Opportunities for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises During Mega Sporting Events: A Focus on the FIFA World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico

Mega sporting events like the FIFA World Cup present unique opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to leverage increased tourism, global media attention, and heightened local economic activity. These events can act as catalysts for economic growth, providing a platform for SMEs to showcase their products and services to a broader audience. The influx of visitors and international exposure can lead to significant boosts in sales, brand recognition, and long-term business relationships. This research aims to explore the potential benefits and challenges faced by SMEs in Bakersfield, CA, during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. By focusing on a smaller city like Bakersfield, this study seeks to understand how such events can impact local economies beyond the major metropolitan areas typically associated with mega-events. The study will delve into how SMEs can strategically position themselves to take advantage of the increased demand for goods and services, while also addressing potential hurdles such as competition with larger businesses, logistical challenges, and the need for rapid scalability. Ultimately, this research will provide valuable insights into the role of SMEs in the economic landscape of host cities during mega sporting events, offering practical recommendations for maximizing their potential benefits.

Research Objectives: 1) Identify Key Opportunities: Examine the specific opportunities available to SMEs in Bakersfield, such as increased customer footfall, partnerships with larger corporations, and enhanced brand visibility. 2) Assess Challenges: Investigate the potential obstacles SMEs might encounter, including competition with larger businesses, logistical issues, and the need for rapid scalability. 3) Develop Strategic Recommendations: Provide actionable strategies for SMEs to maximize their benefits from the event, focusing on marketing, operations, and community engagement.

Theoretical Framework: The study will utilize the Resource-Based View (RBV) to understand how SMEs can leverage their unique resources and capabilities to gain competitive advantages during the World Cup. Additionally, the Stakeholder Theory will be applied to analyze the role of various stakeholders, including local government, event organizers, and the community, in supporting SMEs.

Methodology: The methodology for this research involves a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with SME owners and managers in Bakersfield and quantitative surveys of local consumers. The qualitative interviews aim to gather in-depth insights into the experiences, strategies, and challenges faced by SMEs as they prepare for and respond to the World Cup. These semi-structured interviews will allow for flexibility in exploring various topics while ensuring that key areas of interest are covered. On the quantitative side, structured surveys will be distributed to consumers before and after the World Cup. The purpose of these surveys is to quantify the impact of the World Cup on consumer behavior, spending patterns, and perceptions of local SMEs. By collecting data longitudinally, this study will be able to analyze changes over time and identify trends related to the event.

Expected Contributions: This research aims to contribute to the literature on event-driven economic development by providing insights into how SMEs in smaller cities like Bakersfield can capitalize on mega sporting events. The findings will offer practical recommendations for SMEs and policymakers to foster sustainable economic growth and community development.

References:

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The built environment is the most significant contributor to global energy consumption and carbon emissions (King, 2022). Facing the challenges of the 21^st century, its associated construction sector is required to deal with population growth whilst simultaneously safeguarding planetary boundaries and social foundations (Raworth, 2019). To be able to address increasing environmental challenges, a transition to a sustainable and circular construction sector is indispensable (Nussholz et al., 2023). This research orbits five distinct circular construction businesses from varying geographical and cultural backgrounds, applying at least one of the four circular strategies: narrowing, slowing, closing and regenerating loops (Bocken et al., 2016; Konietzko et al, 2020a). These businesses are part of the EU Horizon 2020 DRASTIC project under the European Green Deal, intending to decarbonize and extend life cycle performance of European building stock by 2050 (DRASTIC, 2024). DRASTIC is a collaboration of researchers and businesses that holistically (STEEP: Social, Technological, Ecological, Economic, Political) investigates the reduction of operational and embodied carbon impacts of construction materials in distinct geographic zones: Estonia, Norway, France, Germany and Spain (representing 80% of all European building stock typologies).

