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Postdoc Description
The Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University, invites applications for three postdoc positions within a two year sustainability research project “Sustainable innovation: How to translate sustainability strategies into successful innovation?” The project team is comprised of Professor Jan van den Ende (project leader), Professor Gail Whiteman, Dr. Daan Stam and Dr. Serge Rijsdijk.

In this project we investigate which innovation processes are appropriate to develop innovations that are successful from a commercial and sustainability perspective. Innovation processes include both firm-internal processes and collaboration with external stakeholders and knowledge networks. The overall research project is divided into three interdependent postdoc projects of 21 months each.

Requirements

The research project consists of three sub projects (for more detailed information on each project, see below). Requirements for the sub projects are as follows:

Sub project 1: Case Studies on the Innovation Processes of Sustainable New Product Development

Applicants should have (or must be near to completion of) a Ph.D. in Business Administration or the Social Sciences. Candidates also need to have demonstrated a potential for excellence in qualitative research and the case study method.

Sub project 2: Front end process: Idea generation for sustainable innovation

Applicants should have (or must be near to completion of) a Ph.D. in Business Administration or the Social Sciences. Candidates also need to have demonstrated a potential for excellence in (experimental) research.

Sub project 3: Development process: Managerial guidance and knowledge management in sustainable innovation

Applicants should have (or must be near to completion of) a Ph.D. in Business Administration, Industrial (Design) Engineering or the Social Sciences. Candidates also need to have demonstrated a potential for excellence in (experimental and/or survey) research.

Conditions of employment

Base salaries for postdocs are in the range of € 46250 - € 55000 per annum depending on on qualifications with attractive benefits such as a contribution to moving costs, attractive health care premiums, reimbursement of home Internet connection, and commuting allowance. Substantial tax benefits apply to non-Dutch citizens, conditional on permission granted by the Dutch Tax Office.

Organisation

The Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, is a top-ranked international business school renowned for its groundbreaking research in sustainable business practice and for the development of future global business leaders. RSM is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe; it has a research ranking of third in Europe, with its full-time and executive MBA programs ranked in the top 30 world-wide, and its international CEMS MSc Program ranked second in Europe.

Department

For further information regarding,

-Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University: http://www.rsm.nl

-Department of Management of Technology and Innovation:

http://www.rsm.nl/home/faculty/academic_departments/technology_and_innovation

-Department of Business & Society Management:

http://www.rsm.nl/home/faculty/academic_departments/business_society_management

-the research environment at RSM: http://www.erim.nl

Additional information

Sub project 1: Case Studies on the Innovation Processes of Sustainable New Product Development

In this project, the research objective is to gather detailed, exploratory case study data across companies on the following general research questions: What organizational (and inter-firm) processes trigger, enable and create barriers for sustainable and commercially viable new product innovation? How does the goal of sustainability affect inter-firm relationships regarding innovation processes at the industry and national (macro) level? The postdoc will investigate 4-6 cases drawn from our collaborating corporate partners, including cases which are perceived to be ‘successful’ and ‘nonsuccessful’ by company insiders. This position has the following deliverables: case study write up for each company, co-authorship of 1-2 academic papers, 1-2 teaching cases.

Sub project 2: Front end process: Idea generation for sustainable innovation

This subproject focuses on the use of idea generation, selection, and development processes for innovation towards sustainability purposes. The major problem in sustainable innovation is that the sustainable nature of ideas may (but not necessarily does) hurt commercial viability of the ideas. The general question in this research is therefore: How can companies generate, improve and select ideas that are sustainable AND commercially viable? Potentially important issues to investigate are the effects of individual differences, environmental cues, and their interaction on sustainable idea generation, selection, and development. This program will adopt experimental methods to investigate these issues. One of the goals of this research is to publish one or more papers in A-level academic journals.

Sub project 3: Development process: Managerial guidance and knowledge management in sustainable innovation

This project focuses on knowledge acquisition processes for sustainable innovation and the influence of alternative means of guidance thereon. The research questions that this project aims to address are: What are the effects of different types of managerial guidance on knowledge management processes within sustainable innovation projects? How do these effects depend on the extent to which a firm is knowledgeable on sustainable innovation? How do knowledge management processes affect commercial and sustainability performance? One of the goals of this research is to publish one or more papers in A-level academic journals and practitioner oriented journals of a similar standing.

Applicants should send an electronic copy of their letter of interest, curriculum vitae, a research statement, two recent (working) papers and two letters of recommendation to the contact persons for the specific project you apply for (sub project 1: gwhiteman@rsm.nl, sub project 2: dstam@rsm.nl, sub project 3: srijsdijk@rsm.nl). Screening will start immediately and continue until the positions have been filled.