Professor Dr. Sascha L. Schmidt
Center for Sports and Management

Director and Chairholder

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  • Director of the Center for Sports and Management at WHU
  • Chairholder of the Chair for Sports and Management at WHU
  • Academic Director of the Sports Business Academy by WHU (SPOAC)
  • Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sports Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
  • Member of the "Digital Initiative" at Harvard Business School in Boston, USA

 

Vita

Sascha L. Schmidt is a professor and director of the Center for Sports and Management (CSM) at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, as well as the academic director of "SPOAC - Sports Business Academy by WHU" . The "Future of Sport" is one of Sascha's key research areas.

He studied economic sciences at the Universities of Essen and Zurich, where he also graduated with a doctorate. At the invitation of Harvard Business School faculty he worked in Boston as a visiting scholar, after which he joined strategy consulting. After several years at McKinsey, Sascha was appointed director of the ICS research program at the University of St. Gallen, and qualified as a professor at the EBS University (habilitation). He then entered into the world of entrepreneurship, building up the activities of recruitment agency a-connect within Germany. In 2011, he returned to academia and founded the Institute for Sports, Business & Society at EBS University. Sascha joined WHU in 2014. In 2019, he was a lecturer at the first MIT Sports Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.

  • Name: Sascha Leonard Schmidt
  • Born: February 8, 1971 in Hagen
  • Marital Status: Married since 2003, 3 children
  • Home: Düsseldorf

 

Date University Position
Since Jul. 2018 Harvard University, Boston Affiliate Professor, Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH)
Since Aug. 2014 WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, Dusseldorf Director, Center for Sports and Management
Since Jan. 2014 WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, Dusseldorf Professor and Chairholder, Chair for Sports and Management
Jan. 2014 - Dec. 2014 EBS University, Oestrich-Winkel Director, Center for Sports Marketing
Apr. 2011 - Dec. 2013 EBS University, Oestrich-Winkel Director, Institute for Sports, Business & Society
Since July 2012 EBS University, Oestrich-Winkel Senior Professor
Jan. 2011 - Jun. 2012 EBS University, Oestrich-Winkel Honorary Professor
Jul. 2006 - Dec. 2010 EBS University, Oestrich-Winkel Senior Lecturer
Oct. 2003 - Feb. 2011 EBS University, Oestrich-Winkel Lecturer for Strategy Consulting
Since 2007 National Center for Econometric Research, Brisbane Research Fellow
Apr. 2003 - Mar. 2005 University of St. Gallen Co-leader of ICS-Research Program; Lecturer within Executive Education Program
2002/03 University of Oldenburg Lecturer for Strategic Management / Consulting Research
Jan. 1999 - Jul. 1999 Harvard Business School, Boston Visiting Scholar
1995 Harvard Business School, Boston Research Associate
1998 University of Zurich Lecturer for business administration
1996 - 1999 University of Zurich Research and teaching assistant
Since 2019 em lyon business school Asia Research Associate
Since 2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lecturer at the MIT Sports Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
Date University  
2003 - 2006 EBS University, Oestrich-Winkel Professor thesis (Habilitation) in business administration, reviewer: Prof. Dr. Jean-Paul Thommen (EBS), Prof. Dr. Hartmut Kreikebaum (EBS), Prof. Dr. Martin Welge (University of Dortmund)
1996 - 1999 University of Zurich Doctoral studies in Business Administration (Dr. oec. publ.) summa cum laude; (reviewer: Prof. Dr. Edwin Rühli, Prof. Dr. Margit Osterloh)
1993 - 1995 University of Zurich Graduate studies in Business Administration and Economics (Lic. oec. publ.) summa cum laude
1991 - 1993 University of Essen Undergraduate Studies of Economics
Date Company Position
Oct. 2006 - Mar. 2011 a-connect Germany LTD, Dusseldorf Managing Director, built up German business from scratch
Mar. 2005 - Oct. 2006 a-connect Switzerland LTD, Zurich Business Builder, developed financial services practice
Sep. 2001 - Mar. 2003 McKinsey & Company, Johannesburg, Zurich and New York Engagement Manager (Johannesburg and Zurich), PMI Officer of South African banking merger, led strategy projects in the area of life insurance, automotive
Aug. 2000 - Aug. 2001 McKinsey & Company, Johannesburg, Zurich and New York Senior Associate / Junior Engagement Manager (New York), Strategy projects in the area of wealth management, equity trading, clearing & settlement, prime brokerage
Oct. 1999 - Aug. 2000 McKinsey & Company, Johannesburg, Zurich and New York Associate Management Consultant (Zurich), Strategy projects in the area of online banking, PFS business building (incl. alliance‐ and M&A strategy), private banking, corporate finance
     