Circular strategies have long been accepted to foster the economic foundations for the circular transition (Patala, 2022). Specific to the construction sector, emissions can be profoundly minimized through material choices and operational energy savings (Kibert, 2007). Many business model approaches focus on individual firms and their key activities, resources and distribution channels (e.g. Bocken & Konietzko, 2022). Inspired by System Thinking, achieving circularity requires a broader Ecosystem Perspective in which an understanding of the interconnectedness of businesses and their interactions within the market is enticed (Konietzko et al., 2020b). It is crucial for companies, and specifically larger influencing market players, to cooperate in ecosystems and realize the additional value that lays in network collaboration and circling practices in both production and value chains (Nussholz, 2017; 2018).

This research intends to imagine and create business models that carry competitive advantages which are inextricably linked to, and possible only, with market players being subjected to company ecosystems. Until the point where the discourse shift has manifested enough for the demand side to be dominating circular solutions over linear ones, circular business models ought to collaborate in ecosystems in order to have market advantage over linear companies through additional value laying in the circular optimization strategies in value and product chains.

Systematically exploring the five businesses through the case study method, the research aims to deliver and in-depth investigation of the complexity of the construction sector and the current state of art of its associated business models (Yin, 2014). As the build environment is highly cross-sectoral by nature, various actors are involved which are influenced by a range of enabling and inhibiting economic, social and political factors. As such, the construction sector can be a promising pioneer for cross-sectoral co-creation in the circular transition of businesses turning into collaborative ecosystems, for other sectors too (Ellen McArthur, 2016). So far, we have found their myriad technological, sector specific, circular solutions are missing an integrative economic framework to scale their potent innovations, competing against linear solutions. Through circular business model innovation which is defined as the "fundamental rethinking of business models to create value through the elimination of waste and the infinite cycling of products, materials, and resources." (Geissdoerfer, et al., 2017), we are looking for strategies to build bridges to a circular economy which subside linear "take-make-dispose” models. We further have identified the relevance of ecosystem mapping as such, predominantly as an educative tool for knowledge-sharing on possible circular solutions and understanding who is involved and subsequently who can aid in change-making processes.

To conclude, there is a need to dismantle obsolete value chains and foster collaborative structures in the economy at large, to deal with pressing sustainability challenges. This research investigates the case of the construction sector to demonstrate how to develop scalable, replicable circular business models and associated value propositions that entice ecosystems. To expedite the circular economy transition, future research should extend ecosystem thinking to other sectors, comparing and contrasting their circular strategies. The role of policy and governance in promoting ecosystem creation plays a crucial role, especially when making ecosystem-based approaches obligatory for new business ventures. Research should investigate the influence of geographical, sociocultural, and political contexts on ecosystem formation and dynamics. A comprehensive analysis of stakeholder engagement beyond the focal firm is also essential, with specific focus on end-users and social acceptability.

Finally, in future research, we aim to formulate business model propositions for each of these five business models, varying in their socio-political and geo-climatic background. More precisely, we intend to identify strategies to optimize product and value chains through ecosystem and let these fuel a coherent business model. Also looking at the broader framework of how to connect and initiate collaboration though i.e., digital platforms, knowledge transfer, and sharing infrastructures. We believe in turn that this will lend abstractable findings to the front side of business innovation in the circular transition which will be potent to scale to various sectors other than the built environment, too. Knowledge institutions, together with governments and businesses can create the discourse shift (Etzkowitz, 2019) necessary to not only entice the economic profit of circular solutions, but the socio-ecological merit of those strategies that carry an inherent viability as such.

References
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This study examines how professional service firms, particularly the Big Four, influence the evolving role of finance and specifically the role of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) concerning sustainability through their discourse. Drawing on the theory of frames and framing, we explore how discourse shapes meaning and guide actions towards the integration of sustainability within the finance function and the evolving role of chief financial officers. We have systematically collected and screened relevant publications from the Big Four through keyword searches on their global websites. Through discourse analysis, as outlined by Philips and Hardy, we analyzed a subset of these publications which we expect to contribute to the understanding of how sustainability expectations are framed towards the role of finance and subsequently the role of CFOs. Preliminary analysis of 10 publications reveals examples of three key frames – field frames, cognitive frames of reference and emphasis/issue frames – reflecting the global role of finance, the role of CFOs, and the role of professional service firms respectively in the context of sustainability.

