Strategy at Every Corner!

In chapter six, Paul Vlaar, Shelly Graney, Maartje van der Helm, Mark Maass and Bert Flier attempt to explain how momentum is being created, maintained and regained in sports teams. The notion of momentum has evolved and spread into fields as distinct as physics, financial markets, warfare and sports. In this case, it is used to explore how sports teams bend a low classification at the end of one season into winning the championship in the following season.

The authors present an in-depth, inductive case study of an American baseball team – the Minnesota Twins – which ended last in its league in the 1990 season only to claim the World Series title in the 1991 season. Building on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 1001 newspaper articles, published between March 16th  and October 21st  1991, they offer unique insights into the emergence of momentum and its relationship with intermediate and final performance outcomes.

The unique data enable the authors to emphasize the dynamic, process-based nature of momentum, and to disentangle the construct from other related constructs, such as performance. Corresponding to the central conceptual framework presented in this introductory chapter, their findings suggest that momentum is affected by motivational (e.g. drive, enthusiasm, passion), capability-related (e.g. collective capabilities, work ethics and efforts exerted at trainings) and cognitive factors (e.g. belief in self, self awareness, self criticism, and corrective action).