Over and over : consumer engagement and turning sports tourists into fans

Travel to consume sport is an increasingly popular and prevalent leisure pursuit (Fourie & Santana-Gallego, 2011; Fredline, 2005). From those who follow Formula 1 across the globe (Henderson et al., 2010), to Tennis’ most ardent fans (Fredline, 2005), consumers probe further afield in order to satisfy their desires for memorable and gratifying travel couched within the domain of their favourite sporting activities. Football consumption, although traditionally aligned along geographical or demographic boundaries (Jones, 2000; Porat, 2010, Conner, 2014), is no different with 800,000 overseas tourists travelling to the UK to experience matches every year (Magowan, 2015). The extent of this travel provides opportunities tangentially for service providers geographically proximate to major finals and international tournament destinations (Daniels, 2005; Prayag et al., 2013), but also at a granular level for football clubs who seek to attract, engage, and maintain access to this lucrative market of affluent consumers who spend over £680m annually (Magowan, 2015). Extant research is focused on the impact of this economic influx (Daniels, 2007; Smith, 2005, Allan et al., 2007), with little consideration given to the tourists themselves, nor the potential to engage with these one-off visitors in order to transform them into more regular sources of income. Therefore, engagement is crucial and, from an operational perspective, the football ‘industry’ has recognised this. The increasing prevalence of social media transfer announcements (Lang, 2017), innovations such as Manchester City’s newly developed glass-tunnel (Hyde 2017), and ‘city-takeover’ events aimed at bridging the gap between player-and-fan, demonstrate how football clubs are adopting unusual strategies in order to encourage consumers to believe that they have ‘behind-the-scenes’ access to the machinations of the clubs that they love. However, these attempts typically focus on local fans, neglecting those who travel to consumer sport on a regular basis. As such, the question remains, how can football clubs engage these tourists and encourage them to become ‘fans’ (through repeat visits and recommendations to friends) and thus benefit financially from their considerable spending power

Skills for growth : understanding skills supply and demand in the Scottish economy

Error on title page, date of award is 2022.The research aim of this project is to investigate the distribution, severity, and determinants of regional skills mismatch in Scotland, with additional focus on the ability of employers to combat any deficiencies. The narrative of widespread and persistent imbalances in skills supply and demand is a common feature of the Scottish political and industry landscape. Evidence and anecdote point towards deficiencies at the sectoral, firm and job-role level, with presumed knock-on effects hampering firm and aggregate productivity growth. Nonetheless, further scrutiny reveals a host of substantial conceptual, methodological, and empirical weaknesses with prior skills deficiency research, and a holistic, in-depth focus on the Scottish context, with its varied/unique spatial-economic composition, is lacking. To shed light on these issues, this thesis adopts a mixed-methods research approach, incorporating both probit and logistic regression analyses as well as semi-structured interviews with employers, industry-representative bodies and policy makers. Research findings suggest that: (1) little geographic influence can be detected at the statistical level despite the protestations of employers to the contrary; (2) sectoral variation exists, although not all knowledge-intensive sectors suffer equally; (3) there remains substantial confusion among employers as to what precisely is meant by the terms “skill shortages” and “skill gaps”; (4) what many employers mean by “skill shortages” could often be described as generic labour shortages; (5) besides technical skill deficiencies, the problem frequently manifests in what are commonly denoted as “soft” skills or “core” skills; (6) employers’ expectations of the skill levels of new employees, particularly young employees, varies drastically; (7) successful Scottish firms, even internationally successful Scottish firms, still manage to operate in sectors or industries where skill problems have been self-reported by employers; (8) these firms have first-hand experience of skill deficiencies, but place a lot of focus on training and robust internal HR, skills retention and skills diffusion procedures; (9) firms have been reluctant to raise wages and salaries to combat skill shortages. This thesis contributes to the literature by outlining conceptual and methodological weaknesses with much of the existing (influential) research, by exploring the Scottish context in greater detail, and by exploring the phenomena of skill deficiencies at the regional (in-country) level.The research aim of this project is to investigate the distribution, severity, and determinants of regional skills mismatch in Scotland, with additional focus on the ability of employers to combat any deficiencies. The narrative of widespread and persistent imbalances in skills supply and demand is a common feature of the Scottish political and industry landscape. Evidence and anecdote point towards deficiencies at the sectoral, firm and job-role level, with presumed knock-on effects hampering firm and aggregate productivity growth. Nonetheless, further scrutiny reveals a host of substantial conceptual, methodological, and empirical weaknesses with prior skills deficiency research, and a holistic, in-depth focus on the Scottish context, with its varied/unique spatial-economic composition, is lacking. To shed light on these issues, this thesis adopts a mixed-methods research approach, incorporating both probit and logistic regression analyses as well as semi-structured interviews with employers, industry-representative bodies and policy makers. Research findings suggest that: (1) little geographic influence can be detected at the statistical level despite the protestations of employers to the contrary; (2) sectoral variation exists, although not all knowledge-intensive sectors suffer equally; (3) there remains substantial confusion among employers as to what precisely is meant by the terms “skill shortages” and “skill gaps”; (4) what many employers mean by “skill shortages” could often be described as generic labour shortages; (5) besides technical skill deficiencies, the problem frequently manifests in what are commonly denoted as “soft” skills or “core” skills; (6) employers’ expectations of the skill levels of new employees, particularly young employees, varies drastically; (7) successful Scottish firms, even internationally successful Scottish firms, still manage to operate in sectors or industries where skill problems have been self-reported by employers; (8) these firms have first-hand experience of skill deficiencies, but place a lot of focus on training and robust internal HR, skills retention and skills diffusion procedures; (9) firms have been reluctant to raise wages and salaries to combat skill shortages. This thesis contributes to the literature by outlining conceptual and methodological weaknesses with much of the existing (influential) research, by exploring the Scottish context in greater detail, and by exploring the phenomena of skill deficiencies at the regional (in-country) level

