UK leisure centres under best value: a strategic analysis

Abstract

Purpose - To understand the effects of the best value regime on the public provision of recreation at the level of the leisure centre. Design/methodology/approach - A strategic auditing device is applied to 87 leisure centres to investigate the strategic variables of environmental stability and attractiveness, service strengths and financial resources. The analysis produces a typology of leisure centres, and evaluates the prospects of each type under best value. Findings - The findings suggest that a large number of leisure centres managed by local authorities will make limited headway in implementing best value. What is more, many face problems that will be exacerbated, rather than eased, by current policy. Leisure centres managed by Trusts generally face more benign local environments, which appear to offer greater prospects, but it is clear that Trust status itself offers few advantages outside a greater range of financial sources. Research limitations/implications - The research focuses on strategic choices as they face leisure centre managers. It does not directly explore the strategic and policy decisions made at other levels. Practical implications - The paper argues for subtler recreation policy (and by implication, the provision of public sector services generally) that pays due regard to the local conditions of service providers. Policy that focuses only on general prescription of managerial (and often rhetorical) practices will frequently lead strategies towards satisficing performance indicators that may be arbitrary, rather than focusing on problems and issues as they face professional leisure managers. Originality/value - The use of a formal strategy tool as the level of a service provider is novel, and augments work on hybrid firms facing strategic choices based not only on political factors but also private sector market-oriented competitors. Further, useful comparisons are made between leisure centres managed by Trusts and those still controlled.

Strategic marketing practices as drivers of successful business performance in British, Australian and New Zealand golf clubs

“…For example, Irwin, Zwick, and Sutton's (1999) investigation across 15 professional sport franchises in the USA concentrated more on tactical marketing Á identifying several important tactics rather than practices of a more strategic nature. Moreover, in Britain, the findings of Benson and Henderson's (2005) study of strategic planning in British leisure centres confirmed those of earlier American studies by Boardman and Vining (2000) and Stotlar (2002), namely: that despite articulating a desire for a planned strategic approach, management (mis)perceptions of cost constrained its use. Therefore, within Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the overriding purpose of this research is to investigate both the adoption of strategic marketing practices and their contribution to golf organisation business performance.…”

The effect of management types on the performance of English public sports centres

“…One of the major advantages of trust management is a financial advantage, in terms of both reduced VAT and seeking new capital not available to local authorities (Collins 2009). Local authority operators are prevented from accessing a variety of funding sources open to trusts, and they are constrained by the requirement to make efficiency savings of 2% a year, despite attempting to improve the quality of services to their local citizens (Benson and Henderson 2005). However, many of the trusts formed to manage leisure facilities in the UK do not have significant assets to utilize in the acquisition of capital finance.…”

“…Neither commercial contractors nor trusts have staff employed by local authorities, but operate as independent organizations. Legislative changes, particularly Compulsory Competitive Tendering in the late 1980s, led to a significant minority of local authorities withdrawing from direct management of sports and leisure centres, in favour of commercial contractors or trusts (Benson andHenderson 2005, Collins 2009). …”

A strategic analysis of volunteer tourism organisations

“…The SPACE framework has been used in the literature to analyse a range of industries: biotechnology in the UK (Ranchhod & Henderson, 1995); manufacturing in South Africa (Radder & Iouw, 1998); manufacturing in the UK (Li & Hamblin, 2003); professional football in England (Cross & Henderson, 2003) and leisure centres in the UK (Benson & Henderson, 2005a, 2005b.…”

“…While the original SPACE framework used Likert scales from 0 to 6, previous research in this area (Benson & Henderson, 2005a, 2005b suggested that respondents are not comfortable with scoring 0 for some questions. It was, therefore, decided to use a scale of 1 -7 throughout.…”