To identify the organisations that provide global governance within the sports industry, to discuss their role, and to suggest that they have self‐governance problems due to both…
Abstract
Purpose
To identify the organisations that provide global governance within the sports industry, to discuss their role, and to suggest that they have self‐governance problems due to both their evolution and the massive commercialisation of sport of recent decades.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical‐based argument is conducted. Standing at the apex of a hierarchy of national governing bodies and playing organisations, global sports organisations (GSOs) are defined and classified in terms of their governance functions, their commonalities and differences and their interconnections described and analysed. The GSOs for soccer, the Olympics and athletics are used as illustrative cases. Deficiencies in the small sports governance literature are identified. It is argued how the GSOs have maintained their authority as governance organisations despite being private organisations. Hirschman's “Voice, exit and loyalty” model is offered as a partial theoretical interpretation of their situation.
Findings
Although one of the GSOs' original major functions of formalising international sport is now complete, they have retained not only their sport governance monopolies and authority but also the original structures designed for amateur sport. This creates problems when the governance monopoly can be used as a revenue device.
Originality/value
Sport is an important part of global culture and an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars where accusations of corruption are common but global governance is little examined. The GSOs, present‐day commercial roles and enormous revenues create unresolved governance problems and these are described.
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John Forster and Nigel K. Ll. Pope
Sport leagues are subject to the potential market entry of new leagues playing essentially the same sport. The economic analysis of market entry and exit is used to interpret two…
Abstract
Sport leagues are subject to the potential market entry of new leagues playing essentially the same sport. The economic analysis of market entry and exit is used to interpret two Australian cases of new league entry. These new entrants were World Series Cricket (cricket) and Super League (rugby league). The role of the media in the creation of both new leagues was crucial, providing commercial rationale, seed-funding and organizational capabilities. In addition, strategic input competition for venues and players helped weaken the incumbent league. The two cases analyzed provide a template for intending sport league entrants.
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Gail Longworth and Jerome Carson
The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of the novelist Charles Dickens.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of the novelist Charles Dickens.
Design/methodology/approach
Several biographies and articles about the life of Charles Dickens were examined, to see if there was evidence that he experienced mental health problems.
Findings
While Dickens has been acclaimed for his ability to authentically portray the living conditions of the poor in the nineteenth-century Britain, there is comparatively little historical record of the fact that he may have experienced bipolar disorder. This paper suggests that he displayed many of the characteristic symptoms of bipolar.
Research limitations/implications
The story of Dickens’ own childhood is an amazing example of personal resilience. It no doubt enhanced the quality of his writing, but it may also have “sown the seeds” of a later mental illness.
Practical implications
So much attention has been focused on the colourful characters from Dickens’ novels, but little on the problems of the man himself.
Social implications
The story of Charles Dickens is as fascinating as any of the fictional characters he created, if not even more intriguing. His story confirms the link between writers, creativity and mood disorders.
Originality/value
Given the huge attention and worldwide acclaim paid to the books of Charles Dickens, which have inspired numerous films as well as musicals, it is surprising how little attention has been paid to the author himself and his struggles with mental illness.
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The purpose of this paper is to understand the nature of competition for private donations that occurs between not-for-profit organisations (NPOs). This competition occurs because…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the nature of competition for private donations that occurs between not-for-profit organisations (NPOs). This competition occurs because NPOs do not produce commercially viable outputs and therefore rely on donations. The financial sustainability of NPOs is problematic, both individually and in economy-wide terms, as they do not produce commercial saleable outputs. Instead they raise funds by either relying on government grants or competing for private donations. Sustainability of NPOs becomes an even greater issue when governments reduce their grant-giving in times of stress – precisely the time when calls on NPOs’ resources increase.
Design/methodology/approach
The research asks the question, do donation-raising expenditures by NPOs increase donations or do they damagingly divert donations from other NPOs? Using Australian data, competition between NPOs for donations is analysed using a modified oligopoly market model. NPO fundraising expenditures are central to this model, but other factors, including unpaid-volunteers, organisational size and age, are also explanatory variables in determining success in fundraising. NPOs concerned with human welfare, other than specialised aged care, are the primary focus of this paper, although other NPOs such as those concerned with animal welfare, science and the arts are also modelled.
Findings
Crucially an NPO’s fundraising expenditure has a direct and positive impact on its level of donations. A major influence on level of donations is the presence of volunteers within an NPO. There seems to be an interesting reciprocal relationship between the effect of size and age of organisations on their donations and the effect on fundraising. Critically for sustainability, NPOs competing for funds are established as having a negative effect on the level of donations to other NPOs with similar functions.
