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The purpose of this paper is to examine the views of residents and foreigners of the Olympics and the host country before and after the mega‐event within the context of marketing theory on country image effects and psychology theories attribution.

This is achieved by studying the views of American and Chinese respondents of China and the Olympics before and after the Beijing Olympics. Samples of Chinese and Americans were surveyed before and after the Beijing Summer Olympics concerning their images of the Olympics, China and its people, and China as a vacation destination. Cross‐national and pre‐post comparisons are made and interaction effects are noted using MANOVA.

Significant cross‐national and time differences and several interaction effects are found across all three focal objects of image measurements. Large country differences are found. Despite how technically successful the Games might have looked, post‐event assessments are overwhelmingly lower. Additional differences in views and interaction effects are discussed in terms of the intended and unintended impacts of the event on local and foreign respondents.

Only one location in China and one foreign country are surveyed.

The paper has important implications for both the effects of mega‐events on country images and the effects of the host country on the event brand image. These issues have relevance for countries seeking to host mega‐events and those who manage these events and make decision about where they will be held.

This is the first cross‐national study of the Olympics and their effects using before‐and‐after event measures. It also combines analyses of both the event and the place images from the perspectives of both those who live in the country and residents of other countries. Attribution theory is a useful reference theory for mega‐event assessments.

Perceived fit between a sponsoring brand and an event is considered to be a key sponsorship requirement, but little is known about the variables that are related to perceived fit. Coca - Cola's sponsorship of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics is examined to assess relationships between attitude toward the brand, attitude toward the event, and attitude toward sponsorships and brand/event fit. A telephone survey was used to contact 448 consumers. Results indicate that attitude toward the brand is moderately related to brand/event fit and attitude toward sponsorships is significantly related to brand/event fit.

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 the cognitive processes that the study subjects experienced when exposed to different types of public service advertisements about Special Olympics.

A total of 529 cognitive responses from 141 college students were analyzed using the content analysis method.

The results of the frequency count of cognitive responses indicated that low-empathy (LE) subjects engaged in extensive cognitive efforts to process the information as much as high-empathy (HE) subjects. Additionally, the content analysis of the qualitative data showed that the two most frequently cited categories of positive thoughts for HE subjects were good cause/importance of Special Olympics and positive feeling related to volunteering for Special Olympics. For LE subjects, the most frequently identified category in positive thoughts was altruist/moral responsibility, followed by volunteer intention and positive feeling related to volunteering for Special Olympics.

The paper provides valuable information on cognitive responses to public service advertising messages.

In the presence of limited financial resources, developing countries such as Lebanon often allocate small budgets to the sports sector. Even more, the Lebanese Government lacks a strategic approach that is necessary for any nation to achieve elite sport success. This study aims to assess the motivations and barriers that impact Lebanese athletes’ achievements at the Olympics by addressing the factors that affect such participation. Two main aspects were put into the study: lack of governmental support and sponsorship.

This study examines the barriers that hinder achievement by Lebanese Olympians in their International participation with an emphasis on the factors that affect their performance whether positively or negatively. The methodology consisted of a set of survey questions filled by 50 Lebanese athletes and 4 interviews conducted with Lebanese Olympians to make use of their experience and insight regarding such barriers and how to best boost motivation among young and potential talent.

The findings shed light on the limited Lebanese Olympic participation; out of the 17 participation (226 Olympians in total), only 4 Olympians won medals for the country; the past victory was 38 years ago. The reasons as reached are mainly due to the lack of government support and the inability of athletes to secure-related sponsors. Specifically, a lack of governmental support has a negative correlation with athletes’ achievements in international contests. Moreover, the inability of athletes to secure the financial support, in the form of sponsorship, necessary for the training, preparation and all the way to participation.

The study revealed a lack of active participation from the government in nurturing skill and elevating talented athletes’ chance to achieve in the Olympics. The main factor that this study was able to identify is the lack of an official body to manage the nurturing, training, financial support up to participation of the athletes in the international events.

The study highlighted the importance of training camps and consistent improvement to performance. While these two require extensive investment and devotion, athletes on their own cannot afford to fulfill the requirements without the support of the government; the latter being almost absent.

The insights provided through this study address the importance of sponsorship and government support in athletes’ achievements. It shed light on areas that are nonexistent for the Lebanese case and provided practical recommendations that if applied, would increase the chances of Lebanon in competing effectively in the international arena.

This study looks at the visibility of logos during the televised broadcast of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, and television viewers' perceptions, recall and recognition of those logos. The results indicate that the number of brands and logos perceived was far greater than actually existed, bringing into question the effectiveness of the Olympics' 'clean venue' policy.

The Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) was founded as a Non-profit to support Indian athletes in their quest to win Olympic Gold medals by bridging the gap between the best athletes in India and in the world. The support from OGQ has been instrumental to India in winning its highest number of medals at any summer Olympics. Buoyed by this success, OGQ has set up a target of achieving eight Olympic medals at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. With OGQ relying on donations to support the athletes, the challenge is to market the Olympic cause by creating, communicating, and delivering the right offering for its donors.

The interest for hosting the Olympic Games is now at its historical peak. Heads of states, culture elites, top athletes and professional marketers are engaged in selling their cities to the deciding International Olympic Committee. This host selection process has recently been in the focus of public interest due to the bribery allegations against the winner of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Salt Lake City.

Despite the privatization of its various components, the bidding process and the preparations for the Olympics are still initiated and tightly managed by central governments. Moreover, intentionally and unintentionally, governments use mega sports events such as the Olympics as a soft power medium in which to pursue their goals such as economic development and social integration and a lot of literature has already reviewed the economic and sociocultural impact of hosting the event. This chapter argues that the Olympics have been used as the medium to assist in the formation of legitimacy for a weakened authoritarian leader in the early phase of democratization in Korea. In addition, the chapter tries to explain how the bureaucracy contributed to the success of the national event and how it eventually impacted political modernization and the attitude of bureaucrats. To these ends, first, this chapter explores the influence of soft power on international competition by providing an empirical statistical analysis. Specifically, the chapter analyzes the process by which countries compete with one another for the privilege of hosting the Olympic Games as an important field of global interaction between political actors Further, the chapter discusses which components of soft power can affect international competition. To investigate the explanatory power and concrete applicability of soft power theory, the chapter looks at the influence of democratic and government dimensions of soft power on the selection of Olympic host cities and the role of bureaucracy during that process.