Research Proposal: Commercialization of Professional Football

This research proposal, focusing on the commercialization of professional football, aims to evaluate the impact of marketing and promotional activities in the global market. It explores how commercialization, including social media involvement and advertising, influences consumer behavior, particularly among young adults who view football stars as role models. The research investigates the influence of celebrity endorsements, brand exposure, and the role of financial capital in the industry. It includes a detailed methodology, outlining the positivism philosophy, data collection methods (primary and secondary, quantitative and qualitative), and data analysis techniques. The proposal seeks to identify the impact of commercialization on the success of professional football, assess marketing strategies, and recommend measures to increase fan engagement through commercial approaches. The study uses surveys, interviews and thematic analysis to gain insights into the market scenarios and the impact of commercialization. The goal is to understand how commercialization affects brand equity, corporate social responsibility, and the overall financial structure of football clubs, ultimately enhancing their global presence and fan base.

THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL – C11BU
The Research Proposal
Nilavo Mazumder
Heriot Watt University
Table of Contents

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Title..................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Research aim....................................................................................................................................4
Research objectives.........................................................................................................................4
Research questions...........................................................................................................................4
Theory and context..........................................................................................................................5
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................7
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Data collection.............................................................................................................................8
Data analysis................................................................................................................................9
Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................9
Structure.........................................................................................................................................10
Summary........................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Title
Commercialization of professional football in the global market
Introduction
The research proposal aims to evaluate the impact of commercialization of professional
football through various marketing and promotional activities in the global market. The proposal
will allow for understanding the need for marketing and advertising of the professional football
and make it successful in the global market (Brunk 2010). The research will discuss how the
commercialization through social media involvement can create awareness among people about
the sports and through word of mouth promotions; the sports will gain more popularity and
become successful in the global market. The advertising and promotions of the professional
football have not only influenced the behaviors of people, especially the young adults who
consider the football stars as their role models (De Bosscher et al. 2015). The management of
marketing activities also improves the level of engagement with the customers and improves the
brand emotion and brand extension among the people who support different professional football
clubs (Grundy 2004). With the use of internet, it will be much more convenient to manage the
branding promotions and advertise the professional football on televisions, newspapers, articles
and on internet websites along with the individual football club websites to spread awareness
among people and increase their love for the sports (Grundy 1998).

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Research aim
The research is conducted to focus on the impact of commercialization of professional
football on its success in the global market.
Research objectives
 To identify the impact that has been created by the commercialization of professional
football on its success in the global market
 To evaluate the extent to which the professional football commercialization enhances the
awareness among people and influence them towards acceptance of the sports
 To assess the ways by which the professional football is marketed and advertised in the
global market
 To recommend necessary measures by which the craze among people for the professional
football sports can be increased through commercialization approaches
Research questions
How can the commercialization of football through social media involvement and other
promotional techniques influence the behavioral intentions of fans and make the sports
successful in the global market?
Theory and context
Commercialization of professional football ensures managing the right marketing and
promotional activities for raising awareness among people and influencing the behavioral
intentions. This is essential for improving their love for the sports and watches their favorite

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football stars play for pride and joy (Wilson, Plumleyand Ramchandani 2013). The
commercialization not only helps in gaining huge amounts of profit for the football clubs, but
also helps in making a mark among the people who love this sport. There are many English
football clubs who have prioritized on the advertising and promoting the sports to reach more
people and influence them to watch the sports events (Relvas et al. 2010). With the
commercialization, the brand exposure for the football clubs increases and it has created enough
scopes and opportunities to sustain in the global marketplace.
According toGrundy (1998), in context of the European football industry, the
commercialization has created a positive impact on the share price because of the system where
the players are transferred from one club to another club. The transfer of player affects the share
price and there are recent trends of purchasing and selling players quite often for a significant
amount of money, also referred to as the transfer fee (Meier 2007). The commercialization of
professional football has changed the way players are being purchased and it created a
connection between the share prices and transfers, which impacts the youth development
program for the club too (Biyanwila 2018). The commercialization of professional football not
only enhances the exposure of the sports to more people, but also has increased the scopes to
enable internationalization within the global football industry (Brunk 2010). For increasing the
boundary of any industry, it is essential to manage commercialization and utilize the right
marketing and promotional techniques to reach the global market segments and ensure that more
and more people are influenced towards the acceptance of the sports (Frodl 2015).
Based on the statement provided by Meier (2007), it is evident that the sports celebrities
have influenced the young adult consumers largely and made their behaviors inclined towards

