Marko Perić

Sports Tourism, Regeneration and Social Impacts: New Opportunities and Directions for Research, the Case of Medulin, Croatia

Regeneration is often regarded as the process of renewal, or the redevelopment of existing facilities and infrastructures. Scholars who study regeneration and tourism developments often focus on new infrastructures and economic impacts. However, there is a need for more case-specific focused research addressing social impacts of regeneration to better determine how developments create opportunities for residents and local communities. This chapter focuses specifically on sports tourism-led regeneration in Medulin, Croatia (on the Istrian Peninsula). The purpose of this research is to contribute insight and perspective on sport tourism by conceptually outlining an approach to measure and examine social impacts in future research. In Medulin, sports tourism training facilities have existed since the 1970s, but recent developments completed in 2014 aim to attract more tourists and amateur/professional level sports clubs to further sustain tourism during the winter months. To identify directions for future research, we discuss a number of conditions specific to sports tourism, social impacts and regeneration.

Understanding the delivery of experience: Conceptualising business models and sports tourism, assessing two case studies in Istria, Croatia

Business models describe an organisations activities and how value is delivered to the customer. When it comes to sports tourism, value delivered to the guests takes the form of a sports experience. Indeed, attractive sports experiences have become products that require much effort to design, manage, and eventually sell. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether two cases, having access to similar key resources, could provide tourists with identical sports experiences. The focus will be on the linkage between customer value proposition, sports facilities, and processes as major building blocks of the business providing different sports experiences. A case study method was used for a holistic and in-depth analysis of how sports tourism experiences are delivered by looking at two existing case studies in Istria, Croatia. The concept of experience was used to analyse tennis experiences that these two cases offer to tourists. Data were gathered by observations on site and by qualitative semi-structured interviews with key sports managers and organisers in the case study companies. The research results indicate that despite different approaches, both companies provide its tourists with similar tennis experiences, and that some other variables, primarily features of a sports facility (in our case tennis courts) affect the type of an experience.

The Constructs of a Business Model Redefined: A Half-Century Journey

Despite its growing popularity, the term business model has not been uniquely defined so far. Within the management science and practice, it has been frequently confused with other popular terms. This article aims to bring clarity into what stands behind the business model concept by providing a review of the most common themes used in defining business model elements. It also discusses the relationship between the concept of a business model, on one hand, and strategy and sustainability, on the other. A few conclusions emerge. First, although there are no generally accepted definitions for either the business model or its building blocks, academics and practitioners agree that a business model is all about value. Second, a business model is not the same as a strategy but it has an important role in strategy implementation. Third, sustainability is found to be a hot topic for business models and has been increasingly used in symbiosis with this concept. Besides being a theoretical contribution to a definition of the business model as an independent concept, the findings may be particularly helpful to managers and business practitioners seeking ways to enable their firms to deal with complex market challenges and gain competitive advantage.

Suggesting a service research agenda in sports tourism: working experience(s) into business models

Purpose Business models describe how value is delivered to customers/consumers. When considering sport tourism, the focus on delivering value shifts to the sport experiences being offered in a destination. The purpose of this paper is to fulfil a void that links concept of business models to the area of sport tourism management by integrating notions of experience. Design/methodology/approach To merge these areas, a review of literature identifies key approaches and missing links. This paper determines research gaps to propose a new holistic research agenda for sport services – specifically relevant to sport tourism. Findings This paper addresses types of sport experiences, economic dimensions of experiences and business models to determine capabilities of delivering different types of experiences. These inter-related fields of analysis represent a platform for both academic and business stakeholders to shape the future of delivering sport tourism experiences based on seeking a wider range of motivations in a specific spatial and activity context. Originality/value A series of research questions and proposals are identified to support the need for future research. Extending understandings of experience in relation to consumer demand has the potential to result in practical elements of sought after experiences being incorporated into business models – aimed at delivering service value.

Criteria for the management partnership model in Croatian seaports

The aim of this article is to define the relevant criteria for the evaluation of public–private partnerships (PPP) for the implementation of the management partnership model in Croatian seaports. Previous studies have indicated a number of effects that PPPs need to achieve in order to ensure sustainable development. However, partnership in seaports in the Republic of Croatia is a poorly researched issue and the relevant criteria required for positive effects have not yet been defined. We have defined five groups of criteria: economic-financial, organisational, technical-technological, social criteria and criteria aimed at harmonisation with European Union policies (currently characteristic for Croatia). To determine the relevance and importance of these criteria, it was necessary to collect data by using the method of interviewing experts from different scientific areas and of diverse professional competences. Regarding the relevant stakeholders (public interest, private interest and the interest of the broader community), research analysis has provided multiple research results which have pointed out that technical-technological and organisational development are the key criteria for a successful partnership model. The results obtained in the research can be applied to future management models in Croatian seaports that will be based on PPPs.

