Wage dispersion and sports performance: does gender matter?

Abstract

Purpose

Previous studies focused predominantly on wage dispersion within men’ sports teams. This study aims to reveal how the relationship between wage dispersion and team performance applies for women’s sport.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample comprises 168 observations of four consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) regular seasons (2018–2021). Eight econometric models are performed for comparing the leagues.

Findings

The findings indicate that the wage dispersion within the squads affects the women’s and men’s basketball teams differently. Cohesiveness theory is applicable for WNBA teams, while NBA teams follow the tournament theory.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper which inspects the relationship between wage dispersion and team performance using data from women’s sports. Further research may examine whether the differences found in sports also apply in different labor markets.

Citation

Arutiunova, M. and Gasparetto, T. (2023), "Wage dispersion and sports performance: does gender matter?", Gender in Management, Vol. 38 No. 8, pp. 1153-1171. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-10-2022-0341