Event portfolio and multi-purpose development: Establishing the conceptual grounds

Abstract

While sport events usually hold a prominent position within a host community's event portfolio, little is known about how they can be synergised with other event genres to maximise their overall contribution. As event portfolios remain a neglected area of study, there is a gap in the sport and event management literatures regarding the nature and implementation of event portfolios and their implications for the management of sport events. The potential of an event portfolio is that it may function as a system assembling different event stakeholders in a network and serving multiple purposes through the employment of joint strategies pursuant to the attainment and magnification of specific ends. This requires that the different events be cross-leveraged within the portfolio for multi-purpose development. Consequently, this paper conceptualises event portfolios as multi-purpose developmental tools for host communities and stresses the need for a holistic approach to be adopted in their study. With this in mind, literature on event leverage, sport event tourism as well as inter-organisational networks is reviewed and integrated. On this basis, a multi-disciplinary comprehensive framework for the study of event portfolios and a research agenda are proposed. Main directions for future research include exploring the nature and character of event portfolios, investigating event interrelationships, explicating inter-organisational relationships of events networks and learning how to build community capacity in event portfolio management.