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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Sport provides an effective means of building a positive place brand. By adopting a holistic approach that captures several important dimensions, jurisdictions and brand managers can create an effective strategy that results in various socio-economic benefits for the communities which host sporting events.

The briefing saves busy executives, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how a mega event can be an opportunity for a territory to be developed as a marketing product. The topic is analysed in the pre-event phase, from the point of view of marketing mix and governance.

A qualitative method was adopted with a case study on Monza and Brianza province (northern Italy) which is strongly involved in EXPO2015 initiatives. The triangulation among multiple sources such as documents, interviews and observation, allow for deeper data collection.

A mega event can enhance development and repositioning also of minor territories. There are, however, two main conditions for benefiting from such an opportunity: to plan the marketing mix, taking into account people and partnerships, and to ensure a vision on territory through coordination with a legacy perspective.

This study is not representative or generalizable. However, it gives insights into the mechanism of coordination and collaboration between different stakeholders and on how to plan the Monza and Brianza marketing mixes.

The research has implications for governance mechanisms and for marketing politics both for public and private decision-makers, especially in the pre-mega event phase, but also with some inputs into legacy phase.

The research is original for three reasons: the context concerns Monza and Brianza province, and so can help understand how mega events can help a minor territory reposition itself; the research looks at the managerial implications of place marketing in this pre-event phase; and in Italy, provinces are being reorganized or abolished: this case study looks at a province and its future.

City branding has become a very popular activity all over the globe. In this paper the authors aim to show the importance of sports events in city re‐branding strategies, and how businesses take advantage of such opportunities to increase their incomes.

A new framework is presented that is based on four different alternatives for city re‐branding strategies based on sport events. These four re‐branding strategies are derived from two main dimensions: the locus of the sports event (local vs international) and the longevity of the sports event (one‐off vs continual).

Prospective hosts of mega or international sports events must ensure that people all over the world see their city as a leisure, tourism and consumption center and not just a sports arena. Conversely, when hosting medium or minor sports events, planners must aim for these sport events to increase residents' civic pride.

This conceptual paper demonstrates how city planners and decision makers can leverage their city image and its business sector's potential to earn from this event directly and indirectly, based on the aforesaid four re‐branding strategies: Mega sports events, International sports events, Medium sport events, and Minor sport events.

This article deals with four types of sports event strategies at the same time, whereas other investigations tend to deal with only a single type.

How could a city, a region or a country succeed in its attempt to use sport to (re-)define, position and promote itself? Consequently, what do jurisdictions and brand managers need to consider when using sporting events as a leverage to market themselves abroad? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper draws from a combination of an extensive literature review and secondary data collection in order to build a conceptual framework, entitled the “diamond” of place branding through sport.

Managers and politicians of cities, regions and countries should espouse a holistic approach when developing their place branding strategy through sport. This holistic approach can be articulated around four dimensions: sport, economic, commercial and social.

Drawing mainly from a literature review, with the support of concrete examples, this is a first step within the confines of an exploratory research. A future study could analyze the specific cases of jurisdictions and how these fit within the conceptual framework articulated in this paper.

A place branding strategy through sport should be translated into a socio-economic legacy, with private and public benefits for the community. Ultimately, place branding through sport is one of the components of the overall place branding strategy of a jurisdiction.

Mega-events have been the topic of unprecedented consideration within recent research. Research on the residents' perspectives, however, is still in the infancy stage, yet a key contributor to the overall legacy planning considerations and process. This research investigates resident perceptions toward a mega-event to assist with planning/execution of such events in addition to advancing knowledge within this area.

For this research, an online survey was utilized to reach out to residents in the host city during the mega-event, Solar Eclipse Weekend. Factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to analyze the results.

Using exploratory factor analysis, 305 online surveys were analyzed. Using varimax rotation, factor analysis determined four significant factors: environment, local engagement, tourism support, and infrastructure. Cluster analysis was then conducted identifying three clusters of residents labeled neutralists, supporters and enthusiasts.

The practical implications should be of assistance to professional event planners, city governments and destination marketing organizations. Through utilization of the information provided, community participation should be sought after throughout the planning phase and into the management and execution of large events to best gain resident support.

This research further explored residents' perspectives of a mega-event. While this area of research has been noted in strategic approaches to planning, managing and executing mega-events, the research on stakeholders (such as residents') perspectives is still in the infancy stage. This research contributes to advancing industry planning approaches and strategic execution, in addition to advancing academic knowledge within this area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine specific stressors present in mega‐event work and the coping strategies used by long‐term mega‐event employees.

Using a general inductive approach to analyze the data and identify themes, semi‐structured interviews with six employees from organizing committees of subsequent National Football League (NFL) Super Bowls, and four employees from the Special Olympics in Greece helped to assess the presence of specific stressors and the corresponding coping strategies.

