An Exploration of Events Research: Topics, themes and Emerging Trends

Suggested citation: Mair, J. & Whitford, M. (2013). An exploration of events research: event topics,
themes and emerging trends. International Journal of Event and Festival Management 4(1), 6–30.

Introduction
The proliferation of events staged around the globe towards the latter part of the twentieth century
was instigated by, among other things, an increase in leisure time and discretionary income (Allen,
O’Toole, Harris & McDonald, 2011). It was during the 1980s in particular, that governments globally
began to realise the potential for events to generate positive impacts. Subsequently, over the first
decade of the twenty-first century and in all corners of the world, there has been unparalleled
interest and participation in events as they continue to not only demonstrate a capacity to generate
positive impacts but to also play a significant role in the development of culture, arts, urban
regeneration, education and tourism (Bowdin, Allen, O'Toole, Harris, & McDonnell, 2011). Thus, the
ability of an event to not only attract visitors to a host region but also its subsequent contribution to
the economic and social well-being of a region (Jago & Shaw, 1998), contributes to the importance
and significance afforded to events and the event industry around the globe.

As the event phenomena gained momentum during the latter half of the twentieth century, there
was a concurrent increase in academic interest in events and consequently, an increase in research
being undertaken, focusing on an array of issues pertaining to events and the event industry (see
Getz, 2009 for a comprehensive review of research agendas in events). The potential social value of
various types of events (e.g., sport, culture, business events, among others) has been studied from a
variety of disciplines (e.g., sport and business management, anthropology, tourism and leisure
studies, regional planning, etc.), demonstrating in each case that events are occasions for
(re)affirming or contesting the social order (Handelman, 1990; Holland & Skinner, 1995), building
group and place identity (Green & Chalip, 1998; De Bres & Davis, 2001) and fostering social networks
(Fortes, 1936; Walter, 1981; Kemp, 1999).

Yet Formica (1998) found that from the 1970s through to the 1990s, event related research focusing
on festivals and special events in particular was predominantly economic focused, with much less
attention being afforded to the social-psychological context of events. Indeed, the main areas of
research pertaining to events that Formica (1998) identified were economic and financial impacts,
marketing, profiles of festival or events, sponsorship, management, trends and forecasts (Getz,

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2010). Not surprisingly then, in July 2000 in Sydney Australia, at conference called Events Beyond
2000: Setting the Agenda, Getz (2000:9) said:

The events industry, if we can call it that, is well established in many

forms such as expositions, sport marketing, or concert productions, but
as an academic field of study and a research topic it is quite new and
immature.

However, significant research efforts have been directed at understanding and exploring events in
the intervening time. The purpose of this study then, was to identify and examine emerging trends in
event and festival research and also in the themes and topics being studied in this area. To achieve
this, the objectives of the study were to identify and examine 1) topics currently under study by
event research experts, 2) topics considered to be comprehensively study, 3) topics for future
research and 4) underpin the development of a future research agenda for events and festivals.

Using an innovative research technique underpinned by Q methodology, this study will facilitate a
deeper discussion on event research and contribute to the body of event and festival knowledge.
The identification of gaps in our current knowledge will provide opportunity for further development
of a research agenda for events and festivals, which will have substantial practical implications both
for academia and for the events and festivals industry.

Overview: The Development of Event Research

Although events as a field of study was still developing in the early 2000s, Getz (2000:11) claimed
there was a country wide initiative in Australia to develop a research agenda for the events sector
which to his knowledge, was ‘not happening anywhere else in the world’ at that point in time. This
was a significant development for the field given that until the 2000s, the extent to which events
facilitate economic growth was undoubtedly an overt driver of research in the field of event studies
and event management resulting in applied research focusing on economic benefits dominating the
event management research agenda (Wood, Robinson & Thomas, 2005).

There can be little argument that the trailblazers in the field of event research during the latter half
of the twentieth century were economic impact studies and evaluations (e.g., Gartner & Holecek,
1983; Lynch & Jensen, 1984; Ritchie, 1984; Centre for Applied & Business Research, 1986; Burns,
1987; Hall, 1987, McCloud, & Syme, 1987; Long & Perdue, 1990; Burgan & Mules, 1992; Hiller, 1998).

