Business legacy planning for mega events: The case of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar

This study aimed to explore the processes of business networking which lays the foundation for business legacy outcomes initiated by the award of a mega event in a region. Building on the work of Spilling (1996) on mega event business impacts, we interviewed 24 stakeholders in Qatar from sport organizations about business planning and impacts of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Qualitative data analysis revealed a process that involved a relationship between certain factors. For example, country context factors included political, religious and cultural elements. These country context factors can create business drivers and barriers that lead to sustainable business networking event legacy outcomes. Drivers and barriers included networking complexity factors, speed of internationalization, and country constraints. Targeted sustainable business networking legacy outcomes involved cultural change, innovation, social and human capital development and re-positioning of the country in the business world.