Supply management for major sport events: The case of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games

• Author: Laurence Beaulieu,André Tchokogué,Jean Nollet
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1374
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

Supply management for major sport events: The

case of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games

André Tchokogué*

HEC Montréal

Jean Nollet

HEC Montréal

Laurence Beaulieu

Bell Canada

Abstract

In examining the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games (OG), we

show that supply management in major sports events

(MSEs) has interesting characteristics both in terms of

operationalization and resources required. We show that

while supply managers must consider local development,

they cannot lose sight of eff‌iciency in delivering on other ob-

jectives. The multifaceted nature of supply, which includes

sponsorship, value in kind, and so forth, requires specif‌ic

supply management approaches for each stage of the OG

management lifecycle. Specif‌ically, supply management dif-

fers from other business contexts in three main areas: (a)

supplier identif‌ication and selection; (b) contract negotia-

tion and the process of acquiring goods; (c) supplier rela-

tionship management. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published

by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: Olympic Games, supply management, major

sport events, temporary organizations, business of

uncertainty

Résumé

L’examen des Jeux olympiques de Vancouver 2010 (OG) révèle

que dans les grands évènements sportifs (MSE), la gestion de

l’approvisionnement présente des caractéristiques

intéressantes, que ce soit au niveau de l’opérationnalisation

ou au niveau des ressources nécessaires. En effet, les

gestionnaires de l’approvisionnement doivent non seulement

prendre en compte le développement local, mais aussi songer

àl’eff‌icacité dans la poursuite des autres objectifs. La nature

multidimensionnelle de l’approvisionnement qui comprend,

entre autres, les commandites, les contributions en nature, etc.

exige, à chaque étape du cycle de vie de la gestion des OG,

des approches particulières en gestion de l’approvisionnement.

Plus particulièrement, la gestion de l’approvisionnement diffère

des autres contextes d’affaires par trois traits essentiels: (a)

l’identif‌ication et la sélection des fournisseurs; (b) la

négociation des contrats et le processus d’acquisition des

produits; (c) la gestion des relations avec les fournisseurs.

Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés : Jeux olympiques, gestionde l’approvisionnement,

grands évènements sportifs, organisations temporaires,affaires

d’incertitude

Major Sport Events (MSEs) have a considerable impact

on service industries, tourism, and entertainment. The excite-

ment and passion about the FIFA World Cup, Formula 1, and

the Olympic Games are well known (Davies, Coleman, &

Ramchandani, 2013; Knott, Fyall, & Jones, 2013; Ma, Egan,

Rotherham, & Ma, 2011). The economic and cultural impor-

tance of such events has prompted more research on MSEs.

Based on Wright’s (2009) review of 50 years of operations

research as applied to different sports, it appears that the main

areas of study were scheduling, forecasting, and analysis of

policy issues, which mainly focused on the Olympic Games

(OG) in Los Angeles, Athens, and Sydney.

However, supply management is an area that has been

neglected, despite the fact that appropriate supply manage-

ment in the OG can contribute substantially to the success

of the event. Published articles deal only with guidelines

on ways to improve supply effectiveness (Jago, Dwyer,

Lipman, & Vorster, 2010) and discuss stakeholders in the

supply process (Boyle & Haggerty, 2012; Jennings, 2012).

Therefore, we focus our research on the following ques-

tion: What are the characteristics of supply management in

the context of the Olympic Games? To answer this question,

we examine the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, as the

*Please address correspondence to: André Tchokogué, Associate Professor,

Department of Logistics and Operations Management, HEC Montréal, 3000,

Cheminde la Côte-Sainte-Catherine,Montréal (QC) CanadaH3T 2A7. Email:

Andre.Tchokogue@hec.ca

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

34:7–18 (2017)

Published online 2 March 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1374

Can J Adm Sci

34(1), 7–18 (2017)Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 7