INFORMS Open Forum

JRPM Special Issue on Revenue Management in Sports, Live Entertainment and Arts

  • 1.  JRPM Special Issue on Revenue Management in Sports, Live Entertainment and Arts

    Posted 05-11-2021 12:32

    Dear colleagues,

    Please see below a CFP for a special issue of JRPM. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions!

    Thank you,
    Mihai

    Call for Papers

    Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
    2022 Special Issue on Revenue Management in Sports, Live Entertainment and Arts

    Guest Editors: Mihai Banciu (Bucknell University, USA), Andreas Hinterhuber (Ca' Foscari University, Italy), and Fredrik Odegaard (Ivey Business School, Canada)


    Background

    Professional sporting events and leagues, and other forms of live entertainment, including theaters, musicals, concerts, and shows, are multi-billion dollar industries. To illustrate, the professional NHL Las Vegas Knights, in their inaugural 2017-2018 season, alone generated over $100M in total ticket sales [1], while the mega-blockbuster Broadway musical Hamilton in 2018 generated over $160M in total revenue – in a venue seating only 1,319 [2]! It should be noted though, that the two examples do not reflect industry averages but rather the upper right tail of the revenue distribution. In fact, many sport and live entertainment venues face much tighter finances and often rely on public funding and private donations.

    However, regardless of the financial prospects, given the natural attributes of sports and live entertainment -- a fixed supply of perishable inventory, a predominant fixed cost, and a highly stochastic short and long term demand -- they do provide an immediate and most promising setting for revenue management. Furthermore, unlike traditional RM industries, where virtual "fences" are constructed to separate customers based on budget and willingness-to-pay, in sport and live entertainment the physical layout of a venue enables intrinsic value differences.

    These intrinsic value differences between seat locations have been leveraged through pricing-based Revenue Management applications such as variable and dynamic pricing; for applications and overview within professional sports, see [3-5]. Within live entertainment, the colloquial term "scaling the house" is used to describe how seats are priced differently based on location, e.g. seats front and center are more expensive compared to seats at the back and side; [6]. On the other hand, beyond pricing, rather surprisingly there has been very little RM development within sports and live entertainment. In particular, the literature on quantity-based Revenue Management appears scarce. This is despite the tremendous technology advancement enabling automated online and mobile ticket sales, which provides practical levers for capacity control.


    Purpose

    The purpose of this special issue is to stimulate, advance and broaden the theoretical, empirical, and case study analysis of Revenue Management within sports, live entertainment and arts. We consider arts more broadly, including visual and auditory exhibitions, and not just limited to performing arts. Furthermore, we hope this special issue will provide an impetus for new business solutions regarding pricing, forecasting, and capacity management.

    We strive for the special issue to reflect the diverse and multidisciplinary aspect of contemporary RM, from management science models to managerial case studies to empirical data-driven studies, and invite all interested scholars and industry professionals to submit their work.

     

    Timeline

    If interested in submitting a paper send a brief email stating intent to submit with a brief abstract by July 15th, 2021. Deadline for paper submission is October 15th, 2021, with decisions expected by first half of 2022. Publication is targeted for end of 2022/beginning of 2023.


    Submission

    Please submit intent to submit and complete papers to Prof. Fredrik Odegaard: fodegaard@ivey.uwo.ca

    In the header of the email please state '2022 Special Issue on Revenue Management in Sports, Live Entertainment and Arts'.

    General guidelines for authors: www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41272/authors/submission


    Enquiries

    For general enquiries about the special issue, please do not hesitate to contact one of the guest editors

    Mihai Banciu

    Andreas Hinterhuber

    Fredrik Odegaard

    Freeman College of Management

    Department of Management

    Ivey Business School

    Bucknell University

    Ca' Foscari University of Venice

    Western University

    USA

    Italy

    Canada

    mmb018@bucknell.edu

    andreas.hinterhuber@unive.it

    fodegaard@ivey.uwo.ca

     

    Sources:

    [1] www.statista.com/statistics/764241/...

    [2] www.broadwayworld.com/...

    [3] Mctaggart, 2012. Why professional athletic organizations face elevated levels of resistance to pricing increases versus other entertainment and leisure organizations. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management 11(3), pp. 253-257

    [4] Veeraraghavan and Vaidyanathan, 2012. Measuring Seat Value in Stadiums and Theaters. Production and Operations Management 21(1), pp. 49-68

    [5] Huefner, 2017. Value-based pricing in professional sports. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management 16(1), pp. 30-39

    [6] Phumchusri and Swann, 2014. Scaling the house: optimal seating zones for entertainment venues when location of seats affects demand. International Journal of Revenue Management, 8(1), pp.56-98

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    Mihai Banciu
    Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Analytics and Operations Management
    Bucknell University
    Lewisburg PA
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