Waterford Institute of Technology: Office of Research and Innovation

Researchers Biography

Name: Margaret Walsh

Position: Postgraduate Research Student

Qualifications: BA, MBS, MMII Grad

Biography:

Margaret is a Waterford Institute of Technology marketing graduate, commencing her academic career with the Institute in 2001 where she pursued the National Diploma in Languages (French & Italian) and Marketing. Graduating with Distinction in 2004, Margaret progressed to study for WIT's one year add-on Bachelor of Arts Degree in Languages (French & Italian) and Marketing, attaining first class honours. In 2005, she undertook WIT's intensive twelve-month taught Masters programme, specialising in marketing (MBS Marketing), graduating with first class honours in 2006. Having gained some practical work experience in industry, she realised that academia was her career path, and returned to the Institute in 2007 to occupy the position of full-time Research Assistant for the Waterford Crystal Centre for Marketing Studies research group until September 2008.

Research Interests:

Margaret is currently embarking on an Integrated Masters/PhD programme under the supervision of Dr. Patrick Lynch and Dr. Mary Holden at the RIKON research centre, which is located in the School of Business at WIT. Her research is funded by the Technological Sector Research Strand I initiative. Margaret’s research focuses on the topic of firm-level innovativeness in the tourism SME. By deconstructing the concept of innovativeness and differentiating it from innovation, her study aims to offer a generalisable conceptualisation of innovativeness and to examine the underlying factors that shape SME innovativeness in the tourism sector. The expected outcome of her study will be a diagnostic model that will enable tourism SMEs to measure their level of innovativeness and to identify those factors that both enhance and inhibit innovative behaviour; thus offering a mechanism for the successful management of tourism innovativeness within individual firms. Margaret’s research interests primarily lie in the field of innovation and tourism marketing.

Research Project:

The title of Margaret’s research project is: 'Assessing the Innovativeness of Tourism Firms and its Antecedents.'

Other Works:

Walsh, M., Lynch, P and Harrington, D., (2009) Towards A conceptualisation of the Innovativeness Construct. In: IAM Conference (September 2009), 02nd - 4th September 2009, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT).

Walsh, M., Lynch, P. and Harrington, D. (2009), ' A Proposed Model of Firm Level Innovativeness of the Small Tourism Firm', 5th Annual Tourism and Hospitality Research in Ireland Conference Proceedings, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Dublin, Ireland, 16th- 17th June.

Walsh, M., Lynch, P. and Harrington. D., (2009) Innovativeness: A Conceptual Framework Antecedents, Dimension & Outcomes (Rikon Group). In: EUROCHRIE, 22 - 24th October, 2009, Helsinki .

Walsh, Margaret and Harrington, Dr. Denis and Lynch, Dr. Patrick (2009) Proposing a Framework of Truly Innovative Small and Medium Sized Organisations (RIKON Group). In: The European Conference on Creativity and Innovation, , October 28- 30, Brussels.