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During this period, the human side of events was largely under researched (Baum et al, 2009)
resulting in only a small body of studies focusing on socio-cultural issues pertaining to events (see
DaMatta, 1984; Falassi, 1987; Hall, 1992; Earls, 1993; Hinch, & Delamere, 1993; Soutar & McLeod,
1993).

According to Carlsen, Getz and Soutar (2001), the earliest research of major significance was a study
undertaken by Burns, Hatch and Mules, (1986) focusing on the first Australian Grand Prix held in
Adelaide, South Australia. At the turn of the twenty-first century however, a plethora of research
from around the globe began to emerge (Table 1) predominantly focusing on economic issues (e.g.,
forecasting, assessing and evaluating economic impacts, management) and to a lesser extent,
focusing on a variety of issues relating to the socio-cultural impacts of events (e.g., host community
and motivation and perception of event participants and tourists and residents’ perceptions of, and
attitudes towards events). Additionally, events and the environment began to receive some interest
from researchers, although according to Sherwood (2007), there were only two published papers
that dealt with the environmental impacts of events around this time - May (1995) and Harris &
Huyskens (2002)

Table 1: Research in the Field of Event Management and Event Studies

Research Theme
Economic Studies:
Impact and evaluation studies
including forecasting, assessing
and evaluating economic impact
Authors
Gartner & Holecek, 1983; Lynch & Jensen, 1984; Ritchie, 1984; Burns, Hatch, &
Mules, 1986; Centre for Applied & Business Research, 1986; Burns, 1987; Hall,
1987, 1992; McCloud, & Syme, 1987; Long & Perdue, 1990; Briassoulis, 1991;
Burgan & Mules, 1992; Burgan & Mules, 1992; Turco, & Kelsey, 1992; Faulkner,
1993; Hinch & Delamere, 1993; Soutar & McLeod, 1993; Crompton & McKay,
1994; Mules & McDonald, 1994; Ritchie, 1984; Uysal & Gitelson, 1994; Crompton,
1995; Crompton, & Love, 1995; Walo, Bull, & Green, 1996; Noll & Zimbalist, 1997;
Alston, 1998; Hiller, 1998; Kim, Scott, Thigpen, & Kim, 1998; Anderson & Solberg,
1999; Andersson, Persson, Sahlberg, & Strom, 1999; UK Sport, 1999; Burgan &
Mules, 2000; Dwyer, Mellor, Mistilis & Mules, 2000; Gratton, Dobson & Shibli,
2000; Yu & Turco, 2000; Tyrrell & Johnston, 2001; Madden, Groenewold & Thapa,
2002; Matheson, 2002; Thrane, 2002; UK Sport, 2002; Chhabra, Sills & Cubbage
2003; Coleman, 2003; Daniels & Norman 2003; Felsenstei & Fleischer, 2003;
Matheson & Baade, 2003; Shaffer, Greer & Mauboules, 2003; Scherer & Strauf,
2003; Daniels, 2004; Dwyer, Forsyth & Spurr 2004; Fletcher, 1994; Gursoy, Kim, &
Uysal, 2004; Matheson & Baade, 2004; UK Sport, 2004; Blake, 2005; Dwyer,
Forsyth & Spurr 2005; Gratton, Shibli & Coleman, 2005; Jackson, Houghton,
Russell, & Tiandos, 2005; Lee, & Taylor, 2005; Preuss, 2005; Shibli & Coleman,
2005; Soonhwan 2005; Cela, Kowlski & Lankford, 2006 ; Dwyer, Forsyth & Spurr,
2006; Jago & Dwyer 2006; Lankford, 2006; Matheson & Baade, 2006; Stynes &
White, 2006; Jae Lee, 2006; Morgan & COndliffe, 2006; Wilson, 2006; Giesecke &
Madden, 2007; Charles & Patterson, 2008; Gil, & de Esteban Curiel, 2008;
McCartney, 2008; Dwyer & Forsyth, 2009; Coleman & Ramchandani, 2010; Dai,
Bao & Chen, 2010; Davies, Ramchandani & Coleman, 2010; Henderson, Foo, Lim &
Yip, 2010; Kim, Park & Lee, 2010; Lee, Harris & Lyberger, 2010; Abelson, 2011;
Briedenhann, 2011; Bojanic & Warnick, 2012; Li & Jago, 2012; Mosely
& Chancellor, 2012; Ramchandani & Coleman, 2012 ; Trošt & Milohnić, 2012

