SAFEGUARDING AMATEUR ATHLETES AN EXAMINATION OF PLAYER WELFARE AMONG SENIOR INTER-COUNTY GAELIC PLAYERS. RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 99 December 2019

Following the publication of research into the commitments required of male Gaelic players to play senior inter-county, and knock-on effects of inter-county commitment (Kelly et al., 2018), the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and Gaelic Players Association (GPA) established a working group to make an in-depth analysis of the report’s findings. One of the decisions taken by the working group was that further research was required to examine a range of issues that emerged from the original study. These included in particular: (i) the education and (ii) the professional career experiences of senior inter-county players, (iii) their engagement in risky behaviours (e.g. alcohol consumption), (iv) supplement usage, (v) players’ views on both provided and required supports, and (vi) what they would change about their experience of playing inter-county and the inter-county set-up

Instagram’s ‘Fitspiration’ Trend and Its Effect on Young Women’s Self-Esteem

Increasingly, sports and fitness brands are using a variety of social media platforms. Instagram has come to the fore in the area of fitness, asserting itself as the de facto channel for users to catalogue their athletic activities, and offering inspirational training advice to followers. Considering this increasingly-popular ‘fitspiration’ trend, we see a significant impact upon young female users self-esteem, specifically in relation to their perception of body imagery. Hence, this paper will develop understanding of fitness brands’ social media activities by investigating the impact of Instagram upon the selfesteem of young women. Nascent literature has examined influence upon self-esteem among women throughout a variety of advertising mediums, however, none have explored the connection between self-esteem and social media. Accordingly, semistructured interviews with female sports enthusiasts are proposed to uncover opinions and perceptions relating to their use of Instagram. Initial findings reveal a strong correlation between participant perception of the ‘fitspiration’ social media accounts they subscribe to, as well as the impact upon their self-esteem. Ultimately, this paper makes two theoretical contributions relating to the effect of social media upon female self-esteem, as well as contributing to a wider debate of body image within a modern digital economy

Keeping Pace with the Digital Transformation of Place

This chapter provides a reflection of digital transformation in place branding research by way of three facets of place management, i.e., place marketing, making and maintenance. To make sense of the myriad of place studies that consider digital transformation, prior works are subject to a systematic literature review procedure. Thematic alignment of relevant research offers a chance to reflect on scholarly interpretation of the influence of digital transformation in the three facets, identifying relevant gaps, and offering future research directions. The place marketing category is the most populous of the three with the majority of work focusing on the impact of social media activity. The placemaking category proved to be an emergent field where notable contributions are being made at the interface where digital platforms are being used to engage communities with a view to enhancing social wellbeing. Lastly, maintenance is a narrow theme by comparison, where studies show how digital solutions are being applied to enhance users interaction with places. Critically, results indicate that whilst digital transformation is prevalent in the field, research into the longer-term impacts is limited. Additionally, investigations of digital transformation often appears as a notional add-on to empirical works with little interrogation of wider impact on the wider range of place stakeholders. Moreover, the lack of work which examines the detriment caused by digital transformation is a notable absence. Hence, by using the three thematic functions of place management, this chapter aims to offer a viable path to future contributions. The chapter concludes with a future research agenda in digital place branding research suggesting three key areas: artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation, and sentiment analyses

Place and Destination Branding: A Review and Conceptual Mapping of the Domain

Although there is increasing interest in place and destination branding, the inter‐disciplinary nature of the field poses challenges for the development of a coherent knowledge base. With a view to informing both research and practice, this article presents a systematic review combining place and destination branding, identifying and defining its core themes, and developing a conceptual map of the inter‐play between them. The following key themes are identified: general, brand identity, image and personality, politics, heritage, communication/media, country‐of‐ origin, and designscape and infrastructure. The article concludes with an agenda for further research including the need for research on specific themes across a wider range of place entities

Social Media Marketing Evaluation Decision Making Processes and the Agency-Client Relationship

