The real legacy of London 2012: a healthy, vibrant and maturing sport business research culture

Citation

(2013), "The real legacy of London 2012: a healthy, vibrant and maturing sport business research culture", Sport, Business and Management, Vol. 3 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm.2013.51203aaa.001

The real legacy of London 2012: a healthy, vibrant and maturing sport business research culture

Article Type: Editorial From: Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1.

Back on 6th July 2005, I was attending the British Academy of Marketing's annual conference in Dublin. This was an especially important conference as I had recently formed the Academy's Sport Marketing Special Interest Group, which met for the first time during the conference. It was therefore entirely predictable that the small number of us presenting sport papers at the conference would be particularly interested in news emerging from Singapore. This is where the International Olympic Committee was meeting ahead of its announcement about which city would host the 2012 Summer Games.

As we now know, following the Singapore vote London won the right to stage the Games; this immediately raised the prospect for many sport business and management researchers (at that time, a relatively small number of people) of opportunities and challenges to extend existing research while engaging in new areas of research. Nowhere were the challenges, both for practitioners and researchers, of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games more resonantly demonstrated than on the 7th July 2005, when several bomb attacks took place in London. These posed some immediate questions about security management, risk management, crowd safety, transport management and event management in general.

Adding a certain sense to these issues, the failure of the security company G4S to completely fulfil its contractual obligations to London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) caused a degree of concern in the run-up to the Games. It was a test of the organisers project planning and management that they had contingencies in place (deployment of the army) to deal with such eventualities. For researchers in these and related fields, the Olympic and Paralympic Games thus presented a multiplicity of opportunities for engaging in research in a unique, highly distinctive context. That said, while some may have conceived of London's 2012 legacies in sporting terms, there are clearly broader impacts for industry in general.

Ahead of the Games, Bloomberg Business Week (2012) reported on several research projects being carried out by leading business schools in Britain. This type of coverage is to be commended, indeed encouraged, but it represents only a fraction of the range of potential projects and institutions that one hopes will become part of London 2012's ultimate legacy. The legacy itself constitutes an important focus for potential research activity, ranging from its conception, management and measurement. For economic impact researchers, there are obvious issues; but London 2012 poses some more interesting and much broader questions about the organisation and management of strategy in relation to securing legacy. If Britain is to deliver on its vision to “Inspire a Generation”, then social, cultural and health impacts will also need to be considered by sport business and management researchers.

Unusually for a major sporting event, there were no obvious or major problems in delivering the venues and facilities necessary for successful staging of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This demonstrates the competence with which LOCOG and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) project managed the Games, a point acknowledged by commentators in their immediate aftermath. Indeed, the consensus seemed to be that the Olympics had been a showcase for Britain's international comparative advantage in delivering events, project managing and generating creative solutions to problems. For researchers, these areas alone are worthy and in need of further exploration, something one hopes will emerge in the coming years.

Another notable feature of the Games was the volunteer programme that London had put together. With volunteers being labelled as “Games Makers”, these people were widely acknowledged as being the heart and soul of the Games, all of them freely giving their time to ensure the Olympics and Paralympics were a success. Recruiting and selecting these people was an important first challenge in the process of delivering the Games. Thereafter, training the “Games Makers” in the roles to which they were appointed, while ensuring that consistent standards of quality and experience were delivered across all of the Olympic venues. At the same time, it is worth remembering that these people were not remunerated in any way; indeed, in many cases, volunteers paid their own costs in order to be part of the Games experience. There are so many issues which the volunteer programme raises, not least in the area of human resource management. Yet this is one aspect alone of London 2012, and provides a wide range of opportunities for academic and applied management researchers alike to utilise the Olympics as a focus for their work.

One could continue with this deconstruction of the Games as a focus for sport, business and management research activity, the possibilities are endless: for example, the organisation and management of public/private partnerships, issues in supply-chain management, customer experience management, sponsorship and ambush marketing and ticketing strategies all deserve further analysis and discussion. While one hopes that the London Games succeed in delivering the promise of their tag-line, of “Inspiring a Generation”, and of promoting sports participation and improving public health, it is also to be hoped that there will be an intellectual, academic and research legacy. If there is, then this journal aims to be at the forefront of helping facilitate delivery of this legacy by inspiring a generation of sport business management researchers.

A note on the contents of this issue

In the first paper appearing in this issue, Rowley and Kahuni examine corporate branding relationships in sport using the example of the Toyota F1 team. The paper explores the corporate brand-web associated with the Toyota F1 team in order to exemplify existing theoretical discussions of the brand-web concept and contribute to insights towards developing understanding of the structure of the corporate brand-web and brand relationships. The study utilises a case study approach, focusing on brand relationships associated with different levels of sponsorship. The subsequent presentation of a corporate brand-web highlights how a portfolio of corporate brands and their relationships can be regarded as a corporate brand meta-architecture. The study also provides a taxonomy of different types of sponsorship-based brand relationships, and identifies and discusses two key aspects of the relationships between brands, title sponsorship and network relationships between the corporate brands in the brand-web. Rowley and Kahuni's study contributes to understanding of the corporate brand-web and brand relationships in the sponsorship context and demonstrates the complexity of multiple brand relationships, and the need for researchers and practitioners to understand and manage their corporate brand architecture.