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 Socio-Cultural Studies:
Impact and evaluation studies
including social development,
structure of a community, social
capital, commercialisation of
culture, social renewal, group
and place identity, urban
regeneration,
motivation and perceptions and
attitudes of visitors and
residents
Environmental Studies
Impact and evaluation studies
including
Sustainability and greening of
events eg environmentally-
friendly practices, management
processes, reducing waste
ecological footprint
Political Studies
Studies including power and
politics relationships between
governments, event organisers
and communities, governance
Management Studies
Studies including festival
management, destination
management, stakeholders,
marketing, corporate social
responsibility and competitive
forces
NB: Table 1 is indicative only of studies in event research.
Given this emphasis on the economic dimension, Fredline and Faulkner (2000:764) were concerned
that during this time, ‘relatively little progress (had) been made on social impacts specifically
DaMatta, 1984; Falassi, 1987; Hall, 1992; Earls, 1993; Hinch, & Delamere, 1993;
Soutar & McLeod, 1993; Essex & Chalkley, 1998; Green & Chalip, 1998; Burgan &
Mules, 2000; Delamere, 2000; Dwyer, Mellor, Mistilis & Mules, 2000; Fredline &
Faulkner, 2000; Harcup, 2000; Hiller, 2000; Roche, 2000; De Bres & Davis, 2001;
Delamere, 2001; Delamere, Wankel, & Hinch, 2001; Burbank, Andranovich, &
Heying, 2001; Gratton & Henry, 2001; Deccio & Baloglu, 2002; Carlsen & Taylor,
2003; Fredline, Jago, Deery, 2003; Kim, & Uysal, 2003; Waitt, 2003; Xie, 2003;
Gursoy et. al, 2004; Richards, & Ryan, 2004; Sims & D’Mello, 2005; Bob, Swart &
Moodley, 2005; Chalip, 2006; Arcodia & Whitford, 2006; Hiller, 2006; Misener &
Mason, 2006a, 2006b; Picard & Robinson, 2006; Butler & Hinch, 2007; Carlsen, Ali-
Knight & Robertson, 2007; Petterson & Viken, 2007; Small, 2007; Smith & Fox,
2007; Hede; Moscardo, 2008; Collins, Jones, & Munday, 2009; Baumann,
Matheson & Muroi, 2009; Robertson, Rogers, & Leask, 2009; Schulenkorf, 2009;
Deery & Jago, 2010; Schulenkorf, 2010; Balduck, Maes, & Buelens, 2011; Gibson &
Connell, 2011; Minnaert, 2011; Rogers, & Anastasiadou, 2011; Schulenkorf,
Thomson, & Schlenker, 2011;
Soutar & McLeod, 1993; Backman, Backman, Uysal, & Sunshine, 1995; Jeong &
Faulkner, 1996; Mihalik, & Simonetta, 1998; Fredline & Faulkner, 1998, 2000,
2002a, 2002b; Delamere 1997, 2001; Delamere et al. 2001; Fredline et al. 2003,
Cegielski & Mules 2002; Xiao & Smith 2004; Ohmann, Jones, & Wilkes 2006;
Gursoy & Kendall 2006; Fredline 2006; Monga, 2006; Yuan & Jang 2008; Boo,
Wang, Yu, 2011; Pauline 2011; Wysong, Rothschild & Beldona, 2011; Hixson,
McCabe & Brown, 2011; Son, Mi, Kyong, 2011
May, 1995; Fabricius & Goodwin, 2002; Harris & Huyskens, 2002; Hede, 2007;
Collins & Flynn, 2008; Raj & Musgrave, 2009; Mair & Jago, 2010; Jones, 2010;
Goldblatt & Goldblatt, 2011
Sofield & Li, 1998; Getz, 2000; Bramwell & Alletorp, 2001; McKercher, Mei, & Tse,
2006; Quinn, 2006; Getz 2007, 2009; Hede, 2007; Sherwood, 2007; Getz, &
Andersson, 2008; Raj & Musgrave 2009 Dredge & Whitford 2010; Dickson &
Arcodia, 2010; Mair, Jago, 2010; Ensor; Robertson; Ali-Knight, 2011; Gration,
Arcodia, Raciti, Stokes, 2011; Lawton 2011; Mair, 2011; Merrilees & Marles, 2011;
Rogers & Anastasiadou, 2011
Gnoth & Anwar, 2000; O’Sullivan & Jackson, 2002; Weed 2003; 2006; Ali-Knight &
Robertson, 2004; Pugh & Wood 2004; Thomas & Wood 2004; Whitford 2004a,
2004b; Whitford, 2005; Reid, 2006; Getz, 2007, 2009; Stokes & Jago, 2007; Getz &
Andersson, 2008; O'Sullivan, Pickernell & Senyard, 2009; Whitford 2009; Dredge &
Whitford, 2010, 2011; Ziakas & Costa, 2011
Ritchie, & Beliveau, 1974; Getz, & Frisby, 1988; Frisby, & Getz, 1989; Janiskee,
1994; Walle, 1994; Formica, & Uysal, 1996, 1998; Janiskee, 1996; Getz, 1997;
2005; Goldblatt, 1997; Faulkner, Fredline, Larson, & Tomljenovic, 1999; Nicholson,
& Pearce, 2001; Day, Skidmore, & Koller, 2002; Getz, 2002; Hoyle, 2002; Green,
Costa, & Fitzgerald, 2003; Jago, Chalip, Brown, Mules, & Ali, 2003; Prentice &
Anderson, 2003; Green, & Chalip, 2004; Hemingway, & Maclagan, 2004; Hede, &
Jago, 2005; Kim & Morrison 2005; Monga, 2006; Getz, Andersson, & Larson, 2007;
Hede, 2007; Pavicic, Alfirevic, Batarelo, 2007; Swart, & Bob, 2007; Getz &
Andersson, 2008; Stokes, 2008; Andersson & Getz, 2009; Jaeger, & Mykletun,
2009; Karlsen, & Nordström, 2009; Xing & Chalip, 2009; Getz, Andersson &
Carlsen, 2010; Gibson, Waitt, Walmsley, & Connell, 2010; Costa, 2011; Drengner;
Jahn, & Zanger, 2011; Ziakas, & Costa, 2011; Parent, Eskerud & Hanstad, 2012
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associated with events’. Similarly Hall and Rusher (2004:229) claimed that ‘there still remains
relatively little analysis of the political context of events and the means by which events come to be
developed and hosted within communities’.

