Dr Nicola Mountford

    School of Business

    Lecturer / Assistant Professor

    School of Business
    366
    (01) 474 7765

    Biography

    Nicola is a Lecturer in Management at Maynooth University's School of Business.  Nicola's research interests are in the public organization of markets, in particular through the use of inter-organizational networks.  To-date much of her research has focused on the re-organization of the healthcare market 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 and the Journal of Business Research; and has presented at business conferences such as INFORMS and Academy of Management. 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. 

    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 harriet.finnegan.2017@mumail.ie 01/09/2021 31/08/2025 110000
    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

    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.

    Conference Publication

    Year Publication
    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]

    Peer Reviewed Journal

    Year Publication
    2022 Cai Y.; Mountford N. (2022) 'Institutional logics analysis in higher education research'. Studies in Higher Education, 47 (8):1627-1651. [DOI]
    2021 Mountford N.; Geiger S. (2021) 'Markets and institutional fields: foundational concepts and a research agenda'. Ams Review, . [DOI]
    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.
    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]

    Conference Contribution

    Year Publication
    2022 Leniston, N.; Coughlan, J.; Mountford, N. (2022) Is it possible to develop an institutional entrepreneur? An examination of interdisciplinary and intersectoral doctoral education as a framework for emerging institutional entrepreneurs New Institutionalism Workshop 2022 Madrid, Spain, .
    2022 Finnegan, H. & Mountford, N. (2022) EHRS: Institutional Logics and Adoption New Institutionalism Workshop Madrid, .
    2022 Finnegan, H. &Mountford, N. (2022) EHRs: Institutional logics and societal change European Group for Organization Studies Vienna, .
    2021 Leniston, N., Mountford, N. and Coughlan, J. (2021) Doctoral education as a lever for institutional change: How intersectoral and interdisciplinary doctoral education may challenge existing institutions Irish Academy of Management Annual Conference Waterford, Ireland, .
    2020 Moran G. & Mountford, N. (2020) The Media and the Masses: Discursive Legitimation and Legitimacy Diffusion in Advancing Consumer Movements European Marketing Academy Annual Conference - IJRM/JCR Paper Development Workshop Budapest (online), .
    2020 Nicola Mountford and Susi Geiger (2020) Collaborative Governance in Bureaucratic Contexts 7th biennial International Symposium on Cross-Sector Social Interactions Limerick, Ireland (online), .
    2020 Mountford, N. & Moran, G. (2020) Levels of legitimacy – The recursive and discursive relationships between actors, populations and forums in their ability to [de]legitimize market practices European Group for Organizational Studies Annual Conference Hamburg (online), .
    2019 Mountford N.; Moran G. (2019) If the price is right… Social media and market (re)-organization in Ireland’s pricing of orphan drugs Health Activism Between Markets and Morals Dublin, Ireland, 20/09/2019-20/09/2019.
    2019 Mountford N.; Geiger S. (2019) How governments re-organize public good markets European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Edinburgh, Scotland, .
    2019 Mountford N.; Geiger S. (2019) Markets and Fields in Organization Studies European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Edinburgh, Scotland, 03/07/2019-06/07/2019.
    2019 Cai, Y, Mountford, N., Comas, J. (2019) Regaining the Power of Institutional Logics in Empirical Studies on Higher Education and Healthcare Organisations New Institutionalism - 15th Workshop Uppsala, Sweden, .

    Published Report

    Year Publication
    2016 Mountford et al. (2016) Connected Health in Europe: Where are we today?. University College Dublin, . [Link] [Full-Text]
    Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2023) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

    Professional Associations

    Description Function From / To
    EGOS Member -
    INFORMS Member -
    Academy of Management Member -

    Honors and Awards

    Date Title Awarding Body
    01/01/2016 Fulbright TechImpact Scholar Fulbright Ireland
    01/01/2021 Maynooth University Teaching Award Maynooth University
    01/08/2018 Academy of Management Conference - Best papers (Top 10%) Academy of Management

    Committees

    Committee Function From / To
    European Network for the Joint Evaluation of Connected Health Technologies Management Committee Member and Training School Co-ordinator 01/10/2015 - 31/12/2018

    Education

    Start date Institution Qualification Subject
    Maynooth University Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education Teaching, Learning and Assessment Education

    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, Entrepreneurship Theory, Processes and Practices; 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 am the Director of the School of Business PhD Programme (c.30 students at any one point in time) and am currently supervising the following PhD students:
    Niamh Leniston  -  Institutional Entrepreneurship and Doctoral Education
    Harriet Finnegan - Electronic Health Records and market social structures