Marijke Taks

Professor Marijke Taks earned her PhD from KU Leuven (Belgium) in 1994. After serving as assistant professor at KU Leuven, she joined the University of Windsor as associate professor in 2001 and became full professor in 2010. Since 2016, she has been a professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. She served as Vice-Dean Research (2020–2023) and Associate Vice-Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (2023–2026).

An accomplished teacher, she has supervised over 100 student research projects. She has held various editorial roles with leading sport management journals (e.g., European Sport Management Quarterly, Journal of Sport Management, Journal of Global Sports Management) and regularly reviews for numerous other sport management, sport marketing and sport tourism journals. She received the 2023 NASSM Earle F. Zeigler Lecture Award and the 2025 EASM Chelladurai Award. She is a NASSM Research Fellow and served as NASSM Vice-President (2022–2024).

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Professor Taks is not accepting new students for thesis supervision.

• Event leveraging and organizational outcomes for sport organizations
• Socio-economic aspects of (para)sport, leisure and (para)sport events
• Sport consumer behaviour
• Sport participation and development
• Sport and employment

Professor Taks’ expertise is in socio-economic aspects of (para)sport and leisure; she examines the interaction between sport, economics and society. Her grant-supported research focuses on the impact, outcomes and leveraging of sport events, and their meaning for individuals, communities and society. She also studies sport consumer behaviour of various groups. Mass participation and the “Sport for All” philosophy guide her research. She has published in leading sports management and related journals.

SSHRC:

• Economic and social factors influencing participation in adaptive sports: Development of a novel web-based tool (2026-2028; PI) – Insight grant
• Developing evaluation tools to measure "awareness" and "participation" from leveraging the 2026 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships (2025-2026; Co-A) – Partnership Engagement Grant
• The new sport system landscape: Understanding the interrelationships between governance, brand, and social media in non-profit sport organizations (2017–2020; Co-A) – Insight Grant and SCRI
• Building capacity for sport participation through events (2016–2019, PI) - Insight Grant and SCRI
• Managing sport events to maximize positive impacts (2014–2017; Co-A) - Insight Grant and SCRI
• Leveraging sport events for sport development (2011–2014; PI) - Insight Grant and SCRI
• Participation in sport and the culture of NSOs (2006-2009; Co-A) - Insight Grant and SCRI
• Economic impact and tourism behaviour of the Pan American Junior Athletic Championships (2005-2008; PI) - Insight Grant

See Marijke Taks’s publications on Google Scholar or ResearchGate.

Podcasts

• Taks, M., Seguin, B., Naraine, M. L., Parent, M. M., & Hoye, R. (2020. November 8). Canadian National Sport Organizations’ Governance, Branding and Social Media. Research Outreach, Researchpod.

Videos

• Taks, M., & Séguin, B. (2021, March 19). Why should National Sport Organizations care about brand governance? Research Outreach. 

Research: Our professors’ awards and distinctions