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the acceptance of professional football. From various literature sources, it is found that the
endorsements done by the celebrity football stars have greater influence on the young adults and
enhanced their love for the game, furthermore made them purchase the products associated with
the sports (Kennedy and Kennedy 2012). This not only enhances the brand exposure, but also
has created positive mindsets among people, created positive word of mouth promotions and
establish a sense of loyalty and trust about the brand among the clients.
According to Daniel (2012), the commercialization of professional football has
established a god connection between the emotions of people regarding the brand and extension
of brand for the individuals who have been supporters of the professional football. This has
enhanced the level of support among people as well as improved the marketing techniques’
efficiency for increasing their love and interest towards the sports. It is mainly done for the
purpose of making the professional football popular among the local market as well as the global
market (De Bosscher et al. 2015). The professional football commercialization has also
facilitated the corporate social responsibility strategies and made sure to create a positive impact
on the customer based brand equality. It has allowed for enhancing the brand performance of the
football clubs and even made sure to use the right strategies and become socially responsible
(Petrovic, Milovanovic and Desbordes 2015). The CRS strategies are improved with the help of
commercialization and through investments, which has created scopes in the international market
to promote the sports among young individuals (Bouchet, Hillairet and Bodet 2013).This has
assisted in providing education in rural areas, opened options for accessibility to water and
making it convenient for them access the sports merchandises and products.

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During the commercialization, the financial capital has an important role in promoting
the sports and it has enhanced the ability of professional football clubs to keep the fans happy by
making the sports event successful while staying solvent and not focus on maximizing the profit
(Winand et al. 2013). The global media platforms and social networking websites have served as
effective platforms for attracting the viewers and generated income from broadcasting activities,
merchandising and sponsoring the products. The professional football has changed the entire
way of managing the customer oriented services and improved the income structure for the
football clubs (Evens, Iosifidis and Smith 2013). Nowadays, with the advancement of
technologies and extensive marketing approaches, the revenue has been generated mostly from
the sources of broadcasting, commercial sources like sponsorship and merchandising and while
transferring players with a significant amount of money (Dolles and Söderman 2013).
Research methodology
Research philosophy
For conducting a research, the researcher adopts a certain philosophy. These are
positivism, post-positivism and interpretivism. Through the philosophy, the researcher enhances
the knowledge of the readers regarding the subject matter of the research. This viewpoint is
essential in terms of gaining an insight into the researcher’s opinion towards the materialistic
world (Mackey and Gass 2015). As a matter of specification, the philosophy adopted by the
researcher reflects the strategy and the methods adopted by the researcher to executing the
research. In this research, positivism philosophy has been selected by the researcher. This is in
terms of establishing the real and scientific knowledge related to the commercialization of
professional football in the global market. Positivism would assist the researcher to study the

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impact of commercializing football in the global market in a scientific manner. Along with this,
positivism philosophy would assist the researcher to evaluate the effectiveness of hypothesis
(Flick 2015). This evaluation includes the principles of deduction, helping the researcher to
apply the thought processes. Utilization of the sources in an effective manner would be the
epistemological approach of the researcher towards enhancing the knowledge of the readers
about commercialization of football in the global market. Proposing hypothesis is the ontological
approach exposed by the researcher for enhancing the knowledge about the research subject
(Panneerselvam 2014).
Data collection
The data has been collected in the research through primary and secondary data
collection procedures. The data collected during the conducting of the research include both
quantitative and qualitative. In primary quantitative, surveys are conducted for collecting the
responses of the samples on the subject matter of the research. In qualitative, interviews are
conducted for gaining the responses of the managers (Mackey and Gass 2015). On the other
hand, in secondary methods, inclusive and exclusive criteria are used for collecting data.
Inclusive criteria refer to the inclusion of sources, which are not older than 10 years. Exclusion
criteria are the exclusion of the sources, which have been published 10 years ago (English 2013).
The nature of this research can be considered exploratory. This is in terms of enhancing the
awareness regarding the various market scenarios, which can act as an obstacle in
commercialization of professional football. Qualitative research technique would be used for
collecting the opinion of the consumers regarding globalization of football (Taylor, Bogdan and
DeVault, M015). This is in terms of discovering new parameters to the already established facts