Sentencing the corporate offender: Legal and social issues

Introduction - so what does 'and society' mean?, Cyrus Tata. Part 1 The International Movement Towards Transparency and 'Truth in Sentencing': Getting tough on crime - the history and political context of sentencing reform developments leading to the passage of the crime act, Judith Greene; A sentencing matrix for Western Australia - accountability and transparency or smoke and mirrors?, Neil Morgan; Mandatory sentences - a conundrum for the new South Africa?, Dirk van Zyl Smit; Are guided sentencing and sentence bargaining incompatible? - perspectives of reform in the Italian legal system, Grazia Mannozzi; Legislation and practice of sentencing in China, Liling Yue; Sentencing reform in Canada - who cares about corrections?, Mary E. Campbell. Part 2 The Truth About Public and Victim Punitiveness - What do we Know and What do we Need to Know?: Public knowledge and public opinion of sentencing, Mike Hough and Julian V. Roberts; Crisis and contradictions in a state sentencing structure, B. Keith Crew, Gene Lutz and Kristine Fahrney; Harsher is not necessarily better - victim satisfaction with sentences imposed under a 'truth in sentencing' law, Candice McCoy and Patrick McManimon Jr. Part 3 Measuring Punishment - Conceptual and Practical Problems and Resolutions: European sentencing traditions - accepting divergence or aiming for convergence?, Andrew Ashworth; What's it worth? - a cross-jurisdictional comparison of sentence severity, Arie Frieberg; Sentencing burglars in England and Finland - a pilot study, Malcolm Davies, Jukka-Pekka Takala and Jane Tyrer; A new look at sentence severity, Brian J. Ostrom and Charles W. Ostrom; Desert and the punitiveness of imprisonment, Gavin Dingwall and Christopher Harding; The science of sentencing - measuring theory and von Hirsch's new scales of justice, Julia Davis; Scaling punishments - a reply to Julia Davis, Andrew von Hirsch; Scaling punishments - a response to von Hirsch, Julia Davis. Part 4 Reaso

Over and over: local fans and spectator sport tourist engagement

This study investigates consumer engagement within the live sport-as-service industry by exploring the match-day experiences of spectator sport tourists. It highlights the importance of authentic and sincere experiences manifest through tourists’ interactions with local fans. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with international tourists who had visited Glasgow and attended a Celtic FC match. The findings demonstrate that football clubs may overlook the importance of consumer engagement, and that local fans are crucial in sustaining sports tourists’ engagement. To this end, the findings suggest that tourist interactions with local fans can stimulate more memorable and enjoyable travel. Further, the vocal, visual displays provided by local fans contribute to an authentic and sincere travel experience. The study therefore suggests that local fans are a resource under-utilised by professional sports teams, with their contribution serving as a vital bridge between organisation and tourist in fostering engagement