Dr. Ming Li [lim1@ohio.edu]

Dr. Ming Li is the Director of the School of Recreation and Sport Sciences at Ohio University and a Professor in Sports Administration. Before joining the faculty at Ohio University, he taught at Georgia Southern University for eleven years. During those years, he coordinated both the graduate and undergraduate sport management programs. Dr. Li's teaching and research interests are in financial and economic aspects of sport, and international sport management. He received his bachelor's degree in education from the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Culture (PRC), his master's degree in education from Hangzhou University (PRC), and his Doctor of Education from the University of Kansas in Sport Administration. His professional affiliations include: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD), North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), Sport Marketing Association, and International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and Dance (ICHPER.SD). He used to hold offices as Member-at-Large on the Executive Council of NASSM, Chair of the Sport Management Council of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), and Director of the Sport Management and Administration Commission of ICHPER.SD. He was the recipient of the 1999 Taylor Dodson Award given by the Southern District AAHPERD. The award is presented annually to a young professional who has demonstrated strong leadership qualities in the field of health, physical education and dance. Currently, Dr. Li chairs the Diversity Committee of NASSM. Dr. Li has actively participated in the NASPE-NASSM Sport Management Program Review process. He finished his three-year term serving on the Sport Management Program Review Council (SMPRC) in 2001. He has served as a consultant to several institutions in program evaluation and development in sport management. Dr. Li has memberships on the editorial boards of several professional journals, including Journal of Sport Management, International Journal of Sport Management, and Sport Marketing Quarterly. He is currently serving as Assistant Editor for the ICHPER.SD Journal. In 1996, he worked for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) as an Olympic Envoy. The Envoy appointment was awarded as a result of Dr. Li's leadership ability, decision making and communication skills, and ability to work in a multi-cultural environment. For the contribution he made to his profession, the institution, and the community, he was given the 2000-2001 Award for Excellence in Service by Georgia Southern University. Dr. Li has published more than 25 articles in refereed journals, two books (i.e., Economics of Sport and Badminton Everyone), and four book chapters. Presently, he is working on a book project, Research Methods in Sport Management as a lead author. In addition to publications, Dr. Li also made numerous refereed presentations at state, national and international conferences. He is an Honorary Guest Professor of the Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education, Guangzhou, China.

RESEARCH INTEREST

Dr. Li has diverse research interests, which include, but are not limited (a) the trends and issues in the outsourcing of marketing operations in the sport industry, (b) the conceptual structure of the sport industry in the United States, (c) the economic impact of sport events, and (d) research methods in sport management. In this report, only the studies related to the first area of his interest are presented.

To examine the trends and issues of outsourcing marketing operations in the sport industry, he and his colleague, Dr. Willie Burden at Georgia Southern University, have conducted a series of studies with the same focus. The following is a summary of these studies.

In an initial study (2002), they found that more than half of the NCAA Division I-A athletic programs have outsourced some or all of their marketing operations and rights to nationally prominent marketing. To further understand the reasons and motives why those institutions decided to choose the outsourcing option, they conducted a number of follow-up studies. One of the follow-up studies investigated whether or not financial-related variables play an important role in making such a decision (Burden & Li, 2003). Specifically, the study examined such financial-related institutional variables as (a) the overall annual operating budget, (b) the annual operating budget for football, (c) the revenue from football operations, (d) the revenue from men's programs, (e) the revenue from the women's programs, (f) the total expense for men's programs, (g) the total expense for the women's programs, (h) the amount of annual athletic giving received, and (i) the profitability of the athletic program. The results of the study indicated that "athletic programs that have decided to outsource their major marketing rights share three common characteristics. That is, both their annual operating budget and annual operating budget for football are considerably large, and the total expense for men's programs is huge as well" (p. 33).

Another follow-up study they conducted looked at if such variables as institutional control, perceived product attractiveness, and a number of other related variables influenced athletic administrators' outsourcing decisions in NCAA Division I institutions (Li & Burden, 2004). Specifically, four research objectives were established for the study: (a) to examine if the degree of control over the rights to market the athletic properties affects athletic administrators' decisions regarding outsourcing; (b) to examine if the relationship between the athletic department and its local business community affects the athletic administrator's decisions regarding outsourcing; (c) to examine if the athletic administrators' perceptions of the attractiveness of their sports product affects their decisions regarding outsourcing; and (d) to examine if availability of in-house equipment, institutional support and facilities as well as the competency of the athletic marketing staff affects the athletic administrator's decisions regarding outsourcing. The author found that the degree of control over the rights to market the athletic properties by the institution did affect athletic administrators' decisions regarding outsourcing. They also found that the relationship between the athletic department and its local business community did not have an effect on the athletic administrator's decisions regarding outsourcing. Another major finding of the study was that the athletic administrators' perceptions of the attractiveness of their sports product were one of the factors affecting their decisions regarding outsourcing. The last but not the least outcome of the study showed that the competency of marketing staff was a factor influencing the athletic administrator's decisions regarding outsourcing.

A case study was also performed to reveal both the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing as well as the circumstantial factors affecting athletic administrators' outsourcing decisions (Burden & Li, 2005). The study closely reviewed the outsourcing cases with three institutions, Air Force Academy, Standford University and the University of Virginia, to identify their respective motives and circumstantial factors related to outsourcing. The results of the case study indicated that athletics administrators should complete a strategic analysis of their business environments to determine if outsourcing is a good fit for their institutions. Many factors, such as the institution's philosophy, goals, and strategic directions may help the institution determine if outsourcing is a better option over the option of keeping the operations in-house. The results also indicated that the decision of whether or not to outsource in intercollegiate athletics is an evolving process. It was suggested that the circumstances should be carefully reviewed before making an outsourcing decision.

To determine if the same phenomenon also existed in those athletic conferences affiliated with NCAA, they pursued another follow-up study. In that study, they raised these four related questions: How many NCAA athletic conferences have taken the outsourcing option? Are there any differences among conferences at the three different levels of competition (i.e., Division I, Division II and Division III) pertaining to adopting the outsourcing option? Are there any differences in perceived benefits of outsourcing among officials from the conferences at three different levels of competition? And under what circumstances does an athletic conference choose the outsourcing option over in-house operations? The commissioners of all of the athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA or their designees who were responsible for marketing of their conferences were subjects of this study. There were several major findings of the study. First, only little more than one third (37.3%) of the athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA have outsourced part or all of their marketing operations. When the conferences were separated by the levels of competition, a different outlook appears. While many Division I conferences were taking advantage of the outsourcing option, an overwhelming majority of the Division II and Division III conferences have chosen not to do so (i.e., keeping the marketing operations in-house). Second, surprisingly, the perception of the conference officials about the benefits of outsourcing did not influence their decisions of whether or not their conference's marketing operations should be outsourced. Third, four factors, division classification, reference of conference, conference history, and number of staff were significant predictors of whether or not a conference decides to adopt the outsourcing option.

[Edited by Zan Gao]