著者

澤井 和彦

出版者

日本スポーツ産業学会

雑誌

スポーツ産業学研究 (ISSN:13430688)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.21, no.2, pp.263-273, 2011 (Released:2011-11-23)

参考文献数

49

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This paper presents a comparative institutional analysis of the endogenous and self-enforcing system of “Japanese company sports” and examines the characteristics of the design and problems of its transitions. The remarkable feature of the institutional design of Japanese company sports in the sports domain is the “institutional complementarity” with Japanese-style employment practices in the company domain, mediated by the company athletes who play games simultaneously as athletes in sport domain and as employees in the company domain. Such institutional interdependencies between two different domains also provide managerial resources to the National Sports Federation or top-league organization and greatly affect its institutional design. Thus, we can understand the company sports as an endogenous and self-enforcing equilibrium outcome of the game in both domains.    Because of this institutional complementarity, Japanese company sports can’ t be easily changed, according to what is known in Comparative Institutional Analysis as the “inertia” . For example, it is difficult to dismiss an employee who is a company athlete under the Japanese-style employment practice. However, in recent years, because of the slow economic growth and decreasing corporate profits, combined with the decreasing merits of Japanese-style employment practices, the benefit of company sports in the context of labor management has decreased significantly. By considering these factors, a transition to an alternative system of professional or community sport is planned. However, one issue involved with this transition is that although company sports bring great benefits, the transition involves risk for the athletes, as they must rebuild their careers in some way. The second issue is that for company sports, which are at the center of company costs, independent management as well as intellectual and personal management resources are not combined. The third issue is the adjustment of complementarity with the existing systems during transition.