SPORT EVENTS AND REPRESENTATIONAL CAPITAL: INVESTIGATING INDUSTRY COLLABORATION IN RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015 PLANNING Emily Shephard This is a digitised version of a dissertation submitted to the University of Bedfordshire. It is available to view only. This item is subject to copyright. SPORT EVENTS AND REPRESENTATIONAL CAPITAL: INVESTIGATING INDUSTRY COLLABORATION IN RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015 PLANNING Emily Jessica Shephard Ph.D 2015 UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE i SPORT EVENTS AND REPRESENTATIONAL CAPITAL: INVESTIGATING INDUSTRY COLLABORATION IN RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015 PLANNING by Emily Jessica Shephard A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of a Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 ii SPORT EVENTS AND REPRESENTATIONAL CAPITAL: INVESTIGATING INDUSTRY COLLABORATION IN RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015 PLANNING Emily Jessica Shephard ABSTRACT This research study investigated intangible assets generated by sport event hosting, specifically in relation to those industries that could influence the planning and leveraging of this alternate value source at Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015 host destinations. The industries under scrutiny were sport, public sector and tourism, and the sampled host destinations were Cardiff, Exeter, Brighton and Gloucester. The objectives of this thesis were threefold: (1) to respond to the lack of knowledge around the collaborative roles of sport, public sector and tourism organisations in sport event planning, (2) to pioneer representational capital, a concept that looks to examine the input of those pinpointed planners in the identification and valuation of intangible opportunities generated by hosting RWC 2015 fixtures, (3) to probe planning discourse for examples of leveraging representational capital. Expert opinions were captured from executive-level RWC 2015 planners, and supported by secondary data analysis. The findings showed that public sector and sport organisation planning representatives were key RWC 2015 planners and that tourism planners, at a destination level, were not key collaborators in central planning forums, but collaborated extensively with national and international tourism organisations on RWC 2015 planning matters. Additionally, the analysis uncovered that representational capital was predominantly made-up of three key intangible asset areas: destination image, exposure and reputation. Indeed, these intangible areas were recognised and valued by all three industries, but the data analysis indicated that the levels of collaboration between the sampled planning industries did not translate into collectively leveraging representational capital. Moreover, one of the main breakthroughs from this investigation was identifying the interconnected nature of a range of intangible assets in generating greater value, i.e. increasing representational capital available to planners. Representational capital was found iii to have a strong connection throughout the leveraging process, in terms of the maximisation strategy and planned outputs in RWC 2015 planning, further supporting the study project objective of investigating the intangible in relation to sport events. iv AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own unaided work. It is being submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Bedfordshire. It has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in any other University. Emily Jessica Shephard September 2015 v LIST OF CONTENTS Abstract iii List of Appendices xiv List of Tables xvi List of Figures xviii List of Abbreviations xix Acknowledgements xx List of References 320 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 - Introduction to Collaboration, Representational Capital and Leveraging in Sport Event Planning 1.1 Introduction to Study Context and Concepts ............................................................................... 2 1.2 Background to Study Catalysts ................................................................................................... 8 1.2.1 The London 2012 Olympic Games ...................................................................................... 8 1.2.2 The Tangible versus Intangible Debate.............................................................................. 10 1.2.3 Lack of Formal Inspection into Sport Events and Intangible Assets ................................. 12 1.3 Situational Focus of the Research Project ................................................................................. 13 1.3.1 Benefits of Selecting the Rugby World Cup 2015 ............................................................. 14 1.4 Problem Statement and Sub-problems ...................................................................................... 15 1.4.1 Introduction to the Study Problem ..................................................................................... 15 1.4.2 Introduction to the Study Sub-problems ............................................................................ 15 1.5 Rationale for Conducting Study ................................................................................................ 17 1.5.1 Economic Rewards, Debates and Sport Events ................................................................. 17 1.5.2 The Underrepresented Destination Perspective ................................................................. 19 1.5.3 The Potential Value of Intangibles and Sport Events ........................................................ 19 1.5.4 The Global Significance of Sport Events ........................................................................... 21 1.5.5 The Projected Importance of Industry Collaboration ......................................................... 21 1.5.6 The Impact of Leveraging at Host Destinations................................................................. 23 1.6 Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 24 vi 1.7 Delimitations ............................................................................................................................. 25 1.8 Assumptions .............................................................................................................................. 26 1.9 Contribution to Knowledge ....................................................................................................... 28 1.9.1 Gaps in Current Research .................................................................................................. 28 1.9.2 Moving Away from Saturation in Current Research ......................................................... 30 1.10 Terms and Concepts ................................................................................................................ 32 1.11 Organisation of the Rest of the Study...................................................................................... 34 1.12 Chapter 1 Recap ...................................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 2 - Inspection of Literature on Collaboration, Representational Capital and Leveraging in Sport Event Planning 2.1 Introduction to Collaboration .................................................................................................... 37 2.1.1 Collaboration ..................................................................................................................... 37 2.1.1.1 The Importance of Collaboration in the Current Climate ........................................... 38 2.1.1.2 Collaboration and Tourism ......................................................................................... 39 2.1.1.3 Collaboration and the Public Sector ........................................................................... 40 2.1.1.4 Collaboration and Sport Events .................................................................................. 41 2.1.2 Collective Action ............................................................................................................... 42 2.1.2.1 Applying CA to a Sport Event Context ...................................................................... 43 2.1.3 Summary of Collaboration ................................................................................................. 44 2.2 Introduction to Representational Capital ................................................................................... 46 2.2.1 The Intangible .................................................................................................................... 46 2.2.1.1 Intangible Assets ........................................................................................................ 47 2.2.1.2 Value Attached to Intangible Assets ........................................................................... 49 2.2.2 Destination Image .............................................................................................................. 49 2.2.2.1 Destination Image and Sport Event Hosting ............................................................... 51 2.2.2.2 Destination Image in Connection to other Intangible Assets ...................................... 51 2.2.3 Representation ................................................................................................................... 52 2.2.3.1 Representation and the Study Context ........................................................................ 52 2.2.3.2 Investigating Representation