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Sport mega-events have received much criticism of late. However, there has been increasing awareness of the brand-related benefits from hosting a sport mega-event, with their hosting being a deliberate policy for many nations, most notably among emerging nations. One such nation is South Africa, which explicitly stated its nation branding ambitions through the staging of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Through this single case, this paper aims to identify the unique characteristics of the sport mega-event that were leveraged for benefits of nation branding.

An interpretivist, qualitative study explored the insights of nation brand stakeholders and experts, elicited using in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 27) undertaken two to three years after the staging of the event.

Three characteristics of the 2010 sport mega-event were deemed by stakeholders to be unique in creating nation branding opportunities: the scale of the event that created opportunities for transformational development; the global appeal, connection and attachment of the event; and the symbolic status of the event that was leveraged for internal brand building and public diplomacy. The paper proposes that while sport mega-events provide nation branding opportunities, the extent of these benefits may vary according to the context of the nation brand with lesser-known, troubled or emerging brands seemingly having the most to gain.

While acknowledging the critique of mega-events, this paper highlights a pertinent example of an emerging nation that leveraged the potential of a sport mega-event for nation branding gains. It extends the understanding of sport mega-events and their potential for nation branding.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main driving factors behind the recent increase in the event market size in Qatar from a public policy perspective. It reports on a case study of the 2006 15th Asian Games that assisted in further examining both the underlying and implicit motives behind the phenomenon as well as its expected policy implications.

This exploratory paper uses a case study approach in which two complementary types of data sources are employed. The qualitative data was mainly obtained from in‐depth semi‐structured interviews conducted with 26 key stakeholders ranging from middle to senior professionals, academicians, high‐ranking officials from the local tourism/sports authorities, and representatives from the private sector. The data was further enhanced by an extensive review and analysis of related documents available in the public domain. Data was analyzed using an iterative thematic content analysis whose findings served to illustrate the theoretical perspectives in the relevant prevailing literature.

Findings suggest that Qatar is using events as a way to reimage and position itself as a destination and increase its profile internationally in addition to gaining a competitive edge regionally. Other explanatory factors include: economic sustainability and diversification plans and tourism‐related policies as well as social development strategies. Another identified driver is linked to globalization and modernization trends. These driving factors are consistent with the ones acknowledged in the literature on national and urban event strategies and their purpose.

The analysis conducted in this paper laid the foundation for much needed future evaluation studies on the country's tourism strategies and trends as well as events' impacts. The treatment of this subject from a governmental policy angle has not received nearly enough attention among scholars of tourism policy and events management. Moreover, considering the growing event market in Qatar, this paper fills the gap in the literature in terms of analyzing the driving forces behind this growth and highlights important issues specific to a relatively unexplored region undergoing rapid development.

This study aims to provide an understanding of the multi-layered managerial and organizational challenges of mega sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, identify key competencies that address the complexities and uncertainties when planning and organizing the Olympic and Paralympic Games and provide a framework to classify sporting events according to their complexity and uncertainty.

This study uses in-depth semi-structured interview with key organizing actor of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.

Planning and organizing complex and long-term mega sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games require a set of key competencies, including a range of soft skills (collaboration, negotiation, communication), goal-setting, persistence and resilience, paradox thinking and timing.

Presenting the findings in an unedited and raw interview format provides practitioners and scholars alike with unfiltered and rich data that allows to choose, apply and adapt key competencies and heuristics from Rio 2016 to their own mega sporting projects or research agendas; allows to differentiate between sporting events according to their complexity and uncertainty.

This article assesses how the human management practices of recruitment, selection, orientation, training and recognition enacted by the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games impacted volunteers' experiences and their likelihood of volunteering in the future.

Qualitative data from 30 volunteers, involved in various stages (including selected and not selected) of the selection process for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, was collected through focus group interviews.

The findings offer important insights for mega sport event managers and their organisations around utilising a traditional human resource management approach for their volunteer workforce.

The findings of the study point to a number of important opportunities for mega event organisers: ensuring there is a personal and consistent approach for all volunteers (even volunteers who are not successful in the application), flexibility in the way volunteers are provided training and support (online, self-paced and tailored to specific roles) and ensuring that organising committees have a strong strategy and direction for host cities to engage in a volunteer legacy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent that marketers are using place-based images to promote their brands within the host city of the Olympic Games. It is thought that non-sponsors may use place imagery as an alternate way to affiliate with the event or sponsors may use place to enrich their sponsorship activity.

The study uses an observation-based approach to collect a sample of place-based promotional activity that is accessible to pedestrians during the 2012 Olympic Games.

Results reveal that official sponsors and non-official sponsors are both using place-based imagery in their promotions within the host city of the Olympic Games. However, non-sponsors use place images more frequently than sponsors of the event. Place images were invoked by promoters using country flags most frequently followed by icons and explicit mention of place. The leading dimensions of place images employed by marketers include country character, the built environment and people competence. Place-based promotional activity was frequently observed in shopping areas, transportation, sports venues and in free media.