Further, despite the predominant economic focus of event research, there was a growing concern
among some researchers that many economic impact studies were often commissioned and not
completed to any one formula (Dwyer, Mistilis, Mellor, & Mules, 1999; Uysal & Gitelson, 1994).
Moreover, rather than employing cost benefit analysis, often many economic evaluations of events
have used, and continue to use models with large multipliers, that have arguably been discarded by
many economists. Therefore, it was not surprising that Getz (2009:389) claimed ‘narrowly defined
economic impact studies have attracted the most attention and they have often been suspect in
terms of their validity and uses’.

The difficulty however, of evaluating the impacts of events has been exacerbated by the temporal
nature of events which places pressure on evaluation to occur at specific points and opens
arguments that the impacts of even the most intensive events can be mitigated by leaving the
environment and the host community to recover for a period until the next event (Getz, 2007).
Interestingly, Dwyer and colleagues have shown that the benefits of events are often exaggerated
(Dwyer, Forsyth & Spurr 2004; Dwyer, Forsyth & Spurr 2005; Jago & Dwyer 2006) and have warned
that the success of an event should not only be measured by direct economic contributions, but it
should also incorporate positive and negative impacts concerned with the socio-cultural, physical
and political environments of an event (Dwyer, Mellor, Mistilis, and Mules, 2000).

