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Exploring New Playing Fields: Sports Settings and Management Theorizing

Paolo Aversa et al.

Academy of Management Discoveries2025https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2025.0064article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.37

Abstract

This Special Research Forum (SRF) explores the evolving landscape of modern organizations through the unique empirical lens of sports. In a rapidly changing world marked by digital transformation, social activism, and technological innovation, management scholars face challenges in capturing complex organizational dynamics. Sports, as a microcosm of society, offer compelling research settings—featuring rich, high-stakes data on leadership, team dynamics, strategy, ethics, and innovation. The articles selected for this SRF showcase the potential of sports-based research to generate broader organizational insights. They explore critical themes such as the role of social capital in talent management, the impact of illicit behavior on competitive performance, the influence of biometric data on professional relationships, and the impact of business travel on decision-making. The forum highlights how sports settings can extend management theory beyond industry-specific findings, offering novel perspectives on human interaction, technology integration, and organizational governance. While this SRF attracted diverse submissions, it also revealed underexplored areas such as fan behavior, globalization, and sustainability. This piece encourages future research to leverage the wealth of sports data to address these gaps and further develop management theories applicable across industries. Like athletes pushing boundaries, we invite scholars to harness sports as a field for discovery.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2025.0064

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@article{paolo2025,
  title        = {{Exploring New Playing Fields: Sports Settings and Management Theorizing}},
  author       = {Paolo Aversa et al.},
  journal      = {Academy of Management Discoveries},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2025.0064},
}

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Exploring New Playing Fields: Sports Settings and Management Theorizing

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.