Leader Dismissal or Continuity, President Longevity, Geographic Orientation of Owners and Team Performance: Insights from French Men’s Football, 1994–2016

Abstract

We investigated the impacts of president longevity and the geographic orientation of owners on team performance and on the effectiveness of dismissing the leader. In addition, we considered their impacts on the effectiveness of not dismissing the leader while the same organisation fires them at another time for a similar performance. We also tested the impact of dismissing the leader or not on performance. We explored the aforementioned risk-taking relationships in the first tier of French men’s football over the 1994–2016 period (n = 4918 observations). To do so, we used a counterfactual based on the evolution of the team position over the last three games leading to the leader change and estimate linear regression models with fixed team effects. Our findings show that performance improves either after a leader dismissal or not in the same situation, and both president longevity and the geographic orientation of owners impact the effectiveness of dismissing the leader or not. In particular, global- and local-oriented ownerships have a positive impact on the effectiveness of the decision to dismiss the leader or not compared to national-oriented ownership. Practical implications stem from the research, e.g., how organisations with national-oriented ownership can overcome their competitive disadvantage.

Effects of changing the head coach on soccer team’s performance: A systematic review

“…An additional four studies considered the variation in the league table and the final league position, associating this sub-topic with the number of points won, the opponents’ strength or table position, the marks given by specialized newspapers to classify players’ individual performances, the context of the game (away or home game), and the total wage costs of the teams analysed [ 2 , 19 , 20 , 34 ]. Three studies included the physiological component [ 23 – 25 ], with one of these studies analysing the physiological effects for both training and competition [ 24 ].…”

“…Considering the studies that focused on the points earned combined with variations and/or final league classification, some of the findings should be interpreted with caution. Scelles and Llorca [ 20 ], concluded that team performance improves after a HCs dismissal, however, maintaining the HC on the job could result in similar performance improvements. This evidence seems to support the idea of retaining the HC at the job, with gains related to sports performance and fewer costs associated with the non-dismissal of coaches and coaching stuff, in a mix of financial savings and promoting stability, time and space to develop the work of HC.…”

“…Two studies reported that the dismissal of a HC does not have a statistically significant effect on the subsequent performance of a team in relation to goals scored and conceded [ 23 , 38 ], despite some research supporting that such changes seem to have a positive impact on team performance, supporting the idea of considering this option when looking for ways to improve performance [ 40 ]. Some studies also found that although performance improves after dismissal, the positive effects dissipate when compared with teams whereby the HC is not dismissed [ 20 , 39 ]. This notion suggests that often premature dismissal can have detrimental implications for team performance and providing additional time for the HC might result in greater achievements, instead of resetting the process with another HC with the season ongoing.…”

“…A review of the literature reveals that the effect of changing coaches has focused mainly on the effects on results, namely victories, defeats, draws, goals scored/conceded and position variation in the league table [ 3 , 9 , 19 – 20 ]. The scientific evidence is scarce regarding studies that analyse the effects of changing HCs on the locomotor responses of players [ 21 ], with some indicating that the change did not cause significant physical changes [ 22 – 23 ].…”

“…Thus, there seem to be insufficiencies in the knowledge related to the performance variables (and its variability) of a professional soccer player when the HC is changed, leading to an increase in recent years in the number of publications on performance and training variables in players caused by the change of coaches [ 3 , 8 , 20 , 24 – 25 ]. This knowledge can provide additional information about a better adaptation to the coach turnover process (i.e., to the “methodological whiplash” and not just “psychological”), in addition to the usefulness in monitoring loads, understanding mood states and well-being of the players, when replacing coaches [ 24 ].…”