Determinants of coopetition and contingency of strategic choices: the case of professional football clubs in France

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Research question: The research aims to identify the determinants of ‘coopetitive’ strategies compared to more competitive or cooperative ones, while examining the contingency of strategic choices to strategic groups. The focus is on French professional football over the 2006–2017 period. The contribution to the literature comes from using strategic groups and breaking down specific characteristics of player transactions in this industry.Research methods: The methodology is based on an exploratory statistical analysis composed by cluster analysis. First, a Pearson's principal component analysis (PCA) is conducted, before using K-means classification.Results and Findings: Results provide empirical evidence for a high contingency of strategic choices. The taxonomy found is closely related to the economic, financial and sporting characteristics of a club. Belonging to a specific class highly influences the strategy a club can implement. In addition, the diversity of club behaviours in the league are highlighted.Implications: Our findings bring relevant information for practitioners about their strategies and the managerial implications of a potential reform of player transactions between teams. Indeed, FIFA is working on a reform to limit the number of outgoing loans that a team can use and better control the transfer system.