According to Dredge and Whitford (2010), it is not surprising that event research has tended to focus
on generating business and economic knowledge about events as large proportion of educational
event programs are housed within business and management schools. Nevertheless, the focus of
event research has gradually broadened with increased maturity and more recent research has
uncovered that events can be utilised as vehicles for social development and accomplish a range of
effects (Moscardo, 2008; Gibson & Connell, 2011). Concomitantly, there has been a growing number
of studies (see Table 1) investigating the impact of events on the physical attributes of a host
destination and in particular, the greening of events (Getz, 2009) and associated issues pertaining to
the adoption of environmentally-friendly practices, and the management processes necessary to
accomplish reduction of waste and of the event’s overall ecological footprint. The increasing
dominance of this view encouraged the development of the triple bottom line approach to event

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evaluation (Fredline, Raybould, Jago & Deery 2004; Sherwood 2007) and, it is within this context that
research focusing on event sustainability has gained traction (Hede, 2007).

While this literature is quite diverse, according to Dredge and Whitford (2010), it can be organised
into a number of broad, overlapping strands including (1) explanatory research that acknowledges
the socio-cultural and political dimensions of sustainability (Dickson & Arcodia, 2010; Dredge &
Whitford, 2010; Rogers & Anastasiadou, 2011) (2) research that describes how planning and
management of sustainable events should occur (Musgrave & Raj, 2009; Gration, Arcodia, Raciti,
Stokes, 2011) (3) procedural research that describes sustainable events planning processes,
identifying its dimensions and providing directions on what needs to be considered (Getz, 2007,
2009; Ensor; Robertson; Ali-Knight, 2011; Lawton 2011; Merrilees & Marles, 2011) and (4)
implementation and evaluation research that focuses on identifying sustainable indicators and
approaches for evaluating the sustainability of events (Hede, 2008).

Interestingly however, the broader sustainable development literature was already moving from a
triple to a quadruple bottom line, with governance often proposed as the additional fourth
dimension (Teriman, Yigitcanlar & Mayere, 2009). Given the importance of co-ordination in
governments’ attempt to ‘steer’ society towards sustainability goals, arguably there is still a need for
more nuanced understandings of the effectiveness and changes in stakeholder roles and
relationships and the nature of exchange that takes place. Additionally, and according to Getz
(2009:62) ‘policy research in the events field is underdeveloped, and has not proceeded
systematically’.

There is a small cache of research that investigates issues pertaining to the power and politics of
events and relationships between governments, event organisers and communities and governance
issues (Table 1). Rather than focusing on political perspectives, research has tended to focus on
other areas including management issues (Table 1). Nevertheless, Dredge and Whitford (2010)
identified a small body of research (Table 1) exploring the roles of government, state institutions,
agencies and policy networks, policy and public sector involvement in events, politics of place
marketing and/or event policy and regional development. In essence, there is a body of knowledge
focusing on how policy comes to be but normative research producing knowledge about how to
frame, prepare and implement event policy is more limited. Thus, in comparison to other areas of
research in the field of event studies and event management, the political environment remains
surprisingly under researched given the number of governments around the globe that continue to

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utilise events as platforms for socio-cultural and economic development (Gamage & Higgs, 1996;
Dredge et al, 2010).

Methods
In order to identify and examine emerging trends in the methods used in event and festival research,
this research utilised a quantitative research design. Importantly though, the focus of the
methodology framework was ‘all on quality rather than quantity’ (Brown, 1993:1) as the
methodology was underpinned by Q methodology which involves respondents in a process designed
to systematically capture and compare their viewpoints (Van Exel & De Graaf 2005). To the authors’
knowledge, Q methodology has not been widely used in event and festival research and therefore
this study represents an innovation. Q methodology was invented in 1935 by British physicist-
psychologist William Stephenson and is intended to reveal the subjectivity involved in a situation
(Brown, 1996) – in this case subjective notions about which research topics are more important than
others. Although not without its critics, Q methodology is increasingly being used in research where
attitudes and opinions are sought and has been particularly popular in the areas of health and
wellbeing (Cross, 2005). The basis of Q methodology is the Q sort technique which conventionally
involves the rank-ordering of a set of statements (e.g., from agree to disagree or very important to
very unimportant, Brown, 1996). ‘The data from Q methodology are literally what participants make
of a pool of items germane to the topic of concern, when asked to rank them’ (Stainton Rogers,
1995:180). Following from the Q sort, multivariate analysis techniques (such as factor analysis) can
be used in order to seek the underlying dimensions of the phenomenon under study (Cross, 2005).
Due to the small sample size and exploratory nature of this research, this study does not use the full
Q methodology procedure. However, it is argued that the initial results of the Q sort provide a
satisfactory reflection of the importance attached to a number of items by the respondents involved
in the study.

