Dr Michelle Cowley-Cunningham
Dr Michelle Cowley-Cunningham
Dr Michelle Cowley-Cunningham CPsychol AFPsSI is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society (via research doctorate) and an Associate Fellow of the Psychological Society of Ireland. As postdoctoral researcher at the NCFB 2022-24, her research examined how sustainable business values affect children's health rights, well-being and succession in family business. Michelle is now an Assistant Professor (part-time lecturer) with research affiliation to DCU Business School. Her teaching and research is aligned with programmes from both the Enterprise & Innovation Group, and the Work, Psychology & Strategy Group.
Research: Michelle was a principal investigator on the Family Business Succession Project, conducting the first all-island practitioner-led study of Irish family business succession (Clinton et al., 2024). Other projects addressed: how sustainable business values promote child and adolescent mental health, via their health and participation rights, in the climate crisis context (UN submission, 2023; Cowley-Cunningham et al., 2023); and the impact new mental health legislation may have on business models that draw on principles of community-led care (Rogers et al., 2023). Michelle also co-authored a professions-led overview, introducing new legislative and framework-driven developments for children’s participation rights in the Rep. of Ireland, with psychology colleagues for The Irish Psychologist (Carey et al., 2024). Recent collaborative work with Dr Eric Clinton and Dr Catherine Faherty focuses on entrepreneurial behaviour, for example, the development of a new explanatory model of creative entrepreneurial behaviour founded on the psychological capital that families (or familiness) possess(es). Other new projects investigate the role active learning plays in mediating children's climate anxiety, how digitalisation enables human development, and the circumstances under which entrepreneurial training enhances human flourishing.
Impact: Michelle's postdoctoral research has featured in articles by The Conversation UK, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Climate Supplement, RTE.ie, RTE Brainstorm, Business Post, The Journal, and both The Irish Times and The Irish Psychologist magazines as cover stories. Her practitioner-led research with the NCFB on the topic of family business resilience was submitted as part of, and won, the Small Business Charter Excellence Award 2024 in the 'Outstanding Stakeholder Engagement' category. While at the NCFB, Michelle was also research administrator as Irish delegate for the GUESSS global student entrepreneurship consortium’s survey report 2023/24 (Sieger et al., 2024).
Engagement: Michelle has sat on the Psychological Society of Ireland's International Affairs Committee (2024-25), and is a committee member of Royal Statistical Society Northern Ireland (2024- ). She is also the co-chair, and a founding member, of the Psychological Society of Ireland's Special Interest Group in Human Rights & Psychology (2022- ). Michelle presently serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Market Research Society's flagship journal International Journal of Market Research.