From the Olympic dream to a down to earth approach: Lausanne's sports events hosting strategy

In the context of globalized competition among territories, cities, regions and countries have to find new ways to be attractive to companies, investors, tourists and residents. In that perspective, major sports events (such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup) are often seen as a lever for territorial development. Based on that idea, many sports events hosting strategies have emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the growing competition in the sports events' market and the gigantism of those major events, forced some territories to turn to smaller events. This necessary resize of their strategy raises the question of their capacity to meet the initial objectives, which aim usually at developing the economy and promoting the image of the host destination. This essay sketches out the evolution of a sports events hosting strategy in a city that does not have the resources (either financial, human or in terms of infrastructures) to attract major international sports events. The challenges they have to face and a possible solution based on the event portfolio perspective are discussed through the article.

CSR : a new governance approach for regulating professional sport ? : the case of french professionnal sports clubs

The purpose of this paper is to examine the CSR practices and their implementation in the context of French professional sports clubs. In doing so, it analyses the link between the governance of sports clubs and CSR, which is viewed as a component of governance expanded to stakeholders and contributing to the creation of shared value. Drawing on interview data with key stakeholders of four professional sport clubs (football and basketball) and secondary material, the study sheds light on the determinants, the implementation as well as the impact of CSR on the governance of the professional clubs under examination.

Enjeux du plurilinguisme à l'administration fédérale : la représentativité à l'épreuve de l'efficacité

Cette thèse vise une meilleure compréhension des enjeux et rapports de force liés au plurilinguisme dans une institution publique. Son terrain d'investigation est constitué par l'Administration fédérale suisse, propice pour étudier les questions ayant trait à la représentativité linguistique, l'idéologie langagière, la politique linguistique et les pratiques linguistiques sur le lieu de travail. La théorie de la bureaucratie représentative constitue le point de départ de mon cadre théorique. Selon celle-ci, les administrations publiques devraient représenter tous les groupes sociaux de leur pays. Leur personnel devrait « refléter » la diversité de cette population pour des raisons d'égalité, de légitimité et de stabilité politique. Cependant, le critère linguistique est rarement étudié dans ce cadre. Afin de combler ce manque de théorie, je me suis tournée vers la théorie politique, la sociologie des organisations et la sociolinguistique critique. Mes données sont constituées de 49 entretiens semi-directifs menés dans deux offices fédéraux, ainsi que des textes officiels réglementant le plurilinguisme et la représentativité linguistique à l'Administration fédérale. J'ai ainsi confronté les conceptions des collaborateurs sur le plurilinguisme - exprimées dans les entretiens - avec celles de l'institution, reflétées dans sa politique linguistique. Mon analyse a démontré que, selon les acteurs ou le contexte, les enjeux liés au plurilinguisme se situent à des niveaux distincts : lorsque l'institution s'efforce de créer un lieu de travail affichant l'égalité des langues officielles, les collaborateurs perçoivent le plurilinguisme comme un élément parmi d'autres qui influence l'efficacité de leur travail. L'intérêt de cette recherche se situe tout aussi bien au niveau pratique que théorique: d'une part, mes observations définissent certaines «barrières» empêchant les pratiques linguistiques plurilingues et une représentativité linguistique proportionnelle à celle du pays. Elles contribuent ainsi à une réflexion concrète sur la manière de les surmonter. D'autre part, l'application au plurilinguisme, dans une institution publique, de concepts et modèles théoriques issus de disciplines variées permet d'ouvrir un regard neuf sur ceux-ci.

Conclusions and future directions for sports events management scholarship

The book adopts a unique stakeholder perspective, structured around the groups and individuals who have an interest in and co-create sports events, including organising committees, promoters, sport organisations, spectators, community groups, sponsors, host governments, the media and NGOs. Each chapter addresses a specific stakeholder, defines that stakeholder and its relationships with sports events, describes the managerial requirements for a successful event, assesses current research and directions for future research, and outlines the normative dimensions of stakeholder engagement (such as sustainability and legacy)

From Olympic administration to Olympic governance

This articles describes three models which played a key role in the evolution of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and all the organizations which contribute to the staging of the Olympic Games and constitute the Olympic System, from its beginnings in 1894 to the present day. This evolution and the addition of many stakeholders has increased the complexity of the management of the Olympic System over the years from pure Olympic administration (when the IOC headquarters moved to Lausanne in 1915) to Olympic network governance which must take into consideration more than 24 types of stakeholders, including goverments and intergovernmental organizations.

A rationalist perspective on the autonomy of international sport governing bodies : towards a pragmatic autonomy in the steering of sports

International sport governing bodies (ISGBs) are built on the foundations of freedom of association and traditionally enjoy a large degree of autonomy in their decision-making. Their autonomy is increasingly confined, however, and their hierarchical self-governance is giving way to a more networked governance, in which different stakeholders exert power in different ways and in different contexts in a complex web of interrelationships. Taking a rationalist perspective on the autonomy of ISGBs, this article demonstrates that ISGBs are deploying strategies to safeguard their waning governing monopoly over international sport. Opting for an inductive approach, the authors present four possible conceptualizations of autonomy as applied to ISGBs, namely political autonomy, legal autonomy, financial autonomy and pyramidal autonomy. For each dimension, they describe the different strategies ISGBs wield in order to safeguard different dimensions of their autonomy. This article uses governance theories to hypothesize that the autonomy of ISGBs can be understood as 'pragmatic autonomy' since ISGBs only cede certain aspects of their autonomy under particular circumstances and when being subject to specific threats. Acting in a rationalist manner, they are able to keep control over governance developments in sport by using indirect and more subtle forms of governance.