Adam Cohen

• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at University of Technology Sydney

Despite a growing body of scholarship exploring university–organization collaborations in the sport for development (SfD) field, there has been limited consideration of the experiences of practitioners and partnering organizations in these partnerships. The purpose of this study was to examine their experiences when partnering with academic institu...

As sport users continue to evolve, so must the approaches sport organisations take to optimally serve them. From the field of management, design thinking arises as a promising means of pursuing the human-centred generation of value for users. To establish the suitability of design thinking activities for use in sport management practice, we underto...

Guided by the emerging literature on relational leadership this paper discusses how leadership is socially constructed in the context of a professional sporting organization. An in-depth exploratory case study with a championship winning professional team was conducted for the duration of the championship season. Data was collected through intervie...

There is a lack of research on the work experiences of employees working within the recreation and leisure industry. The current study used a structural model approach to examine key concepts of workaholism, burnout, work–family interface, and coping strategies within the context of recreational employees. The study’s sample consisted of 466 campus...

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Australian professional sport leagues were impacted by temporary league shutdowns. One example is the Suncorp Super Netball, the world’s premier netball competition. This commentary paper explores the Suncorp Super Netball league shutdown from the perspective of the players. Our commentary has emerged fro...

Sport for development and peace (SDP) scholars have stressed the need for monitor and evaluation efforts to not simply highlight positive outcomes. Potential barriers regarding successful evaluation of SDP programs are the focus on positive and biased perspectives of participants and limited long-term data. Guided by SDP and organizational capacity...

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perspectives of SFD practitioners on how SFD organizations can be more effectively managed for sustainability and meaningful impact. With a goal to respond to the call that SFD research should reflect on its effectiveness and the managerial direction in which it is going, we engaged with a va...

As research into sport innovation management continues to evolve, the innovation efforts of both for- and non-profit sport organizations are increasingly revealed to be focused on best serving the sport user. Design thinking —a human-centered approach to innovation—may hold promise for sport organizations attempting to identify and deliver on the u...

The purpose of this study was to explore and examine the constraints faced by managers as they attempt to scale up their sport for development and peace (SDP) organizations, and to identify the strategies they are employing to mitigate these constraints. Previous research has not examined constraints to scaling up in the SDP nonprofit space. Findin...

While sport management scholars have explored inter-organizational partnerships and their associated challenges, they have devoted less attention to inter-organizational partnership development and sustainability in sport for development and peace (SDP), particularly across a wide range of organizations with varied missions and foci. Hence, the pur...

The purpose of this study was to interrogate the motivations of sport for development and peace (SDP) practitioners for initially becoming involved in the field and to better understand their involvement over time. Specifically, this study aimed to identify key characteristics and motives of practitioners to gain further understanding of the implem...

As the field of sport management has grown, so has a plethora of teaching efforts and classroom methodologies. One such effort has entailed introducing the topic of sport-for-development, the utilization of sport to yield positive outcomes in society, to students. While academics within the field of sport-for-development have made great strides in...

Although sport can serve as a valuable mechanism for social change, this does not imply it can single-handedly solve large-scale problems; rather, sport should be utilized with passionate leadership, efficient and innovative program design, and ancillary cultural enrichment activities to achieve optimal results. This research was motivated by devel...

Volunteer tourism is the fastest growing segment of the alternative tourism market and often a key feature of sport-for-development organizational models. The growing commercialization of this alternative tourism threatens efforts to build a sustainable model of long-term positive outcomes for both the host community and guest volunteers. The purpo...

This study examines the sport of quidditch, based on the Harry Potter franchise, an alternative sport growing in popularity. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact and benefits participants of this sport received and determine similarities and differences to mainstream sport activities. Findings suggest involvement with quidditch pr...

Research partnerships between scholars and sport for development and peace (SDP) organizations are common, but firsthand accounts of the challenges and barriers faced by scholars when forming and sustaining partnerships are rare. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine them, and to uncover strategies to overcome these challenges across...

Due to the importance of volunteers within the sport industry, there have been increased efforts to determine the motivation behind these acts of volunteerism. However, most research has focused on volunteers with professional sporting events and organizations, and very few studies have investigated volunteer motivations behind sport-for-developmen...

The purpose of this investigation was to understand how a sport-for-development event can be leveraged socially, and if event organizers created the best possible experiences for homeless participants through the creation of communitas and thus, social capital. We also examined the mechanisms through which liminality is cultivated and communitas ca...

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a sport-for-development initiative, Street Soccer USA, on one of its most successful participants in order to understand her experiences, expectations, and motivations towards becoming a cause champion and social entrepreneur and continuing her activism. We adopted a narrative inquiry approach...

One neglected area of research in sport event management has been to examine the motivations of individuals to take part in large, multinational sport-for-development (SFD) events. The importance of examining such motivations is highlighted by SFD's frequent struggle with attracting individuals to the programs, despite well-meaning intentions and a...

The purpose of this research project was to examine the impact of participating in a sport-for-peace event and one's social dominance orientation on prejudice and change agent self-efficacy. In Study 1, participants (n = 136) completed questionnaires both before and following their participation in a sport-for-peace event. The event was designed to...

Much sport-for-development (SFD) research has focused on the impact initiatives have on participants, and not on other stakeholders such as volunteers. Some research suggests volunteerism enables social capital gains, while other scholars have been skeptical, with even less known about how volunteers are impacted by working for SFD events rather th...

The genuine sport of quidditch, based off the Harry Potter franchise, offers an alternative to traditional sport that has grown immensely in terms of popularity and participation. Due to the scarcity of research on coed sports, and the innovative nature of quidditch, the purpose of this research was to use an exploratory qualitative approach to exa...

Most studies on the use of sport with marginalized populations have centered upon the impact on participants, with few studies examining the impact of these interventions on other stakeholder groups, such as volunteers. While it has been contended that volunteering provides a form of social participation and civic engagement that can foster develop...

The real sport of quidditch was recently adapted from the fictional sport of the same namesake in the Harry Potter (HP) franchise. Quidditch is played at hundreds of locations across the USA and around the world. Considering the lack of marketing research on non-traditional, co-ed sports and the innovative nature of quidditch, the purpose of this r...