A purposive sampling technique was used, whereby a total of 60 respondents were selected as a
result of their recognised expertise in event and festival research. The identification and selection of
academic events experts was based on events-related publications in top tier academic journals,
authorship of books on events, and membership of events special interest groups such as those
facilitated by CAUTHE (Council for Australasian Universities Tourism and Hospitality Education) and
ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education). The selected respondents were emailed the
link to a Qualtrics survey tool and invited to participate. The online survey instrument proved
advantageous as it provided the researchers with the ability to access distant and/or difficult to

7
reach respondents (Wright, 2005). However, a disadvantage of web-based surveys is a lower
response rate compared to other methods (e.g., postal mail survey) (Vehovar & Manfreda, 2008). A
total of thirty-three responses were recorded which represents a response rate of 55% which was
deemed acceptable.

Respondents were asked the following four questions:

1. Please provide your current research focus in terms of themes or topic.
2. Please drag and drop the following research themes in order to rank them in terms of how
important they are for future event research.
3. Drag and drop three research items that you feel are the most comprehensively researched.
4. Please drag and drop the following topics to rank them in terms of how important you think
they are for event research.

The questions were kept simple which is the key for a web-based survey’s success (Dillman, Tortora
& Bowker, 1999) and by ranking the topics/issues as a whole, each respondent gave his/her priority
to each topic/issue and as a result, assembles a model of his/her own perspective of the event
research agenda (Brouwer, 1999). The items for inclusion in the study (both broad themes and more
specific sub-topics) were derived from a thorough analysis of existing events literature, and whilst
they are not intended to be completely exhaustive, they nonetheless represent all the main themes
and topics that have been researched in the events literature to date.

Analysis and Findings

The first aim of the paper was to ascertain which topics were currently under study by the event
experts. Twenty-two responses to this open-ended question were received. In order to reduce this
number into a range of coherent themes, a preliminary coding was carried out to provide a more
theoretically informed analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1984). This process resulted in five main themes,
or topic areas where the respondents were currently working:

 Event impacts and legacy (socio-cultural, environmental/sustainable & economic impacts)

 Community engagement with events
 Events and heritage/culture/identity
 Event governance, policy and politics
 Events and the inclusion/exclusion debate

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Interestingly, these issues are very similar to those less-researched issues (highlighted in Table 1)
suggesting that many events experts working in the field today are looking to extend the boundaries
of what we know about events. Areas such as community engagement with events, and how events
link with the social inclusion/exclusion debate demonstrate that events researchers are working on
topics of immense social importance. Further, the current research interest in event governance,
policy and politics highlights and strengthens the conclusion that event studies have considerable
relevance in today’s policy arenas.

The second question requested information on those areas which the respondents considered to be
comprehensively researched already and therefore by extension where little new knowledge was
likely to be generated through further research. Respondents were asked to indicate their top three
well-researched areas from a list provided. Interestingly, results showed that the event experts as a
group considered ‘event impacts’ to be the most thoroughly researched area. This is in contrast to
the number of those experts who noted that event impacts and legacy are areas where they are
currently working. However, it is important to point out that no differentiation was made in this
item between economic impacts and other types of impacts and therefore this result may reflect a
feeling that economic impacts have been well researched, rather than a suggestion that all types of
impacts have been completely investigated. The second most researched area was the link between
‘events and tourism’, and finally respondents indicated that ‘event types and definitions’ were also
comprehensively researched.

As a corollary to this issue, respondents were asked to rank the same list of twelve event-related
research topics in terms of their importance for future event research. Respondents were asked to
rank topics from 1 (most important) to 12 (least important), resulting in the lowest number
indicating the most importance placed by respondents. Results are presented in order of the mean
ranking given by respondents. Since this study has a relatively small sample size, the standard
deviation is also presented. The deviations were somewhat large, and therefore care should be
taken when interpreting these results. Nonetheless, they do present an overview of the themes that
respondents felt were important for future research. Results were calculated for each topic, and are
displayed in Table 2.

