Social impact of a participative small-scale sporting event

Abstract

PurposeTo examine the social impact of a small-scale sporting event and its influence on the willingness to support future events.Design/methodology/approachA self-supplied questionnaire was used with 248 residents-sportspeople that participated in the Valencia Triathlon. Descriptive analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factorials were done through SPSS, FACTOR and EQS.FindingsThree dimensions of positive impacts were identified; sporting participation and city image, social development and human capital and economic development. The impacts in sporting participation and in the improvement to the image of the city contribute to positively explaining the willingness to support the holding of sporting events. Local sportspeople highlight their participative component and the projection of the city image as key factors to endorse holding future sporting events as a strategy for tourism.Research limitations/implicationsThe convenience sampling limits the extrapolation of the results.Practical implicationsMaking the most of the intangible aspects is recommended due to the great potential these events have to generate social capital and increase the networks of social collaboration. Give a more active role to volunteers and local organizers in an organization. Transmit the pride of the community and the sense of belonging to this community to the media and advertising communication.Social implicationsSmall scale sporting events can contribute to improving the quality of life, increasing pride, the sense of belonging of the residents, opportunities for entertainment and encouraging local participation.Originality/valueA contribution to the empirical analysis of the social impact of small-scale sporting events from the perspective of local participants.

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“…Research in the field of social sciences is represented by only 107 papers. Moreover, the topic of economics is covered by 9 articles, institutional -by 4 articles (Sowell, Mounts, 2005;Baumann et al, 2009;Sallent et al, 2011;Raya, 2012;Wicker et al, 2013;Saghiri, Wilding, 2013;Kim, 2013;Eren, 2017;Parra-Camacho et al, 2020;Phillips, Newland, 2014;Wagner, 2016;Pedras et al, 2020;Dori, Kemp, 2020). Only recent articles by Jane Hunt are focused specifically on history (Hunt, 2017;.…”

Expected and Experienced Social Impact of Host Residents During Rugby World Cup 2019: A Panel Data Approach

“…Other types of social impact research investigate the influence of social impact on residents' intentions (e.g., Kaplanidou et al, 2013 ; Prayag et al, 2013 ; Inoue and Havard, 2014 ). Several types of intentions have been utilized in research streams, such as positive word of mouth (Inoue and Havard, 2014 ), event support (Kaplanidou et al, 2013 ; Prayag et al, 2013 ; Parra-Camacho et al, 2020b ), support for sports policy (Parra-Camacho et al, 2020d ), and future intention to host the event (Liu, 2016 ; Oshimi et al, 2016 ; Parra-Camacho et al, 2020a ). However, little evidence exists on the relationships between social impact and actual residents' behavior (i.e., viewing behavior).…”

Spectators' perceived social benefits, subjective well-being and support intention: non-mega-parasporting events' educational perspective

“…Studies that focused on non-mega-sporting events perceived increased social benefits in recent years. For example, Parra-Camacho et al (2020) focused on residents who participated in a triathlon in Valencia, Spain, and explored three social impacts: social development and human capital, sport participation and city image, and economic development. Another study that conducted a questionnaire survey with spectators of Wuhan Marathon in China revealed that, social impacts had a significant positive impact on the quality of life and event support (Duan et al , 2020).…”

“…Another study that conducted a questionnaire survey with spectators of Wuhan Marathon in China revealed that, social impacts had a significant positive impact on the quality of life and event support (Duan et al , 2020). Further, prior research discussed that social development and human capital allow residents to have a sense of well-being and have the opportunity to relate to new people as well as include disadvantaged groups and those at risk of social exclusion (Parra-Camacho et al , 2020).…”