For better or worse? A study of institutional responses to sports competitive pressure in Danish pro soccer 2001–2013

AbstractThe open European pro league structure is characterized by a certain sports competitive pressure that puts the professional clubs that compete in them at risk. This paper uses a case study of Danish professional soccer to show how the clubs in the best Danish league have responded to sports competitive pressure by diversifying their activities into other business areas. Deploying an institutional framework combined with Altman’s Z-score measure of bankruptcy risks, the paper seeks to answer the question of why the Danish clubs diversified to the extent they did, while at the same time revealing how it affected them from a financial perspective. The study finds that despite its potentially successful response to sports competitive pressure, Danish soccer in general suffered from the same problems as other European leagues in the period from 2001 to 2013. Only a few clubs benefitted from the diversification processes. In fact, the findings suggest that diversification strategies are risky and recomm...