Dr Nicola Mountford
Biography
Nicola is Associate Professor in Management, and PhD Director at Maynooth University's School of Business. Nicola's research interests are in the public organization of markets, in particular healthcare and higher education. To-date much of her research has focused on the re-organization of healthcare in response to the increasing pervasiveness of technology, and she held a Fulbright TechImpact Scholar award in the area of eHealth. Nicola has published in business journals such as Organization Studies, the International Journal of Management Reviews, and the Journal of Business Research; as well as education and healthcare journals such as Studies in Higher Education, and the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). Nicola has presented at business conferences such as INFORMS, EGOS, and Academy of Management where her conference papers have twice been ranked in the top 10% of submissions received. Nicola has a strong emphasis on collaboration across boundaries – whether they be sectoral, disciplinary, or geographic.
Research Interests
My research focuses on the organization of markets - in particular examining how the relationships between public actors and networks of actors might impact the evolution of the market. I draw on several streams of research to answer questions in this area including market studies, and institutional theory. My research in this area has been published in journals such as Organization Studies (ABS4/FT50), the Journal of Business Research (ABS3) and Academy of Management Proceedings (best papers). I have also engaged in inter-disciplinary research in relation to eHealth that has been published in Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR).
To-date my research context has focused on the field of healthcare and how technology is transforming organizational relationships through eHealth interventions and re-organizations. I have undertaken a Fulbright-award study on such transformations in the New York healthcare market and led the publication of a technical report by the European Network for the Joint Evaluation of Connected Health Technologies (www.enject.eu) entitles "Connected Health in Europe - where are we today?". I am, however, also interested in other public goods markets such as mobility services, telecommunications, energy and education.
From an education research perspective I am also interested in the challenges and opportunities presented by inter-disciplinarity - particularly at doctoral studies level. My work on this topic has been presented at international conferences such as International Conference on Higher Education Advances (www.headconf.org) and published in journals such as Studies in Higher Education (ABS3) and JMIR.
To-date my research context has focused on the field of healthcare and how technology is transforming organizational relationships through eHealth interventions and re-organizations. I have undertaken a Fulbright-award study on such transformations in the New York healthcare market and led the publication of a technical report by the European Network for the Joint Evaluation of Connected Health Technologies (www.enject.eu) entitles "Connected Health in Europe - where are we today?". I am, however, also interested in other public goods markets such as mobility services, telecommunications, energy and education.
From an education research perspective I am also interested in the challenges and opportunities presented by inter-disciplinarity - particularly at doctoral studies level. My work on this topic has been presented at international conferences such as International Conference on Higher Education Advances (www.headconf.org) and published in journals such as Studies in Higher Education (ABS3) and JMIR.
Research Projects
| Title | Role | Description | Start date | End date | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From the bottom up | PI | Overall Research Question: To investigate the roles and respective influence of different actors (patients, charities, funders and network organizations) in a collaborative, bottom up funding scheme. Sub-objectives: 1. to identify key decision point in the funding scheme – from scheme design right through to funding decisions and reporting 2. To identify all actors and organizations in the funding scheme 3. To identify the roles of key actors and organizations in the scheme 4. To explore key influences on the decision making process 5. To explore embedded influence/roles – e.g. patients in charities; charities in the HRCI. Methodology: Qualitative: interviews, document analysis, observations of meetings if possible. Expected outcomes: • Model of decision-making and influence in a bottom up research funding scheme • Clearer understanding of the influence and perceived value of patient input into decision making around research funding Impact: The results will inform future funding programme design and PPI design in the context of research funding models. | 16/12/2022 | 15/09/2023 | 11962 | |
| Harriet Finnegan: HISTORI (Health IT: Stories & Theories of Organisation and Innovation) | PI | [email protected] | 01/09/2021 | 31/08/2025 | 116333.33 | |
| Cancer: Activating Technology for Connected Health | Dissemination Committee & Co-Author | |||||
| European Network for the Joint Evaluation of Connected Health Technology | Management Committee Member and Training School Co-ordinator | |||||
| Fulbright TechImpact Scholar | PI | |||||
| Travel Support for ITN | PI | 10/10/2019 | 09/04/2020 | 400 | ||