The second paper, by Wilson, Ramachandi and Plumley examines the relationship between ownership structure and club performance in the English Premier League. To begin with, the study explores the relationship between the financial and sporting performance of clubs competing in the English Premier League (EPL). It moves on to present an investigation of the effects that different models of EPL club ownership have on financial and league performance. The paper then reviews the finances of EPL clubs in the context of UEFA's forthcoming Financial Fair Play regulations. The paper utilises financial data from annual reports for the period 2001-2010, which were collected from 20 EPL clubs. Correlation analysis is used to examine the relationship between the finances of EPL clubs and their league position. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests are then used to examine the effect of ownership type on clubs’ financial and league performances. Where the results of ANOVA testing revealed statistically significant differences between groups, these have been investigated further using appropriate post hoc procedures. The study finds that the stock market model of ownership returns better financial health relative to privately owned (domestic and foreign) clubs. However, clubs owned privately by foreign investors or on the stock market performed better in the league in comparison with domestically owned clubs. The stock market model is more likely to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations. Hence, the paper confirms for the first time that clubs that float on the stock market are in better financial health and that clubs in pursuit of short-term sporting excellence are reliant on substantial investment, in this case from foreign investors. The paper offers a greater insight into the financial characteristics of profit maximisers against utility maximisers.

In the third paper, Corsten uses golf's Annika Sörenstam as the focus for an analysis hybrid personal sports brands. The paper investigates sports branding at a personal level by focusing on the evolution, growth and sustainability of the ANNIKA brand – an extension of Annika Sörenstam's success on golf courses worldwide. Using a qualitative case study approach inspired by “symbolic interactionist”, the paper considers Annika Sörenstam's commercial success with personal sports branding and its interdependence with sports branding at the product and corporate levels. Data collection is carried out in accordance with interpretative research traditions and hence based on qualitative semi-structured research interviews. The study finds that the “hybrid” nature of sports brands draws highly on “emotional capital” and “social currency”. Personal sports branding acts as a “hybrid”, which facilitates “hybrid” branding relationships between personal sports brands and sports brands at the product and corporate levels – often underlining good ROIs for all involved parties if the sports branding process is executed well strategically. As such, the paper demonstrates how the practices and activities of the ANNIKA brand can be a showcase for sports branding practitioners thinking about sustainable business models. The paper is therefore unique in that the way that it provides a roadmap illustrating how sport stars may approach brand development and growth while discussing key points of the interdependence between sports brands at the personal, product and corporate levels.

Buff compares the actual self-concept with the ideal self-concept in her paper: “An examination of image congruence and consumers in the health club industry”. The paper investigates the extent to which actual and ideal self-congruities (image) are associated with health club patronage, a conspicuous consumption situation. Previous studies that have examined the applicability of the image congruence hypothesis to consumer behaviour have scarcely examined its effect in the services industry. An integrative model of self-concept, self-congruity and health club image thus provides the foundation for hypothesis development in Buff's paper. A survey-based methodology has been employed, with paper-and-pencil surveys administered on-site at several local health clubs. An online version of the questionnaire was made available to college students. The study finds that consumers’ actual self-image, rather than ideal self-image, is more strongly associated with their perception of their health club's brand image and, thus, served as a stronger indicator of health club patronage. The implication of this study is that health club members appear to exhibit a greater tendency to match the image they currently held of themselves with the brand image of their patronised health club. Buff thus asserts that health clubs would do well to develop and promote a brand image that is aligned more closely with members’ actual self-images rather than attempting to develop a brand image that correlates more strongly to members’ idealised self-images.

In the final paper appearing in this issue, Richelieu reports on how sports teams and equipment manufacturers strategically leverage co-branding opportunities on an international basis. Richelieu analyses how co-branding may act as leverage for both teams and equipment manufacturers in their internationalisation endeavours. Four cases are studied: Paris Saint-Germain and Nike, Olympique de Marseille and Adidas, Olympique Lyonnais and Umbro and the French National Football team and Adidas. Such an analysis helps in answering four questions:

1. 1.

   What are the gains/benefits for sports teams and equipment manufacturers when they follow a co-branding strategy?

2. 2.

   How does co-branding complement or contradict other initiatives sports teams and equipment manufacturers might follow in order to internationalise?

3. 3.

   What factors stimulate the internationalisation of sports teams and equipment manufacturers when engaging in a co-branding strategy?

4. 4.

   What are the possible side effects of a co-branding strategy for sports teams and equipment manufacturers in their internationalisation activities?

The study provides answers to these questions and concludes by providing appropriate recommendations to practitioners.

Reference

Bloomberg Business Week (2012), “The B-school Olympics”, available at: www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-18/the-b-school-olympics (accessed 12 October)