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This study investigates Chinese perceptions of Rio’s destination image before and after the 2016 Olympics. Samples of 573 and 564 residents from Shanghai were surveyed before and after the event. The Olympics raised awareness of Rio and as an Olympic host city. Post-games perceptions of affective image and tourist attractions were higher for people aware that Rio had hosted the Olympics. However, pre-games perceptions of tourism infrastructure and service in Rio were lower for participants aware that Rio would host the Olympics, and that the post-games perceptions of tourism infrastructure and service were lower than pre-games perceptions.

Hong Kong, one of the most visible non-sovereign entities on the international stage, has a distinctive profile as a previous British colony and current Special Administration Region (SAR) of China with the retention of an independent sporting status. However, research on elite sport development in this region remains relatively uncharted territory. This study provides a panoramic view of Hong Kong’s elite sport development since 1842, specific to four phases identified, namely the infancy of sport (1842-1950), the inception but slow development of elite sport (1950-1973), the rapid growth of elite sport (1973- 1997), and further expansion of elite sport development (1997-2019). The discussion of each of these periods will follow the same structure: political context, government sports structure, financial support and high-performance achievements (i.e. at the Olympic Games and other major competitions). This paper is expected to provide a unique and in-depth context for further studies concerning policy analysis and governance study particularly for non-major Olympic participants with a relatively distinctive political and sporting status.

This article sought to answer questions concerning the aspects that are changing and those that remains unchanged regarding football in China during Xi’s authoritarian era by comparing the governance of Chinese professional football during this era and during a previously examined former era to provide a point of departure for empirical studies concerning the recent ascent of football in China. At the league-governance level, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has prioritized the salience of professional football clubs (PFCs). At the club-governance level, the CFA has adopted a gradualist approach to institutional reform by proceeding through a process of introducing private or state-owned enterprises. The actual goal setting remains unchanged, and underachievement of the national football team persists. Comprehensive document analysis that included international peer-reviewed journal articles, books or book chapters, academic reports, policy documents, and influential media in China was performed.

Research question: This article explores policy transfer in the context of (non-professional) elite sport development through a detailed examination of Chinese elite swimming organisations since the early 2000s. The analysis is structured according to the five main aspects of policy transfer: rationale, actors, sources, elements and content, and conditioning factors.\ud Research methods: Data were collected from 15 semi-structured interviews with officials, coaches and scholars. These interviews were complemented by a content analysis of official and semi-official documents from both relevant sports governing bodies and influential Chinese media.\ud Results and findings: The major findings are that (1) the most important factors propelling the policy transfer were poor performances at major international sports events and a desire to be successful at the home Olympic Games; (2) the key policy transfer actors included government ‘insiders’ and foreign experts; (3) Australia was the main source of new policy because of a combination of political, geographical, economic and sport-specific factors; (4) the policy content transferred focused mainly on ideas, methods and techniques rather than deeper-level structures and ideology; and (5) source nations sought to constrain the policy transfer process.\ud Implications: Although policy transfer can be effective, there can be unintended negative consequences. Policy transfer is a bilateral process which is reliant upon the support of organisations or individuals from source nations. This research can stimulate elite sport programmes to consider the merits of pursuing policy transfer, when to pursue policy transfer and how to pursue policy transfer.

This paper investigates the influences of change recipients’ supportive behaviors toward the national reform in the Chinese football sector. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews (n = 29), which were conducted with change recipients from national and local football associations and commercial football clubs. Drawing on an integrated conceptual framework, the findings suggest that the change-supportive behaviors demonstrated by the change recipients were influenced and incentivised by managerial factors (i.e., management competency, communication channels, participation in decision-making, leaders’ commitment to change, and principal support); and contextual factors (i.e., an amenable football environment and the perceived political pressure to change). Three manifestations of change-supportive behaviors were identified: a) showing understanding of the change but pessimistic about the outcome; b) supporting the change and being willing to take risks; and c) supporting the change and actively seeking alternative solutions.

