Dana Lee Ellis

I enjoy many different sports as a participant and as a fan. I am a huge fan of both tennis and soccer, as a player and a spectator. I also enjoy watching hockey, Formula 1, cricket, and the Summer and Winter Olympics. I have been lucky enough to attend three Olympic Games and one World Cup as a spectator and researcher.

I love the family feel of a small university like Laurentian and I feel grateful that I get to work with the amazing students that we see in SPAD. Seeing the passion that SPAD students have for the subject matter, the pride they take in the program, and the way they come together into a tight knit group over four years is one of the best parts of my job.

When I am not travelling you can often find me working at one of Sudbury’s great coffee shops or playing tennis at the indoor tennis centre. In the summer I love to take advantage of the beautiful views and lakes that are everywhere around us in Sudbury. 

• Undergraduate: BA Honours Kinesiology 2005 (University of Western Ontario)

• Masters: MA Human Kinetics 2007 (University of Ottawa)
  

• Doctorate: PhD Human Kinetics 2013 (University of Ottawa)​

Associate Professor and Program Coordinator

In the broadest sense my research examines the business of mega-events such as the Olympic Games. Within this broad context my focus is in two areas. The first is related sponsorship and branding of mega-events, most specifically the practice of ambush marketing. The second is related to the application of organization theory to mega-event management. Most recently this has involved studying joint bidding within the Olympic Movement. 

Ellis. D., Gauthier, M.E., & Séguin, B. (2011). Ambush Marketing, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act and Canadian National Sport Organizations: Awareness, perceptions and impacts. Journal of Sponsorship, 4(3), 253-271.

Ellis. D., Scassa, T., & Séguin, B. (2011). Framing Ambush Marketing as a Legal Issue: An Olympic Perspective. Sport Management Review, 14(3), 297-308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2011.02.002

Séguin, B. & Ellis D. (2011). Chapter 23: Ambush Marketing. In L. Robinson, P. Chelladurai, G. Bodet & P. Downward. Routledge Handbook of Sport Management (pp. 311-323). Routledge: New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203807224.ch23.

Ellis, D., Parent, M.M., & Seguin, B. (2016). Olympic Ambush Marketing Networks and Knowledge Transfer: Examining their impact on the institutionalization of anti-ambush marketing legislation. Journal of Sport Management 30(5), 473-489. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2015-0205.

Ellis, D.  (2016). Chapter 20: Sport Brands and Consumers. In R. Hoye and M.M. Parent, SAGE Handbook of Sport Management (pp. 345-367). Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957961.n20.

Ellis, D. & Leopkey, B. (2018). Chapter 10: The Same but Different: Comparison of Marketing Approaches in Men’s and Women’s Football Events. In J.J. Zhang and B.G. Pitts (Eds.), The Global Football Industry: Marketing Perspectives. New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351117982-10.

Ellis, D., Patry, P., O’Reilly, N., & Seguin, B. (2019). Ambush Marketing and the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act: A National Sponsor Perspective. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 19(3/4), 184-207. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsmm.2019.10021361.

Leopkey, B. & Ellis, D. (2019). Sport event hosting capacity as event legacy: Canada and the hosting of FIFA events. Sport, Business and Management: An international journal, 9(1), 45-62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm-09-2017-0047

Ellis, D. Séguin, B. & Parent, M.M. (2019). Anti-ambush Marketing Legislation and Institutionalized Brand Protection: Impacts and Implications. International Journal of Sport Management, 9(3), 247-274.

Byun, J., Leopkey, B. and Ellis, D. (2019). Understanding joint bids for international large-scale sport events as strategic alliances. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 10(1), 38-57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm-09-2018-0074.

Byun, J., Leopkey, B. and Ellis, D. (2020). Examining post-merger sociocultural integration in sport. European Sport Management Quarterly, [published online ahead-of-print] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2020.1776747.

Byun, J., Ellis, D., & Leopkey, B. (2021). The pursuit of legitimacy through strategic alliances: the examination of international joint sport event bidding. European Sport Management Quarterly, 21(4), 544-563. DOI: 10.1080/16184742.2020.1759668.

Ellis, D., & Leopkey, B. (2021). The Coca-Cola Games: Marketing Legacies of the Atlanta Olympic Games. Journal of Olympic Studies, 2(2), 27-62. DOI: 10.5406/jofolympstud.2.2.0027.

Choi, K. H., Leopkey, B., & Ellis, D. (2021). Understanding change in a sport’s development network: Korean ice hockey and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games. Sport in Society, 24(12), 2096-2119. DOI: 10.1080/17430437.2021.1997988.

Choi, K.H., Ellis, D., Leopkey, B., Byun, J., & Zinn, K. (2022). On-site Sponsorship Leveraging Patterns of TOP and Domestic Programmes: The Case of 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 20(1-2), 47-72. DOI:10.1504/IJSMM.2022.121256

Byun, J., Leopkey, B. and Ellis, D. (2022). Examining post-merger sociocultural integration in sport. European Sport Management Quarterly, 22(2), 205-226. DOI:10.1080/16184742.2020.1776747.

Robertson, J., Dowling, M., Washington, M., Leopkey, B., Ellis, D. L., & Smith, L. (2022). Institutional Theory in Sport: A Scoping Review. Journal of Sport Management, [published online ahead of print]. DOI: 10.1123/jsm.2021-0179.

Hoff, K. J., Leopkey, B., & Ellis, D. (2022). Sport event innovation: a preliminary conceptualization and directions for future research. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 12(5), 618-638. DOI: 10.1108/SBM-07-2021-0083.

Hoff, K., Ellis, D., & Leopkey, B. (2023). Innovation drivers, barriers, and strategies of organizing committees for the Olympic Games: an embedded single-case study approach. European Sport Management Quarterly, (published online ahead of print). DOI: 10.1080/16184742.2023.2195871.

Dowling, M., Robertson, J., Washington, M., Leopkey, B., Ellis, D. L., Riches, A., & Smith, L. (2023). “Like Ships in the Night” and the Paradox of Distinctiveness for Sport Management: A Citation Network Analysis of Institutional Theory in Sport. Journal of Sport Management, 37(6), 403-416.

Ellis, D.L. (2024). Ambush Marketing in Sport (V. Girginov, & G. Bodet, Eds.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367766924-RESS189-1 

Ellis, D. (2024). Stakeholder Theory (V. Girginov, & C. Anagnostopoulos, Eds.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367766924-RESS34-1 

Dowling, M., Robertson, J., Washington, M., Leopkey, B. & Ellis, D. (Eds.) (2025) Agency and Institutions in Sport. Taylor & Francis

Leopkey, B., & Ellis D. (2026). Major Sport Events and Sport Development. In V. Girginov & M. Dowling (Eds.), Management of Sport Development  (2nd ed.) (pp. 190-207). Routledge.