Results provide justification for future research in the area. Specifically, the need for empirical work based on surveys of consumers and interviews with practitioners are noted.

In an era of highly protected event marketing rights, the existence of promotions based on place images can be a useful application for official sponsors to leverage their investments and protect their exclusivity. Similarly, results are beneficial to non-official sponsors who may seek to market in the vicinity of these events without infringing on the rights of official sponsors.

While previous research on place, mega-events, the Olympic Games and sponsors has found the images of the three to be related, it is not known to what extent sponsors and non-sponsors utilize place images in their promotional activities throughout the Olympic host city.

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.

A mega‐event flagship (MEF) refers to a popular instrument developed for staging a mega‐event and catalyzing area‐based urban regeneration. Despite its lasting appeal and controversial nature, insufficient research on its critical early stage has been done to provide useful analysis. When the clients lack appropriate capabilities to confront sustainability challenges, MEFs may end up functioning poorly in the post‐event era and even hindering the progress of intended renewals. The purpose of this study is to enhance MEF clients’ capabilities in meeting sustainability challenges at the early stage and ultimately producing responsible MEFs of enduring worth.

The multiple‐case study method was adopted due to its widely recognized reliance on multiple sources to facilitate in‐depth analyses. Data were collected through archival records, documentation, direct observation and participant observation.

By proposing a comprehensive development framework based on the findings of multiple‐case studies, this paper corrects a misunderstanding of such a development being an end in itself, and contributes new insights into the definitional early stage of MEFs.

The fact that MEFs are a global phenomenon as well as a local undertaking leads to a need to develop a database of useful lessons and critical decisions from previous MEFs, to establish a best practice targets system in future research.

As an initial attempt, this paper lays the groundwork for research on MEFs by investigating how mega‐event hosts have prepared in meeting its sustainability challenges.

This paper aims to indicate a shift in focus from legacy to the leveraging of event impacts, and previous papers have indicated a growing awareness of the brand-related legacies associated with sport mega-events for a host nation. However, none have explored this in relation to the strategic activities of nation brand stakeholders.

The case of South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup was selected, as this host nation clearly stated its aim of using the sport mega-event to develop its brand. A qualitative study explored the insights of selected, definitive nation brand stakeholders and experts, elicited using in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 27) that took place two to three years post the event.

A thematic analysis clustered the leveraging imperatives into seven key strategic focus areas, namely, the media, local citizens, stakeholder partnerships, the tourism experience, design, sustainable development and urban transformation and event hosting.

This paper is not an audit of leveraging activities nor does it assess the costs of leveraging. The focus on a specific case has allowed for an in-depth analysis, although, for greater transferability of these findings, it is recommended that further comparative studies be conducted, especially in emerging nation contexts.

The paper identifies key strategic focus areas as well as examples of practical activities for leveraging mega-events to gain and sustain nation brand benefits. In particular, stakeholders are urged to plan and budget for leveraging before, during and especially post an event.

In light of the critique of mega-events linked to their social impacts and costs, this paper recommends leveraging focus areas, and especially the mobilisation of citizen support, that can assist the realisation of positive social outcomes.

The paper adds to the emerging discourse of nation branding, highlighting opportunities derived through sport mega-events and assisting brand stakeholders to leverage such opportunities more effectively.

This study aims to explain the impact of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 on China's image in the international TV media. It applies agenda-setting theory to analyse foreign TV coverage of the Olympics in nine countries. Using Rivenburgh's national image richness construct, it attempts to make sense of the coverage before and after Beijing 2008, particularly its impact on the image of the host country. The study concludes that the breadth and attribution of China's image remained relatively stable, that these factors did not improve China's national image directly but that indirectly they raised awareness of China in the international media and framed the host country's image more clearly.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how non-host cities strategically plan to leverage pre-Games training for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games to maximize benefits to the city.

Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with key tourism and government stakeholders involved in developing leveraging strategies for pre-Games training in a non-host city. Interviews were conducted a little over 18 months before the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

A model of the strategic planning of leveraging pre-Games training is presented. Pre-Games training was positioned as a leverageable resource. The non-host city was well positioned to host pre-Games training given its existing sport focus and facilities and its proximity to the host city and its similar climate. Opportunities, objectives, means, and considerations were constantly developed. The city strategically targeted teams to maximize the use of the training facilities and make the most of the value of well-known athletes, while being cautious of overcrowding. The teams had to be secured before strategies were devised to achieve other opportunities and objectives. Short-term benefits included generating tourism through visiting teams and entourages and integrating visiting teams into the local community through education and sport programming. Long-term benefits included building the destination’s capacity and reputation as a place for elite training camps and tourism.

Understanding how to develop strategies to leverage pre-Games training can inform those responsible for developing and implementing pre-Games training strategies and lead to maximizing the benefits to a city or region.

Limited research has examined the strategic planning process used to develop tactics to leverage mega-events. This study provides insight into the strategic planning process of non-host cities to increase short- and long-term benefits by leveraging pre-Games training.