This article reviews Japan’s elite sport capabilities and analyses Japan’s recent elite sport policy changes. The policy analysis is underpinned by Kingdon’s (1984, 1995) multiple streams framework. Data were gathered from both official performance-related databases and websites, and official and semi-official documents in Japanese and English. The main findings are that (1) Japan’s ‘30-gold’ target is not unattainable, although the narrow source of Olympic gold medals is a potential constraint; (2) the Japan Sports Agency (JSA) and the Suzuki Plan resonate with the government’s values and are largely supported by the public; and (3) policy changes were prompted/accelerated by both the political event and problem-based policy windows created by the 2011 Earthquake and other economic and social problems, Tokyo’s successful Olympic bid in 2013 and Japan’s performance at the 2016 Olympics. The study highlights the utility of the multiple streams framework and some opportunities for further advancement.

This study examines the relationship between player pay dispersion and team performance in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in North America. Specifically, the pay dispersion across teammates in each NBA team was analyzed according to four different models based on their playing time and team performance. Salary data for all NBA teams were collected over 23 consecutive seasons from between 1995-96 to 2017-18. Pay dispersion was measured using the Gini coefficient. Key findings are that the effects of the dispersion are positive for the model with all players in their teams, whereas the effects of pay dispersion on team performance are negative for the models with players who have more playing time, which indicates that greater pay dispersion among the most contributing players is associated with lower team performance. Teams should consider how they can more fairly allocate their capped payrolls among the highest contributing players on their teams based on the equity principle of distributive justice. Teams should consider how they prepare and incorporate other reward methods, such as signing bonuses, which may reduce injustice perceptions of underpaid players and eventually enhance team performance.

This paper investigates the elite sport legacies of hosting the Summer Olympics for China (Beijing 2008) and Australia (Sydney 2000). The classic organisational life cycle approach provides the conceptual framework for this retroductive study. The data for both cases is sourced from official publications, academic research, and documents from various government departments and organisations. Additional data is drawn from three semi-structured interviews with key Chinese stakeholders. The analysis provides clear evidence that governments and their stakeholders use the opportunities afforded by a home Olympics to boost Olympic performance. China and Australia experienced a similar four-phase pattern of elite sport legacy life cycle: start-up, growth, maintenance, and decline. Both countries also shared many similar policy and management factors throughout each stage. An increased awareness of the sequential nature of elite sport legacy can help Olympic host countries make a more informed decision about their long-term strategies for elite sport success.

A variety of factors have contributed to China’s recent recovery in elite swimming in particular its success in the London Olympiad. The poor performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games was a ‘wake-up call’, which in conjunction with Beijing’s successful Olympic bid in 2001, opened policy windows prompting large-scale review and reform from which a broad range of ‘heavyweight’ policy actions were introduced and implemented. However, the road to recent success has been ‘bumpy’ during which there were other key events that have left an indelible imprint on Chinese swimming. Therefore, the multiple streams framework in general and the concept of policy windows in particular afford a theoretical gateway to structure policy analysis of elite swimming in China. Moreover, as a Western-derived theory the application of which to a sports context has been very sporadic, the multiple streams framework is evaluated regarding its applicability, or ‘compatibility’. Five semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders were conducted, accompanied by comprehensive document analysis of official documents and website information of associated sports-governing bodies and associations, and influential domestic and foreign media.

© 2018 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. In this article, the authors examine interorganisational conflict between provincial and national sport organisations in China. The authors theoretically ground the research in work related to interorganisational relationships and interorganisational conflict. The three case studies are artistic gymnastics, swimming, and cycling, and the authors conducted interviews with 11 staff from the relevant national-level sport organisations. Secondary data was sourced from official publications, websites, and influential domestic media. The key finding is that, whilst famed for its top-down bureaucratic system, there is considerable interorganisational conflict within the Chinese sport system. The extent and characteristics of the national-provincial conflict vary between sports. But there is also some consistency regarding the causes of the conflict and the measures adopted to mitigate the tension. Interorganisational conflict provides a useful heuristic for articulating and understanding the interorganisational relationships within the Chinese elite sport system and hence advances elite sport management research.

This article examines competitive balance at the Summer Olympic Games between 1992 and 2016 by measuring the distribution of gold medals, medals and medal points amongst nations, for overall and male and female competitions. The key findings are overall; there has been no improvement in competitive balance since the 1992 Olympics. There is some evidence that competitive balance has improved in male competitions, as shown by decreased HHIN, CV and CR4 values. The analysis of female competitions suggests that competitive balance has remained largely unchanged. However, the CV Gold indicator provides evidence of a significant decline in competitive balance. The findings facilitate a more evidence-based evaluation of existing policy measures and strategies, and their refinement where appropriate. Policy suggestions are proffered for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and various International Federations (IFs), and non-major nations to promote a more balanced development and competition particularly for women.

