Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage: On the strategic similarities between Maccabi Tel Aviv BC and FC Bayern München

This paper investigates the sources of the competitive advantage of sport clubs in the business environment. The analysis uses the Resource-Based View (RBV) as a model for identifying significant resources that clubs employ in their effort to gain and sustain competitive advantage. Using two historical case examples, the Israeli basketball club of Maccabi Tel Aviv and the German soccer club of Bayern Munich, we identify the strategic resources which, in addition to other factors, contributed to the success of these clubs. The findings suggest that there are interesting similarities between the clubs. For example, despite the fact that the clubs are from different sport branches and different countries, the main source of the success of both has been excellent management teams that displayed insight as well as the ability to exploit significant historical events. The paper also contributes business and strategic dimensions to the field of sport management, and provides some revealing insights into the behavior of managers of sport clubs.