Service quality at the London 2012 games – a paralympics athletes survey

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on aspects of service quality at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, from a rather unusual perspective, the athletes. To date there has been little evidence captured about athlete’s satisfaction at sporting events, and specifically about their perceptions of the service quality provided. Design/methodology/approach – Unique “full” access to the London 2012 Paralympics allowed to the collection of data directly from the athletes. The study reports the questionnaire findings from a sample of 250 respondents. Findings – From this study an operational assessment and performance framework has been generated composed of ten criteria and 73 items or sub-criteria, which can be used as a benchmarking tool to plane, design and compare future sport mega-event. Moreover, the study evidence based the high quality of the 2012 Paralympics Games, as he athletes rated, on a five point Likert scale, 64 items in the “very satisfied” category, a very positive set of feedback for the Games organisers. Research limitations/implications – The methodology applied was appropriate, generating data to facilitate discussion and draw specific conclusions from. A perceived limitation is the single case approach; however, this can be enough to add to the body of knowledge where very little evidence has been captured so far and where the objectives were to explore the Paralympics games service quality and performance. Practical implications – This research provides a tangible evidence base to support future sport event decision makers, planners and designers in this highly complex “arena”. In any system there are always areas for improvement, these are highlighted within the paper for further investigation. Originality/value – This is the first paper to identify and synthesize aspects of sport mega event service quality from the athletes viewpoint and informs how well designed, organised and managed the London 2012 Games were from a primary user perspective. The paper makes a defined contribution by developing evidence based recommendations for this important yet under researched area.

Sport logistics research: reviewing and line marking of a new field

“…However, the study does not include any more specific management implication regarding athletes in comparison to other stakeholders, such as fans or organisers. In contrast, Bamford and Dehe (2016) used the London 2012 Paralympic Game to investigate the specific service requirements of disabled athletes during the sports events. With a different focus in their works, Roy and Forest (2018) and Huyghe et al (2018) combined athlete management with the analysis of sleeping patterns.…”

“…. (2018),Roy & Forest (2018),Bamford & Dehe(2016),Kauppi et al (2013),Bovy (2009),Wright (2009),Minis at al. (2006a),Minis et al (2006b) …”

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“…These dimensions are primary professional, primary-consumer, primary-peripheral, primary-facilitating goods, and secondary goods and services (Chelladurai & Chang, 2000). Following this line of authors who elaborate new research to generate scales that can be adapted to different types of services, researchers find contributions dedicated to the perception of perceived quality in fitness centers (Bamford, & Dehe, 2016) Among the researchers who supported the relationship between quality and satisfaction with the intentions and behaviour are Cronin, Brady, and Hult (2000), who investigated this relationship in six different industrial markets: a) sports fans, b) participants in sports activities, c) entertainment d) health institutes, e) long distance transports and f) fast food chains. The study explored suitability as a whole, as well as individually for each type of industrial market, through and the results showed a significant correlation between quality and satisfaction on behavioural intentions.…”

Sports operations management: examining the relationship between environmental uncertainty and quality management orientation

“…The lack of customer orientation as regards quality management practices in an uncertain environment is surprising, particularly as customer satisfaction is often seen as important to the success of sporting events (Bamford & Dehe, 2016;Kelley & Turley, 2001).…”