Major Papers

Keywords

strategic adaptation, environmental change, sports and entertainment, world wrestling entertainment, board of governance, key leadership

Abstract

This paper addresses the strategic and environmental adaptation of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the undisputed leader in the professional wrestling and sports entertainment industry. With over three decades of dominance, the WWE surpassed $1 billion in revenues and continues to produce live content in new ways, which successfully increased audience interaction and engagement. As the WWE continued to adapt its business to the changing media environment during the global pandemic of COVID-19, it completed an important agreement to license its WWE Network content to Peacock. The agreement is expected to expand the reach of its brands and enhance the value of its content. Despite these achievements, the company must address key issues. They coalesce in the need to develop a business model to reach its targets better than its competitors, and to improve current business practices to support future growth opportunities. This paper addresses the key issues prevalent in WWE today and proposes viable recommendations, such as the implementation of audits by management to help mitigate or prevent the issue of gender wage-gap, the pursuit of mergers and acquisitions with its competitors, and the engagement of its fans in the metaverse to develop a novel Story Mode Initiative. Finally, key recommendations for further research and a summary of the main contributions are provided.

Primary Advisor

Dr. Gerry Kerr

Program Reader

Dr. Dave Bussière

Degree Name

Master of Business Administration

Department

Business Administration

Document Type

Major Research Paper

Convocation Year

2022

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