A New Paradigm of a Sustainability-Balanced Scorecard Model for Sport Tourism

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is relevant, logically structured, the goals and objectives set in the article have been achieved.

The article is of scientific and practical interest. It is applied in nature. This article is aimed at developing practical recommendations for the development of sports tourism based on the use of a sustainability management model (STSM) consisting of 5 perspectives, namely financial perspective, client perspective, internal process perspective, learning and growth perspective and sustainable development perspective. Using the Delphi method to obtain consensus from experts, university professors, independent organizations/associations and commercial structures related to sports tourism management, the authors identify elements for assessing the integrated perspective of sustainable development of sports tourism development.

Recommendations for the revision of the article:

1. Specify the purpose of the article and the tasks arising from it. In the introduction and in the annotation.

2. In conclusion, show how the findings are consistent with existing research in this area (what complement, what develop ...)

3. Highlight the novelty of the study in the introduction. Also reflect it in the annotation.

4. To show the possible economic effect of the author's decisions, what benefit will it have from the point of view of economics?

5. Specify the sample size (number of experts) for the Delphi method, as well as prove that their number is relevant for managerial decision-making and reflects the reliability of the results obtained based on the use of this method.

6. It is necessary to supplement the model proposed by the authors with new key performance indicators – KPIs, which would reflect the directions of measuring the sustainability of the development of sports tourism.

7. Provide comparative data on the development of sports tourism in the countries of the world in order to emphasize the relevance and problems / prospects for its development.

Author Response

"Please see the attachment."

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript proposes the use of principles for the supply change management in sport tourism and the sustainability balanced scorecard for the development of guidance and assessment criteria for a city to be a sustainable sport tourist destination.

The content of the manuscript is well organized and can be easily followed as the method is described and implemented. The references are comprehensive and add a large literature review to the use of different techniques (Delphi, sustainability balanced scorecard, etc.) and algorithms used in the research. The Conclusion are brief and in accordance with the research objectives. Yet, some issues can be reviewed by the authors:

-          The text in rows 115-118 and rows 178-181, are almost similar.

 

Afterwards, the researcher 114 inquires the experts under the Delphi technique to obtain their consensus with three criteria, 1) the median must be at least 3; 2) the interquartile range must not over 1 for the 5-scale measurement [68]; and 3) the Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance must not over 0.50 to verify correlation in the answers [69].

To be considered as a consensus, the researcher relies on 3 criteria, 1) the median must not less than 3; 2) the interquartile range must not over 1 for the or 5-scale assessment as shown in Table4 and; 3) the Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance or W must be less than 0.5.

If the authors want to keep both texts, maybe the reference should be the same, also.

-          The conclusion should contain the result of applying all the 18 elements of analysis for the explanation of the dimensions.

-          As the Sport tourism is the targeted subject, there are too few elements that are dedicated to it. Thus, the research is more general and looks that do not convince that is focused on Sport tourism.

-          As the Category of Supply Chain Management objectives (table 2) contains specificities from different countries or regions, how these specificities are implemented in the research?

-           I’m not convinced that the Sustainable Balance Scorecard is proper applied in the present study. How the Sustainable Balance Scorecard (by the way in row 38, the authors said “…use sustainability balanced scorecard (hereafter called “SBSC”),…”, yet there are no SBSC used after that) chain is developed and applied?

Author Response

"Please see the attachment."

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Thank you for the opportunity to review this manuscript. The authors propose a new management model of the sustainability of sports tourism starting from the existing problems in the management of the supply chain.

Some suggestions to consider when reviewing this paper:

·        I recommend removing the numbers from the abstract. The first paragraph must inform but also incite/determine the reader to read the entire paper to discover the results of the research (data/numbers, information, etc.);

·        The "Introduction" section needs to be improved;

o    First of all, the decision-making issue regarding the research carried out must be added. Therefore, you must answer the question: Why do you think it is necessary to implement a sustainability management model in sports tourism?

o   Secondly, you must establish and clearly present the purpose of your research. The same purpose must be found in the abstract, introduction, results and conclusions.

o   Thirdly, add how to structure the work for each section;

o   Fourthly, introduce the scientific and practical contributions that your research brings.

·        Introduce the "Literature review" section and present in stages (problem 1, problem 2, ...problem n) the problems related to the management of the supply chain in sports tourism and highlight the need to solve them by correlating with the 5 analyzed perspectives (namely financial perspective, customer perspective, internal process perspective, learning and growth perspective and sustainability perspective);

·        Highlight the actions specific to sustainability that have been implemented in sports tourism up to the time of your study, the insufficiency of their application, the advantages and disadvantages offered. Show what is still necessary to undertake for the development of sustainable sports tourism and how each perspective/variable in your model can contribute to the foundation of sustainable strategies. Support these arguments through several bibliographic sources.

·        At the end of the "literature review" section, you must enter your research objectives and hypotheses. Then, in the results part, you can insert a table where you highlight for each hypothesis its acceptance or rejection.

·        A distinction should be made between "Research design and methodology" and "Results". If you presented the Delphi technique theoretically and applied in the first section, it is no longer necessary to remind this methodology in the Results". I did not understand the usefulness of repeating this information;

·        I recommend the introduction of a separate "Discussions" section, where the identified problems regarding the management of the supply chain in sports tourism must be linked to the research results;

·        In addition to limitations and future directions, you must present the practical and theoretical implications of your research.

Your work addresses an interesting, current and extremely permissive topic from the point of view of information. I congratulate the authors for the initiative to analyze the problems related to the management of the supply chain in sports tourism and to propose a new management model of the sustainability of sports tourism in a post-pandemic context.

Author Response

"Please see the attachment." 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

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