Measuring the legacies of sports mega events: a systematic review

Abstract

Problem Statement: The legacies left by Sports Mega Events (SMEs) have been the object of research, studies, and analyses in different fields of science, generating conflicting views on whether they are beneficial or not for the host country or city. Considering this, science emphasizes its scope of research with the intention of understanding, investigating, analyzing, and/or developing proposals that can measure the legacies left behind by SMEs. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review with mixed literature of qualitative convergence regarding the measurement of legacies from SMEs. Approach: A mixed systematic review of qualitative convergence, which aims to transform results from qualitative and quantitative studies into qualitative findings, was conducted on three scientific databases in Portuguese, Spanish, and English languages, in accordance with the PRISMA protocol. Results: In total, 147 publications were found by the search. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 13 articles were included in the review. Content analysis using two analytical categories (theoretical implications and practical applications) was used to conduct the discussion. The theoretical implications category reveals articles that formulate concepts and express conceptual proposals for measuring legacies. The practical applications category contains articles with empirical studies that seek to somehow measure legacies. Conclusions: The data reveals that there are theoretical and practical studies about measuring the legacies of SMEs, especially in the fields of sports management and tourism. However, there is a lack of empirical studies that measure or demonstrate the positive and negative results stemming from SME legacies.