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This paper aims to discuss the importance of reconsidering the business model in the organizations, to ensure success over time. The paper lies on the analysis and development of the strategies of ten “Società” Canottieri’ – multi-sports clubs in Northern Italy.

The strategies of these clubs have been studied via detailed interviews, as well as data and document analysis. Subsequently, two workshops with the management of the clubs were carried out, to collect evidence of the challenges to their sustainability and to identify possible strategies to overcome these challenges.

Drawing on Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas framework and Demil et Lecocq’s approach to business model (a Penrosian approach about the on-going dimension of change as a permanent state of organization), the paper describes how recently emerging issues (external and internal changes) have challenged the traditional business model of these clubs. Finally, authors identify specific actions necessary to (re)create a new value proposition and to modify the sports clubs’ organization in the future, to assure sustainability and success.

Currently, business model analysis within contexts of (apparent) no economic value creation still remains a relatively unexplored field. The paper describes an effective methodology to implement the business model analysis into a group of independent non-profit organizations. To implement this analysis, the authors adopted the model of Business Model Canvas, but using a transformational and dynamic approach.

This chapter focusses on entrepreneurship and policies of public services in England, specifically leisure centre provision in the UK during the late twentieth century. The central role played by local authorities in sport provision was complimented by an increasing cadre of leisure sector professionals and with increasing architectural interest in the provision of leisure. The institutional context was framed by the Sports Development Council (SDC) after 1965 together with the broader action of local authorities who aimed to provide their ratepayers with access to improved sport and leisure services. The resulting leisure centres were perhaps a way to signal the prestige of local authorities but were expensive investments. The capability of local authorities was boosted by the local government reforms of the 1970s, which merged districts, pooling their resources. The possibility of support from private capital and after 1973 from the European Economic Community (EEC) also provided new opportunities for the organizational form. Eventually, there was a shift in emphasis from the provision of organized sport to that of more individualized and commercialized “leisure” as a product. Whether or not this achieved the long-term aims of central government, to improve access to sport and to tackle urban challenges, remains questionable. However, the story of leisure provision in the UK remains one of remarkable public sector entrepreneurship within an institutional context.

The Positive Mental Attitude Sports Foundation Trust (PMASFT) is a community interest company that uses sport as a therapeutic tool to support the recovery and social inclusion of people living with enduring mental health issues. Many of the people that have been part of the initiative have a dual diagnosis. Through community football and multi‐sports mental health leagues, the PMASFT seeks to engage participants in meaningful activity, build their confidence, support the development of life skills and healthy living, improve physical health and promote education, training and employment opportunities. The PMASFT also provides accredited courses, including mental health sports coaching and refereeing courses, and courses on how to set up a mental health sports club. Participants are encouraged to get involved in the running of their club. Through this approach the PMASFT develops a sustainable working partnership with health and social care organisations, local authorities and other community services. This paper describes how the PMASFT came into being and highlights some of its achievements.

Given the increasing demands placed on a sport event workforce in servicing the needs of spectators, to attract and recruit volunteers to the industry, it is important for sport event managers to know what is driving how much time volunteers allocate to an event. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the individual and macro-level factors influencing the allocation of time to volunteer at sport events.

Survey data were collected from volunteers at 25 sport events (n=2,303). Multi-level modelling was used to identify common effects controlling for event differences.

Male gender significantly influences time allocated to an event at the individual level. At the macro-level, the number of local inhabitants has a significant negative effect whereas the status of an international event and duration contribute positively to time allocation.

The results provide clear evidence that macro-level variables can stimulate interest in event volunteering opportunities.

This paper uses a multi-level approach to assess the influence of micro- and macro-level variables on time allocation by sport event volunteers. Using this approach, event heterogeneity can be controlled.

In a major multi-sport event, the athlete is both a benefactor and producer of organizational activities. Athletes’ centrality makes understanding their satisfaction with the event an important management activity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the lived athletes experience (during the event), so as to provide insight into the important Games facets contributing to their satisfaction and to explore the controllable aspects of the event from an organizer’s perspective that athletes felt made the Games special and memorable.

A multi-dimensional instrument (i.e. Athlete Experience Questionnaire) was designed and tested at previous iterations of a major multi-sport event and was employed during Games-time. In total, 813 athletes completed the questionnaire during the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

The findings demonstrated an overall high level of satisfaction with the event. Several important facets contributed to athlete satisfaction including social-, service- and communication-related aspects. Further, athletes reported on the importance of cultural opportunities within their Games experience.

The paper denotes the importance of the social and cultural interactions and opportunities which lie outside the athletes’ actual competition experience and increase their specialness of the event. Theoretical and practical implications are drawn from the findings relative to the service-dominant logic and service-quality literature within a major multi-sport event Games for the athlete stakeholder.

This paper explores how athletes experience the major international multi-sport event environment. Moreover, this paper offers a significant contribution from a hard-to-reach population (i.e. elite-level international athletes), adopts their perspective of the Games environment and determines what contributes to their satisfaction. As the authors highlight, the paper denotes the importance of the planned social and cultural interactions and opportunities, which lie outside the athlete’s actual competition event experience, to increase athlete satisfaction; in contrast, basic sport competition needs seem to be a “basic” expectation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the increasing commercialisation of professional football in France, and its implications for clubs’ governance and management.

A historical analysis using a narrative approach based on historical data from various sources, will allow for identifying the emergence of and shifts in institutional logics. Due to the role of the state in the subject in question, particular attention was paid to parliamentary documents.

Rather than replacing the former logic, a new commercial logic coexists alongside this, leading to institutional pluralism.

The paper outlines the governance implications of institutional pluralism of football clubs; thus opening up new perspectives for future research on clubs’ governance. It does not, however, provide a response to these implications and therefore further research is needed to analyse how clubs’ managers can shape organisational identity and make it more consistent.

Governance and management issues in football might be explained by the multiple logics clubs are facing. Football clubs’ managers thus need to take these logics into account when addressing their key stakeholders, and have to work on shaping a consistent organisational identity.

This article is original in that it analyses the commercialisation of football as a move towards a more complex institutional pluralism, rather than a change in the dominant logic. This perspective is valuable for managers because it helps them to identify the levers they should work on to better manage clubs’ stakeholders. It is also useful for academics in terms of opening up new ways to conceive clubs’ governance.

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.