Factors influencing competitive advantage of sports clubs in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the competition structure of Turkishsport sector from the point of professional football clubs according to Porter’s Five ForcesFramework. Porter refers to the factors influencing competition in a sector as buyers,sellers, potential threats created by new entrants to the sector, substitute products andcompetition existing within the sector. Within the increasing economic value of sports, theshare of the clubs is also increasing. As professional football clubs are the biggest part ofTurkish sports economic with its external circumstances, they are chosen for this study. Themain research question of the study is finding out the factors influencing competition inTurkish sport sector. Qualitative method was used for document analyzing and in-depthinterviews. The results show that besides football federation, the competitive ability of thesports clubs mostly depends on the government’s decisions in Turkey. Considering theincreasing income of sports clubs such as sponsorship and donations, sports clubs have tolook at the competition structure from a strategic perspective thus they can manage theseincreasing revenues and sources professionally. Sports clubs miss out on some competitiveadvantages if they do not make long-term agreements. These advantages have beenassessed at the level of factors identified by Porter.