Kathryn Cormican

• PhD
• Professor of Systems Engineering at Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway

italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution: This study advances the understanding of learner satisfaction in online education, particularly within higher education (HE) engineering programs. It develops a conceptual model categorizing key factors affecting satisfaction and provides...

Purpose The efficiency-enhancing and performance-boosting benefits of lean six sigma (LSS) practices have been advocated in both academia and industry. However, their mediating and moderating effects remain unclear and the impact of LSS practices is underdeveloped in the Chinese context. Therefore, by focusing on publicly listed companies in China,...

Purpose Shared leadership has received significant empirical and theoretical attention in the project management literature. However, a dearth of studies reveals how shared leadership promotes project performance. Drawing on the theory of conservation of resources, this research proposes a serial mediation model that investigates the relationship b...

Sustainability is becoming a key differentiator and disruptive force in business, with growing emphasis on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting, particularly since the introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in 2022. This directive impacts over 50,000 companies in the EU, driving the development of E...

While considerable attention has been devoted to positive leadership patterns in the realm of project management, the dark side of leadership has rarely been studied within project teams. To address this gap, we focus on abusive supervision in project teams and develop a team-level moderated mediation model to examine whether, how, and when abusive...

In recent years educational professionals experienced a sudden shift to online work requiring them to adapt rapidly to the new digital landscape. This shift has raised concerns about employees’ health issues and the role of organizational support, as they can have a profound effect on employees’ attitudes to work. However, despite their importance,...

Creativity is a crucial skill for future engineers. Hence, it is becoming increasingly important for higher education (HE) engineering educators to foster and enhance engineering students' creative abilities. Simultaneously, online learning has found a place in engineering education. Nevertheless, we find that HE engineering educators in all domain...

Creativity has been identified as a critical competence for future engineers and is said to rely on direct contact with others and on teaching environments that allow for face-to-face phronetic experiences. Against the background of the pandemic-caused amplification of online teaching, the main objective of the European project TICON - Teaching cre...

The construction industry is complex and suffers from considerable challenges related to Project Delivery Systems (PDS) most notably cost overruns and delays. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) has gained traction in recent years and is lauded to be an effective mechanism to overcome many of these challenges. However, implementing IPD in practice is...

Local governments in China have implemented several forms of wind power policies, such as environmental-side policies (ESP), supply-side policies (SSP), and demand-side policies (DSP), to improve the use and development of renewable energy. Consequently, it is important to ascertain which policies local governments prefer to use and how these vario...

The paper presents methodology for pilot assessment of higher education teachers, instructional technologies design materials and e-learning platform. The learning materials for instructional technologies design and e-learning space were developed under the project "HE Teachers and Institutions and Instructional Technology (HIIT)", Erasmus+ program...

Purpose Shared leadership is an effective mechanism for managing project teams. Its performance-enhancing benefits have been demonstrated in many studies. Nonetheless, there is an obvious silence about how to promote shared leadership in Lean Six Sigma (LSS) project teams. To address this deficit, the purposes of this study are to investigate the i...

Many of us make quick decisions that affect our data privacy on our smartphones without due consideration of our values. One such decision point is establishing whether to download a smartphone app or not. In this work, we aim to better understand the relationship between our values, our privacy preferences, and our app choices, as well as explore...

Serialization technology was introduced to protect the pharmaceutical supply chain from falsified and substandard medicines infiltration. The implementation of serialization systems required a substantial investment by pharmaceutical manufacturers. This study investigated the impact of Serialisation on operational efficiency and productivity in the...

Purpose – This study aims to assess the challenges and critical success factors for agile transformation in an Irish manufacturing organisation. Design/methodology – Mixed-methods approaches were used to collect data for this study. A quantitative survey utilising the novel Kano model and qualitative analysis using semi-structured interviews with...

Lean digital transformation (LDT) has gained momentum recently, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) eager to implement innovative digital solutions to enable scale and growth. However, LDT is not an easy endeavour and is fraught with challenges. Many organisations struggle to convert to a digitally-enabled business, finding it difficult...

Creativity is a crucial skill for future engineers. Hence, it is becoming increasingly important for higher education (HE) engineering educators to foster and enhance engineering students’ creative abilities. Simultaneously, engineering education is shifting to online learning. However, we find that current online engineering curricula at universit...

Purpose An understanding of the motivation of individual employees to adopt lean practices is fundamental to successful lean implementation. This study aims to investigate the adoption of lean practices and provides an analysis of the individual-level factors necessary for lean implementation. This study presents a method for assessing the impact o...

