{"id":1985,"date":"2020-04-30T11:15:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T10:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/?p=1985"},"modified":"2023-03-08T13:58:44","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T12:58:44","slug":"football-but-not-as-we-know-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/football-but-not-as-we-know-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Football, but not as we know it"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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For nearly three\r\nyears, I\u2019ve been working with Forest\r\nGreen Rovers (FGR)<\/a>, the\r\ngreenest football club in the world, to find out if their green transformation<\/a> is having an impact on the beliefs, engagement\r\nand behaviour of those affiliated with the club.<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The project has seen me\r\nhold focus groups with football supporters and residents of Forest Green and\r\nNailsworth as well as over 60 semi-structured interviews with the club\u2019s staff,\r\nassociates, directors, senior management, supporters and residents and\r\nbusinesses from the surrounding area. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Given the novelty of FGR\r\nand my growing relationship with the club I\u2019ve applied the research in a number\r\nof contexts. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

At the moment the data sets are helping me explore how social and ecological innovation is developed and defused through football. While other work has used macromarketing and business ethics frameworks to understand the role football clubs and other places can have in influencing our beliefs and consumption habits to favour ethical and sustainable products and services. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sustainability, social value and responsible innovation<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For example, at FGR we\u2019re\r\nexposed to vegan food, a vegan\/organic playing surface and clean energy\r\nconsumption provided by Ecotricity<\/a>. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In lots of the\r\ninterviews I conducted with fans, staff and members of the wider community,\r\nparticipants talk about how their interaction with the club has widened their\r\nviews and understanding of sustainability, to the point that they\u2019re now\r\nconsciously consuming less meat and dairy foods as a way of reducing their\r\ncarbon footprint.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ve also used the\r\nresearch inside and outside of the classroom to show my students how changes like\r\nthe ones implemented at FGR can help people question their own environmental,\r\nsocial and sustainable value systems.  <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In February, we took our MSc Strategic Marketing<\/a> and MSc Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship<\/a> students over to New Lawn for a sustainability tour of the ground and to watch FGR take on Port Vale in League Two of the English Football League.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We\u2019ve done this for the last few years, and it’s really made an impression on the students who\u2019ve got as much out of the tours and hearing about the club\u2019s initiatives as they have out of the football.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While FGR didn\u2019t quite\r\nmanage the result they wanted last time out, we captured some of the action for\r\nourselves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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