Dr Danny O'Brien

Research interests

I am an Associate Professor, Sport Management, in the Bond Business School at Bond University. I am also a graduate of Australian Catholic University;  California State University, Long Beach; and, De Montfort University, England.

My research interests are:

1) Sustainable surf tourism: I have conducted research and published work based on the sustainable management of surf tourism in developing countries such as Indonesia, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea. With Dr. Jess Ponting from San Diego State University, we have developed the Framework Analysis for Sustainable Surf Tourism (FASST). I am a Visiting Professor at the Center for Surf Research at San Diego State University; and a Visiting Scholar at the Plymouth Sustainability and Surfing Research Group at Plymouth University, UK.

2) Event leverage: This research stream explores how event stakeholders can strategically plan for the maximisation and sustainability of the positive impacts from hosting events. I have published articles in this area on events that range from the Olympic Games through to community-based surfing events

3) Organisational change in sport: Ironically, the need to manage organisational change is the most unchanging aspect of organisational life. Most of my work in this area has used institutional theory and has focused on change in the sport of rugby union.

I was part of a team that completed a joint World Rugby - Bond University research grant that examined change and efficacy in national Rugby Sevens high performance training regimes throughout the world. Since the announcement of the sport's inclusion in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, World Rugby are particularly interested in maintaining and improving the standard of men's and women's Rugby Sevens, and is using the results from this research to inform policy development and resource allocations around Sevens high performance training.