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Discusses the causes of damp following the insertion of a remedial damp‐proof course and the methods which can be used to detect and prevent it. Details hygroscopic and capillary moisture, the components of the total moisture content of masonry and the uses of a moisture profile with which to measure this. Explores electrical and carbide moisture meters, explaining the pros and cons of each. Reports on alleged failures and reported causes of damp, discussing problems with replastering, condensation and penetrating damp, surface condensation, misreading of signals, bridging. Suggests that the majority of dampness problems can be resolved by undertaking a logical programme of investigation and elimination.

Evidence of the link between major sports events and increased participation at grassroots level is somewhat mixed. The purpose of this paper is to examine attitudinal changes to sport participation among spectators associated with seven sports events held in Great Britain in 2014.

Primary data were gathered from 4,590 spectators aged 16 and over who attended one of the events. Both positive (inspiration) effects and negative (discouragement) effects were considered through the lens of the transtheoretical model (TTM).

The evidence from this research indicates that event audiences belong primarily to the latter (more active) stages of the TTM. It was also found that attending sports events can further fuel the existing desire of contemplators to increase participation, whereas the catalytic effect among pre-contemplators is arguably less potent. Virtually no discouragement effects were observed across the different TTM stages.

The research stops short of measuring actual changes in sport participation post-event of individuals in the different TTM stages and any attribution of such behaviour changes to events. This is both a limitation of the current research and a natural direction for future research.

The main implications for promoting sport participation through the medium of sports events include attracting more people in the early stages of the TTM, greater collaboration between different event stakeholders and the building of sport participation strategies into the event planning phase.

Models of behaviour change such as the TTM have seldom been applied to document the current and/or planned sport participation behaviour of individuals in a sport event context or to examine attitudinal changes towards sport as a result of attending an event. An adapted version of the TTM has been proposed to overcome the limitations of the traditional model.

This research outlines the practices that managers believe are critical for achieving quality management in applied research and development (e.g. R&D, process development, product development, and engineering) departments of manufacturing companies. Using these practices, comments from R&D managers, and the existing quality in R&D research literature, a model is developed that highlights the need for broad management practices, specific management practices, awareness of the R&D external environment, and a quality culture to achieve quality management in the R&D departments of manufacturing organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the methodologies used to evaluate major events. It aims to establish the most practically‐relevant methodology for analysing the economic impact of routinely‐held major events and to identify the key methodological issues for future consideration.

The paper draws on empirical research undertaken by the Sport Industry Research Centre using the direct expenditure approach (DEA).

The DEA is the most pragmatic and cost‐effective method for evaluating the economic impact of medium‐sized major events. However, the approach is only as robust as the quality of data utilised to derive estimates. Key emerging methodological issues are measuring attendance, consideration of direct first‐round leakage and treatment of organisational spend and event surplus/deficit.

The DEA limits the measurement of economic impact to first‐round spending associated with an event. It is not suitable for measuring large‐scale mega‐events that require a more holistic and advanced method of event evaluation.

The paper considers the methods used to evaluate events in the context of balancing academic rigour with the everyday practical realities and constraints facing event organisers and researchers. It discusses existing and emerging methodological considerations and techniques for dealing with these. The paper will be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners from the event industry carrying out or commissioning economic impact studies.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether watching a live track cycling event could increase youths' intention to participate in the sport, and to identify cognitive and affective mechanisms associated with post-event intentions.

A sample of youth spectators (n = 362) who experienced the 2016 Milton International Track Cycling Challenge completed pre- and post-event questionnaires to assess intention to participate and cognitive and affective components of their spectator experience.

Respondents' intentions to participate post-event were significantly higher than pre-event. Results also indicated that state inspiration mediated relationships between three cognitive dimensions of sport spectator experiences (i.e. fantasy, flow, evaluation) and intention to participate.

Sport managers should design youth day events to engage with youth prior to the event to increase their knowledge of the sport. This prior engagement may help youth to evaluate performances effectively. Moreover, event experience should be designed to incorporate vicarious and immersive experiences tailored to youth spectators.

The present study is one of the first to assess intentions to participate among youth spectators at multiple time points (i.e. before and after an event) and identifies specific mechanism within the spectator experience that may lead to a demonstration effect.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the findings from ex ante and ex post economic impact appraisals of six major sports events. The ultimate aim of the paper is to identify the factors that cause differences between forecasts of direct expenditure and figures based on primary research.

