Practitioner perspectives of legacy: insights from the 2015 Pan Am Games

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Although legacy frameworks exist in academia and legacies are oft discussed in relation to publicly- and privately funded events, there remains a dearth of knowledge on practitioner conceptualisations of the concept. A case study of the Toronto 2014 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games was conducted using semi-structured interviews with event organisers and city officials to understand how practitioners conceptualise legacies, and what their goals are in relation to legacies. The findings show that organisers conceptualise legacies as solely positive, and include Games-time impacts and outcomes as part of the legacy. The positive frame supports the three central legacy goals: justifying public spending on events, boosting public support for event hosting, and advancing city development goals through event hosting. This research contributes to the discourse on event legacy and takes an important step in expanding understandings of practitioner conceptualisations of legacy

Scoping reviews and structured research synthesis in sport: methods, protocol and lessons learnt

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Research synthesis is an essential part of the research process that we argue has been underutilised by sport policy and management researchers. This commentary seeks to advance the discussion surrounding research synthesis by introducing scoping reviews as a potentially useful approach to synthesising research evidence. In doing so, we provide an overview of current methods and protocols of the scoping approach and critically reflect upon the value and utility of scoping reviews by highlighting the lessons learnt from two previous scoping studies within the field. Our analysis indicates that scoping reviews provide a useful alternative approach to synthesising research for select research topics providing that strict protocol is adhered to and are appropriately operationalised. More broadly, our intention is to generate further discussion and debate surrounding research synthesis within the sport policy and management domain and to encourage sport scholars to adopt more structured approaches to synthesise research evidence

Institutional Theory in Sport : A Scoping Review

Institutional theory has generated considerable insight into fundamental issues within sport. This study seeks to advance Washington and Patterson’s review by providing an empirical review of institutional theory in sport. We follow Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review protocol to identify 188 sport-related institutional studies between 1979 and 2019. Our review provides evidence regarding the state of institutional scholarship within sport via an analysis of authorship, year, journal, methodology, method, study population, and use of institutional constructs (legitimacy, isomorphism, change, logics, fields, and work). Rather than a hostile takeover or a joint venture proposed in Washington and Patterson’s review, the relationship between fields is more aptly described as a diffusion of ideas. By developing an empirical review of institutional studies in sport, we hope to expedite the diffusion of ideas between the two fields and work toward realizing the collective benefits any future joint venture may bring

Event studies: progression and future in the field

Interest in events is unquestionably at an all-time high, fueled by the profile ofmajor cultural, religious and sporting occasions that are subject to increased commodification and, consequently, growing media coverage. Capitalising on this interest, event studies has emerged in recent decades as the new kid on the block, an addition to the leisure, tourism and hospitality fields of study. The growth path of event studies has been documented in a number of reviews and summations of the extant literature (Harris et al. 2001; Getz 2000, 2008, 2010, 2012; Kim et al. 2013; Lee and Back 2005; Mair 2012; Mair and Whitford 2013; Yoo and Weber 2005). These reviews, whilst invaluable in identifying the scope of event studies and gaps in current knowledge, have yet to be explored in relation to their contribution to future event studies and education. With greater freedom to test the waters compared to an empirical paper, this conceptual piece provides an opportunity for some much needed critical introspection (Thomas and Bowdin 2012) as to progress in the field