Speaker: Dr Argyro Elisavet Manoli (University of Bergamo)
Hosted by: University of Liverpool Management School's Centre for Sports Business
Open to: University of Liverpool academic staff and PhD students only, with no sign up needed
Date: Friday 16 February 2024
Time: 12-1pm
Place: Management School - Marketing Suite (ground floor)
Abstract
Twitter is often praised as a means for mutual beneficial relationships and dialogue to be built between a sport organisation and its fans, thus encouraging for the implementation of online Organisational Public Relations (OPR).
We examine this proposition by focusing on the use of Twitter from football clubs and their fans to explore the role and nature of online OPR and how this evolves when key business decisions are communicated via social media and when fans actively react to such strategic communication.
Content analysis was conducted in six UK football clubs' tweets when joining and then withdrawing from the European Super League, and in fans' responses to them, in order to identify how OPR manifests online.
The findings reveal that clubs communicated their decisions in a manner that lacked input from the fans, with a minimum effort made for their interests to be considered.
It is also revealed that the fans request for a dialogue with the clubs which is currently missing and demand for a substantial, respectful and beneficial relationship to be built with the clubs.
By focusing on both sides of OPR, the clubs and the fans, in our study, we uncover that online OPR can take different forms and shapes when Twitter is used, depending on the directions of the communication and the relationships built.
As such, we identify and propose the 4I framework capturing the four types of OPR domains, across which organisations and publics ebb and flow.
Speaker
Dr. Argyro Elisavet Manoli is Associate Professor of Marketing & Management at the University of Bergamo and the Independent Director for Marketing and Commercial of the British Handball Association.
She joined academia following a career in the sport industry, for clubs such as AEK Athens FC and Middlesbrough FC. Elisavet has researched on two main research strands, corruption in sports and sports marketing and communications management.
Her research has been awarded funding from the British Academy, the Economic Social Research Council and the European Union.
She has presented her work in the European Parliament, was invited to talk in the European Commission Expert Group on Sport Integrity, and conducted and published a European Union policy report on corruption in sport in EU member states.
She is a graduate of Liverpool's Football Industries MBA.
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