Is a social marketing framework the key to promoting volunteer participation?

This paper explores the suitability of a conceptual social marketing model, the MOA (motivation, opportunity and ability) framework (Rothschild, 1999), to volunteering to determine whether it has the potential to promote volunteering with its associated socially desirable benefits. In doing so, the individual components of the model are discussed from a social marketing perspective and communalities in the volunteering research highlighted. This discussion culminates in the presentation of an adapted MOA framework, the practical implications of which for volunteer involving organisations are briefly discussed and an agenda for future research proposed.<br /

Volunteers and volunteering in leisure : social science perspectives

Leisure has been widely examined within the context of social science theory; however, little work has considered the range of social science disciplines and applied them to specific phenomena located within the leisure field. This paper adopts such an approach to conceptualise and examine volunteers and volunteering in leisure settings. In a disciplinary sense, therefore, the sociological view focuses upon the conceptualisation of volunteering as leisure, the psychological view seeks to understand motivations driving volunteering while the perspective of economists tends to complement these standpoints in terms of why people volunteer and further examines the value of volunteer contributions. Comparative analysis of the perspectives enunciated within these key disciplines provides a picture of the status of research relating to leisure volunteers and volunteering. The purposes of this paper are to identify gaps in current knowledge, drawing out conclusions and their implications for an improved understanding of this area as well as to enhance comprehension of disciplinary contributions to the study of leisure phenomena

Talent in Hospitality Entrepreneurship: A conceptualization and research agenda

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative conceptual framework of the "talented hospitality entrepreneur". In doing so, the authors address the current lack of understanding of talent at the individual entrepreneurial level and the lack of integration between the talent and entrepreneurship literatures and specifically consider the hospitality context. Design/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper systematically synthesizes the extant literature and links key concepts within talent management, entrepreneurship, hospitality and human resource management to develop a model of the talented hospitality entrepreneur. Findings: Seven propositions emerge from the literature synthesis, and the integrative conceptual model is developed to define the individual antecedents of the talented hospitality entrepreneur and their outcomes for success. Originality/value: To date, understanding of the individual level of talent has been neglected in the management literature. The quandary is that the extant literature on talent has focused on the management of talent at an organizational level, while the entrepreneurship literature has concentrated on spatial macro-level effects. Further, the notion of talent in hospitality literature remains underexplored. Adopting an inclusive view of talent, the authors offer a new integrative framework explaining the constituencies of talent for hospitality entrepreneurs and an associated research agenda

Are all my volunteers here to help out? Clustering events volunteers by their motivations

Posed as a question that an event organizer might contemplate in terms of how best to attract and retain event volunteers, this study adds to the event volunteering literature by cluster analysing volunteers sampled at four sports events using items from the Special Event Volunteer Motivation Scale (SEVMS). The 28 items were first subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis resulting in four factors (Solidary, Purposive, External Traditions/Commitments, and Spare Time), followed by a two-step clustering procedure and a series of post hoc tests to describe and validate the clusters. As a result of this procedure, three distinct clusters were formed: the Altruists, Socials, and Indifferents. The Altruists and Socials were primarily driven by two distinct internal factors, which respectively represented the Purposive and Solidary factors. The Indifferents appeared to be pushed into volunteering by external forces, rather than intrinsic motivations. Validation revealed that the Indifferents were significantly less satisfied with their volunteer experience than the other two clusters and were also less likely to volunteer in the future. Across the four events sampled, there were distinct patterns of cluster representation, with one event in particular substantially overrepresented by the more negatively inclined Indifferents. The management and research implications of these findings are discussed

Introduction: events in society

Introduction to special issue of the journal Event Management

Measuring volunteerability and the capacity to volunteer among non-volunteers: implications for social policy

As volunteering and its benefits gain global recognition, social policymakers can sustain and increase volunteering through social policy, legislation and other types of involvement. A key performance practice is to measure the rate of volunteering based on the percentage of the population that volunteer or the number of hours donated. The focus of this article, however, is on the capacity to volunteer by non‐volunteers as well as by volunteers. The concept and theory of volunteerability (an individual's ability to overcome related obstacles and volunteer, based on his or her willingness, capability and availability) offers a richer understanding of how people can be assisted to overcome barriers to maximize their volunteer potential and thus increase volunteering. The article details the definitions and benefits of volunteering and covers examples of related social policy, as well as explaining the concept of volunteerability and how it can be measured using existing and new scales. Based on a mixed methods study in Australia, the article offers specific measures to examine the concept of volunteerability and reveals important differences between volunteers and non‐volunteers. The article also details major barriers to volunteering and how social policies can be developed to overcome them

Online volunteering at DigiVol: an innovative crowd-sourcing approach for heritage tourism artefacts preservation

Most museums find that the resources required to transform from curators into providers of heritage and cultural tourism exceed those available to them. One way of addressing this challenge is through volunteer programs to assist in heritage tourism artefacts preservation. This article is based on a case study of an innovative crowd-sourcing initiative of integrating on-site and online volunteers for the preservation and documentation of heritage artefacts: the DigiVol program at the Australian Museum, Sydney. This large citizen science volunteer program has digitised an unprecedented portion of the museum’s collections and has been recognised in Australia and internationally as a best practice ‘volunteer digitisation service’ model. Seeking further empirical support for the emerging concept of ‘recruitability’ from the volunteering literature (i.e. the ability of volunteer organisations to recruit and retain volunteers), this research used case study methodology. Based on interviews, focus groups, and document analyses, the article identifies key elements of innovation and effectiveness in DigiVol practices. The article concludes with recommendations for programs wishing to follow best practice and expand their recruitability, to digitise and preserve artefacts, and therefore support science, tourism and education

Perspectives on the Volunteering Legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games: The Development of an Event Legacy Stakeholder Engagement Matrix

Using Holmes et al.’s (2015) sustainable event legacy timeline, this paper examines the extent to which the existing volunteering infrastructure supporting volunteer management in the host city were engaged before, during and after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to generate a legacy for volunteering. This infrastructure includes volunteering peak bodies, volunteer resource centres, national sport governing bodies, community organisations and local government. A case study of the London 2012 Games was employed involving extensive documentary evidence and interviews with senior level informants. The findings revealed limitations with official legacy planning and a failure to engage with the voluntary sector in the host city. The event legacy timeline is combined with four key themes to emerge from the data to conceptualise an event legacy stakeholder engagement matrix. This identifies recommendations to enable future host cities to optimise opportunities from Olympic Games volunteer programmes to generate wider community benefits

The future of volunteer tourism in the Asia-Pacific region : alternative prospects

2014-2015 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Critical Event Studies: Issues and Perspectives

In considering critical event studies, a brief reference to critical pedagogy is made before an initial look at Critical Management Studies (CMS) prior to consideration of Crtical Event Studies (CES). As most students of education and teaching will know, Paul Freire’s Critical Pedagogy (CP) (1973) stemmed from the body of Critical Theory, whose members sought to determine what they saw as a just society (Darder, 2014). By utilising knowledge to ensure the autonomy of the mind and possible emancipation of the oppressed, the development of a student’s critical capacity gave them the opportunity to transform their life. A banking model of education, where students receive knowledge in a predominantly passive way, on the other hand, served to oppress further (Darder, 2014)