Mega Sporting Events and Inward Foreign Direct Investment: An Investigation of the Differences Among the Types of Sporting Events and Host Countries

Abstract

Building on the location advantage theory for international business, the authors used the event study approach, used extensively in the finance literature, to examine the effects of hosting mega sporting events on inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in countries that hosted the Olympic Games, the International Federation of Association Football World Cup, the Union of European Football Associations Championship, and the Asian Games between 1960 and 2018. In general, the authors’ findings suggested that host countries experienced beneficial effects from hosting mega sporting events. Increases in FDI inflows were more pronounced following the hosting announcements and until the event year. Hosting the Summer Olympic Games, the Union of European Football Associations Championship, and the International Federation of Association Football World Cup all drew a high level of positive abnormal FDI, while hosting the Asian Games induced negative abnormal FDI. The effects of hosting mega sporting events on inward FDI were also found to differ between countries. For instance, host countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean appeared to benefit more from hosting a mega sporting event.