102
Received 25 November 2018
Accepted 17 January 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2045-2101.htm
Interviews: A and B from HJK Football Club and C and D from JYP Ice Hockey Club.
22
JEPP
8,1
one of the challenges that public policymakers face, and the importance of entrepreneurially
run sport organizations is growing because the public sector is pulling out from financing
the sport sector in Finland (Diges, 2010). This development toward entrepreneurial sport
organizations is very recent in Finland compared to, for example, the more widely discussed
and studied US sport industry. In Finland, top-level sport organizations started to become
businesses only in the late 1990s.
Sport is part of innovation policies (Ratten, 2017b) and it can, therefore, be connected
closely to the development of growth entrepreneurship. The levels of education and
innovativeness, which are of high standard in Finland, are often combined with growth
enterprises. However, the growth numbers in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s)
in Finland are very low i n international comp arison (SME Business Ba rometer
(PK-Yritysparometri), 2018). In Finland, the company structure lies heavily on SME’s
since only 0.16 percent of the Finnish companies employ more than 250 persons and
0.86 percent more than 50 people (Statistics Center (Tilastokeskus), 2015). Only every tenth
enterprise in Finland actively seeks to grow and has a growth strategy (SME Business
Barometer (PK-Yritysparometri), 2018). Business opportunities exist especially in the
service sector to which most of the sport business also belongs. Sport entrepreneurship can
be seen to include multiple businesses ranging from sport itself and coaching to education,
facility management, sports marketing, tourism, events, utilization of modern technology
and sports equipment (Diges, 2010).
Traditionally, the difference between business and sport is that sport is more concerned
about the winning performance on the field than profitable business performance. This is
due to the dominance of non-profit organizations in sport. Nowadays, when sport has
professionalized, the battle is often in two arenas: on the field and in business. The
importance of revenues and profits, as well as access to resources, a good financial situation
and cooperation between the private and public sector have also proved to be key success
factors in sport performance. Both professional sports and conventional business are aiming
at building profits, strengthening their brand and winning more market share (Smith and
Stewart, 2010). Even though professional sports are mainly run as profit-seeking business
ventures, many sport entrepreneurs have a social impact focus on their performance as well.
Entrepreneurs can create other than monetary value by focusing on positive social impacts,
such as building their own or company brand or altruism (Shropshire, 2012).
Sport entrepreneurship is a growing field of research, but entrepreneurship has not been
widely studied in the sport context. Increased research interest in sport entrepreneurship is
due to the continuous change in the market, its competitive nature and fast global
development(Ratten, 2018, pp. 1-2). Sport business has often beenstudied from the economic,
philosophical, physiological, psychological and ontological points of view (Olivier, 2006;
Ratten, 2010a), and management and marketing studies are the mostcommon aspects in the
sport businessfield. The growing number of entrepreneurship studies and,especially, growth
entrepreneurship studies, in sport together with the global industrial growth indicates that
this area of researchwill develop in the future. Entrepreneurship is one of the drivingforces in
the global growth of the sport and leisure industry (Ball, 2005), and therefore, an interesting
area to study.
This study focuses on two elite sport team enterprises, a football company and an ice
hockey companyfrom Finland, and theirentrepreneurial growth development. The aim ofthis
paper is to understand why these small team sport enterprises have achieved a sustainable
entrepreneurial business growth, and what the entrepreneurial functions in their growth are
that explainthis success. The main research questionsin this study were: Why and how have
these two studiedfirst league sport enterprises grown?What have been those entrepreneurial
characteristicsin terms of growth ability, orientation and opportunity thathave affected their
business growth and success and success? This paper aims at giving new insights into the
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