Originality/value
It is believed that the material used here represents one of the first studies of financial sustainability of NPOs and highlights the value of both accounting and economic analysis of organisations’ operations. Financial sustainability issues are compounded by the existence of competition for funds among charities operating in the same areas (Parsons, 2003; Trussel and Greenlee, 2004; Trussel and Parsons, 2008); it has been argued that competition for funds diminishes sustainability (Lyons, 2001; Weerawandena et al., 2010).
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Antonioni, Berger, Magritte and Sontag, with their respective challenges to our perceptions of what is real and unreal, set the scene for a discussion of the tension between…
Abstract
Antonioni, Berger, Magritte and Sontag, with their respective challenges to our perceptions of what is real and unreal, set the scene for a discussion of the tension between current policies and norms in higher education systems and the increasingly important need to introduce true interdisciplinarity in university programmes – specifically, here, with regard to the role of the humanities in business-related courses. It is argued that uncertainty and imperfection are key signposts to creativity and innovation. Uncertainty demands the constant search for possibility; imperfection provides the constant opportunity to improve and is therefore the inspiration for innovation. In an exploration focussing principally on the various potentialities of the study of literature, it is suggested that many initiatives to introduce the arts into non-humanities programmes have a common and significant limitation in that they are defined by a specific purpose – by an understandable and, in our current higher education environments, an inevitable need to specify what ‘impact’ the intervention will have on the skills and employability of the student. However, something much more radical is needed if what George Eliot called the ‘vital connections of knowledge’ are to be truly made, and the radical adjustment required runs directly counter to a culture that is dominated by the compulsion to demonstrate impact, set measurable targets and prioritize practical application.
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58. In addition to Government control the co‐operative societies have their own organisations for controlling the health of the cattle and improving the cleanliness and quality of…
Abstract
58. In addition to Government control the co‐operative societies have their own organisations for controlling the health of the cattle and improving the cleanliness and quality of the milk produced by their members. These organisations co‐operate closely with the Government Keuringsdienst van Waren (Food Control Service) and welcome the Government's efforts; they say, however, that they can do far more than the Government officials could do unaided since they are in very intimate touch with the farmers, and have behind them the power to pay the farmer a lower price for his milk or to refuse it entirely, or expel him from the Society; these possibilities have greater compelling force than the necessarily more formal official methods of procedure and the threat of legal proceedings.
Ahmed S. Alanazi, Benjamin Liu and John Forster
The main objective of this paper is to measure Saudi Arabian initial public offerings' (IPOs) financial performance before and after going public on the Saudi Stock Exchange…
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of this paper is to measure Saudi Arabian initial public offerings' (IPOs) financial performance before and after going public on the Saudi Stock Exchange Market. The paper also aims to explore factors associated with the financial performance variation between pre‐ and post‐IPO.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 16 Saudi IPOs is investigated. A matched pairs methodology is mainly used combined with regression analysis.
Findings
Saudi IPOs exhibit a significant decline in the post‐IPO performance compared to the pre‐IPO level as measured by the return on assets and return on sales. It was also found that the performance deterioration is associated with the IPO event.
Originality/value
The paper is the first assessment of IPOs clustering occurred in Saudi Arabia.
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Hui‐Yuan Hsieh and John Forster
The aim of this article is to present a new, simple applicable method of inferring and assessing residential construction quality at an industry‐wide level.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to present a new, simple applicable method of inferring and assessing residential construction quality at an industry‐wide level.
Design/methodology/approach
Construction quality is measured using ratios of structural materials to production levels. Cement and reinforcing bar per 1,000m2 of residential floor space are the metrics, especially appropriate in Taiwan as new dwelling units (virtually all apartments and row houses) and all of reinforced concrete. Complementary measurements of quality for labour and non‐structural construction material inputs were also made.
Findings
The structural input and complementary measures indicate that the quality of Taiwanese residential construction declines dramatically and consistently at higher production levels. The implication is that dwelling units from the 1990s construction boom are especially at risk.
Research limitations/implications
The methods cannot be used to identify specific buildings at risk. The methods are difficult to apply in situations where construction methods and residential types are heterogeneous.
Practical implications
Construction quality can be monitored on a regular basis so industry‐wide steps can be taken if quality declines appear. The evidence is consistent with Taiwan's sub‐contractor network enabling rapid expansions and contractions at the expense of hidden quality failure.
Originality/value
This paper provides information that could lead to much firmer regulatory systems, hence has the potential to help save lives and property.