The chairs of the International Strategy & Marketing section and the Data Science for Business Analytics of the Amsterdam Business School (ABS), are looking for a PhD candidate for an interdisciplinary project using computer science to design accountability innovations aiming to improve responsible production in developing countries with weak institutions. The technology will increase transparency, allowing stakeholders such as practitioners, civil society activists, and community organizers to assess the impacts of irresponsible production and labour violations. The project aims to promote stakeholder dialogue to hold businesses accountable to provide remedy and justice for vulnerable individuals and communities impacted by business supply chains in Africa.

The  PhD candidate will:

• develop a mobile telephone application employing  crowdsourcing methods to obtain reports of labour rights violations, environmental damage, or other irresponsible production in business supply chains in Africa, and develop methods to track those incidents over time to understand whether, when, and how the pursuit of justice and remedy occurs;
• also create a website using data visualization techniques to provide transparency about business violations and remedies through real-time public access to the reports;
• will write academic papers related to this research.

The candidate:

• has a Master’s degree in the area of data science, artificial intelligence, business analytics or a related discipline;
• has excellent grades and a strong interest in applied and quantitative research methods;
• has the motivation to build socially relevant computer science applications (ICT for development);
• has the drive to publish in top-level academic journals in data science and management;
• has well-developed analytical skills, strong organization and communication skills, an entrepreneurial mind set, and perseverance;
• has the ability to work independently and to be proactive in developing the research project;
• knows Python, Javascript, data analytics, mobile technologies, data visualization, crowdsourcing (experience in one field and affinity for the others);
• masters both written and spoken English (working knowledge of French is helpful);
• is willing to travel to workshops in South Africa, Mali and/or Democratic Republic of Congo.

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 €2.222 in the first year (which increases to €2.840 in the final year) with an additional end-of-year bonus (8.3%) and holiday allowance (8%). The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities is applicable.

Preferred starting date is 15 January 2018.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Amsterdam School of Business

The Amsterdam School of Business (ABS) is part of the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Economics and Business. The school’s core subjects are Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, and Big Data / Business Analytics. The ABS has almost 3,000 students and the equivalent of 120 full-time academic staff. This faculty is divided among six sections (Accounting, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Finance, Leadership & Management, International Strategy & Marketing, and Operations Management) that conduct top-level research published in prestigious international journals.

http://abs.uva.nl/