Ph.D. student in Business Administration - Under tillsättning eller tillsatt, ej sökbar

Special Call for Ph.D. Student to Project on Enterprise Foundations

Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) is one of four schools within Jönköping University. We offer an international and team-oriented workplace with competitive education programmes, across Bachelor, Master and Doctoral levels, as well as a thriving research environment and many opportunities for personal development. Our mission is to advance the theory and practice of business, with specific focus on entrepreneurship, ownership and renewal. Our guiding principles are: international at heart, entrepreneurial in mind and responsible in action. JIBS is double-accredited, by EQUIS and AACSB. In the latest Financial Times European Business School ranking, JIBS was ranked among the top 100.

The position is connected to Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO) at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), Jönköping University (JU) in Sweden. Since its inception in 2005, CeFEO has been at the forefront of research on family business and is composed by scholars from different countries and backgrounds. Several rankings consistently place CeFEO as the leading research center in Europe and among the top three research centers globally. While having a specific focus on family business and ownership issues, researchers associated with CeFEO also conduct research on topics like strategy, entrepreneurship, governance, innovation, internationalization and sustainability which are very much in line with the focus of JU and JIBS.

Working tasks

Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) is hiring a PhD student in Business Administration to join a research project on enterprise foundations. As a PhD student you will be enrolled in a highly qualified education within a thriving research environment. For more information about our PhD program, please visit our information page: https://ju.se/en/research/doctoral-programmes/doctoral-programmes-at-jibs.html

We offer fully financed positions to our doctoral students. Your time will be devoted to your doctoral studies (80%) which includes coursework and writing a doctoral thesis. The coursework includes both mandatory and elective courses. The remaining time (20%) is allocated for teaching and administrative tasks. You will also get many opportunities for enhancing your teaching skills and for personal development. There are also opportunities to take additional courses in pedagogics for higher education.

This position is made possible due to a grant from the Kamprad Family Foundation and is part of a larger research project. This means that the applicant must be interested in working on the topic of enterprise foundation within the discipline of business administration. The larger project, of which the doctoral research will be part of and contribute to, is described below:

Prerequisites and conditions for entrepreneurship in the form of Enterprise foundations: long-term and sustainable rural development?

Businesses with local roots are needed for a vibrant countryside. Such companies are often family-owned. They face major challenges, e.g., to retain a skilled workforce, to find profitability without moving and to resist acquisitions. It requires entrepreneurs who prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term profit. Foundations are the most long-term form of organization because they lack owners who can change its purpose. We believe that foundations are an underutilized tool in Swedish business society. In this project, we examine the foundation's pros and cons as well as their enterprise potential.

The purpose of the project is to study the prerequisites and conditions for entrepreneurship in the form of enterprise foundations. This is done to answer the question of whether and, if so, how a foundation can be used for long-term and responsible ownership of locally based business activities. The project is interdisciplinary and combines law and business administration. We study the regulation of foundations, how foundations are governed and in turn exercise corporate governance, how family businesses’ long-term goals can be preserved through foundation formation and how foundations can contribute to socially sustainable development throughout Sweden.

The project enables that a Swedish long-term knowledge node about enterprise foundations will be created at the Center for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO) at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS).

The research group will consist of Kajsa Haag, Massimo Baù and Ulf Larsson Olaison at JIBS, Hanna Almlöf at Linköping University, Katarina Olsson at Lund University and two doctoral students, all affiliated with the research centre CeFEO.

Qualifications

To be eligible for the position, you have a Master’s degree or have achieved at least 240 credits/ECTS, of which a minimum of 60 credits/ECTS must have been achieved at the second cycle level, or otherwise acquired equivalent knowledge in Sweden or abroad.

For you who are applying for the position, it is important to have 90 ECTS credits in Business Administration.

Furthermore, you should have:

• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Fit with the research project financing this PhD.

To succeed and thrive in the role, we see it as necessary that you have good collaboration and communication skills, the ability to finish dedicated assignments/tasks on time.

It is meritorious if you have:

• Ambition to pursue an international research career
• Prior research experience
• Prior knowledge on enterprise foundations
• Prior knowledge on family business.

 As an international business school, we value experience with other languages and cultures. Other characteristics valued at JIBS are an international outlook; prior research, teaching and/or professional experience; and an ability to communicate effectively with different stakeholders in and around the university environment. A successful candidate should enjoy and be stimulated by working independently as well as working in teams.

Information

We offer a fully financed full-time position which is limited in accordance with the applicable collective agreement for doctoral students. The start date of the employment is 2023-09-01 or according to an agreement.

Employment as a doctoral student normally covers five years, of which four years (80%) consist of full-time studies. The employment is extended annually based on the individual study plan. The salary is regulated according to a special doctoral student ladder.

For questions about the doctoral program and application, Director of PhD candidates, Mohammad Eslami, Mohammad.eslami@ju.se
For questions about the enterprise foundation project, contact project manager, Kajsa Haag, kajsa.haag@ju.se

Application

Welcome with your application, no later than 2023-04-28.

Your application is preferred in PDF form through our recruitment system and must include:

• A letter of intent, answering the following three questions: Why do you want to be a PhD student? Why do you want to be a PhD student at JIBS? Why should we select you for such a position?
• A preliminary research proposal (max. 3000 words), describing your present research interest and outlining how you believe your research interest fits to the funding project on enterprise foundations and the CeFEO research centre.
• A copy of your Master thesis (if not finished at the time of application, please send a current draft or an executive summary of it) and, where applicable, other publications.
• A reference letter of a person who can evaluate your academic potential.
• Contact information (name, phone numbers and email) of two additional references.

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Jönköping University is a modern institution, characterised by internationalisation and an entrepreneurial spirit. We attract highly qualified, inventive and enterprising people from all around the world. We develop new knowledge and share our expertise through solid collaborations with industry and business, the public sector and other higher education institutions. We offer an equal and inclusive workplace, and we welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds. For more information, visit www.ju.se