Strategic Sustainability Management in the Event Sector

Abstract

Whilst the Triple Bottom Line approach has underpinned significant progress in our knowledge of sustainability in the event sector, scholars have recently criticized this approach for its overemphasis on reporting outcomes and have called for a new conceptualization that accounts for strategic inputs in order to maintain progress towards greater sustainability knowledge and performance. This research utilizes a widely-accepted strategic framework, the Resource-Based View of the Firm, as a lens to gain insight into the inputs of strategic sustainability management in the events sector. Therefore, the research question to be addressed is: what resources and capabilities are associated with best-practice strategic sustainability management in the event sector? In order to address this question, a qualitative content analysis of the websites of ten international music events that have achieved best-practice sustainability accreditation from the Greener Festival Awards organization was conducted. Analysis of the data detected 11 resources and inferred 14 capabilities associated with best-practice strategic sustainability management in the event sector. The data also demonstrated the interrelationships that exist between the sample events' resource deployment and suggests that reputational capital plays a key role (both as a desirable outcome of, but also a critical resource input into) in best-practice sustainability management. Lastly, this paper concludes with a range of research opportunities going forward relating to sustainability management in the event sector.

Contribution of Supportive Local Communities to Sustainable Event Tourism

“…Hence, the community is the main actor in the development process [6]. On the other hand, the concept of com-Sustainability 2021, 13, 7853 2 of 12 munity participation is also seen as a powerful tool to educate the community in rights, laws, and political good sense [2].…”

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Music in business and management studies: a systematic literature review and research agenda

“…Some studies have been devoted to sustainability management to achieve a better understanding of the actual interest of managers in the best practices for fostering the sustainable management of events. For example, Wickham et al ( 2021 ) performed a qualitative analysis of 10 international music events and identified 14 best practices connected to sustainability. Economic sustainability was associated with attracting financial capital, artists, and performers; maintaining permanent management; and the reporting of event-related benefits.…”

Sustainability in the Meetings Industry

“…Sustainability is a relatively new perspective within events management (Turner and Kennell, 2018;Wickham and French, 2020), in particular in business events. It is a concept that is increasingly incorporated into event management and planning (Hall, 2012), and events management education (Millar and Park, 2018).…”