In this paper, we position the process of responsible innovation as comprising a firm’s strategic responses to two challenges: Institutional demands around sustainable development and technological challenges around emerging sustainable technology. By accounting for sector opacity and technology incompatibility between incumbent and new technology regimes, we build a framework to explicate the institutional process of technology substitution. We argue that combinations of sector opacity and technological incompatibility shape resource allocation between current and emerging technology regimes at the firm level, translating into dominant forms of sustainable innovation across sectors.

Recognition that business activities profoundly impact the natural environment is not something new (Whiteman et al., 2013; Yu et al., 2023). Recent years have seen the launch of several proposals to shift linear models of operation to more sustainable ones (Konietzko et al., 2023; Das & Bocken, 2024), where approaches like sustainable business models target net zero emissions, while circular models emphasize waste reduction (Das & Bocken, 2024). More recently, regenerative strategies have emerged, taking a more holistic approach to restore and rejuvenate ecological and social systems by creating positive externalities (Hahn & Tampe, 2021; Konietzko et al., 2023).

This research project focuses on the fashion industry, one of the sectors where regenerative innovations are emerging most rapidly (Das & Bocken, 2024). Fashion industry’s activity has led to disastrous environmental and social externalities (Grazzini et al., 2021; Shourkaei et al., 2023). Currently, it is responsible for 10% of the global carbon emissions, it recycles mere 1% of used clothing into new garments (European Parliament, 2024), and it is a major contributor to modern slavery (Pinnington et al., 2021). Such controversial practices and evolving sustainability expectations push fashion companies to increase transparency, reduce carbon footprints, optimize resources, support communities, and ensure fair stakeholder treatment (Jestratijevic et al., 2024).

Building on calls for more empirical research on implementing regenerative strategies (Das & Bocken, 2024), our research aims to explore the motivations driving luxury fashion brands to adopt regenerative business practices and to analyze the risks and opportunities these strategic choices entail. Some luxury fashion companies have started to adopt regenerative value chains (Jestratijevic et al., 2024), focusing on using better materials, fostering positive impacts for stakeholders—especially suppliers (Gualandris et al., 2024)—and embracing socially responsible business practices. However, previous literature does not clearly identify the various drivers to engage in regenerative fashion (Kunz et al., 2020), particularly in the luxury sector, which is notoriously secretive about transparency (Fashion Revolution, 2023).

While potential risks accompany the adoption of regenerative strategies, companies must fully commit to the regenerative model by aligning their business and supply chain practices with its principles. Specifically, Gualandris et al. (2024) introduced three key principles for regenerative supply chains: proportionality, which aligns production and consumption within socio-ecological boundaries; reciprocity, which ensures interactions between supply chain stakeholders, local communities, and nature are mutually beneficial for both human and non-human actors; and poly-rhythmicity, which involves aligning operations with the natural rhythms of the ecosystems in which the supply chains operate. Issues of proportionality and poly-rhythmicity may be overlooked in favor of economic imperatives. Furthermore, if only niche markets dominated by luxury brands can adopt regenerative practices, how does that impact average consumers and suppliers? That could undermine the principle of reciprocity and raise concerns about greenwashing scandals with the supply chains of leading brands.

To study this phenomenon, we propose a multiple case study approach (Yin, 2009) to examine the practices of companies claiming to be part of the regenerative fashion movement, such as Gucci (Kering Group), Armani and Prada, which rank highly in transparency (Fashion Transparency Index, 2023) and are signatories of the Fashion Pact (The Fashion Pact, 2024). Our data collection will include interviews with industry experts and company managers, sustainability and industry reports, and financial statements. We will use content analysis and a longitudinal approach to observe the evolution of regenerative practices and their long-term impacts on brands and the industry.