Agnes Bäker

Red Cards: Not Such Bad News For Penalized Guest Teams

A popular soccer myth states that teams affected by a sending-off perform better than they would have performed without it. Based on economic theory, the authors analyze the course of soccer matches using data from the German Bundesliga from 1999 to 2009. The results show that sending-offs against home teams have a negative impact on their performance. However, for guest teams, the impact depends on the time remaining after the sending-off and can be positive if the sending-off occurs late in the game. Thus, the “ten do it better” myth seems to hold for guest teams to a certain extent.

A Theory Exploring How Expert Leaders Influence Performance in Knowledge-Intensive Organizations

Leadership has been deemed, by some earlier scholars, to be less necessary in organizations that are knowledge-intensive. It has been assumed that because experts and professionals are driven largely by intrinsic motivation, extrinsic management and leadership factors are less important. We believe this assumption is wrong. Leaders have been shown in recent studies to have a considerable influence on organizational performance in universities, research institutes, hospitals and in high-skill sports settings. What matters, we argue, is the kind of leader. Experts and professionals need to be led by other experts and professionals, those who have a deep understanding of and high ability in the core-business of their organization. Our contribution will summarize the literature on the relationship between expert leaders and organizational performance, and then we will present a theory of expert leadership in a new model that outlines the possible transfer processes through which expert leaders generate better organizational performance.

Beating Thy Neighbor: Derby Effects in German Professional Soccer

It is widely acknowledged that derbies between two teams from the same city or region catch more public attention than “normal” soccer matches. Terms such as “Old Firm” (Rangers vs. Celtic), “Merseyside” (Liverpool FC vs. Everton FC), “Superclasico” (Boca Juniors vs. River Plate), and “Revierderby” (Dortmund vs. Schalke) are well-known even to people outside their respective countries of origin. Using data from the German Bundesliga from 1999 to 2009, we test whether derbies differ from other soccer matches with respect to the number of goals scored by each team, match results, and referee evaluations. The results are very surprising given the enormous amount of public attention that derbies with their special character attract: we find that there are no significant differences between derbies and “normal” matches. Despite the importance of derbies for fans and the public, they turn out to be “normal” soccer matches in all other respects.

Who is attracted by teamwork? Evidence of multidimensional sorting from a real-effort experiment:

We analyze the factors that drive an individual’s self-selection decision between (1) working individually and being paid for individual performance and (2) working on a team and being paid for team performance. While the literature has focused on task-specific ability as a self-selection criterion, we also investigate the effects of teamwork skills, expectations concerning the task-specific ability and teamwork skills of potential teammates, and task type. Thus we account for multidimensional sorting. Considering these additional factors might explain the empirical puzzle that some studies have found a positive relation between an individual’s task-specific skills and the propensity to join a team, and others found a negative relation. Confronting our predictions with data from a real-effort pen-and-paper experiment, we find that the less able are attracted by teamwork and team incentives, but teamwork skills and expectations concerning the ability of potential teammates might in fact compensate for this adverse self-selection effect. Regarding task type, we find that teamwork is more attractive if the task offers a high potential for complementarities between team members.

Beating thy neighbor

Summary It is widely acknowledged that derbies between two teams from the same city or region catch more public attention than “normal” soccer matches. Terms such as “Old Firm” (Rangers vs. Celtic), “Merseyside” (Liverpool FC vs. Everton FC), “Superclásico” (Boca Juniors vs. River Plate), and “Revierderby” (Dortmund vs. Schalke) are well-known even to people outside their respective countries of origin. Using data from the German Bundesliga from 1999 to 2009, we test whether derbies differ from other soccer matches with respect to the number of goals scored by each team, match results, and referee evaluations. The results are very surprising given the enormous amount of public attention that derbies with their special character attract: we find that there are no significant differences between derbies and “normal” matches. Despite the importance of derbies for fans and the public, they turn out to be “normal” soccer matches in all other respects.