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The purpose of this paper is to assess the institutional mechanisms for combating doping in high-level sport, including the trend toward using legalistic frameworks, and how they contribute to notions of deviance.

A historical approach informed by recent criminological adaptations of genealogy was utilized, using primary and secondary sources.

Three time periods involving distinct frameworks for combating doping were identified, each with their own advantages and limitations: pre-1967, post-1967 up until the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999, and post-1999.

This study contextualizes the recent legalistic turn toward combating doping in sport, bringing greater understanding to the limitations of present anti-doping practices.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the functioning of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an organisation that is coordinated by national governments and private sporting organisations to fight doping in sport. Drawing on official WADA documents and one of the authors’ first-hand knowledge of WADA’s workings, we begin by presenting the agency’s objectives, its joint Olympic Movement-public authorities governance structure, its stakeholders and its more important procedures. WADA is currently facing a number of challenges it must overcome if it is to ensure effective cooperation between governments and the sports movement and continue leading the fight against doping. We next briefly examine these challenges, which affect four main issues: athlete testing, compliancy by anti-doping stakeholders, governance structures and the agency funding. We conclude our analysis by suggesting possible ways of addressing these issues, drawn up in light of semi-directive interviews carried out in September 2016 with two senior representatives of WADA, two UNESCO representatives responsible for cooperation with WADA and two experts in national and international doping legislation. These data were complemented by discussions with stakeholders attending the three-day symposium held by WADA in Lausanne in March 2017. The conclusion stresses the need for WADA to restore public and government confidence in its work, 17 years after it was created.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) through the theoretical framework of meta-organizations that focusses on organizations that are themselves made up of organizations.

The data are drawn from a unique case study based on interviews with WADA experts and documentary analysis.

The authors analyzed WADA through the organizational and strategic dimensions of meta-organizations, which are themselves each defined by two criteria: the mission and scope of the organization vs the hierarchical stratification and decision-making process. The findings suggest that the WADA can be examined through the lens of meta-organizational theory. The criterion of consensus in the decision-making process has already been put forward by scholars, but it needs to be nuanced in the study since it is not the only process used by WADA in its decision-making.

The paper enhances the understanding of a specific international sports organization at the heart of current major sports issues and enriches the literature on meta-organizational theory, which is a relatively recent development. A next step is a longitudinal study, focussing on the decision-making process and the evolution of a meta-organization over time.

While the meta-organization has been considered recently in the management literature, this paper seeks to advance the discussion by linking it to the international sports field to gain more insight into its complexity.

This chapter focuses on what we know about the intersections of gender, doping and sport and addresses the history, complexities and nuances of how gender impacts perceptions of and research on doping in sport. After establishing briefly what the physiology, psychology, media studies and sociology literature demonstrates with respect to the intersection of doping and gender, this chapter addresses how and why gender was neglected in the creation of anti-doping policies. The lack of thought toward gender in the creation of the current anti-doping system, combined with the conflation of drug testing and sex testing issues by the International Olympic Committee's medical commission in the 1960s, has led to persistent gender stereotypes associated with anti-doping rule violations. As a result, unintended overlap between sex testing and drug testing continues, with implications for the eligibility of intersex and transgender athletes.

The study aims to identify critical factors that influence football fans’ support of their favorite team by examining the impact of social responsibility, brand credibility and team brand equity on patronage intentions of professional football teams.

An online survey collected data from 331 football fans of the Persian Gulf Premier League (PGPL) in Iran. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings revealed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is able to influence brand equity, brand credibility and patronage intentions. Also, brand equity and brand credibility were found to be positively related to patronage intentions. In addition to that, the findings show that brand equity and team credibility partially mediate the relationship between CSR and patronage intentions.

The findings provide valuable insights to sports teams/club managers aiming to attract new fans and retain current ones by investing in CSR and enhancing brand credibility and equity. Strategies to integrate CSR into relationship marketing and brand management are outlined.

This study empirically highlights the critical role of adhering to CSR and the effects of brand credibility and equity in enhancing patronage intentions among football team fans.

The subject of CSR is nowadays widely discussed, as is its relevance to the sport entertainment industry. The objective of this research was to investigate corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions in the professional European football league and its impact on clubs’ brand image.

The first part of this research discusses some particular points of the world's biggest sport entertainment, which is soccer. Then a definition of the meaning of CSR for this particular sector will be outlined. The CSR values adopted by sport clubs are observed in first division football in France. This approach has been combined with brand theories.

The specific research protocol evaluates consumers’ perceptions. The method which is developed measures and analyses the impact of CSR commitment on spectators’ brand perception. In linking CSR to brand image, two managerial viewpoints are discussed. CSR is synonymous with a company's social and ethical commitment. Brand theories outline the nature of brand equity. The authors apply these two complementary considerations to professional football clubs and argue that Keller's model of customer‐based brand equity has to be reconsidered for football clubs.

This research highlights that CSR has to become part of management strategies.

The authors draw attention to the argument that the professional sport entertainment industry requires a specific CSR management strategy which goes beyond the local level or the operational level of one single club. These clubs have to perform well in competition. But, as in no other industry, they have also to be “good” brands.

Esports has been emerging as a multi-billion dollar industry by attracting players, viewers, advertisers and investors across the globe. Even though there are plenty of professional titles present, only a few have been considered mainstream due to lack of formal governance mechanisms, presence of corruption and cheating mechanisms. “Doping” is one such practice where the players try to gain unfair advantage over their competitors, causing major hindrance in esports development. This qualitative study would draw insights from their perceptions about different doping mechanisms and possible recommendations to curb them.

This study has analyzed the semi-structured interviews of selected esports professionals to draw insights from their perceptions about different doping mechanisms and possible recommendations to curb them. This qualitative study would explore the content of their interviews for extracting relevant themes and subthemes.

The findings of this study have made significant contributions to deeply lacking literature about the esports industry and barriers it faces in order to be considered as a legitimate sport. The study has extracted contemporary and new emerging themes about the rising trends in the industry and their impact on society and the way we see sports as a whole. Moreover, this study dwells upon the rampant drug abuse persisting in this industry and how it offers itself as a barrier to the legitimization of esports as a viable global industry.

This study provides an on-ground reality reports on esports and various malpractices rampant in the industry by conducting interviews with various industry professionals and analyzing them through a thematic analysis method using an inductive approach.