Leveraging strategies of recurring non-mega sporting events for host community development: a multiple-case study approach

Abstract

PurposeThis study extends the event leverage model and applies the community development theory to explore how event managers can leverage recurring, non-mega sporting events for sustainable socio-economic development.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a survey comprising 6 semi-structured interviews by targeting recurring participatory events in Japan with an average 37.7 years of history.FindingsThe model highlights the strategic objectives (community needs) for socio-economic community development by attracting tourists during both event and event-free periods. Social development comprises three factors: social capital, sport participation and health promotion. Economic development comprises two factors: event revenue and tourism revenue. To achieve strategic objectives, the uniqueness of the event, good relationships with the media and locals, a platform to enjoy the local culture and sport event infrastructure are identified as means (community assets). Furthermore, locals and media are added to the model as key stakeholders, an additional category of the event leverage model.Practical implicationsEvent managers need to make efforts to identify local resources and should optimize the event to attract participants and tourists for socio-economic development. In particular, local experience, local products, local culture and good relationship with locals could be key resources to produce sustainable benefits for the local city. The proposed model adding locals and media as key stakeholders could be useful for other similar contexts/future events aimed at socio-economic benefits for community development.Originality/valueThe proposed model extends the theoretical explanations in the literature on leveraging strategies through events to the perspective of the community development theory. Specifically, this study sheds light on community needs and assets for community development in the context of recurring non-mega sporting events.

Assessing community spirit: The psychosocial impact of major sporting events - A case study of the Jakarta e-Prix

“…Furthermore, this study aligns with the theoretical understanding that community enthusiasm and positive perceptions play a crucial role in driving the development of infrastructure to accommodate specific sporting events [28,45]. Ultimately, aligning community enthusiasm with infrastructure development allows key stakeholders to understand how community enthusiasm can drive infrastructure development aimed at socio-economic benefits for the community and ensuring that infrastructure development aligns with the evolving needs of the community and the urban environment [46,47].…”

Strategic environmental leverage of a sport tourism event: Approaching the global challenge locally

“…Strategic planning of actions should ensure that they are attractive for the target audiences through local partnerships (e.g., schools) to maximise benefits for the community. In particular, it is necessary to ensure the presence of sport event media as a key stakeholder in the strategic planning phase of the environmental leverage of the sport event (Oshimi & Yamaguchi, 2023), as well as other key partners capable of promoting the environmental image of the events associated with the sport subculture (e.g., athletes) to enhance the success of environmental leverage.…”

“…This model assumes that environmental leverage actions not only reach individuals present at the events, but also all those involved in the events through the media, considered fundamental stakeholders in the strategic leverage of non-mega sport events (Oshimi & Yamaguchi, 2023). For this reason, the communication of the events should be strategically planned, aiming to inform and, simultaneously, promote environmental action (Trendafilova et al, 2021), through a tailored approach based on the characteristics of the target audiences (Martins et al, 2022;Mascarenhas et al, 2021).…”

Design of New Media Event Warning Method Based on K-means and Seasonal Optimization Algorithm

“…The complete flow of the early warning system is shown in Fig. 1, including information acquisition, preprocessing, text segmentation and mining, text clustering, and model evaluation, in which the timely acquisition of information and the correct selection of clustering algorithms are key [16].…”