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Personal Information
College Photo Name Coughlan, Paul
College Address School of Business,
Main Department Business Studies
College Title Professor in Operations Mgmt
E-mail paul.coughlan@tcd.ie
College Tel +353 1 896 2327
Web http://people.tcd.ie/coughlnp
 
Biography
Paul Coughlan is Professor of Operations Management and Director of Research at the School of Business, Trinity College Dublin. Following an early career in engineering management he became a university lecturer and then a full-time doctoral student at the Business School of the University of Western Ontario (now the Ivey School). On graduation, he joined the faculty of the London Business School. From LBS he moved to join Trinity’s School of Business and has developed his research and teaching in operations management and new product development. At Trinity, in addition to his research and teaching he has held senior School and College administrative positions, including MBA Director, Director of Postgraduate Teaching & Learning and Course Co-Director at the TCD-UCD Innovation Academy. Outside of Trinity College, he was President of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) from 2003-09. His research in product development and continuous improvement has encompassed an innovative action research dimension involving companies engaged in action learning. This work has led to continuing methodology development and to specialised doctoral training in action research and learning through the EIASM doctoral network.
 
Teaching interests and responsibilities
• Senior Sophister: Managing New Product Development • MBA: Operations Strategy • Graduate Certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship • EIASM EDEN Doctoral Seminar on Research Methodology in Operations Management
 
Professional Qualifications
Qualification Institution Class of Degree Title of Dissertation Date Conferred
B.E. N.U.I. 1st   1975
MBA N.U.I.     1983
Ph.D. W.Ont.   New product performance & manufacturing engineering deployment. 1990
 
Administrative Functions
Details Level Date From Date To
Director of Research, School of Business, Trinity College Dublin July 2012 July 2015
Professorial Appointment Panel, UCD Dublin Member March 2012
Professorial Review Panel, Copenhagen Business School Member December 2011
EurOMA Annual Conference 2013, Trinity College Dublin & UCD Co-Chairman of the Organising Committee July 2011 July 2013
TCD-UCD Innovation Academy Course Co-Director 2010 2012
 
Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies
Details Date From Date To
President: European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) 2003 2009
Member: Organising Commitee of the International Product Development Management Conference 2002 Date
Member: Board of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) 2001 2012
Member: EurOMA Board 1997 2006
Member: Product Development & Management Association (PDMA)
More Memberships>>>
 
Awards and Honours
Award Date
Provost's Teaching Award 2010
 
Research Institutes / Centres / Groups
Research Institutes / Centres / Groups Description of Role Date From Date To
Institute for International Integration Studies Research Associate & Member of the Executive Committee 01-OCT-08 01-OCT-13
 
Employment Details
Position Held Job Description Where Date From Date To
Associate Professor & Professor   Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 1998 Date
Visiting Professor   Center for Industrial Production, Aalborg University, Denmark 2002 2004
Director   Magnetic Solutions Ltd., Dublin, Ireland 1994 2006
Lucas Professor in Manufacturing Systems Strategy & Management   Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland 1993 1998
Assistant Professor   London Business School, London, England 1990 1993
More Employment Details>>>
 
Description of Research Interests
Research Interests include: • Continuous improvement of manufacturing and product development practices • Inter-organisational collaboration • Action learning • Action research • Service innovation • Commercialisation of university research
 
Research Projects
Project title National Action Learning Programme
Summary To assist firms, through their managers and workforce to change, upgrade and become learning organisations.
Funding Agency EU
Programme
Type of Project
Date from June 1997
Date to December 2001
Person Months


Project title Continuous Improvement and Innovation Management
Summary - To explore how companies stimulate a process of continuous improvement of their product innovation capabilities by facilitating a diffuse and continuous flow of knowledge both within their organisations and with other organisations. - To explain this process in terms of barriers and enablers - To identify contingencies - To define effects on performance and capabilities - To suggest possible contingent actions by firms.
Funding Agency EU
Programme ESPRIT Project 26056
Type of Project
Date from October 1997
Date to October 1999
Person Months


Project title Co-Improve: Collaborative Improvement for the Extended Manufacturing Enterprise
Summary - To enable and enhance the capturing, storage, retrieval, transfer and dissemination of knowledge generated as part of ongoing collaborative efforts to improve new product development and order fulfilment performance of EMEs, as well as - implementation guidelines supporting the situational design, implementation and ongoing development of collaborative, EME-level improvement, using the business model and software system.
Funding Agency EU
Programme Competitive and Sustainable Growth Project
Type of Project
Date from December 2000
Date to December 2003
Person Months


Project title Made in Ireland II - Benchmarking Irish SME Practice and Performance
Summary The competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs remains an important issue for companies, for support agencies and for the Irish economy as a whole. The 2005-6 Global Competitiveness Report ranked Ireland 26th, having moved up 4 places since 2004. But is this ranking indicative of the current state of the competitiveness of Irish SMEs and how has this state changed since 2001? These questions are addressed in this study. Over the period 2003-2005, data were collected from a total of 144 manufacturing companies assisted by Enterprise Ireland. The study compares these data with the data collected in the period 1997-2000 from the 151 similar companies which formed the basis of the first Made in Ireland report.
Funding Agency Enterprise Ireland
Programme
Type of Project
Date from August 2005
Date to September 2006
Person Months


Project title Opportunities for Hydropower in Break Pressure Tanks
Summary The project aims to reduce the overall energy consumption of the water supply process by utilising excess pressures in the system to produce electricity to be used locally or sold back to the grid. It also aims to reduce the CO2 emission associated with water supply and provide the water supply industry with a mechanism to reduce the operating costs of supplying treated water. From a business and management research perspective there are two challenges, the first is how to build and to sustain a network of partners which can exploit this opportunity; the second is how to establish a venture to commercialise the research findings.
Funding Agency INTERREG 4A 2007-2013
Programme Ireland-Wales Programme
Type of Project Research
Date from May 2011
Date to May 2014
Person Months


 
Publications
Peer Reviewed
Paul Coughlan & David Coghlan, Collaborative Strategic Improvement through Network Action Learning: The Path to Sustainability, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2011, 201pp
Collaborative Research in and by an Interorganizational Network in, editor(s)A.B. (Rami Shani, S.A. Mohrman, W.A. Pasmore, B. Stymne & N. Adler , Handbook of Collaborative Management Research, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 2008, pp443 - 460, [David Coghlan & Paul Coughlan]
Action Learning in inter-organizational sets in, editor(s)C. Rigg and S. Richards , Action Learning, Leadership and Organizational Development in Public Services, Abingdon, OXON, Routledge, 2006, pp181 - 191, [Coghlan D. and Coughlan, P.]
The application of action learning and action research in collaborative improvement within the extended manufacturing enterprise in, editor(s)H. Kotzab, S. Seuring, M.Muller, G. Reiner , Research Methodologies in Supply Chain Management, Heidelberg, Physica-Verlag, 2005, pp365 - 380, [R. Middel, L. Brennan, D. Coghlan, P. Coughlan]
P. Coughlan, D. Coghlan, Action research for Operations Management, The International Journal of Production and Operations Management, 22, (2), 2002, p220 - 240
More Publications>>>
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Last updated 30 October 2008 by School of Business.