Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2013
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

How Major League Baseball Clubs Have Commercialized Their Investment in Japanese Top Stars

By: Isao Okada and Stephen A. Greyser
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:21
ShareBar

Abstract

When a Major League Baseball club signs a Japanese star player, it obviously tries to commercialize its investment in the player. The initial focus is on home attendance (ticket sales) and television audiences, plus merchandise sales. These elements are similar to those considered for any high-performing players. However, for Japanese stars, there is also the potential to attract significant fandom from the local Japanese community. This represents an opportunity for truly incremental local revenue for the team. In addition, teams try to attract revenue from Japan—such as from corporate sponsors, advertising signage at the home field, and visiting Japanese fans traveling to the U.S. to see these stars perform. In addition to treating team efforts at growing local Japanese community support, this paper examines seven factors for success in attracting revenues from Japanese companies and fans: pitcher or position player, player's popularity, non-stop flights from Japan, distance from Japan, non-sport tourist attractions in a city, size of Japanese community in the city and player's and team's performance. The most important factor, however, is the player's talent and popularity in terms of performance in both Japan and the U.S. and his media exposure in Japan including endorsement contracts. In addition, if a MLB club signs a Japanese position star player and is based in a city which is endowed with a variety of non-baseball tourist attractions, this would have a further advantage for the team.

The field-based research reported here is derived largely from analysis of team experiences with five principal Japanese baseball stars—Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Kosuke Fukudome.

The paper's "2013 Reflections" (pp. 15-17) includes analysis of Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers.

Keywords

Commercialization; Sports; Revenue; Sports Industry; Japan; United States

Citation

Okada, Isao, and Stephen A. Greyser. "How Major League Baseball Clubs Have Commercialized Their Investment in Japanese Top Stars." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-029, September 2013.
  • SSRN
  • Read Now

About The Author

Stephen A. Greyser

→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Instructor's Note

    By: Stephen A. Greyser
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Sport Business in the Classroom

    By: Stephen A. Greyser
    • 2021
    • Faculty Research

    MLS as a Sports Product—The Prominence of the World's Game in the U.S.

    By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kenneth Cortsen
More from the Authors
  • Instructor's Note By: Stephen A. Greyser
  • Sport Business in the Classroom By: Stephen A. Greyser
  • MLS as a Sports Product—The Prominence of the World's Game in the U.S. By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kenneth Cortsen
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College