vii. Editor in Chief&#39;s Message

Andreas Zins

vii. Editor in Chief's Message

Andreas Zins

2022, Editor in Chief's Message

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Critical voices may be immediately alert when reading that a new journal had been launched. We have already more than 300 periodicals in the tourism, hospitality, leisure, and event space. Do we need another one? In a perfect world, where we closed already the sustainability agenda because all seventeen UN Development Goals had been achieved satisfactorily, we would not need them. The new International Journal of Business Events and Legacies embraces an emerging field of concern and attention that a number of scholars addressed so far in very diverse publication outlets.

vii. Editor in Chief’s Message Professor Andreas H. Zins Editor in Chief’s Message Professor Andreas H. Zins DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF BUSINESS OF CURTIN UNIVERSITY, MALAYSIA “ Critical voices may be immediately alert when reading that a new journal had been launched. We have already more than 300 periodicals in the tourism, hospitality, leisure, and event space. Do we need another one? In a perfect world, where we closed already the sustainability agenda because all seventeen UN Development Goals had been achieved satisfactorily, we would not need them. The new International Journal of Business Events and Legacies embraces an emerging field of concern and attention that a number of scholars addressed so far in very diverse publication outlets. Editor in Chief’s Message Professor Andreas H. Zins I see strong parallels in topics and concepts like corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and even holistic marketing and sustainability, which gradually emerged: starting with attempts to describe and define the concepts, test them in larger explanatory models and make them accessible and useful for managerial and policy making purposes. Legacies will follow a similar trajectory: a multifaceted notion in the complex nexus of either large-scale projects or sophisticated social structures. I also see commonalities with the appearance of the initiative of ‘Beyond GDP’, which is about finding indicators for prosperity and wellbeing as appealing as GDP but more inclusive of environmental and social aspects. Tourism, understood as an entire ecosystem and not simply as a conglomerate of a few individual economic subsectors, had been studied first from a geographic, later from a business, management, and consumer perspective. The comprehensive analyses of the economic impact for regions and nations followed suit. At the same time, ecological concerns and problems were addressed at a growing rate to find answers to the question ‘At which point do we have to impose protective measures to prevent tourism from destroying itself?’ The most recent trend draws attention to the ownership of tourism transactions and their costs and benefits. We clearly learn from this discourse that tourism does not follow easily the classical business model of B2B or B2C relationships with the society, the economic, natural, cultural and legal viii. environment as latent external factors. Those are too essential ingredients, even service production factors with no proper compensation or reward for their presence or active input. Mega events (be it sports or culture) triggered an increased awareness and sensitivity for their effects beyond the economic and ecological footprint. Next to the contribution to GDP, to tax revenues, to employment generation and international media coverage, organizers, governments and local communities are questioning the long-term effects in the area of infrastructure, education, youth development, social justice, sustaining income improvements, etc. A similar line of considerations started in the space of business events, particularly for conferences and congresses. There are strong parallels in organisational structures, stakeholder systems, financial aspects and governance between these two types of events. However, research into the particular eco-systems of business events started rather recently. Nevertheless, more importantly, a growing number of professional stakeholders – convention bureaus, congress organizers and associations – started serious reflexions on their own activities by addressing the expected and potential legacy impacts of their events. I am proud of having pioneers from academia and industry professionals (including government representatives) on board for the development of this topic. The journal is hopefully a proper instrument to spread the word, to increase awareness and to sharpen our senses for legacies emanating from smaller and bigger events. The journal is enabled and supported by Business Events Sarawak, one of the pioneers of ix. Editor in Chief’s Message Professor Andreas H. Zins introducing legacy frameworks to the daily routine of promoting business events in the Malaysian State of Sarawak. The government recognizes Business Events as an important business activity next to tourism and other industries to develop the country, to strengthen economic and social aspects. Following this paradigm, scholars and practitioners are invited to assess critically past and potential events or event series and their relationships with different community capitals: natural capital, cultural capital, human capital, social capital, political capital, financial capital, and built capital; its stock, its flows, its interactions and resulting impacts across capitals. With the strong involvement and support from both sides, academia and professionals, the journal will deviate from the beaten track of academic journals. The journal will publish two sections: one with classical research papers (conceptual and empirical), research notes and commentary articles, which undergo the regular double-blind review process, and the second with industry articles (communication brief, industry viewpoints and practitioner reports), which are peer-reviewed before publication. We strongly believe that both approaches of ‘knowledge production’ have their merits and rationales. Practitioners can learn from their peers and from academic research (which is – hopefully – conducted in close collaboration with many stakeholder in the field). Academic scholars can learn as well from their peers and from practitioners’ insights. This first, inaugural issue is a good example for the intended mix of authors and articles. The reader will find cases from Milan (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Daegu (South Korea) and Sarawak (Malaysia) but also more conceptual and functional contributions reflecting on online participation, event education, e-marketplaces for business events and intellectual capital of cities. A book review on a recent new publication on a research agenda for event impacts closes this first issue. I wish and hope that the journal will contribute to a better understanding of legacies in the context of business events and this understanding translates into decisions for and implementations of better event designs. With a growing number of reviewers and board members, authors and readers, I am confident that the journal will fill its reasonable and mindful position on the highly diversified landscape of journal publications.

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