Search results

Major sporting events (MSEs) have always contributed to sustainable change. Many owners and organizers of MSEs have gradually institutionalized the governance of sporting events legacies. International sports organizations and past studies currently have a vision for sporting event legacies. However, a specific legacy governance system has not been developed. Thus, this study explores stakeholder's perspectives of post-event effects and the legacy governance strategies for Taipei 2017 Universiade (TU).

The representatives of the various stakeholders of the TU are selected and an in-depth interview approach employed. Archival material, including official organizing documents and information from the TU website, is used to increases the reliability of the results.

The benefits of MSEs are not always long-lasting. The TU has created a significant breakthrough for Taipei City, and its successful hosting has raised the image of the city and strengthened its infrastructure and national identity. Thus, the TU must leave sustainable legacies to benefit society and urban development.

Although the study has revealed diverse perspectives from the representatives of stakeholder groups and highlighted the uniqueness and future directions of legacy governance that the TU has produced and learned, the findings may not be fully applicable or replicated in other cities or small countries, especially given Taiwan's international political status. For further study, a systematic model can be constructed to more accurately analyze the interconnected relationship to determine the extent to which various MSE legacies are regarded as “successful” governance, and other significant aspects should be incorporated into the model as a basis for comparing traditional legacy assessment.

This study developed a theoretical account of legacies and their relevance to MSEs, thus emphasizing that, in addition to “hard legacies” (concrete infrastructure or athletes' village), hosting the TU has established “soft legacies” (memories enshrined in the public's consciousness). Regarding the Taipei city government, the sustainable strategies of legacy governance after learning from the hosting experience are probably more complex. Nonetheless, hosting MSEs has been regarded as a crucial medium for urban development across the globe. It would be helpful to further this line of inquiry via the TU stakeholder perspectives regarding legacy governance concerns.

The study contributes to the literature by proposing feasible directions of legacy governance for a host city. As Taiwanese are concerned, the political legacy has the most profound influence among all types of the legacies generated by the TU. The followed is the infrastructure legacy, which can be utilized as the core of the sustainable development strategies of the legacy governance, thereby expanding the post-event governance of various legacies.

With the growing popularity of sports in Taiwan, the Sports Administration under the Ministry of Education introduced the Taiwan iSports Corporate Award campaign. This emphasised sports for employees and assisted in developing and supporting corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the sports industry through collaboration with firms, thereby enhancing their corporate image, facilitating the recruitment of high-quality employees and highlighting healthy human resources and brand value. Can sports-based CSR performance reflect firms' market values and reduce their market risks? This study regards Taiwan iSports Corporate Award announcements as important sports-based CSR disclosures and incorporates financial econometrics to examine the relationship between the announcement of sports-based CSR performance and firms' market values and risks.

An event study is conducted to clarify the reactions of the Taiwan iSports Corporate Award announcement event on the abnormal returns of award-winning firms during the 2016–2021 period, and a regression discontinuity design (RDD) model is employed to verify the robustness of the empirical results using the event study method.

Taiwan iSports Corporate Award announcements are not significantly reflected in the positive abnormal returns of award-winning firms. No causal relationship is found between the two. However, there are signs of relatively less systematic risks when investing in award-winning firms than in the market.

This study provides empirical evidence and managerial implications for Taiwan iSports Corporate Award-winning firms. It effectively enables business operators, sponsors or investors to understand the reactions of announcing sports-based CSR performance on the financial market and provides references for corporate organizations' CSR and sustainable development.

Although both sports and cities have transformed over the last century, research on the intersection of sports and urban development remains scarce. This special issue was designed to advance a research agenda in relation to sports and urban development. The sports and urban development special issue of International Journal of Sport Marketing and Sponsorship brings together a collection of conceptual, empirical and commentary papers from four continents. Themes explored in this special issue include legacy, governance, image, climate change and sustainability. We encourage collaborative approaches between sport researchers and those with a focus on urban development, urban design and urban governance. Understanding the role of sports in the development of smart cities is an excellent opportunity for these collaborations to occur.

A comprehensive review of literature was undertaken to assess the literature related to sports and urban development.

In addition to this introductory article, there are ten manuscripts selected for this special issue investigating sports and urban development.

This special issue seeks to promote more research on sports and urban development, ultimately ultimately advancing theories and providing solutions.