MIDWEEK EFFECT ON SOCCER PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM THE GERMAN BUNDESLIGA

The home advantage phenomenon is a well‐established feature in sports competitions. In this study, we examine data from 2,013 soccer matches played in the German Bundesliga during the seasons from 2007–2008 to 2016–2017. Using a very rich data set, our econometric analysis that is based on matching methods reveals that the usual home advantage disappears when the game is in the middle of the week instead of being on the weekend. Our results indicate that, as the midweek matches are unevenly allocated among teams, the actual schedules of the Bundesliga favor teams with fewer home games in midweek. The study also shows that these soccer‐specific findings may have some implications for the design of contests in general. (JEL D00, L00, D20, Z20)     

Practicing gender in youth sports

To learn more about gender identity and sports participation, I observed and photographed two mixed‐gender teams of six and seven year‐old soccer players in a youth sports program. My observations of these twenty‐six children (twelve boys and fourteen girls) were made at practices and games during the Fall soccer season of 1997. I also conducted photo‐elicitation interviews with five girls and five boys on the two teams. Field notes, photographs and interviews documented some of the gendered and non‐gendered behavior engaged in by the children and interviews revealed how the children thought about this. One intriguing pattern was that the young soccer players interacted freely with teammates of the other gender during adult‐structured exercises, yet self‐separated by gender when allowed to structure their own activities. This finding has important implications for understanding the social construction of gender and for strengthening gender equity provisions in youth sports programs.     

Relationship between collective efficacy and contextual performance among university athletes in Japan

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between collective efficacy and contextual performance among university athletes in Japan. We carried out 305 university athletes (201 males, 104 females) from 14 teams in various geographic areas in Japan. The average age of the participants was 19.91 years (SD = 1.01). The kinds of sports were soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, and so on. Then, using Collective Efficacy Questionnaire for Sports (CEQS; Sandra E. Short et al., 2005) and Contextual Performance Scale (Ikeda, and Furukawa, 2008), we examined the relationship between collective efficacy and Contextual performance. In conclusion, this study provided the following three remarks. 1) There are relationship between collective efficacy and contextual performance. 2) Contextual performance execution level improve collective efficacy. 3) It is important to always recommend contextual performance in own team to strengthen the collective efficacy more.     

Social pressure in the stadiums: Do agents change behavior without crowd support?

Social pressure may have relevant consequences in many contexts but it is hard to evaluate it empirically. In this paper we exploit a natural experiment in soccer to provide clear evidence of its effects. We aim to study how social pressure from the crowd in a stadium affects both players and referees. While in normal matches crowd support may be correlated to a host of variables affecting the outcome of interest, we exploit the fact that after the health emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, soccer matches in top European Leagues have been allowed only behind closed doors, that is, without spectators in the stadiums. We use data of first and second division of five major European Leagues (Germany, Spain, England, Italy and Portugal) for the last 10 seasons and compare – using a differences-in-differences analysis – several outcomes (determined by players’ performance and referees’ decisions) of matches played with crowd support to the same outcomes when matches were played without crowd. We find considerable effects of the pressure from the crowd: while with the support of the crowd a considerable home advantage emerges in various measures of performance (points, goals, shots, etc.), this advantage is almost halved when matches are played behind closed doors. Similar effects are found for the behavior of referees: decisions of fouls, yellow cards, red cards and penalties that tend to favor home teams in normal matches, are much more balanced without the crowd pressing on referees. The evidence we provide strongly supports the idea that social pressure has intense effects on agents’ behavior.     

Production Teams and Producing Racial Diversity in Workplace Relationships

Production teams have become a dominant form of work organization as labor markets have become increasingly diverse. This transition likely affects coworker networks—possibly undermining entrenched patterns of workplace segregation. Contact theory suggests that teams can foster network diversity when workers cooperate and share values emphasizing mutual respect. Yet variants of conflict theory, including the critical teams literature, contend that the benefits of teamwork may be eroded by associated factors, including peer discipline, work intensification, and job insecurity. This study uses 2006 General Social Survey data to assess whether and how teamwork affects the racial diversity of worker acquaintance networks, contrasting worker‐ and manager‐directed teams. We find a positive relationship between teams and diversity, but only when teams are worker directed. Despite countervailing tendencies highlighted in the literature, teams foster greater cooperation between workers, which in turn promotes cross‐racial friendships. African Americans tend to receive the greatest diversity payoffs from teams. These findings suggest that teamwork can undermine segregation, though only with certain implementations and with variation across groups.     