Table 2- Most important research themes for future event research

1
Theme Mean SD
Event impacts and outcomes 3.50 2.57
1
Lower numbers indicate higher importance for respondents.

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Events and tourism 4.88 2.35
Event attendee behaviour and motivations 5.00 2.52
Event policy and planning 5.13 3.18
Event operations and management 5.58 2.67
Event legacy 5.75 3.49
Events, culture, identity & heritage 5.83 3.14
Events and human resources 6.08 2.65
Event Marketing 7.00 2.30
Event types and definitions 8.67 2.68
Others 9.75 2.95

Again, the importance of research event impacts and outcomes is clear, yet the experts identified
this as an area which has already been comprehensively researched. This may indicate that while
we have garnered much knowledge already about the impacts of events, we still have much to learn.
The links between events and tourism also appeared to be important to respondents, closely
followed by more investigation of event attendee behaviours and motivations. Responses to this
question also highlighted the comparative unimportance of any further work on event types and
definitions.

Finally, respondents were given a long list (29 items) of sub-topics, or more specific research areas,
derived from the existing body of events literature and were asked to rank them in order of
importance for event research. Again, the mean ranking for each item is given as an indication of
how important respondents considered these sub-topics to be. Importance rankings are from 1 to
29.

Table 3 – Most important sub-topics for events research

2
Event sub-topic Mean SD
1. Socio-cultural and community impacts (including resident attitudes to 3.43 1.89
events, social capital and social inclusion, community pride etc)
2. Economic impacts (including national and local economic impacts, 5.14 3.71
occupancy rates etc)
3. Environmental impacts (including climate change) 6.14 5.55
4. Political and policy dimensions of events 6.52 4.02
5. Sustainability and events 6.57 5.78
6. Event tourism 10.62 6.46
7. HR and events (including volunteering) 10.76 5.74
8. Risk management (including legal aspects, crowd control, security 11.05 5.05
and crisis management)
9. Leveraging events 11.24 6.34
10. Event education (best practice, different pedagogies, professionalism, 13.00 5.93
accreditation etc.)
2
Lower scores indicate higher importance

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 11. Event location benefits (including improved destination image, 13.62 5.12
prestige)
12. Event manager/organiser skills, training, capacity 13.95 4.24
13. Urban development/urban renewal 14.38 5.36
14. Venues (management, capacity, suitability, need for new 14.43 5.45
infrastructure etc.)
15. Job creation/economic development 14.86 6.82
16. Events and identity (community or individual identity) 14.86 7.63
17. Media (including social media) 15.52 5.7
18. Financing for events (government funding, public/private 16.57 6.14
partnerships, sponsorship etc.)
19. Reasons for event failure 17.43 8.07
20. Sociological/anthropological analysis of events 17.86 7.27
21. Events and arts/culture 18.14 5.53
22. Event service quality 18.76 6.49
23. Events and heritage 19.29 5.49
24. Indigenous events 19.76 9.26
25. Future forecasting of events 21.9 6.03
26. Event branding 22.76 7.84
27. Event logistics and staging 23.14 4.98
28. Understanding sub-types of events (e.g. multicultural festivals, sports 24.33 5.76
events, mega events, business events)
Other 28.95 0.22

It can clearly be seen from Table 3 that again, impacts top the list of issues that event experts
consider to be important for future research. The effects of events on society dominates the top of
the table, with the item ‘socio-cultural and community impacts’ rated as most important, closely
followed by economic and then environmental impacts of events. The policy and political dimension
of events also appears to be key, along with the sustainability of events. Marketing of events,
particularly event branding, seems to be considered as less important for future research, perhaps
providing further evidence for its low scoring in Table 2. Further, ‘understanding sub-types of events’
also scored as being of low importance, which ties in with the rating of further research into event
types being considered a low priority.

