Centre of Expertise Health Innovation

The contribution frames the special issue ‘Social responsibility and the European sport context’. It investigates and aims to inspire the discussion around what constitutes a European approach in social responsibility and sport management research focusing on how the special historical and persisting features of the European (sport) context impact on knowledge creation and diffusion.

The article reflects on the contributions included in the special issue; is based on reviewing relevant management literature; and is guided by the authors’ rich observations derived from their deep involvement in the international space of social responsibility in and through sport, spanning research and practice.

Four anchors are suggested and explored as promising avenues to constitute ‘European-ness’ in social responsibility and sport management research. In short, these are investigations driven by empirical data; a comparative approach; comprehensive literature review; and theoretical/conceptual development. It is argued that the theory anchor is the most critical and challenging, but not fully developed yet.

The article contributes a critical view on the potential for American/English hegemony in sport management scholarly activity, also impacting on one of its popular and growing sub-fields: social responsibility. Enhanced intellectual fertility and diversity of perspectives will produce more accurate understandings of the role and conceptualisation of social responsibility in European sport, impacting on both theoretical richness and relevance for contextually-embedded sport organisations.

High-performance sport systems offer athletes access to arange of experts including excellent coaches. This study examines the macro-, meso- and micro-level factors associated with coaching elite women athletes within a high-performance sport system.

This research was underpinned by constructionism and critical feminism. The data were collected via semistructured in-depth interviews with 10 international male elite rowing coaches with experience in coaching men and women athletes and analysed using thematic analysis. The data shows that at the micro-level, coaches differentiate their practices based on the gender of the athlete. These practices are influenced by meso-level factors (perceived value of sport participated by women) and shaped by macro-level factors (socio-cultural background of the coaches). Coaches’ socio-cultural experiences influence their construct of gender and affect their approach to coaching women athletes. Hence identifying macro-level factors can help managers understand coaches’ perspectives, philosophy and practice at a micro-level.

The use of a multi-level approach to examine the factors associated with coaching elite women athletes offers a unique holistic approach to understanding how multi-level factors affect the coaching of women athletes.

de Haan, D. and Sotiriadou, P. (2019). An analysis of the multi-level factors affecting the coaching of elite women athletes. Management Sport and Leisure. DOI: 10.1080/23750472.2019.1641139

Cities and communities around the world are aware of the different possibilities and benefits that may stem from hosting an international sport event. Such events provide a platform for cities to pursue positive effects and financial growth despite history indicating that hosting sport events, especially mega and major sport events, does not generate only positiveoutcomes and impacts for communities.

One common argument used to justify hosting and investing in sport events is the economic surplus and social welfare generated by the people and organizations that take part in the event in multiple different roles and forms. Impacts generated by sport events appear in many ways, such as economic impacts, tourism and visitor impacts, social impacts, customer and visitor satisfaction, promotional value and brand image impacts, participation and cohesion, environmental impacts and effects on the lifestyle and vitality of the surrounding community.

In this chapter, the direct economic impact generated by three international sport events organized in Finland and the Netherlands are assessed. The magnitude of the studied events can be estimated as medium-sized international sport events, with two of them being World Championships tournaments and the other a World Championships race. Conducting event impact research is a complicated process which includes numerous phases and viewpoints. From policymakers’ perspectives, surveying the benefits and disadvantages generated by sport events provides facts to endorse the very fundamental question in event bidding: to host or not to host. Presenting this question before the event, in time for bidding, requires projections and estimations of the possible event impact outcomes. The actual impact can be measured for the most part during and after the event, and its main purpose is to provide first hand information for policymakers, organizers and partners, and the citizens, concerning the benefits of the event in perspective with the investments.

Laitila, O. & N. van Herpen (2017), The Direct Economic Impact of International Sport Events for the Hosting City. In: Dodds, M., K. Heisey & A. Ahonen, Routledge Handbook of International Sport Business. London: Routledge

In February 2021, a Feature Paper Special Issue entitled "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives" was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. This special issue features 30 contemporary contributions which relate to the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiative launched by the World Health Organization in 2007.

The key focus of this Special Issue is to provide a critical assessment and overview of the state of the art within the Age-friendly Cities arena. Published papers include an editorial, seven papers focusing on age-friendly neighbourhoods, cities, communities, and societies, three papers explore innovative approaches to housing, two papers concentrate on age-friendly transportation, four papers focus on innovative practices in the domain of cure and/or care for older citizens, four papers relate to respect and social inclusion, and nine papers focus on and consider the use and implementation of technology in an age-friendly city or community.

As a take home message, the guest editors, Prof Joost van Hoof (The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences) and Dr Hannah R. Marston (The Open University, Milton Keynes) would like to emphasize the need for greater collaboration between disciplines in order to create a truly multisectoral actions for making our cities age-friendly for all generations. The contents of this Special Issue is one of the ways to expand and disseminate knowledge and to facilitate the actual age-friendly agenda and narrative further.

All papers are published as open access papers, which means that they can be read and downloaded free of charge. Direct access to the special issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/Age_Friendly_Cities