Leveraging of Sport Events by Non-Aligned Stakeholders: Introducing the Concept and Providing a Scoping Review

Within the expanding literature on sport event leveraging, there remains a lack of research on leveraging by organisations that are not considered to be a part of the host community. This study explores the extant event leveraging literature as it relates to the emergent concept of the non-aligned stakeholder (NAS), defined as a stakeholder of an event whose strategic objectives, either in part or in total, conflict with those of the event host. Two interrelated research questions frame the study: (1) To what extent are NASs discussed in the existing event leveraging literature? (2) What types of NASs are found within this literature and how are they discussed? Following Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) five-step process, the authors undertook a comprehensive scoping review of five databases and found a total of 41 articles that include discussions of NASs, of which 24 explicitly consider how the NASs sought to leverage an event to achieve an objective in conflict with the event host’s objectives. The analysis categorises NASs into four dominant types: activists, commentators, competitors and opponents. This study positions NASs as a critical stakeholder group to be considered by event practitioners, policymakers and academics in their attempt to better understand and use the sport events ecosystem. Moreover, it proposes future in-depth investigations of the relationships between NASs and event hosts, as well as theoretical advancements that integrate NASs within both the sport event leveraging literature and related areas of study, including ambush marketing and athlete activism.