As a PhD candidate you will work on a research project that aims to investigate how academic entrepreneurs and their stakeholders commercialise university-born innovations. The study will take an ecosystem perspective on innovation commercialisation that is emerging in both innovation practice and theory, but that is still not fully understood. The project aims to further this perspective by integrating it with recent insights from framing literature and effectuation theory. Using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, the empirical part of the project studies innovations from Radboud University, Delft University of Technology, and the University of Cambridge. For these innovations, relevant stakeholders will be identified, as well as their perceptions and acceptance of the innovation.
 
Next, the project will study how different framing of the innovation influences perceptions that stakeholders hold about the innovation. Finally, the study will focus on the question of how universities and their technology transfer offices can enable or inhibit the successful commercialisation of university-born innovations. The project should result in an improved framework of innovation commercialisation that will enable us to analyse innovation commercialisation in follow-up studies at other universities and in other contexts.

• a Master’s degree in business administration, innovation management, science and technology management, healthcare technology management, or another relevant field;
• excellence in conceptual and analytical thinking;
• a strong affinity with technological innovation;
• a strong interest and experience in academic research in the social sciences;
• strong methodological skills, both quantitative and qualitative. Experience with conducting research in complex, multi-stakeholder settings will be valued;
• excellent writing skills (in English) as evidenced by writing samples (e.g. a chapter from your Master’s thesis or a conference paper);
• the ability to work in a diverse research team and a willingness to take initiative.

• employment: 0.8 - 1.0 FTE
• the gross starting salary amounts to €2,266 per month, and will increase to €2,897 in the fourth year (salary scale P)
• in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• your performance will be evaluated after 18 months. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years
• you will be classified as a PhD Candidate (Promovendus) in the Dutch university job-ranking system;
• you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation

 
This vacancy was originally published in May. Applicants who were rejected at the time are kindly requested not to apply again.

Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

Nijmegen School of Management
The research project is a joint initiative of the Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud university medical center, Radboud University’s Faculty of Science, and Delft University of Technology Valorisation Centre. You will be stationed at the Nijmegen School of Management.
 
The Nijmegen School of Management (NSM) is an academic centre of research and higher learning, focusing on institutional and managerial issues within complex organisations in both the public and private domain. There are seven focus areas within the NSM: Business Administration, Public Administration, Political Science, Economics, Human Geography, Spatial Planning, and Social and Political Sciences of the Environment. The NSM strives for a multidisciplinary approach whenever possible. It employs 265 FTEs of whom 75% are academics and currently caters to some 4,000 students.
 
The NSM’s research is embedded in the Institute for Management Research (IMR), an academic centre of expertise conducting research on the structure and performance of public and private organisations and institutions that regulate, govern and manage purposive action and interaction. IMR research aims to contribute to the understanding and improvement of the effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy of organisational arrangements through which people try to structure and govern the complexity of the environments in which they operate. IMR’s aim is to combine and integrate theoretical perspectives from different disciplines in order to provide a richer understanding of international, societal and organisational phenomena, their complexity and their interrelatedness.
 
Further information on Nijmegen School of Management