Open Access
Sport promotion through sport mega-events. An analysis for types of olympic sports in London 2012
(MDPI, 2020) Kokolakakis, Themis; Lera López, Fernando; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
A substantial amount of attention has been devoted towards the potential sport legacy of the Olympic Games. In spite of the increasing academic interest in this topic, there is a knowledge gap as far as sport legacy is concerned by types of different sports. The authors bridge this gap by analysing the evolution of 43 different Olympic/Paralympic sport modalities in the two-year period after the London 2012 Olympics. By using data from the Active People Survey with a sample of 165,000 people annually, and considering some demographic variables and the effect of the economic environment, the paper aims to test the existence of a sport legacy. We have applied time series analysis and ARIMA models for controlling for economic influence and seasonal adjustment and for making comparisons among participation rates. The results show, for the total of the sports analysed, that there were 336,000 individuals who increased their frequency of participation, while there was no significant increase in the number of new participants in these sports. When we develop the analysis for types of sports, London 2012 is positively associated not only with the frequency of participation in some types of sport but also with an increase in the number of new sport participants. Gender and age differences are also detected. The results show the differences of sport legacy by type of sports. Moreover, this research has elucidated an important unrecognised aspect of the effect of the Olympic Games and perhaps major events: that they can become a major policy tool for reversing sporting inequalities.
Open Access
Is passive sport engagement positively associated with happiness?
(Wiley, 2020-10-06) Lera López, Fernando; Ollo López, Andrea; Sánchez-Santos, José Manuel; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Background: Previous empirical evidence has shown the positive relationship between happiness or subjective well-being (SWB) and sport participation. Nevertheless, passive sport participation has traditionally been ignored as a correlate with happiness. Methods: Based on a sample of 1,632 Spanish people, one ordered probit model and three extended ordered probit models with an ordinal endogenous covariate technique and robust standard errors were applied. Results: We find that different forms of passive sport participation, such as frequency of attending sporting events and a set of other forms of passive sports participation such aswatching sports on TV, listening to sports programmes, reading sports news, and talking to others about sports, are positively associated with happiness. Conclusions: The results indicate that passive sport participation generally appears to have a closer relationship with individual happiness than active sport participation and emphasise the role played by some forms of sport participation as a source of relational goods. This current research extends the field's understanding of sport participation and happiness, including passive participation, and the relevance of social interactions to account for this association. Finally, the relational aspect of different forms of sport participation offers new implications for the analysis of sport engagement and happiness.
Open Access
Sport legacy impact on ethnic minority groups: the case of London 2012: the sport mega-events of the 2020s: governance, impacts and controversies. Special issue in sport in society
(Routledge, 2021) Kokolakakis, Themis; Lera López, Fernando; Economía; Ekonomia
The sport legacy among ethnic minorities has been neglected despite the positive outcomes of active lifestyle and social inclusion. The current research, applying time series analysis, evaluates evidence of sport legacy among four English ethnic minorities regarding the hosting of Olympic Games (London 2012). A short-term association was found between hosting the Games and sport participation rates among ethnic groups, leading more to increasing frequency of engagement for existing participants than to attracting new participants. The results indicate differences among the ethnic groups and gender, showing that females from Asian ethnicities having the highest engagement. Practical implications for the governance of events in the future relate to improving the festival effect of the Games, to encourage social inclusion for ethnic minorities. Our results might encourage policy makers to maintain a sustained effort in the post-event period to capitalise on sport legacy.

Lera López, Fernando

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