Creativity was identified as one of the four cornerstone skills of future engineers and is said to rely on direct connection to others, and on teaching settings allowing for face-to-face phronetic experience. Against the background of the pandemic-caused online teaching, the main objective of the European project TICON-Teaching creativity online-is...

Industry 4.0 is transforming how businesses innovate and, as a result, companies are spearheading the movement towards ‘Digital Transformation’. While some scholars advocate the use of design thinking to identify new innovative behaviours, cognition experts emphasise the importance of top managers in supporting employees to develop these behaviours...

There are strong motivating factors for more effective project management practices at the front end of the innovation (FEI) process. Shrewd management of these pre-development activities has proven to be one of the greatest differentials for success. This study presents findings from an empirical case study analysis of a large organization operati...

This research aims to ascertain how to effectively mitigate privacy risks in IoT devices. A user-centric approach is employed to increase user control and flexibility. After a detailed analysis of the extant literature, critical success factors that are lauded to alleviate risks in IoT devices were synthesised and collated. These include anonymity,...

Modern global leaders must be culturally intelligent to effectively operate in complex multicultural environments. While there is significant literature in place regarding cultural intelligence in global project management, there are several areas where our understanding remains limited. First, there is a lack of knowledge relating to the anteceden...

This study extends the literature on self-employment and entrepreneurship by offering empirical insights into the factors that influence technology entrepreneurs at the early stages of the new venture creation process. Specifically, this research focuses on how technology entrepreneurs assess opportunities at the start of the process. Using data fr...

Sustainable management activities focus on creating value for organizations. This is particularly relevant in service organizations as they are under increasing pressure to capture and process information efficiently. We advocate that the amount of information and the way teams process this information have a substantial impact on an organization’s...

Purpose The issue of project managers’ competencies has gained much traction in practice and more recently in academic debate. However, they have become analogous to extensive wish lists where a project manager is expected to have an exhaustive list of aptitudes and capabilities. Therefore, identifying and defining the most critical competencies fo...

Sustainable management activities focus on creating efficiencies and value for organizations. Scholars advocate that evaluating and enabling appropriate management interventions can pave the way for future competitive advantage and sustainability. Knowledge management is regarded as a key organizational resource and a means of gaining a sustainable...

Trust is a significant enabler for intercultural communication in project teams. Researchers and practitioners, therefore, need to know which factors might enhance trust in intercultural communication. Contributing to the yet limited number of studies in the field of intercultural communication for multicultural project teams, this research theoret...

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [1]. The changes are as follows: (1) Replacement of the sentence and a reference number in “Section 3.3.2. Systems Thinking” on page 10: Kioupi and Voulvoulis [44] developed a framework that enables stakeholders in education to create a shared vision of sustainability,...

Shared leadership refers to an emergent, collective team process where leadership is distributed among and stems from team members, rather than a single designated leader. While shared leadership has gained considerable attention in the literature in recent years, it has received little attention in information systems (IS) project teams. In this s...

Purpose There is compelling evidence that demonstrates that organisations are failing to reap the full benefits of lean initiatives. While much work has been conducted on what factors are critical to the success of lean initiatives, there is a dearth of empirical evidence relating to whether team leaders implement critical success factors (CSFs) in...

Scholars have suggested that design thinking (DT) should form an integral part of the new product development (NPD) process. However, the contribution of DT to NPD over the past years is yet to be synthesized. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework categorizing how DT contributes to NPD, and present a map to visualize how research in th...

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE; one’s belief in one’s venturing capabilities) is a key construct in entrepreneurship research. ESE is a mechanism by which domain knowledge and cognitive processes are converted into new ventures. But its dimensionality is not yet fully elucidated. This Irish investigation responds to calls for more research by e...

The United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) are interconnected and indivisible and need to be addressed in a systematic and holistic way. However, a lack of stakeholder perspective, fragmented responses, and a dearth of integration across sectors have long been perceived as the SDGs’ main pitfalls. In recent years, scholars are calling...

Shared leadership is lauded to be a performance-enhancing approach with applications in many management domains. It is conceptualized as a dynamic team process as it evolves over time. However, it is surprising to find that there are no studies that have examined its temporally relevant boundary conditions for the effectiveness of the team. Contrib...

There are strong motivating factors for increasing user involvement in project management. A persuasive customer focus is lauded to increase levels of innovation, reduce costs, and improve overall quality in projects. However, previous studies suggest that organizations are failing to align customer requirements with project deliverables. We posit...

Design thinking is an emerging concept gaining much traction in practice and more recently in academic debate. While prior work has examined the characteristics and processes of design thinking, there is an absence of studies that attempt to measure the extent of its use and effectiveness in industry. This paper reports on the preliminary results o...