THE IMPACT OF MANAGERIAL CHANGE ON PERFORMANCE: THE ROLE OF TEAM HETEROGENEITY

When a key responsibility of a manager is to allocate more or less attractive tasks, subordinates have an incentive to work hard and demonstrate their talents. As a new manager is less well informed, management dismissals reinvigorate this tournament competition—but only in sufficiently homogeneous teams. We investigate this hypothesis using a large dataset on dismissals of soccer coaches, whose main task is indeed the selection of players. We find that dismissals enhance performance (only) in homogeneous teams. Moreover, we show that there is typically a negative selection bias when evaluating succession effects, which reconciles previous contradictory findings. (JEL D22, J44, J63)     

OPTIMAL SOCCER STRATEGIES

This paper examines soccer teams' strategic choices about the extent of offense/defense to adopt in competing with other teams. The sample is European Champions League group stage matches played between 1997–1998 and 2009–2010. We begin by developing a characterization of teams' strategies (extent of offense or defense) using principal component analysis. This is used to estimate the relationship between a team's probabilities of scoring and conceding goals and its chosen strategy. Knowing that relationship, it is then possible to derive a team's optimal strategy, and to study how this varies in different situations (such as playing at home or away). A comparison between optimal and actual strategy reveals that teams appear to adopt more defensive strategies than is optimal. A notable feature of our study is that we model a team as choosing a strategy at the start of each match and also at half time, thereby incorporating a dynamic element. (JEL C23, C72, L83, Z00)     

Netzwerk Management – im virtuellen globalen Raum effizient sein

The results of the author’s research on virtual international teams are presented and applied to organizational networks. Based on some typical challenges of working in virtual work relationships, success factors for efficient management and leadership as well as perspectives for counselling in virtual teams and organizational networks are developed.     

Exponential random graph models for little networks

Statistical models for social networks have enabled researchers to study complex social phenomena that give rise to observed patterns of relationships among social actors and to gain a rich understanding of the interdependent nature of social ties and actors. Much of this research has focused on social networks within medium to large social groups. To date, these advances in statistical models for social networks, and in particular, of Exponential-Family Random Graph Models (ERGMS), have rarely been applied to the study of small networks, despite small network data in teams, families, and personal networks being common in many fields. In this paper, we revisit the estimation of ERGMs for small networks and propose using exhaustive enumeration when possible. We developed an R package that implements the estimation of pooled ERGMs for small networks using Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), called “ergmito”. Based on the results of an extensive simulation study to assess the properties of the MLE estimator, we conclude that there are several benefits of direct MLE estimation compared to approximate methods and that this creates opportunities for valuable methodological innovations that can be applied to modeling social networks with ERGMs.     

Entering into,staying, and being active in a group of football supporters: a procedural analysis of engagement. The case of supporters of a French football club

In football (or soccer) stadiums, one of the ends (virages in French, or curve in Italian) brings together the most organized and ardent fans who support their team manu et voce. This article aims to define the dynamics leading individuals to become a part of a group of supporters, an engagement conceived of according to a sequential process. Through a qualitative inquiry, results show the importance of the relational networks in the process of engagement in this type of organization. Moreover, friendly interaction and the levels of sociability encountered over the course of action as part of supporting make up as much incentive to activism as may be understood in the condition of being set back in the general framework of the supporters' careers. The article ends with a discussion on the use of the sociology of collective action and mobilization in order to study the world of football supporters.     

Gender differences in team work and team competition

We study whether the gender performance gap is affected by the gender composition of teams. A real-effort experiment is employed with wages based either on the team’s performance, or on the outcome of a competition between teams. We find that, relative to a single-sex environment, gender diversity increases the gender performance gap with team pay whereas it decreases the gap with team competition. The results show that there can be a tension between the objective to maximize overall performance and to minimize gender inequality.     

CONTRACTS AS RENT‐SEEKING DEVICES: EVIDENCE FROM GERMAN SOCCER

Recent theoretical research has identified many ways how contracts can be used as rent‐seeking devices vis‐à‐vis third parties, but there is no empirical evidence on this issue so far. To test some basic qualitative properties of this literature, we develop a theoretical and empirical framework in the context of European professional soccer where (incumbent) teams and players sign binding contracts which, however, are frequently renegotiated when other teams (entrants) want to hire the player. Because they weaken entrants in renegotiations, long‐term contracts are useful rent‐seeking devices for the contracting parties. However, they reduce the likelihood of (mutually beneficial) transfers, which generates a trade‐off in the spirit of Aghion and Bolton (1987). Using a data set from the German “Bundesliga,” our model predictions are broadly confirmed. (JEL L14, J63, L40, L83)     

Jenseits der Regelbarkeit? Nutzung Informeller Dynamiken von Kommunikation und Gruppenrollen zur Steuerung virtueller Gruppen

Communication and team structure are of fundamental relevance for the guidance of virtual collaboration: for diagnosis and analysis of existing structures, surveillance and evaluation as well as deliberate intervention and solving conflicts. In particular for managing pending changes, knowledge about internal group dynamics is utterly helpful, to take the interests of all participants within the realm of possibility into account, utilise internal synergies und minimize efforts and resistance in this way. In this study communication- and group structure of teams in virtual inter- and intraorganizational networks have been investigated. Besides the formal roles, the informal roles within the teams have also been identified with the aid of sociometric items. These have been related to both formal and informal communication to analyse possible correlations between the team roles and its communication.     