| CHAMELEONS: Championing A Multi-Sectoral Education and Learning Experience to Open New Pathways for Doctoral Students | PI | Broadening PhD curricula will produce multiskilled individuals who will be highly competitive and sought after in the job market. The overall aim of CHAMELONS is to develop a range of interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international modules which are designed to broaden the skills of PhD graduates and improve their employability in both academic and non-academic environments. CHAMLEONS integrates work-based learning and business-education partnerships into doctoral programme design. In doing so, we will increase support for learners' mobility, providing opportunities to work in multiple countries and in multiple sectors. Data show that young people who study or train abroad find employment much more quickly than those without international experience. They adapt more quickly to new situations and are better problem solvers. In doing so, CHAMELEONS will deliver on a number of important sub-objectives. We will empower our PhD students with fundamental and advanced research skills that build into a state-of-the-art researcher toolkit that can be used in multiple sectors and contexts (RO1: State of the Art Research Toolkit). CHAMELEONS students will emerge from their PhD programme with business skills knowledge that they have honed and road-tested in live multi-sectoral environments (RO2: Business skills). CHAMELEONS will foster emotional intelligence within its students through personal development, organizational behaviour, and team building modules (RO3: Emotional Intelligence). Meeting these three research objectives will ensure a long and successful career for the student, a return on investment for the educational funders such as governments and EU programmes, and real and realised societal change in healthcare and beyond. | 01/03/2020 | 28/02/2022 | 147653.75 | |
| Opening Doors | PI | The purpose of OPENING DOORS is to co-develop an interdisciplinary, intersectoral, & international educational offering for post-graduate researchers. Our goal is to shape more innovative, socially aware, integrative and employable research graduates, ready to meet the challenges of the future. This will be accomplished through a challenge-based, open online educational course on open science. The focus of the course is on cultivating valued skills that can contribute meaningfully to the quadruple-helix model of open innovation. This model recognises four major actors in the innovation system: the scientific enterprise, policy, industry, and society. The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed technology-enabled university teaching overnight. An adaptation process that often takes years has been greatly accelerated, disrupting many cultural barriers to using digital learning environments. The OPENING DOORS virtual learning environment will be underpinned by connectivism as the pedagogical approach. Connectivism reflects the networked innovation environments of the future. The specific objectives of OPENING DOORS are to: 1) identify the graduate skills that are valued in open innovation systems through interviews with employers, PhD graduates and educators in those systems 2) co-design an educational course for PhD and postdoctoral researchers in collaboration with industry, government, community, university stakeholders including PhD students, that uses real-world challenges as the basis of collaborative learning opportunities 3) enable students to manage interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international connectivity through an open, online learning environment; reflexivity, interdisciplinary team communication processes, intercultural sensitivity, digital skills and career development will underpin the learning process This work is vital in an era where open science practices are becoming the currency in many intersectoral innovation networks | 01/02/2021 | 30/04/2022 | 24170 |
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Mountford, N.; Geiger, S. (2024) 'Public actor roles in market experiments: Innovating digital health markets in New York and Ireland'. Journal of Business Research, 183 . [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2022 | Mountford, N; Cai, YZ (2022) 'Towards a flatter ontology of institutional logics: How logics relate in situations of institutional complexity'. International Journal of Management Reviews, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2022 | Cai Y.; Mountford N. (2022) 'Institutional logics analysis in higher education research'. Studies in Higher Education, 47 (8):1627-1651. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2021 | Mountford N.; Geiger S. (2021) 'Markets and institutional fields: foundational concepts and a research agenda'. Ams Review, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2020 | Mountford N.; Geiger S. (2020) 'Duos and Duels in Field Evolution: How Governments and Interorganizational Networks Relate'. ORGANIZATION STUDIES, 41 (4):499-522. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840618789210 [Full-Text] | |