2018 Best Teacher Award by SPOAC Sports Business Academy by WHU
2005 European Business School Excellence Award for Research
2005 Thomson South‐Western Award for Outstanding Research Based Paper on Management Consulting, Management Consulting Division, Academy of Management
2005 Nomination for Carolyn Dexter Award for the best international paper, Academy of Management
2004 Best Paper Award, 2nd International Conference on Management Consulting, Academy of Management
2002 Intern. Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management, Best Paper Award in the field of Strategic Management
1999 Swiss National Research Foundation, fulltime scholarship for Harvard Business School

Publications

This paper examines the effect of superstars on external stakeholders’ organizational identification through the lens of sport. Drawing on social identity theory and the concept of organizational identification, as well as on role model theories and superstar economics, several hypotheses are developed regarding the influence of soccer stars on their fans’ degree of team identification. Using a proprietary data set that combines archival data on professional German soccer players and clubs with survey data on more than 1,400 soccer fans, this study finds evidence for a positive effect of superstar characteristics and role model perception. Moreover, it is found that players who qualify for the definition of a superstar are more important to fans of established teams than to fans of unsuccessful teams. The player's club tenure, however, seems to have no influence on fans’ team identification. It is further argued that the effect of soccer stars on their fans is comparable to that of executives on external stakeholders, and hence, the results are applied to the business domain. The results of this study contribute to existing research by extending the list of personnel‐related determinants of organizational identification.

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Focus and Manager Magazin –
Read Professor Schmidt's regular columns

Professor Schmidt regularly publishes columns in Focus and Manager Magazin. Here you will find all of them in one place.

08.06.2018 | Warum Real-Rüpel Ramos so viele Fans hat

15.03.2018 | Wie Algorithmen die Zukunft des Scoutings verändern

26.02.2018 | China bringt deutschen Fußball-Clubs ungeahntes Wachstum

08.02.2018 | Sportbosse haben falsche Vorstellung davon, was junge Fans wirklich wollen

08.12.2017 | Hängen paralympische Athleten die Olympia-Starter bald dank neuer Technik ab?

24.07.2017 | Ihre Bank wird bald zum Rivalen für Ihren Lieblings-Fußballverein

30.06.2017 | Tour de France kostet Düsseldorf Millionen - lohnt sich das?

05.05.2017 | Was eSports vom Fußball noch lernen kann

02.03.2017 | Wie neue Daten-Technologien den Fußball erobern

10.11.2016 | FC Schalke 04 macht’s vor: eGaming startet durch

15.09.2016 | Schlucken Profis bald Sensoren vor dem Spiel?

02.09.2016 | Wie Hobbyfußballer zu Alltagshelden werden

26.08.2016 | Bundesliga-Clubs haben ein Problem mit Dauerkarten-Besitzern

20.08.2016 | Bundesligisten konkurrieren mit Großfirmen um Top-Manager

26.07.2016 | Wieso den besten Spielern der größte Absturz droht

15.07.2016 | Treten bei der Fußball-WM 2050 Roboter gegen Menschen an?

06.07.2016 | Superstars im Vergleich: "Was Bale macht, würde Ronaldo niemals tun"

01.07.2016 | Warum die Nationalelf ganz Deutschland zusammenführt

30.05.2016 | Schalke 04 investiert in eSports - ein genialer Schachzug?

09.05.2016 | Bundesliga muss Münchner Dominanz nicht fürchten - sondern als Chance sehen

01.05.2016 | Das Leicester-Märchen: Kann es eine Fortsetzung geben?

22.04.2016 | Die Bundesliga-Clubs müssen bei der Trainer-Auswahl ganz neue Wege gehen

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