Using a Sport Event to Create a Sense of Community: Charity Sport Event Manager Perspectives

Abstract

Charity sport events not only involve completing the activity, but also the opportunity to bring people together. A variety of research has examined charity sport events' capacity to foster a sense of community from the participant point of view. The current research examines sense of community within charity sport events from the event management perspective and advances the following research question: What do charity sport event managers feel they have put in place to create sense of community among participants? To address this research question, qualitative data were collected via interviews with 15 charity sport event managers in Japan. An interview guide comprised of six demographic questions, along with nine questions based upon the sense of community in sport framework was utilized. Five themes were identified within the interviews: charitable contribution, soliciting feedback from participants, interactive event environment, supplementary activities, and lack of competition. Two themes from the sense of community in sport framework that did not emerge across the interviews underscore opportunity for event managers to leverage mobile applications and online discussion forums to engage participant's shared interest in sport, as well as enlist leaders among event participants to serve as advocates. Based on the current results, future research can include managers from the designated charities aligned with events to assess whether the sense of community created within these events leads to long-term benefits for the organization.

Defining the Field of Events

“…High costs for hosting these events can create higher risk (Rojas-Mendez et al, 2019). Smaller or local events often represent a social and economic contribution to a local cause or community (Daigo & Filo, 2020).…”

When the gift is halfhearted: A socio-cultural study of ambivalence in a charity sport event

“…Second, only limited attention has been given to the cultural context within which CSEs take place (Daigo and Filo, 2020). Socio-cultural differences may exist in the motivations for and barriers to CSE participation (Bennett et al, 2007).…”

“…Whereas much is known about the motivations for taking part in CSEs in Anglo cultures (USA, Canada, Australia and England), more research is needed about CSEs in non-Anglo cultures. We build on the nascent studies of CSEs in non-Anglo cultures – for example, in Japan (Daigo and Filo, 2020) and in Spain (Naudi et al, 2019) – to shed light on the phenomenon in Israel. We next review the literatures on reluctance and mixed feelings about philanthropic giving and the philanthropic field in Israel.…”

“…CSEs are popular and deeply rooted practices in Anglo countries, including North America, UK and Australia (Filo et al, 2020). Only recently have studies started to explore the phenomenon outside the Anglo context and cultures, in places such as Japan (Daigo and Filo, 2020) and Spain (Naudi et al, 2019). We wish to join this recent thread of research, to focus on CSEs in Israel, as a country where CSEs are nascent and relatively scarce.…”

“…Our exploration starts with the premise that philanthropic behaviors, CSE philanthropy and the motivations for these behaviors should be viewed through a cultural lens (Bekkers and Wiepking, 2011; Drezner and Garvey, 2016). Cultural sensitivity is a source of variation in motivations for CSE participation across societies and contexts (Bunds et al, 2016; Coghlan, 2012; Daigo and Filo, 2020; Funk and Bruun, 2007; Naudi et al, 2019). Accordingly, we set out to explore a charity sports event in Israel, which is culturally different from Anglo countries, both socially (Bloch, 2003) and with respect to its philanthropic giving practices (Katz and Greenspan, 2015).…”