Looking through the kaleidoscope: perspectives on the lived experiences of sport event volunteering.

The staging of many sport events ranging from small to mega-events, increasingly rely on the availability of a workforce of unpaid helpers. Whilst much research has been carried out in the past regarding the reason why people decide to volunteer at sport events, little is known about how this type of volunteering is experienced by the individual. Adopting an experiential focus, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge and enhances the understanding of this particular form of volunteering by exploring the question ―What it is like to be a sport event volunteer?‖ Using different strands of the concept and theory of role to serve as parameters for this study, the lived experiences of volunteers who assisted at the World Firefighters Games 2008 are analysed and discussed. The research approach that was adopted for this study draws from the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer in form of hermeneutic phenomenology which is an interpretative approach towards collecting and analysing data about a specific phenomenon. Incorporating the hermeneutic circle that advocates the idea that understanding of a phenomenon is co-created by both the researcher and the research participants, hermeneutic phenomenology is concerned with exploring rather than merely describing contextual aspects and structures of lived experiences. A total of eighteen semi-structured interviews involving volunteers who helped with the World Firefighters Games 2008 in Liverpool, were conducted. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Using the approach of Van Manen towards analysing the collected data, a number of themes and subthemes emerged which are presented in the thesis in manner that reflects the nature of the hermeneutic circle. Besides providing a working definition of the term ―sport event volunteering‖, the findings of the study critically evaluate the meaning that the volunteers attach to the role and how they make sense of their role as helpers involved in staging large sporting events. The interpretation of the collected data suggests that the enactment of the volunteer role is informed by individuals expectations and needs, e.g. with regards to role allocation, trust, recognition and reciprocity, and the experience of anti-climax and loss after their volunteer engagement has come to an end. Furthermore, the critical synthesis of how the individual manages his/her volunteer role suggests that sport event volunteers can be understood as ―bricoleurs‖ who craft rather than merely take and perform this particular role. Beside contributing to existing research on sport event volunteering with these findings and by identifying further research avenues relating to sport event volunteering that can be explored in future, the findings of these studies might inform the work of practitioners in the respective research fields

Understanding the ‘lived experience’ of sport event volunteers: Using the hermeneutic circle as a guiding conceptual framework

This conceptual paper presents an understanding of the term experience and lived experience by detailing the hermeneutic circle as a guiding framework to capture the volunteer journey of sport event volunteers. Sport event volunteering research has seen increased interest in the past decade, and this paper acknowledges that there is a need to reconsider foundation understandings of the notion of experience. Because previous research has encouraged academics to focus less on the structure of experiences, it is therefore necessary to concentrate on meanings that further consider lived experiences as they are produced by individuals. Volunteering at a sport event represents a journey that can be captured at different stages, and this is can be done by putting emphasis on research participants’ meanings and memories, as outlined in the conceptual model presented in this paper

Operational Excellence as the Main Customer Value: Information Technology Vendors Perspective

Background: Information technology (IT) requires substantial investments from enterprises to build competitive capabilities. IT products are supposed to provide value to customers and to increase the competitiveness of enterprises. Vendors of IT products should take the competitive strategy and value creation for enterprise buyers into account. Objectives: This article takes the perspective of IT vendors (ITVs) and attempts to answer the research questions “What types of customer value do ITVs consider?” and “Do ITVs consider the competitiveness of enterprises?” Methods/Approach: This research investigates descriptions from ITVs and analyses patterns and correlations of coded content. The annual reports of 32 global market-leading ITVs were examined through direct content analysis. Results: Half of the annual reports mention the competitiveness of enterprise buyers; 84% of the samples relate to customer-value disciplines. Moderate positive and monotonic relationships were detected between customer value disciplines. Conclusions: ITVs consider the competitiveness of buyers and noticeably regard customer value disciplines, mainly operational excellence, that in turn refers to process efficiency and cost-effectiveness

Exploring experiences and emotions sport event volunteers associate with ‘role exit’

Much research in the past decade has assessed what motivates people to volunteer at sport events. Given that volunteering has become integral to the delivery and staging of sporting events, it is important that research not only considers reasons and motivations for volunteering, but how participants cope and manage once their volunteer journey ends. The paper considers the notion of ‘role exit’ and contributes insight based on interviews with participants after an event to understand their feelings and emotions. The significance of this research is understanding exiting emotions and experiences, but because a lot of emphasis is placed on preparing volunteers ahead of an event, the end of the volunteer journey is often abrupt and therefore left underexplored. To ensure that the needs of contemporary volunteers are adequately managed, it is important to consider how individuals are impacted by volunteering and also how they reflect on experiences afterwards. Three themes that emerge from this study include: (1) sadness and loss; (2) transitioning emotions; and (3) coping and coming to terms. A discussion framing the post-event volunteer as ‘the bereaved’ addresses the need to better manage the final stages of the volunteer journey, which represents a challenge given the liminality of sport event volunteering

Emotions and Sport Management: A Bibliometric Overview

Emotions are considered a fundamental aspect of sport scenarios, and within sports, consumer behavior is a very popular area of research in the sport management field. Thus, in recent years, there has been a growing interest for sport managers regarding the role that emotions play in sport consumer behavior. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the academic research on emotions in the sport management field using two techniques: a bibliometric performance analysis and a graphic mapping of the references in this field. This analysis focuses on authors, journals, papers, institutions and countries. Bibliometric indicators including the h-index measure, productivity and the number of citations were used to perform the performance analysis. Then, VOSviewer software was used to perform co-citation, bibliographic coupling and co-occurrence of keyword analysis (mapping analysis). The results of both types of analysis are consistent, with the United States being the most influential country in emotions in sport management research because the main authors and institutions in this research field belong to this country. The overall results indicate that the literature on this research topic has grown significantly in recent years in all scientific disciplines; however, the research topic is incipient, and therefore, the number of articles is still limited. Thus, this research presents the key aspects in the topic of emotions in sport management that could be helpful for researchers and policy makers in the field of sport management to make future decisions

Types of IT Architects: A Content Analysis on Tasks and Skills

Information technology architecture is an essential element of an enterprise’s strategy and impacts competitive advantage. The management of information technology architectures is unexplored in theory and confused in practice. In particular, the roles of information technology architects are interpreted in various ways. The purpose of this study is to examine the roles of information technology architects by investigating the required activities and skills demanded in the human resources market. In-depth content analysis was applied on job advertisements. Categories were inductively developed by allocating meaning units until saturation: 2438 meaning units were assigned to 37 task categories and 49 skill categories. As a result, three types of architects with distinctive profiles were identified. In addition to technological expertise, all architects must provide outstanding social and methodological skills. Knowledge of particular frameworks is rarely required. Skills and architect types from The Open Group Architecture Framework were disproved in parts. Attributes specific to e-commerce architects and digital architects were elaborated. The found task and skill categories may be used as catalogs for recruiting purposes in practice