The interplay between formal project memberships and informal advice seeking in knowledge-intensive firms: A multilevel network approach

In this study we investigate the interplay between knowledge workers’ formal project team memberships and their informal interactions from a multilevel network perspective. Conceptualizing knowledge workers’ affiliation with project teams as a membership network and their interactions as an advice network, we discuss how shared project team memberships as well as multiple memberships influence patterns of informal exchange in knowledge-intensive organizations. To empirically determine the impact of formal organization on informal exchange we apply exponential random graph models for multilevel networks to relational data collected on 434 R&D employees working on 218 project teams in a high-tech firm in Germany. Our results show that employees sharing project memberships create advice ties to each other but do not exchange advice reciprocally. In addition, we find a negative relationship between having a high number of project memberships and informally seeking or providing advice.     

Cultural antecedents and performance consequences of open communication and knowledge transfer in multicultural process-innovation teams

Abstract

Processes in multinational corporations (MNCs) have to be configured with regard to the challenges of a permanently evolving environment. Process-innovation teams are considered to be powerful tools inside organizations to cope with this necessity. Their performance is of major importance for most MNCs. As a response to the increasing internationalization and globalization of markets, these teams show a growing culturally diverse composition. This article focuses on two major processes that are discussed to decide about a positive or a negative performance of a team: intra-team communication style and knowledge transfer. Explicitly, this article (1) tests for the influence of cultural diversity on intra-team communication and knowledge transfer, and (2) empirically examines the impact of the openness of intra-team communication and knowledge transfer on the performance of multicultural teams. A quantitative empirical survey among 84 team-members of 20 culturally diverse teams within a German sportswear company is used to test the relationships. Findings reveal that national cultural diversity has no significant impact on intra-team communication and knowledge transfer but both of them have significant influences on different measures of performance.     

Team versus individual behavior in the minimum effort coordination game

We compare coordination success of individuals and teams in the minimum effort coordination game. The game is played by groups of either five individuals or five two-person teams with either fixed or random re-matching protocols. When groups are fixed, teams perform at least as well as individuals, if not better, in terms of coordinating to the payoff dominant outcome. But with random re-matching, teams experience pervasive coordination failures. A public recommendation to a strategy or a performance bonus exhorting players to coordinate to the payoff-dominant equilibrium has similar impact on coordination for both individuals and teams playing with fixed matching. However, coordination is far more difficult to achieve with teams playing under random re-matching. Our results have implications for the design of work-groups in organizations.     

Between two worlds: late Soviet Jews in Leningrad

ABSTRACT

In this article, Ann Komaromi reads late Soviet Jewish culture in Leningrad in terms of the “two worlds” Jewish activists negotiated: official and unofficial, Soviet/Russian and Jewish, present and past, etc. While the public rhetoric of the struggle for Soviet Jewry suggested dramatic binaries of death and salvation that resonate with the eschatological extremes of the “Petersburg text,” Komaromi argues for a more prosaic approach to the imaginative and cultural project of reconstructing Jewish identity by people in this context. The article features the recollections of former Jewish activists taken from interviews and memoirs to reveal the range of endeavors in which they engaged, including Hebrew learning and teaching, seminars, demonstrations, Jewish soccer teams, local history walking tours, unofficial book collections, and ethnographic expeditions.     

INTERMEDIATE INFORMATION,LOSS AVERSION,AND EFFORT: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

The present article empirically explores the impact of intermediate information on contestants' effort. Data involving substituted soccer players of the German Bundesliga indicate only weak evidence of a negative effect of ex ante heterogeneity on effort; in contrast, intermediate information, measured by goal difference at the time of substitution, significantly affects effort. Players exert the greatest effort when their team is leading by one goal and reduce their effort when it is trailing. When intermediate information suggests the contest is already decided, players from both teams reduce effort. This behavior is in line with loss aversion, such that players weight potential losses more than potential gains and adjust their effort accordingly. (JEL Z22, J41, M54)     

Psychological Well-Being and the Socio-Symbolics of Athletic Contests*

Anecdotal accounts suggest that athletic contests affect the psychological well-being of members of the community represented by the competing teams. While these effects are sociologically plausible, there is virtually no systematic evidence that documents the relation between athletic contests and well-being. This study examines the relation between the play and performance of major athletic teams at a large university and use of the campus psychiatric clinic. Upon introduction of appropriate controls, the initial zero-order relations between team play and performance and clinic usage disappear.     

Including ‘advisory networks’ in a participatory study on homelessness in Durban,South Africa: a research note

ABSTRACT

The value of social science research lies within the development and implementation of study designs that adequately address complex research questions. This not only relates to the sampling strategies employed, but also the quality and applicability of the research team and associated networks. In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of involving a diverse study team in our community-based participatory action research study on homelessness in Durban, South Africa. We focus specifically on the usefulness of involving advisory networks in our study, which consisted of stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. The diversity in our advisory networks emerged as critically important in the co-designing and implementation of our research. Each network offered unique contributions to the study design which enhanced the credibility of our study. We also found that the advisory networks facilitated cross-sector collaboration and knowledge sharing through the establishment of targeted task teams. Given this, the design and implementation of future studies with marginalised populations can be strengthened by involving advisory networks from the inception phase of the project. This paper thus expands the methodological scholarship on advisory networks, which can be transferred to all studies that are interested in adopting a multi-voiced approach to social science research.