Role of Maslow’s Theory of Needs and Perceived Event Impacts in Modeling Residents’ Support for Mega Events: Empirical Evidence from Beijing Olympic Park

Abstract

The conventional approach for mega event planning is political while bottom-up approaches are less. The latter has been identified as an option which is difficult to implement. However, need driven approaches are becoming attractive drawing the attention of scientific studies. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been a central focus in management research though its application in residents’ support for mega events is less. The central focus of this study is to test the role of Maslow’s theory of needs and the residents’ perceived impacts in shaping their support for mega events. Olympic Park residential area in Beijing where 2008 summer Olympic Games took place was identified as a fertile ground to test the proposed model. Item generation was supported through analysis of literature where pre-tested scales are applied to capture A self-administered questionnaire was pilot tested and fielded from January to April 2017 and 737 responses were secured for final analysis. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling was performed to test the proposed model and the findings endorsed a strong support in applying Maslow’s theory in predicting residents’ support for mega events. Comprehensive debates on implications and recommendations were discussed based on the latent variables and item loadings which are theoretically and empirically significant in the field of mega event management.