| 2020 | Mountford, N; Coleman, M; Kessie, T; Cusack, T (2020) 'Interdisciplinary doctoral research networks: enhancers and inhibitors of social capital development'. Studies in Higher Education, 45 (12):2558-2573. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2019 | Chouvarda I; Mountford N; Trajkovik V; Loncar-Turukalo T; Cusack T; (2019) 'Leveraging Interdisciplinary Education Toward Securing the Future of Connected Health Research in Europe: Qualitative Study'. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21 (11). [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2019 | Mountford N. (2019) 'Managing by proxy: Organizational networks as institutional levers in evolving public good markets'. Journal of Business Research, 98 :92-104. [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2019 | Karampela M; Isomursu M; Porat T; Maramis C; Mountford N; Giunti G; Chouvarda I; Lehocki F; (2019) 'The Extent and Coverage of Current Knowledge of Connected Health: Systematic Mapping Study'. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21 (9). [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2018 | Mountford N.; Zubiete E.; Kessie T.; Garcia-Zapirain B.; Nuño-Solinís R.; Coyle D.; Munksgaard K.; Fernandez-Luque L.; Romero O.; Fernandez M.; Jimenez P.; Daly A.; Whelan R.; Caulfield B. (2018) 'Activating technology for connected health in cancer: Protocol for a research and training program'. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20 (1). [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2017 | Mountford N, Chouvarda I, Isomursu M, Caulfield B. (2017) 'Vectors and drivers of connected health in Europe: a foundation for integrated care'. International Journal of Integrated Care, 12 (5). http://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.3622 [Full-Text] | |
| 2017 | Mountford, N; Kessie, T; (2017) 'Towards a More Holistic Understanding of Whole Organizational Networks: Anthropological Approaches in Evolving Markets'. 15 (2):74-84. |
Book Chapter
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | G. Moran and N. Mountford (2021) 'Please don’t put a price on our lives”: Social media and the contestation of value in Ireland’s pricing of orphan drugs' In: Healthcare Activism: Markets, Morals, and the Collective Good. U.K : Oxford University Press. [Full-Text] | |
| 2023 | Leniston, N.; Coughlan, J.; Cusack, T.; Mountford, N. (2023) 'Employer, Industry and Policymaker views on Doctorate Education' In: Education Applications & Developments VIII. Portugal : inSciencePress. [Full-Text] | |
| 2023 | Tara Cusack; Jack Quinn; Ioanna Chouvarda; Nicola Mountford (2023) 'WHAT PHD STUDENTS WANT FROM CAREER-RELATED MODULES: THE CHAMELEONS PROJECT' In: Education Applications & Developments VIII. Lisbon, Portugal : InScience Press. [Full-Text] |
Conference Publication
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Mountford, N.; Moran, G. (2023) KEEPING IT COMPLEX IN LARGE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2022 | Niamh Leniston, Joseph Coughlan, Tara Cusack, Nicola Mountford (2022) International Conference on Education and New Developments A Practice Perspective on Doctoral Education | |
| 2022 | Tara Cusack, Jack Quinn, Ioanna Chouvarda, Nicola Mountford (2022) International Conference on Education and New Developments Evaluating Stakeholder Designed Interdisciplinary and Intersectoral Doctoral Modules | |
| 2021 | Kosvyra A.; Filos D.; Mountford N.; Cusack T.; Isomursu M.; Chouvarda I. (2021) International Conference on Higher Education Advances PhD courses and the intersectoral experience: A comprehensive survey [DOI] | |
| 2021 | Leniston N.; Mountford N. (2021) International Conference on Higher Education Advances Born or made - Can interdisciplinary and intersectoral doctorate education create institutional entrepreneurs? A systematic review [DOI] | |
| 2021 | Mountford, N.; Isomursu, M.; Giunti, G.; Garcia, A.; Filos, D.; Chouvarda, I.; Cusack, T. (2021) International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2021) Interdisciplinary and Intersectoral Doctoral Education Design to Improve Graduate Employability [Full-Text] | |
| 2018 | Mountford N.; Geiger S. (2018) 78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2018 (Re)-Organizing the evolving healthcare market: Collaborative governance in bureaucratic contexts (best papers) [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2017 | Nicola Mountford; Gemma Watts; Luis Fernandez Luque; Ioanna Chouvarda; Threase Kessie; Tara Cusack; (2017) 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’17) An Interdisciplinary 4th Level Education Model:Connected Health [DOI] |
Conference Contribution
Published Report
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Mountford et al. (2016) Connected Health in Europe: Where are we today?. University College Dublin, . [Link] [Full-Text] | |
| 2024 | Dr Nicola Mountford & Emily Merrick (2024) Managing and responding to shifting paradigms in the health research landscape. Maynooth University, . [Full-Text] |
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.
Teaching Interests
I am particularly interested in teaching at the inter-disciplinary boundaries between business and other disciplines such as the wider social sciences, health science, computer science, and life sciences. In 2021 I was awarded a Maynooth University Teaching Award. These awards acknowledge the efforts of outstanding individuals or teams that contribute to excellence and innovation in teaching and learning across the university and enhance student learning.
I currently co-ordinate the second year undergraduate module, Organisational Design & Management; and two PhD modules - Socializing Your Research; and Teaching Skills in Business within the School of Business. I also lecture on the PhD level Qualitative Research Methods module and on the CHAMELEONS PhD modules as part of an EU funded project (chameleonsproject.eu). I have delivered invited PhD and MSc workshops in University of Oulu and Tampere University, Finland.
I am the Director of the School of Business PhD Programme (currently 40+ students).