By analyzing China’s approaches to elite cycling, this paper seeks to answer the question why the bicycle kingdom failed to produce any Olympic cycling champions. Many factors could explain China’s lack of medal success on the international stage, ranging from the limited degree of organizational specialization, problems regarding the quantity and quality of domestic coaches, to the lack of influence in the international governing body and more importantly the tension between the national team and provincial teams. However, there have been a series of developments contributing to China’s notable progress in cycling in the 2000s in general and in the London Olympiad in particular, the most important of which were the recruitment of world-leading coaches and the organization of overseas training. All these culprits and positive developments are discussed, not only to explain China’s overall poor medal performance in cycling at the Olympic Games yet with some gradual progress in recent years, but also to provide a representative through which China’s approaches to many non-traditional and less-successful sports can be understood. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted, accompanied by comprehensive document analysis derived from official documents and website information of associated sports governing bodies and influential media in China.

Research question: Much research has been carried out to analyse factors contributing to China's notable success at the Olympic Games over the past decade. However, research which examines China's deliberate Olympic medal strategy remains relatively uncharted territory. Thus this paper seeks to address this gap and examines how China has become one of the most successful superpowers at the Summer Olympic Games within the last two decades by virtue of the application of the competitive advantage framework.\ud \ud Research methods: Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders of elite sport in China. These data were supplemented by a range of official publications of sports governing bodies in China, their websites and related information from the websites of influential media.\ud \ud Results and findings: It is evidenced that China's current Olympic configuration and (gold) medal distribution among sports/disciplines are largely underpinned by Tian Maijiu's research on cluster-based sports training and the ‘Five-Word principle’ (i.e. Small, Fast, Women, Water and Agile). In addition, there is clear evidence of China's continuous expansion of its market and the ambition to greater success in gold-medal abundant and collective ball sports/disciplines.\ud \ud Implications: This article concludes by critically examining the key characteristics and outcomes of China's approach to clustering and prioritisation, attempting to provide some insights into the establishment or refinement of Olympic (gold) medal strategy for other nations, where China may provide some useful lessons. The compatibility of the competitive advantage framework with the analysis of China's Olympic success is also discussed.

Despite a plethora of studies focussing on sports mega event volunteering, little is known about volunteers who live outside of the host city. This exploratory research makes a novel contribution by focusing on a group of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers from a non-host region. Within this context, the study explores volunteers’ motives, the utility of using financial subsidies to support volunteering participation, and their attitudes towards post-event volunteering. Semi-structured interviews with twelve volunteers were conducted, accompanied by interviews with key local stakeholders. The findings suggest that Olympic-related factors and altruistic feelings were central motivations to volunteering. Some previous volunteering experiences increased confidence levels to volunteer at the Olympics. The financial scheme was perceived as an impetus further enhancing Leicestershire residents’ confidence to volunteer. Program participants also indicated positive attitudes towards future volunteering intentions.

This article presents an exploration of a non-Western nation’s responses to globalisation through an in-depth analysis of elite artistic gymnastics in China over a lengthy time span. The concept of globalisation and patterns of ‘reach’ and ‘response’ act as the heuristic devices underpinning the analysis. Data were collected from a range of documents and from six semi-structured interviews. The trajectory of Chinese elite artistic gymnastics’ responses to globalisation can be characterised as a passive response in the 1950s, a participative response in the first half of the 1960s, a conflictual response from 1966 to the early 1970s, a participative response from the early 1970s to the 2012 Olympic Games, and a passive response, once again, during the Rio Olympiad (post-London 2012). In this way, a nation’s responses to globalisation are seen as dynamic rather than rigid or static. China’s case also demonstrates that a nation can have a degree of autonomy when responding to globalisation, although in extreme cases, a nation-state can choose to resist this globalising context, largely depending on a government’s attitude towards globalisation and the value the government attaches to it.