Extant systems engineering standards are so fragmented that the conceptualization of a cohesive body of knowledge is not easy. The discrepancies between different standards lead to misunderstanding and misinterpretation, making communication between stakeholders increasingly difficult. Moreover, these standards remain document centric, whereas syst...

This paper investigates a structured paragogy enabled by the 'workshop' tool in moodle. The study compares and contrasts learnings from two implementations over a number of years using theory as a framework.

Ontologies are playing an increasingly important role in knowledge management, and their functions have been appreciated and exploited by a broad range of communities, including systems engineering researchers and practitioners. Encompassing domain-related vocabularies, concepts, concept hierarchy, along with the properties and relationships, domai...

This paper investigates the impact of the medical device regulatory framework on the academic spinoff formation process and contributes to knowledge in the domain by expanding and deepening our understanding of its underlying routines and capabilities. A detailed case study focusing on academic spinoff formation in the Irish medical device industry...

Proficiency in design thinking (DT) can contribute to the success of many companies. Successful implementation of DT can be achieved by identifying its Critical Success Factors (CSFs). Critical success factors are items or actions that should be present in a particular project or situation in order to be successful. However, to date, there has not...

This paper examines the complex, interdependent relationship between multinational companies and their subsidiaries. It discusses how subsidiary role development and specific strategic initiatives may add new value to corporations. While previous studies have identified the need for more proactive management practices, there are few practical guide...

This paper examines the complex, interdependent relationship between multinational companies and their subsidiaries. It discusses how subsidiary role development and specific strategic initiatives may add new value to corporations. While previous studies have identified the need for more proactive management practices, there are few practical guide...

People create innovations. Consequently, organisations must create environments to support them in their innovative endeavours. The ambidextrous organisation is essential to support human centred innovation and therefore it is imperative to ascertain what the key determinants are in terms of structure and architecture, context and culture and leade...

This research assesses how the characteristics of age, gender and personality influence user acceptance of a software system in a mandated industrial setting. Guided by a conceptual framework based on the Unified Technology Acceptance and Use Theory (UTAUT) and research into the influence of personality, our study targeted an engineering team withi...

Many organizations are encouraging a shared leadership approach that meets the increased complexity of today’s working environment. It is therefore imperative for researchers to clearly comprehend the mechanism of shared leadership in teams. Contributing to the burgeoning research in the field of shared leadership, this study aims to advance our un...

People create innovations. Consequently, organisations must create environments to support them in their innovative endeavours. The ambidextrous organisation is essential to support human centred innovation and therefore it is imperative to ascertain what the key determinants are in terms of structure and architecture, context and culture and leade...

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

This paper uses self-efficacy to compare how entrepreneurs and managers represent the nine elements of the business model canvas (BMC; Osterwalder, 2004). A six-item efficacy scale was developed to measure each element. Principal components analysis was conducted on the total scale scores of 108 Irish entrepreneurs and 63 Irish managers separately;...

This study explores new product development in a strict regulatory and historically secretive environment. Adopting a systems perspective and a mixed methods approach in our research, we examine medical device development in Ireland. Findings indicate that the possession of a regulatory strategy expedites the rate of commercialization, so too does...

A wealth of research is associated with virtual teams and collaboration technologies; however, no integrated model is available to guide decision-makers at large organisations in the strategic implementation and management of "virtuality. " Whilst collaboration through technology has become commonplace in modern teams, it is not yet clear if Enterp...

ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288: 2015, Systems and Software Engineering-System Life Cycle Processes is an international standard that provides generic top-level process descriptions to support systems engineering (SE). However, the processes defined in the standard need an improvement to lift integrity and consistency. The goal of this research is to explore th...

The adoption of self-service technology (SST) has been well researched in consumer contexts but, despite the existing body of work, few studies have investigated in detail the specific determinants for user satisfaction in a corporate context. This study attempts to address this deficit. The goal of our work is to examine employees’ perception of S...

An organisation’s portfolio of new product development (NPD) projects represents its potential for survival. Innovation ambidexterity holds the key to longevity. Accordingly, selecting the right projects for a portfolio critically impacts organisational success, both in the short and longer term. Selecting for successful portfolios is further compl...

This paper reports on an empirical analysis of knowledge transfer practices in a large multinational organization operating in the medical technology sector in Ireland. The goal of the research is to ascertain the extent and nature of knowledge sharing that takes place within this organization. To do this, the relevant literature was synthesized an...

Recently, research on project management has widened its scope to consider social innovation-oriented projects. However, research in this domain is still in its infancy; little empirical data has been conducted in this area and there are few comprehensive or practical guides available to project managers in this sphere. Social innovation projects a...

