What’s Behind a Marathon? Process Management in Sports Running Events

Aurora M. García-Vallejo, Alberto Albahari, Vicente Añó-Sanz and Aurora Garrido-Moreno
Additional contact information
Aurora M. García-Vallejo: Doctoral Program in Economics and Business, Department of Economics and Business Administration, Universidad de Málaga, 29016 Málaga, Spain
Vicente Añó-Sanz: Department of Physical Education and Sports, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Aurora Garrido-Moreno: Department of Economics and Business Administration, Universidad de Málaga, 29016 Málaga, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: The repercussion of urban running competitions such as marathons is tremendous, and the planning of these races involves a large number of strategic decisions. For this reason, this study analyzes the processes of organizing large marathons in Spain. The aim is to propose a systematic and sustainable model of excellence for the organization of sports events based on process management. To design the model, we followed a qualitative methodology using information obtained in 18 semi-structured interviews. The interviewees were experts in charge of the five most significant marathons in Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Seville and Valencia). The final contribution of the study is the proposal of a process map developed by identifying the main areas of competence and tasks, the relationships among the areas, and the timeline of these relationships. The process map unifies the processes established based on the preceding information and classifies them as management, core and support processes. The specific tool proposed is therefore based on the process management approach, which enables the improvement of the organization of sports running events. The tool will help the managers of the events to take decisions from a strategic perspective, and will be useful in making these events sustainable in the long term.

Keywords: sport events; events planning; process management; process mapping; marathon; sports management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/6000/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/6000/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:15:p:6000-:d:389995

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().