Patterns relating to the specific stressors (i.e. workload, time pressure, role stressors, job insecurity and work‐family conflict) and several themes emerged across all stressors including the selflessness of the participants in making personal sacrifices due to work demands. A sense of time and place emerged since the participants were cognizant of their role in a prestigious event. Time was also relevant as the end‐date approached which was simultaneously a source of stress and the date when their stress would be over. For most, the period after this end‐date was marked by a sense of sadness and a desire to repeat the experience. Finally, the career paths of the participants appeared to influence their actions and coping strategies.

Work in mega‐event organizing committees has not been examined from a stress and coping perspective; this study is the first to examine issues in this unique work setting by applying stress theory. Moreover, the findings suggest that organizing committee employees appraise and cope with stress differently than in more traditional contexts.

This study extends the event leverage model and applies the community development theory to explore how event managers can leverage recurring, non-mega sporting events for sustainable socio-economic development.

The authors conduct a survey comprising 6 semi-structured interviews by targeting recurring participatory events in Japan with an average 37.7 years of history.

The model highlights the strategic objectives (community needs) for socio-economic community development by attracting tourists during both event and event-free periods. Social development comprises three factors: social capital, sport participation and health promotion. Economic development comprises two factors: event revenue and tourism revenue. To achieve strategic objectives, the uniqueness of the event, good relationships with the media and locals, a platform to enjoy the local culture and sport event infrastructure are identified as means (community assets). Furthermore, locals and media are added to the model as key stakeholders, an additional category of the event leverage model.

Event managers need to make efforts to identify local resources and should optimize the event to attract participants and tourists for socio-economic development. In particular, local experience, local products, local culture and good relationship with locals could be key resources to produce sustainable benefits for the local city. The proposed model adding locals and media as key stakeholders could be useful for other similar contexts/future events aimed at socio-economic benefits for community development.

The proposed model extends the theoretical explanations in the literature on leveraging strategies through events to the perspective of the community development theory. Specifically, this study sheds light on community needs and assets for community development in the context of recurring non-mega sporting events.

This paper aims to verify the brand image effects of holding a sport mega-event by investigating the host city's influence on the country's branding, as a tourist destination.

This research considered the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and uses quantitative methods: exploratory factor analysis and regression. Data were collected by structured questionnaires with a sample of (n = 274) international respondents with high international travel experience.

Rio de Janeiro's 2016 host city image positively predicted Brazil's tourist destination image. Both cognitive and affective image dimensions of Rio as a host city predicted Brazil's destination image, but the cognitive image dimensions demonstrated more impact.

Even in a mega-event context, city marketing strategies should be planned and executed with a focus on the country's destination image.

The study contributes by focusing on presenting the importance of the host city image dimensions to the host country destination image in a sports mega-event context. The study investigated a new approach, the impacts of affective and cognitive dimensions in the overall destination image considering two connected destinations and the hosting of a sport mega-event, a condition not found in the literature thus far.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of volunteer's motivation at major sporting events, how those affect future voluntary engagement, and whether there are differences in motivation based on the type of event.

A quantitative research design was chosen and volunteers at two major events in handball (n=96) and equestrian (n=83) were surveyed. Structural equation modelling was used based on a multi‐group analysis to answer the guiding research questions.

The results reveal that the expression of values and personal growth are the strongest factors influencing volunteer motivation and future behaviour. The factor “love of sport” had surprisingly no major effect on volunteer motivation at the handball event. Significant differences in volunteer motivation based on the type of event were detected.

A limitation of this study is the rather small sample sizes. Nonetheless, the results appear reliable. One implication of this research is that a model proposed in previous research to investigate volunteer motivation at mega sport events can be applied to major sport events and the multi‐group approach is useful when analysing different events.

Practitioners should try to find a good match between the interests and abilities of the volunteers and their tasks at the event, which includes their motivations.

The value of this research lies in applying a new methodological approach using multi‐group analysis to volunteer research.

This study investigated the influence of residents' perceived benefits and costs of hosting an international sporting event (i.e. 2019 Military World Games) on their attitudes and support toward the event.

Using social exchange theory, this study developed a model taking into consideration both benefits and costs in respondents' evaluations of hosting an event, which further influenced their attitude and support. A structural equation model was used to test the developed model with 461 responses from the 2019 Military World Games.

The results showed that the model has an acceptable fit to the data and supported all three hypotheses: Hypothesis 1 (Individuals' perceived benefits of hosting an event will positively influence their attitude toward the event), Hypothesis 2 (Individuals' perceived costs of hosting an event will negatively influence their attitude toward the event) and Hypothesis 3 (Individuals' attitude toward an event will influence their support for the event).

The developed model intended to provide a more comprehensive picture of individuals' evaluation of hosting an international sporting event by including both benefits and costs of hosting the event. As the support of residents becomes more important in successfully hosting an event, this model helps to understand what factors influence residents' support.