Business & Economics

Rachel’'s research interests focus on how organisations, both established and start-ups, can transform learning and experience into durable capabilities for innovation to address sustainability challenges. Her work contributes to developing organisational capability theory and especially the nascent theoretical area of dynamic capabilities. She has applied this to understanding the capacity of firms to adapt environmental innovation. She also researches the role of capabilities at the regional and national level, including the governance capability of national systems. She is currently PI of a 4 year research project looking at the role of female entrepreneurship in addressing regional inequality (https://www.atlanticfutures.com/).

She has previously held visiting fellowships at, b the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at Sussex University and at the Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence on the Learning Economy (CIRCLE) at Lund University, two of the leading centres for innovation studies in Europe.  She was a member of the TASC expert working group and industrial policy commission. She lead the Irish contribiution to the OECD MONIT project. She leads the Innovation & Structural Change research cluster at the Whitaker Institute.

Rachel has supervised PhD students looking at the areas of inter-organisational learning for improved sustainability, mechanisms for knowledge transfer and capabilities for environmental innovation, sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship, ambidexterity in smartgrid entrepreneurship and social innovation.

Rachel lectures in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship. She enjoys introducing students at all levels to the excitement of using start-up techniques to solve real world problems. She has worked on these projects with primary school children in the Youth Academy, postgraduate STEM and business students, as well as executive MBA students. Rachel has also pioneered a range of writing development initiatives for staff and students. She leads the Thesis Boot Camp programme at NUI Galway, providing an intensive writing workshop for PhD students. She also leads the Whitaker writing retreat for staff.

Rachel has worked as a lecturer in Management at University of Galway since 2002. She has served as Associate Head of School with responsibility for developing the School's research culture and profile. Rachel was the Vice-Dean for Graduate Studies for the College of Business, Public Policy and Law (2011-2019). She is a founder member and former co-Chair of the University Women's Network. She is currently Programme Director of the MSc in Management & Sustainability. 

Rachel Hilliard holds a BCommerce from University College Cork and an MA in Economics from the University of Exeter. She completed her PhD, '‘Learning to change: the role of organisational capabilities in industry reposonse to environmental regulation',’ at Dublin City University Business School in 2002. She has previously worked in industry, as a researcher on an EU international project at QUB and as a lecturer in DCU. 

Hilliard, RM; Goldstein, D. (2019) “Search routines as a solution to the problem of the tautology trap in the concept of dynamic capability.” Strategic Organization DOI:10.1177/1476127018755001  

Geoghegan, W.; Ryan, P.; Hilliard, RM. (2018) “Going deep: the micro-foundations of innovation capabilities in the triple helix framework.” Technovation DOI:10.1016/j.technovation.2018.02.016

Crowley, C; Hilliard, RM; Cunningham, J, McAdam, M. (2018) “Small firm networking roles: the duality of structure and agency." Rural Studies DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.08.014