Self-service technologies (SST) have become ubiquitous in modern life. The adoption of such technologies has been well researched in consumer contexts but little research exists in business contexts where knowledge workers interact with technology to consume work related services. This study attempts to address this deficit. Four dimensions of the...

This research explores the relationship between shared leadership and creativity in engineering design teams. To do this, a social network perspective was adopted using four measures to assess key elements of shared leadership networks. These are (a) network density, (b) centralization, (c) efficiency and (d) strength. Data was collected from a sam...

Effective knowledge transfer for project success is examined in this paper. Particular emphasis is placed on the determinants of organizational culture that endorse value driven activities. This paper reports on the preliminary results of a study targeted at knowledge workers operating in a high-tech dynamic environment. The aim of the research is...

Many factors affect the success of companies in the medical technology (MedTech) industry, a major contributor to Ireland's and Europe's economy. Open Innovation (OI) is a well documented innovation strategy which sees companies utilize outside knowledge to enhance their capabilities or allow outside partners or independent actors to share or buy t...

There are strong motivating factors for more effective performance measurement practices in software development. Astute practices in this domain are lauded to improve efficiency and effectiveness. However previous studies have shown that measurement in software is intricate, complex and fraught with challenges. Consequently it is poorly managed in...

There are strong motivating factors for more effective management practices at the front end of the innovation (FEI) process. Astute practices in these pre-development activities have proven to be one of the greatest differentials for success. However the literature notes that the FEI is poorly managed in practice. In fact, it is seen as the greate...

An integrated model, created to guide project managers, is outlined for the implementation and management of virtual teams. This model is developed by means of an exploratory literature review and an empirical investigation of virtual team utilization in a multinational medical device manufacturer, which examines several factors critical to their s...

Ireland has long been a prime location for foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational corporations (MNCs). However, the literature on FDI in Ireland is dominated by foreign investment from the US and little attention is paid to other investors. With the redefinition of global economics and the increasing importance of Asian economies, there i...

The research identifies principles that should be adhered to when designing multimedia training material and validates these principles from a students and an instructor's perspective. The most effective forms of multimedia are also identified. Finally, the factors inhibiting the use of multimedia are established and the measures taken to overcome...

This article provides an overview of the regulation of medical devices and drugs in the European Union and the US. It is important for all stakeholders involved in bringing a medical device or drugs to market to have an understanding of the regulatory requirements involved in this process. This article demonstrates that the regulation of these prod...

This paper focuses on product portfolio management in a large multinational medical device organization. The contribution of this research is to provide insights into the nature, composition and decision making processes of product portfolios in a real world setting. The research is important because portfolio management decisions have a significan...

This paper investigates the potential for improvement in the construction supply chain management (SCM) given the current crisis in the Irish construction industry. The research was undertaken because of the need to improve productivity and tackle historical problems between main subcontractors and specialist subcontractors in the construction indu...

A wealth of research is associated with virtual teams and collaboration technologies; however, no integrated model is available to guide decision-makers at large organisations in the strategic implementation and management of "virtuality." Whilst collaboration through technology has become commonplace in modern teams, it is not yet clear if Enterpr...

The business landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. Innovative organisations are restructuring their business models. They are moving away from discrete linear value chains towards open innovation models such as networks. Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) recognise that in order to survive they must be equipped with the relevant...

This paper presents findings from an exploratory analysis of a global software company that has been through a radical measurement program. Our study investigates the level at which non-compliance with best practice can explain the company's disappointing results. We found that a narrow focus on projects, rather than on organizational goals has ser...

Many researchers and practitioners contend that organisations should respond to changing market need and create competitive advantage through innovation and creativity. Each year, organisations expend significant resources developing new products and processes and yet research shows that more than half of these initiatives fail. Successful organisa...

According to the GEM Ireland Report (2009), those who have exposure to entrepreneurship education in Ireland have an increased propensity to start a new venture. The importance of entrepreneurial skills was picked up by the European Union which, in its Lisbon Strategy of March 2000, declared its objective of transforming Europe into the most compet...

This paper introduces a framework for analysing and supporting knowledge transfer in healthcare services. It argues that the individual is at the centre of the transfer process and, as such, needs to be catered-to within both teams and organisations. Within the healthcare sector, safety is critical, and the effective and efficient transfer of knowl...

This chapter introduces the concept of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) with regard to the enabling technologies and how they are combined to assist e-entrepreneurs. AmI is a new paradigm in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). AmI allows for seamless interaction between the human and technology. The AmI system provides the human u...

The business landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. Innovative organisations are restructuring their business models. They are moving away from discrete linear value chains towards open innovation models such as networks. Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) recognise that in order to survive they must be equipped with the relevant...