Academic Development and Trends in Professional Sport Club Management: A VOSviewer-Based Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the academic literature on professional sport club management through a bibliometric approach to reveal its intellectual structure, collaboration patterns, and thematic development. Bibliographic data were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection and analyzed using the bibliometrix package and Biblioshiny. The analysis includes publication trends, core journals, author productivity, country-level scientific production and collaboration, as well as keyword co-occurrence and thematic mapping. The findings show that the field is increasingly institutionalized, with scientific output concentrated in a limited number of specialized journals, authors, and countries. Research activity and citation impact are largely dominated by Western European and Anglo-Saxon countries, indicating notable global asymmetries. Conceptually, the literature is centered on a managerial–governance core, while market-oriented themes such as commercialization, marketing, digital transformation, and fan engagement emerge as the most developed research areas. Overall, this study provides a concise and systematic overview of professional sport club management research and identifies key trends and research gaps to guide future studies.