Research sample

A purposive, snowball sample method was used to access the seventeen interview respondents secured for this study. The sample size of this study is appropriate because the total number of respondents responsible for delivering the Olympic advertising and trading regulations was small, particularly those responsible for the implementation of the new Olympic regulations (interviewee one and four were solely responsible for overseeing the implementation and enforcement). As such, suitable and quality data were collected to support this study. That said, the findings of this thesis could have been enhanced further if more ‘boots on the ground’ enforcement officers from London 2012 were found, something I expand upon in section 6.5. However the ODA was long since closed when I began this

research and many Trading Standards staff that worked at London 2012 had left the service due to large-scale cuts (section 1.4.1.1), making the sample size deficiencies here unavoidable.

I initially targeted senior participants17 _{to take part in the study as their high position allowed} them to speak more knowledgably on behalf of their organisation. Some of these high-level contacts were interviewed during the pilot interview phase so that they could give me access to further key participants and additional internal documentation early in the data collection process. For example, Interviewee #7 (JLARS) was interviewed in the pilot stage and put me in contact with Interviewee #1 and Interviewee #4 who turned out to be the most important interviewees for this research as they were responsible for the overall delivery of advertising and trading regulations at London 2012. Additionally, Interviewee #10 was able to pass a significant amount of documentation and minutes to meetings which informed my knowledge of context surrounding London 2012.

Interviewing high level contacts in the pilot stage posed a risk as I was still testing the interview questions and hadn’t gained tacit knowledge from speaking to a number of participants (I was much better at interviewing by the end of the study than I was at the beginning). However, the benefit of interviewing senior contacts in the pilot stage was that the data collection was completed in a timely manner (November 2015 – May 2016) because those senior contacts introduced me to specific, often key, contacts at an early stage. In terms of the spread of interviews across the regulatory constellation, Rommel (2009) advocated that research be made up of respondents representing organisations across the regulatory constellation (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Structure of regulatory constellations (adapted from Rommel, 2009, p.7)

Looking at Rommel’s (2009) structure of a regulatory constellation (Figure 1) the supranational level (e.g. the IOC) was not considered in this study due to the focus of this thesis being the regulator – small firm relationship at the national level (UK). Furthermore, in terms of the subnational level, the local level of regulatory delivery at London 2012 was encapsulated under the responsibilities of the ODA enforcement officers on the ground. Henceforth, the perspective of regulators enforcing the regulations on the ground (the subnational level) could be captured through interviews with ODA enforcement officers and programme managers. Consequently, when interviewing respondents from the ODA, it was important to gain the perspective of both senior management (responsible for co-ordinating the delivery of advertising and trading regulations at national level) and enforcement officers (responsible for business engagement at subnational level). Additionally, the respondents were taken from organisations operating in four areas of the regulatory constellation (Table 3).

TABLE 3:SECTIONS OF THE REGULATORY CONSTELLATION OF INTEREST

Research group Description Organisation

Sectoral regulator Regulatory body directly responsible for the regulatory chain of Olympic advertising and trading regulations

The ODA

Sectoral regulator in the same sector

Regulatory body responsible for Olympic regulation, but not that of advertising and trading regulations

The JLARS

General Regulator Responsible for the overall delivery of the London 2012 Olympic Games, with an oversight of the regulatory bodies

The DCMS

Sectoral regulator in another sector

Non-Olympic entity (e.g. non-Olympic regulator, trade association, local authority)

Trading Standards

A full list of the respondents for this study has been included in Table 4.

TABLE 4:FULL LIST OF RESPONDENTS

Alias Code Organisation Position & Job Description

Interviewee #1 Olympic Delivery Authority

(ODA) Programme Manager Advertising and Trading for the Olympic Delivery Authority

Interviewee #2 Local Authority Olympic

Resilience Team (LAORT) Programme Manager Interviewee #3 Chartered Trading Standards

Institute (CTSI) Senior Policy Maker Interviewee #4 Olympic Delivery Authority

/ Department for

Communities Culture Media and Sport (ODA/DCMS)

Integration and Stakeholder Manager - ODA (Dec 2011 - Oct 2012) & Senior Policy Officer, Government Olympic Executive - DCMS (Oct 2009 - Nov 2011) Interviewee #5 Hackney Council Advisor for Growth Boroughs

initiative Interviewee #6 Chartered Trading Standards

Institute (CTSI) Director of Policy Interviewee #7 Joint Local Authority

Regulatory Services (JLARS)

Interim Head of JLARS

Interviewee #8 Chartered Trading Standards

Institute (CTSI) Commercial Director Interviewee #9 Cabinet Secretariat for

London 2012/ Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO)

Head of Cabinet Secretariat/ Assistant Director

Interviewee #10 Greater London Authority

(GLA) Senior Manager

Interviewee #11 Better Regulation Delivery

Interviewee #12 Trading Standards (TS) Lead Officer for Product Safety Interviewee #13 Trading Standards (TS) &

Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)

Lead Officer (TS) & Silver Command - Brand Protection Officer (ODA)

Interviewee #14 Joint Local Authority Regulatory Services (JLARS)

Head of JLARS

Interviewee #15 Trading Standards (TS) & Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)

Lead Officer (TS) & Silver Command - Brand Protection Officer (ODA)

Interviewee #16 Trading Standards (TS) Lead Officer Interviewee #17 Trading Standards (TS) Lead Officer