Competitive balance is important because it enhances outcome uncertainty and therefore it promotes spectator interest, and encourages government investment in a sport. This article analyses the distribution of gold medals, medals, medal points and top eight points amongst nations in table tennis from 1988 to 2016 at the Olympic Games and the World Championships respectively. A normalised version of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and a coefficient of variation are calculated for each nation’s share of these performance indicators. The key findings are that China dominates both events, with successful female players being more dominant than their male counterparts. The competitive balance for gold medals has declined, whilst there is a trend towards improved competitive balance for top eight points for women, suggesting that more teams are featuring in the top eight (but not necessarily the top three) placings. This research has implications for the development of table tennis competitions. Compared to other racket sports, the issue of competitive imbalance in table tennis is particularly thorny, which threatens the long-term development of this sport. Accordingly, some measures are recommended for the International Olympic Committee and the International Table Tennis Federation to propel a more balanced development of international table tennis.

The popularity of golf is heterogeneous in Asia and the Middle East. Golf is relatively new to the continent but its effects are immense. Asia accounts for most of the global industries growth in the last few decades and for most of the optimism when it comes to next few decades. Whilst golf was for so long a western pastime, golf is increasingly embedded within Asia. This chapter reviews the structure, organisation and governance of golf in Asia. The major governing organisations for amateur and professional golf are identified. This chapter also examines the major strategic issues confronting golf in Asia and the Middle East. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the importance of the golf tourism and manufacturing sectors to the Asian golf industry.

Based on the 12 chapters covering a wide range of traditional and non-traditional football nations in Europe, there is evidence of increased salience of football fans in club management and governance in most European countries, but football supporters remain marginal in comparison to other stakeholders such as the managers, sponsors and TV broadcasters. Moreover, despite the increasingly active role of football supporters, including fan representation, there is very little evidence of supporters’ engagement in club ownership.

Shallow seismic exploration has significant application effects in terms of bedrock surface and underground structure exploration, detection of underground cavities and unfavorable geological bodies. It is a scientific and economical technical method to provide basic information of feasibility study and engineering planning for site selection of highways, airports and high-rise buildings. Taking the pre-selection of a tunnel project in Gansu as an example, this paper elaborates on the interpretation methods and techniques of the shallow seismic exploration data processing in the aeolian sand stratum based on the geophysical characteristics of the work area. Generally speaking, the interpretation results are highly consistent with the drilling results and can be applied to engineering surveys in similar strata.

Informational dynamic design and construction technology are emerging new technologies at home and abroad. There are many applications in deep foundation pit stability, side slope stability, tunnel engineering and bridge engineering. This paper takes the West Qinling soft rock tunnel as an example to discuss engineering pre-design, construction and information collection, and pre-design modifying. Finally, this paper lists some problems in the construction of the soft rock tunnel project.

This article reviews the development of sport policy in Hong Kong. The focus is on the sport development in Hong Kong after it returned to China’s sovereignty in 1997, including its largely independent international status as a legitimate non-sovereignty sporting participant which combines both the legacy of British colonisation and increasing interaction with Mainland China. In this article, Hong Kong’s, to some extent, unique political system in particular its relationship with Mainland China under the Basic Law, government involvement in sport and its sports organisational structure and funding are introduced. In addition, its policy priorities and the balance between elite sport, the hosting of sporting events and mass sport, elite sport achievements and emerging issues, most notably civil society’s ‘division’, regarding the relationship with Mainland China and the function of sport in Hong Kong’s identity shaping, social integration and its relationship with Beijing are discussed.

The aim of the paper is to explore the consequences of the intensification of competition among the most successful countries at the Olympic Games – the sports powers – for participating countries, potential host countries and the International Olympic Committee. The paper begins by tracing briefly the emergence of increasingly sophisticated and expensive elite sports systems and then examines some of the characteristics of these systems paying particular attention to the extent to which selected major sports powers and medium powers have developed a competitive advantage in a relatively narrow range of sports. Data for the paper were collected through the analysis of a range of financial and sport performance data and the analysis of political indices of democracy. The main findings of the paper are as follows: (1) identifying sports in which a country has a relative competitive advantage remains crucial for the continuing success of major sports powers and is becoming increasingly important for medium sports powers; (2) the cost of maintaining a country's relative position in the medals table is considerable and arguably locks countries on to a path from which it is difficult for them to deviate; (3) the increasing concern with providing security for the Games may have a deterrent effect on the willingness of more open democratic countries to bid to host the Games; (4) the International Olympic Committee faces a potential challenge in providing the majority of countries that attend the Games, but which do not win a medal, with a return on their investment in the Olympics.