FACTORS INFLUENCING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF SPORTS CLUBS IN TURKEY

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