Evaluation of social media marketing is central to its success. This thesis seeks to contribute to our understanding of social media marketing evaluation processes and outcomes, together with an exploration of the dynamics of agency-client relationships. It contributes to knowledge across three major themes: strategy development, evaluation, and agency-client relationships and is one of the first studies to consider the role of the agency-client relationship in social media marketing. In particular, the study addresses a gap in current knowledge by revealing the significant influence of agency-client relationships on the processes and outcomes of social media marketing strategy development and evaluation. Adopting the ontological and epistemological position that reality is socially constructed, a qualitative study of twenty social media marketers provided a specialist digital agency perspective of social media campaigns. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with key practitioners, supported by a cognitive-mapping elicitation technique. The findings generate knowledge of the first two major themes: strategy and evaluation through the development of two process models: the ‘Cycle of Social Media Marketing’ for strategy, and the ‘Cycle of Social Media Marketing Evaluation’ for evaluation. Findings for the second theme reject the traditional view of agency-client relationships, and instead offers a fresh perspective on these relationships in social media marketing, identifying three sub-themes: context, conflict and co-creation. The findings reveal key techniques for enhancing client relationships, including client account management strategies; the impact of conflict on trust between both parties; the crucial role of mutual participation in strategy development of strategy and evaluation; and the importance of co-creation, largely facilitated through collaborative learning workshops. This study has implications for scholars as it contributes to our understanding of evaluation in relation to strategy development in a rapidly developing area of modern marketing practice, affirming the importance of social media data analysis to decision-making. This study has implications for practice as it extends knowledge through conceptualisations of processes and offering insights into the influence and dynamics of agency-client interactions in social media marketing. Finally, a key contribution to knowledge is the development of two conceptual frameworks: The Contextualised Conceptual Framework of Social Media Marketing Evaluation in Strategy Development, and The Conceptual Framework of Agency-Client Dynamics in Social Media Marketing which encapsulate the multi-layered nature of this study and the vital importance of evaluation in social media marketing

COVID-19 and emergency department attendances in Irish public hospitals. ESRI QEC Special Article May 2020.

New ESRI research published today, 22 May, shows that emergency department (ED) attendances in Ireland fell sharply at the onset of COVID-19 outbreak in Ireland. The average number of daily emergency department attendances at the end of March 2020 was approximately half what it was at the beginning of March. Similar reductions were seen across each region of the country. The reductions were substantial across all age groups, with particularly high reductions amongst younger age groups. There was even a decline in the number of attendances classified as very urgent/immediate. The fall in these more serious cases was 27%, compared to a 32% decline in less urgent attendances

Are you local? The challenges of local search engine optimisation strategies

Local search engine optimization (SEO) can be a powerful strategy for small to medium sized enterprises. Limited studies provide information on these strategies. This study seeks to understand specialist SEO agencies approaches to performing it, and the associated challenges which emerge in the process. Semi-structured interviews with key informants revealed a range of practical approaches. Challenges identified include the influence of recent search engine algorithm updates resulting in fluctuating ranking factors, as well as the importance of mobile to enacting a local SEO strategy. A better understanding of the nuances of local SEO strategies is provided that can assist and inform industry and future scholars

An overview of systematic literature reviews in social media marketing

Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) adopt a specified and transparent approach, in order to scope the literature in a field or sub-field. However, there has been little critical comment on their purpose and processes in practice. By undertaking an overview of SLRs in the field of social media (SM) marketing, this article undertakes a critical evaluation of the SLR purposes and processes in a set of recent SLRs and presents a future research agenda for social media marketing. The overview shows that the purposes of SLRs include: making sense (of research in a field), developing a concept matrix/taxonomy, and supporting research and practice. On SLR processes, whilst there is some consensus on the stages of the process, there is considerable variation in how these processes are executed. This article offers a resource to inform practice and acts as a platform for further critical debate regarding the nature and value of SLR

Evaluation and decision making in social media marketing

Purpose – As organisations are increasing their investment in social media marketing (SMM), evaluation of such techniques is becoming increasingly important. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge regarding SMM strategy by developing a stage model of SMM evaluation and uncovering the challenges in this process. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were conducted with 18 key informants working for specialist SMM agencies. Such informants are a particularly rich source, since they manage social media campaigns for a wide range of clients. An exploratory research was conducted and thematic analysis surfaced the key components of the SMM evaluation process and associated challenges. Findings – The SMM evaluation framework is developed. This framework has the following six stages: setting evaluation objectives, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), identifying metrics, data collection and analysis, report generation and management decision making. Challenges associated with each stage of the framework are identified, and discussed with a view to better understanding decision making associated with social media strategies. Two key challenges are the agency-client relationship and the available social analytics tools. Originality/value – Despite an increasing body of research on social media objectives, KPIs and metrics, no previous study has explored how these components are embedded in a marketing campaign planning process. The paper also offers insights in the factors that make SMM evaluation complex and challenging. Recommendations for further research and practice are offered