audience-auditorium-bleachers-391535.jpg

Research Bio

Adam's main research areas are concerned with:

  • Sport Fan Equity, specifically season ticket holder and membership service experience related to satisfaction/value, engagement and organisation-fan relationships. 

  • Innovation in Sport Business, looking at networks, ecosystems and the role of organisations and stakeholders in leading innovation outcomes.

Additionally, Adam undertakes research and supervises research students in organisational design, consumer behaviour, sponsorship and branding, community oriented practices of sport teams, data analytics and digital media.

Current ARC Projects

  • Australian Research Council (ARC) LP190100376 - Exploring Wellbeing Outcomes in the Aquatic and Recreation Industry

  • Australian Research Council (ARC) LP200301335 - Activating social connection to address isolation in Australia

  • Australian Research Council (ARC) LP220100351 - Social Impact and Connection Outcomes Associated with Community Sport

Sample Industry and Academic Projects

  • Satisfaction, Value and Customer Experience: 10+ year project developing best practice measurement and bench-marking of season ticket holder and member servicing in league wide applications. Includes over 40 teams and league wide projects with two top 10 attended global professional sport leagues. 

  • Prediction and Behaviour Change: Application of statistical and data mining led predictive models for churn and renewal, donation programs, and promotion uptake. Identifies drivers of churn for different products and contexts and tests applications and interventions for organisations.

  • Audience Measurement/ Segmentation: Projects have been undertake market sizing to determine volume of league and team fan bases, conversion and market/audience characteristics. Segmentation models have been developed for major leagues/teams for both established and new teams/products.

  • Fan Engagement Measurement: Project is building and testing measurement structures, drivers and outcomes of brand engagement to guide practice and design of real and virtual engagement activities.

  • Brand and Sponsorship: Includes in-depth measurement of brand development and sponsor recall over time.  Specific projects include a focus on measurement of cognitive and affective stages of the consumer sponsorship process applied to club wide sponsorship portfolios.

  • Innovation, Data and Competitive Advantage: Study assessing ecosystems of networked innovation in the sport business sector. Includes identification and mapping of innovations and data-led solutions for sport business and refinement of measurement of innovation orientation of organisations and role of stakeholders in networked innovation ecosystems. 

Sample Research Partners

  • Australian Research Council

  • Professional Leagues and Teams (Australian Football League, Cricket Australia/Big Bash League & A-League Clubs and overseas League/teams)

  • Leisure and Recreation Centres 

  • National/State Organisations

  • Sport Technology Startups

  • State and Local Government

Current Project List

  • Customer Equity in Professional Sport Teams/Leisure Services

  • Prediction and Behaviour Change in Professional Sport/Leisure Services

  • Fan Engagement: Measurement, Antecedents and Outcomes

  • Media Dominant Consumption

  • Innovation Measurement and Adoption in Sport Organisations / The Networked Innovation Ecosystem in Sport

  • Analytics and Competitive Advantage for Sport Organisations

  • Measurement in Sport Fan Research - Response Bias and Halo Effect Measurement in Sport Consumer Research Settings

Research Supervision - PhD

  1. Dr Patrick Davis - Associate Supervisor, Completed 2014 (Swinburne University) - 'A Comparison of Firm-developed and Consumer-developed Online Brand Communities'.

  2. Dr Thomas Gaarnstroom - Associate Supervisor, Completed 2018 (Deakin University) - 'Determining and Characterising Consumer Segments: A case of MMA in Australia'.

  3. Dr Damien Whitburn - Primary Supervisor, Completed 2018 (Deakin University) - 'Exploring Integrated Marketing Communication Disconnects in the Australian Sport System'.

  4. Dr Daniel Pelchen - Primary Supervisor, Completed 2019 (Deakin University) - 'Quantifying Draft Value in Prospective Australian Football League Draftees'.

  5. Dr Carleigh Yeomans - Primary Supervisor, Completed 2021 (Swinburne University) - ‘The Utility of Attitudes and Observed Behaviour in Fitness Facility Retention’

  6. Chelsey Taylor - Associate Supervisor (Swinburne University) - ‘Assessing the social impact of AFL with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities’

  7. Ellie Faulkner - Primary Supervisor (Swinburne University) - ‘Leading Change: Towards Gender Equity in Australian Sports Organisations’

  8. Daniel Ferguson - Primary Supervisor (Swinburne Univeristy) - ‘Giving Recreation a Sporting Chance: A Comparative Analysis of Infrastructure Types on Phyical Activity’

  9. Ella Scott - Primary Supervisor (Swinburne University) - ‘Advancing the Conceptualisation and Implementation of Engagement in Professional Sport’

  10. Sanghyeon (Sang) Kim - Primary Supervisor (Swinburne University) - ‘The Application of New Media Technology in Live Media Sport’.

  11. Vahid Delshab - Primary Supervisor (Swinburne University) - ‘Exploration of knowledge management for social innovation in community sport clubs’

  12. Jayme Verhagen - Primary Supervisor (Swinburne University) - ‘Measurement of Social Connection’

Research Supervision - Honours / Masters

  1. 2011 Dr Hannah MacDougall* (Primary Supervisor)

  2. 2012 Dr Thomas Gaarnstroom* (Primary Supervisor)

  3. 2013 Dr Damien Whitburn* (Primary Supervisor)

  4. 2014 Mr Mitchell Watts (Primary Supervisor)

  5. 2014 Dr Daniel Pelchen* (Primary Supervisor)

  6. 2017 Ms Chelsey Taylor* (Associate Supervisor)

  7. 2018 Ms Ella Scott* (Primary Supervisor)

 *Current or Past PhD Scholarship holder/Doctoral Candidate