International Sport Management

International Sport Management is the first comprehensive textbook devoted to the organization, governance, business activities, and cross-cultural context of modern sport on an international level. As the sport industry continues its global expansion, this textbook serves as an invaluable guide for readers as they build careers that require an international understanding of the relationships, influences, and responsibilities in sport management.

Through a systematic presentation of topics and issues in international sport, this textbook offers a long-overdue guide for students in this burgeoning subfield in sport management. Editors Li, MacIntosh, and Bravo have assembled contributors from all corners of the globe to present a truly international perspective on the topic. With attention to diversity and multiple viewpoints, each chapter is authored by distinguished academics and practitioners in the field. A foreword by esteemed sport management scholar Dr. Earle Zeigler emphasizes the importance of a dedicated study of the issues in international sport management.

All chapters in the text use a global perspective to better showcase how international sport operates in various geopolitical environments and cultures. The text is arranged in five parts, each serving a unique purpose:

•To outline the issues associated with international sport management

•To examine sport using a unique perspective that emphasizes its status as a global industry

•To introduce the structure of governance in international sport

•To examine the management essentials in international sport

•To apply these strategies in the business segments of sport marketing, sport media and information technology, sport facilities and design, sport event management, and sport tourism

Written to engage students, International Sport Management contains an array of learning aids to assist with comprehension of the material. It includes case studies and sidebars that apply the concepts to real-world situations and demonstrate the varied issues, challenges, and opportunities affecting sport management worldwide. Chapter objectives, key terms, learning activities, summaries, and discussion questions guide learning in this wide-ranging subject area. In addition, extensive reference sections support the work of practitioners in the field.

With International Sport Management, both practicing and future sport managers can develop an increased understanding of the range of intercultural competencies necessary for success in the field. Using a framework of strategic and total-quality management, the text allows readers to examine global issues from an ethical perspective and uncover solutions to complex challenges that sport managers face. With this approach, readers will learn how to combine business practices with knowledge in international sport to lead their current and future careers.

International Sport Management offers readers a multifaceted view of the issues, challenges, and opportunities in international sport management as well as the major functional areas that govern international sport. The text provides students, academics, and practitioners with critical insights into the practice of business as it applies to international sport.

Eric MacIntosh, PhD, is an associate professor of sport management at the University of Ottawa in Canada. MacIntosh researches and teaches on various organizational behavior topics, covering concepts such as culture, leadership, satisfaction, and socialization. His principal research interests are the functioning of the organization and how a favorable culture can transmit positively internally and outwardly into the marketplace.

MacIntosh has consulted for and conducted research with many prominent national and international sport organizations, including the Commonwealth Games Federation, NHL, Right to Play, U Sports, and Youth Olympic Games. He is well published in leading peer-reviewed sport management journals and is a member of several prominent editorial boards.

Gonzalo A. Bravo, PhD, is an associate professor of sport management at West Virginia University in the United States. A native of Santiago, Chile, Bravo has a master’s degree in sport administration from Penn State University and a doctorate in sport management from Ohio State University. Before joining academia, he worked as sport director in a large sport organization in Chile.

His research examines policy and governance aspects of sport as well as organizational behavior in sport. His work has been published in journals such as International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, Managing Sport and Leisure, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, and the Journal of Sport Management. He is also the coeditor of Sport in Latin America: Policy, Organization, Management (Routledge, 2016) and the author of Sport Mega Events in Emerging Economies (Palgrave, 2018).

He is a founding member of the Latin American Association for Sport Management (ALGEDE) and the Latin American Association of Sociocultural Studies of Sport (ALESDE). In 2016, Bravo completed a sabbatical in Brazil, and from 2014 to 2017 he was a visiting scholar at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Latin American Studies.

Ming Li, EdD, was a professor of sports administration and the chair of the department of sports administration in the College of Business at Ohio University in the United States. Li received his doctorate in sport administration from the University of Kansas. 

Li was a former president of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) and served as commissioner of the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA). He was a member of the editorial board of Journal of Sport Management and Sport Marketing Quarterly and coauthored two books in sport management. He was a guest professor at six institutions in China, including the Central University of Finance and Economics and Tianjin University of Sport.

Li served as an Olympic envoy for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. He also served as a consultant for the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games organizing committee.

Li passed away in 2022.