A direct expenditure forecast for each event was derived based on analysis of event documentation and informed assumptions applied from previous studies. Subsequently, a comprehensive study was undertaken involving primary data collection and associated desk research.

Of the forecasts, three were inflated and three were conservative relative to the ex post figures. In total, two potential sources of variance are examined – visitor spending and organisational expenditure. The former was found to be more unpredictable when compiling a pre‐event forecast. The group for which direct expenditure is most difficult to predict is spectators, with the most exaggerated forecasts associated with free‐to‐view events.

Neither input‐output nor computable general equilibrium models were used to analyse secondary, indirect or induced impacts. Nonetheless, direct expenditure is the basis for modelling wider impacts and is therefore worthy of consideration in its own right.

The paper's findings should enable public sector agencies to better understand the reliability of projected figures presented to them by organisers in exchange for securing financial support for their events.

Economic impact forecasts are rarely subjected to post‐event scrutiny. This research bridges the gap between ex ante and ex post figures and identifies areas where forecast accuracy can be improved.

Given the strong interest among services marketing practitioners in sponsoring events, this study illustrates how events and sponsorships synergistically facilitate and deepen consumer relationships by connecting service brands with consumers' passions. Structural equation modeling is used to test a congruity theory-based framework via a field study conducted at a professional cycling event. The tested model holds for two service brands operating at different levels of sponsorship. The results demonstrate how the combination of consumers' attitudes toward the event, knowledge of the sponsor brand and their level of activity in the event domain influence their assessments of event-sponsor fit. Interestingly, the findings indicate that, in the context of a community-based sports event, the title sponsor did not experience any discernable advantage of sponsorship, despite its elevated position as a sponsor and higher brand equity.

The purpose of this study is to examine if sport event volunteers were inspired by their event experience to volunteer in the future.

A postevent questionnaire was administered to 161 professional golf tournament volunteers, in which 93 respondents were identified as first-time volunteers of the event and 68 as returning volunteers. A moderation analysis was conducted to assess if previous event-specific volunteer experience moderated the relationship between volunteers' inspiration and future volunteer intentions.

First-time event-specific volunteers were significantly more inspired to volunteer again than returning event-specific volunteers. Findings indicate volunteers can be inspired from their event experience toward future volunteer intentions.

This study offers conceptual understandings and new application of inspiration–behavioral intentions by examining sport events' (in)ability to inspire first-time and returning event volunteers to volunteer in the future. Findings are limited to the sport event volunteers' intention discussion.

This study demonstrates how event stakeholders can create positive future behavioral intentions for community members through hosting sport events. By positioning first-time event-specific volunteers within roles that can elicit inspiration (e.g. interacting with athletes), event managers can foster stronger future volunteer intentions.

This study extends the understanding of demonstration effects by moving beyond the traditional sport event spectators and sport participation intention foci. It demonstrates that sport events can inspire different spectator groups (i.e. event volunteers) toward different future behavioral intentions (i.e. volunteer intentions). Findings address previous sport event volunteer assumptions regarding intention, inspiration and volunteer segments.

The study aims to explore the use of alternative measures of “understandability” on accounting texts. This includes the meaning identification test (MIT) and the sentence verification technique (SVT), which have not previously been used by accounting researchers, as well as variants on the traditional Cloze tests such as the C-Test.

This study focuses on the understandability of accounting texts and evaluates how reliable the Cloze test is as a measure of comprehension. An experiment was designed and conducted to measure users' performance with a variety of comprehension measures (MIT, SVT, Cloze, C-Test).

The study concludes that the outcomes from the MIT and SVT comprehension tests are not significantly associated with those from the Cloze tests. This implies that while the Cloze test is a good measure of the predictability of accounting narratives, and of textual redundancy, it does not necessarily measure the understandability of the text.

These measures of understandability, which have not previously been used in accounting, would enable researchers to test the communicational effectiveness of using different accounting narratives such as annual reports or prospectuses. Such a measure could be used to improve the understandability of accounting narratives. The strengths and weaknesses of the various tests are assessed. It is suggested that there is a need for further experimentation especially with the MIT test.