Discussion
For too long, the evaluation of events has been limited by an emphasis on assessing the economic
benefits despite the fact that the methodologies adopted in such research are increasingly
questioned (Dwyer, Forsyth, & Spurr, 2005). Since the 1980s however, there has been increased
interest in sustainability and consequently, increasing calls for a broader approach to evaluating
events (see e.g., Bramwell, 1997; Burns & Mules, 1986; Faulkner, 1994; Fredline, Raybould, Jago &
Deery, 2004; Getz, 2000; Ritchie, 1984). Certainly the impacts of events have continued to be the

11
focus of much research attention, and the socio-cultural and environmental impacts of events
appear to be gaining in importance. Indeed, socio-cultural and community impacts (including
resident attitudes to events, social capital and social inclusion, community pride etc.) were identified
in this study as being the most important topic for future research, with both environmental impacts
of events, and the sustainability of events also featuring in the top five. However, the experts in this
study noted that while economic impacts have been thoroughly researched already, more work in
this area remains to be done. This may take the form of identifying better methods for estimating
the economic impacts of events, or perhaps more longitudinal work to understand the economic
legacies of events.

Dredge and Whitford (2010) argued that event policy research should include socio-political
interpretations of event policy problems and issues as well as research that contributes to
normative processes and frameworks. They maintained that knowledge about socio-political
relationships stimulate understandings about power, influence and values in event policy, and
cannot be isolated from normative research about what should or could be done. The positioning of
policy and the political dimensions of events in the top five topics for future study reiterates the
importance of this area of research.

Links between events and tourism also appear to be important issues for further study, as suggested
by Getz (2009), and given the apparent increase in local and national tourism strategies that are
dominated by events, it is likely that this area will continue to represent a fruitful area for events
researchers. However, it is perhaps disappointing to see how little importance was placed on
research into Indigenous events by the respondents in this survey (24 th out of 29 items). This may
have important implications for the survival and success of Indigenous events in many countries in
the world, since it is likely that if they are not attracting the attention of researchers, they may also
be failing to attract attention from government, funders and/or sponsors.

This research set to examine three main questions – the topics currently under study by events
researchers, the topics considered to be comprehensively researched already, and the topics that
are of importance for future research. In doing this, this paper has provided results and information
that can be used to underpin the development of a future research agenda for both academia and
the events and festivals industry.

Conclusions

12
Throughout the centuries, a multitude of events have been staged as fairs, festivals, sporting and
cultural events, exhibitions and business events (among others). Events have played, and continue
to play a significant role in society as ‘the desire to celebrate particular dates and occasions is an
essential part of human nature’ (Bowdin, Allen, O’Toole, Harris & McDonnell, 2006; Wrathall & Gee,
2011:11). Events provide a means of marking important personal and public occasions and
celebrating important milestones in our lives. Celebratory events are like an elixir (Derrett, 2004),
with the ability to facilitate social capital as they bind communities, facilitate constant rejuvenation
of the community experience and establish ‘…a sense of co-operation, goodwill, reciprocity,
belonging, and fellowship’ (Arcodia & Whitford, 2006:2). Therefore, events have always figured
prominently in peoples’ lives, not only contributing to defining our personal lives but also to
cultures, communities, regions and nations (Bowdin & McPherson, 2006; Wang, 2009). Taking an
innovative approach, this research has pointed to a number of research gaps and topics (i.e.,
economic evaluation methods, event policy and planning, Indigenous events) where future event
research may be directed, and has provided some underpinning data that will contribute towards
the development of a research agenda for event and festival research.

As with all research, this study has some limitations which must be acknowledged. Q methodology,
whilst relatively common in other disciplines, has not been widely used in event and festival
research. Further, due to its small sample size, this research only used the initial stages of Q
methodology, the Q sort, and therefore it must be acknowledged that a larger sample size and
further multivariate analysis of the data may have provided slightly different results. However, it is
argued that the results presented here are still broadly reflective of the subjective opinions of the
various event experts who took part in the study. Further, it was not possible to identify the global
population of events experts, and therefore it may be the case that those not included in this study
would have provided different subjective viewpoints.

The directions for future events and festivals research identified by this study appear clear – more
research on the socio-cultural and environmental impacts of events is needed, along with a better
understanding of the relationship between events and the policy agendas in different countries and
regions. Further, an extension of this study to examine the various research methods used by events
researchers would also be of value. However, one of the beauties of being part of a global network
of events and festivals researchers is that there will always be research undertaken in areas that
individual scholars are passionate about, using methods that best suit the research questions, and
so whatever recommendations may be provided in a suggested research agenda, there will always

13
be interesting, innovative and diverse studies contributing the growing body of literature pertaining
to events.

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