Investigating industry dynamics in a recessionary transition economy

Abstract The paper investigates the statistical regularities of industry dynamics in a transition economy and its manufacturing industry over a six-year period of recession. The static analysis of distributions supports several established stylized facts on firm size and growth-rate distributions. The growth rate distribution featured a sequential, year-by-year procyclical change of the left side of distribution, suggesting that the more years an economy spends in a recession, the greater the decline in the revenue of its firms. On the “growing” side, the recession opened increasing growth opportunities for a small subset of small firms, while it diminished growth opportunities for medium and large firms. The segregation of sectors by technological intensity gives evidence that the high-tech sectors show upward trend of the growth rate distributions’ right side of as the recession unfolded. Sectorial concentration ratios mostly increased, while changes in the unimodality of the firm-size distribution occurred at the end of the economic downturn

Active event sport tourism experience: the role of the natural environment, safety and security in event business models

The connection between tourism development and the natural environment is more intense in outdoor sport tourism than in many other forms of tourism. Natural settings (space), sport activities undertaken and the motivations of the people who participate in them interact to create sport tourism experiences. Tourist safety and security are also proved to be important elements of a tourist experience and it seems that sport tourists may be more sensitive to safety issues than non-sport tourists. This paper therefore aims to analyse the importance of the natural environment and safety and security issues, as constitute event business model elements, in providing sport tourism experiences. The natural setting is also examined as a motivation to participate in sport tourism travel. On the basis of 464 questionnaires gathered from active participants of 16 small-scale sport events in four different outdoor sports, exploratory factor analysis was conducted on motivational statements and revealed a conceptually clear sevenfactor structure. One of them, titled ‘Nature’, was the second most important motivational dimension for participants but differences between particular sports were considerable. In terms of business model elements included in the survey, participants gave high importance to all elements related to the natural environment and safety and security. Scenic destination, scenic and interesting course, course safety and event safety were the most important elements of event business models for participants in all four sports. Environmental management and proper implementation of security and crowd control measures were also singled out as important event processes. However, results of ANOVA indicate statistically significant differences between the sports in seven out of nine business model elements. These findings shed some light on the managerial aspects of sport tourism practice, helping managers to better serve sports and tourism needs at a particular event and in the destination.

Business Model Concept: An Integrative Framework Proposal

Every firm employs a particular business model seeking competitive advantage. However, this pursuit is difficult, and sometimes unsuccessful. The reasons for failure should be sought in the managers’ lack of understanding of their organisations’ business models, their unique building blocks, and the potential that they have. To help managers better understand business models, this paper reviews the extant literature and identifies the elements of business models cited therein. Further, considering the new needs on the changing markets and the prevailing search for sustainability beyond profit, this paper portrays essential business model elements in an integrated framework. An updated generic business model framework consists of four primary categories, namely, value proposition, value capture, value creation, and value network, and could be useful for a variety of organisations, profit and non-profit, with various mission and vision orientations and interaction with the environment.

Organising for community-based tourism: Comparing attitudes of local residents and local tourism entrepreneurs in Ravna Gora, Croatia

Community-based tourism was developed as holistic and comprehensive approach to local sustainable tourism development with emphasis on all-inclusive community participation at all levels of development. If developed well, community-based tourism can significantly improve state of local communities through empowerment and promotes greater economic and social benefits to individuals and organisations. One of the important characteristics of community-based tourism is the establishment of an organising mechanism in charge of involving various community members and ensuring their active participation. The purpose of this paper is to contribute understanding of community-based tourism and local community participation by addressing issues associated with establishing new local community-based tourism organisation, more precisely, examining attitudes of key local tourism stakeholders towards the very idea of the establishment of a new community-based tourism organisation, its potential characteristics and their personal involvement. Mixed methods have been employed for the purpose of gaining deeper insight into attitudes of local residents and local tourism entrepreneurs in the region of Gorski kotar in Croatia – focusing specifically on Ravna Gora. Research findings reveal important differences between more socially oriented local residents and profit-seeking local tourism entrepreneurs in terms of personal involvement as well as the characteristics of hypothetical new community-based tourism organisation.