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The Entrepreneurship & Innovation section of the University of Amsterdam Business School is looking for a PhD candidate for a research project about the impact of university-based incubation programs on the creation, growth, and performance of business spinoffs, as well as their founders.

Project description

The objective of this project is to study how different types of incubation activities contribute to the successful creation and growth of business spin-offs initiated by university professors, researchers, or students. Incubation activities include physical incubation spaces, and any type of supporting incubation and acceleration programs.

University incubation and acceleration activities are an important driver of innovation and new business creation. The University of Amsterdam, especially through its incubator ACE Venture Lab, has played an important role in the birth and growth of a number of startups and spin-offs including Scyfer, Lumicks, and Metrica-Sports.

The aim of this project is to develop theoretical and practical insights about which incubation activities offered by universities lead to the successful creation, growth, and performance of new startups and spinoffs. In particular, we are interested in the effects of individual, team, and incubator-level characteristics.

This project is a collaboration with Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA): the expert interface between Amsterdam-based academic institutions and parties interested in their research findings and knowledge, such as companies, educational institutions, investors, entrepreneurs, government bodies and societal organisations.

You will develop, plan, and execute scientific studies and primarily work in collaboration with, and under supervision of, dr. Joris Ebbers and dr. Yuval Engel. 

Requirements

·         Master degree in business, econometrics, economics, data science, or a related social science discipline;

·         excellent grades and a strong interest in quantitative research methods and/or statistics;

·         drive to publish in top-level academic journals in management and business science;

·         analytical, organization and communication skills;

·         ability to work independently and to be proactive in developing the research project;

·         mastery of both written and spoken English;

·         mastery of the Dutch language is an advantage but not a necessity;

·         entrepreneurial mind set and perseverance.

About the Amsterdam Business School

The Amsterdam Business School (ABS) is one of the two schools of the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Economics and Business. The ABS has almost 3,000 students and the equivalent of 120 full-time academic staff. The school's core subjects are Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, and Big Data / Business Analytics. Six sections (Accounting, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Finance, Leadership & Management, International Strategy & Marketing, and Operations Management) conduct top-level research published in prestigious international journals. They also provide various degree programmes including a BSc programme and six MSc programmes, a wide range of post-doctoral programmes featuring three MBAs, four accountancy programmes and Lean Six Sigma programmes, as well as an extensive portfolio of open courses and in-company projects.

Appointment

You will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months with a possibility to extend it for another 2,5 years, pending positive evaluation. As part of your contract, you will spend 20% of your time on teaching. You will be classified as PhD candidate (promovendus) in the Dutch University job-ranking system (UFO), providing a gross monthly starting salary of €2.191 in the first year (which increases to €2.801 in the final year) with an additional end-of-year bonus (8.3%) and holiday allowance (8%), in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

Preferred starting date is 1 September 2017.

Job application

Applications should be made via applications-feb@uva.nl. Please include job reference number 17-140. Applicants should send a letter of application accompanied by a curriculum vitae. In addition, applicants should include a copy of their Master thesis. Applicants currently studying for a Master should include a short description of their thesis project (max. 2 pages) and a copy of their Bachelor thesis.

The closing date is 15 May 2017.

No agencies please

Further information:

Dr. Joris Ebbers

j.j.ebbers@uva.nl