Public event networks: an application of marketing theory to sporting events

In spite of the conclusions drawn by the popular press over a race to “bigness” (Mandel et al., 1995), business continues to pursue new forms of organization. Strategic and functional alliances as well as other forms of loosely-bound enterprises continue to grow in number and size, both domestically and internationally. As we shall see, however, theory seeking to keep pace with this phenomenon focuses primarily on vertical integration as the basis of study. Thus, although network theory is developing apace, it centers principally on production/distribution scenarios.

This orientation begs the question, of course, of how service organizations and service networks...