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regarding the commercialization of football. Focus groups of 15 players would be selected by the
researcher for completing the process of data collection. Gaining the responses of the players
would help in gaining an insight into their approach towards the manufactured footballs and the
other essentials. Survey questionnaires would be distributed to the players for collecting their
opinions (Flick 2015). The questions would be based on the following aspects:
 Impact of commercialization of professional football on its success in the global market
 The extent to which the professional football commercialization enhances the awareness
among people and influence them towards acceptance of the sports
 The ways in which professional football is marketed and advertised in the global market
 Recommendations for enhancing the enthusiasm of the audience in professional football
through commercialization approaches
The managers of the companies producing football and other related products would be
interviewed for collecting their responses on the prospective markets. A moderator would be
allotted the charge of controlling and recording the responses of the samples. The samples would
be provided with open ended questions, which would be assessed for aligning with the identified
objectives (Winand et al. 2013). Both these form would enrich the preconceived knowledge and
skills of the researcher regarding the aspect of commercializing football within the market.
Data analysis
Once the data is collected, it needs to be analysed. This is in terms of getting an insight
into the anticipated results. In a research, the data is analyzed through primary and secondary
methods. Within these methods, there are subdivisions of quantitative and qualitative. In primary
quantitative, the collected data is analyzed through the means of excel, charts, graphs and SPSS

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tool (Flick 2015). On the other hand, in secondary method, themes are developed for analyzing
the collected data. In thematic analysis, relevant themes related to the subject matter of the
research are developed. The theories and the objectives are linked for deducing new conclusions
about the research subject matter (Mackey and Gass 2015). In this research, both SPSS tool and
thematic analysis would be used for analyzing the collected data. This is in terms of gaining new
insight into the commercialization of football within the global market. Usage of charts and
graphs would enhance the awareness towards the different markets, into which the football
companies can penetrate for expanding the scope and arena of their business.
Ethical considerations
Ethics reflects the behavioral approach of the individuals. Adherence to the Code of
Ethics is crucial in terms of conducting a research for achieving the trust, loyalty and dependence
of the samples. The researcher is ought to protect the individual rights of the participants. In this
research, the researcher would maintain the standards and ensure that the protocols of Data
Protection Act (1998) were properly managed (Panneerselvam 2014). This is in terms of
preserving the privacy of the personal rights of the samples. For this, the researcher would assure
the respondents that their responses would be used solely for the purpose of researcher rather
than commercialization. Along with this, the researcher would adopt a liberal approach towards
the needs, demands and requirements of the samples (Biyanwila 2018). The samples would be
allowed to be taken from the survey process once they could be comfortable and had been
engaged without any bias through random and convenient sampling techniques. Apart from this,
the researcher would avoid visiting the sites, which needs subscription. This is in terms of
averting the instances of plagiarism and collusion (Flick 2015).

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Structure
The structure of the research proposal is designed to facilitate the accomplishment of the
dissertation and present the ideas and views regarding the research. The structure is as follows:
Cover Page
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Contents Page
Introduction
The Scope of the research
Dissertation Structure
Literature Review
Research Methodology
Findings and Analysis
Discussions
Conclusions
References
Appendices

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Summary
From the research proposal, it is clearly understandable that the commercialization is a
major aspect that has created positive impact on the professional football and how it has been a
success in the global market. Not only has it enhanced the awareness among people about the
sports, but also has generated a lot of income through sponsorship, merchandising and
broadcasting. The research proposal will be useful for managing the dissertation, furthermore
ensure that the impact of commercialization has been a success for the professional football in
the global sports industry.