Major Sporting Events as Catalysts of Human and Social Capital Building: The Case of Qatar

Citation

Rocha C, Farrag D, Girginov V, Madgy M & Al Thawadi O (2025) Major Sporting Events as Catalysts of Human and Social Capital Building: The Case of Qatar. European Association for Sport Management Conference, Budapest, 02.09.2025-05.09.2025.1, p. 38.

Abstract
Aim. The present study reports results from a multi-event investigation, which included (1) Asian Men's Handball Qualification – Paris 2024 Olympic Games (October 2023), (2) World Aquatics Championships (February 2024), and (3) Tennis ExxonMobil Open ATP 500 (February 2025), all hosted by Qatar. The overall aims of the larger project were to analyse what organisers have learned from hosting major sporting events to promote capacity building. For this conference, we are focusing on the quantitative data only, with the aim of exploring the relationship between public experiences with the events and human and social capital building. Theoretical Background. Developing human and social capital in the context of Qatar is a strategic objective and is seen as a major contributor to a knowledge-based economy. Major sporting events were afforded a prominent role in this process (Qatar National Vision 2030). Therefore, we draw upon human and social capital theories (Becker, 1962; Putnam, 1995) to understand what can be learned from people’s experiences with major sporting events in Qatar. Human and social capital have been largely investigated as desirable outcomes of hosting sport events (Brannagan & Grix, 2023; Gibson et al., 2014; Zhou et al., 2021), with results showing that personal experiences with the events are fundamental for people to build capital (Taks & Rocha, 2022). However, previous studies have not considered the impacts that different politico-socio-cultural context can have on building capital. The literature has proposed that knowing human and social impacts that events have on local population can help organisers to plan effective strategies of capacity building (Girginov et al., 2017). Therefore, the quantitative data of our study helped us to understand this process, which later on informed interviews (not part of the current abstract) with sport managers responsible for sport events in Qatar. Research Design, Methodology, Data Analysis. During the above-mentioned major events, we collected data from resident attendees (n1=306; n2=718; n3=554), from different nationalities (12% Qatari, 42% Arab expats, and 46% other expats), genders (40% female), and age groups. The sample demographic statistics resemble the population parameters of Qatar (World Population Review, 2023). Based on the literature (Taks & Rocha, 2022), we created items to measure three types of experiences: cognitive, affective, and conative. Individual impact items were created based on the definition of human capital (Becker, 1962) and social impact items, based on the definition of social capital (Putnam, 1995), defined as a second-order latent variable represented by three first-order latent variables: bonding, bridging and linking social capital (Ager & Strang, 2008). Data were analysed through covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM), following the two step-approach (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Future analysis will include multiple-group SEM. Results and Discussion. In all three events, the measurement models closely fit the data (RMSEA1=.052; CFI1=.983; RMSEA2=.052; CFI2=.985; RMSEA3=.055; CFI3=.977). The scales have very good psychometric properties – internal consistency and convergent and divergent validity. Descriptive statistics show that respondents had positive cognitive and affective experiences across all three events and indicated that events had positive individual impacts and social impacts on them, including all three dimensions of social capital. The structural models also closely fit the data in all three events (RMSEA1=.053; CFI1=.983; RMSEA2=.051; CFI2=.985; RMSEA3=.057; CFI3=.977). Analysis of path coefficients indicate that cognitive experiences are antecedents of affective experiences which in turn affect individual (human capital) and social (social capital) impacts. Analysing all three events, we did not find support for direct effects from cognitive experiences to either individual or social impacts, indicating that the indirect model is the most plausible one. Conative experiences were entered as a control variable, not explaining significant variance in either individual or social impacts consistently across events. Conclusion, Contribution, Implication. People’s experiences with events in Qatar have promoted promote human and social capital formation, confirming the literature in other contexts (Brannagan & Grix, 2023; Gibson et al., 2014; Zhou et al., 2021). As in previous studies, the better people experience the event, the more they report that sport events have human and social impacts on them (Taks & Rocha, 2022). A contribution of the current study is the hierarchical order of experiences, where cognitive experiences function as antecedents for affective experiences, but they do not have direct impacts on human and social capital formation. Affective experiences do have a direct impact on capital formation. As this is a work in progress, practical implications are still to be fully understood. This will happen after analysing the interviews with sport event managers. Initial implications indicate the importance of investing in affective experiences for attendees to experience human and social capital formation. This can be informed to sport event managers, who can elaborate on how capital formation will help them to promote capacity building in the local society using the impacts of events (Girginov et al., 2017).

Keywords
sport management, sport mega-events