Corporations are increasingly being challenged to reflect on their purpose. Indeed, the relentless pursuit of profit as the raison d'être for corporations has had detrimental implications for our planet, society, and even shareholders - calling corporations to identify with a purpose that enables sustainable development. Accordingly, an ever-louder chorus of industry leaders have been questioning the shareholder-centric approach to business conduct. For example, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, called on firms to serve a broader societal purpose and shared value creation, and leading business consultants are increasingly advising firms to pursue a purpose that helps to cultivate a deeper connection with employees, customers, and communities. Earlier research has shown that firms are responsive to this development as they are rolling out new purpose-driven strategies and implementing changes within their organizations. However, firms that are particularly challenged by this development are those operating in contested industries including, for example, energy, aviation, and fast food. For these firms, pursuing a purpose requires fundamentally rethinking their core business activities, revenue models, and strategy.

Therefore, this PhD project seeks to perform an in-depth, longitudinal study of how firms in contested industries engage in purpose-driven strategic renewal. The objective of this project is to identify and theorize about the challenges, practices, and consequences of implementing such renewal. We envision this project to draw from, and contribute to, the literature on stakeholder management, strategic renewal, and organizational change. An elaborate description of the project, including a brief literature review, and outline of methodology and societal relevance can be found here.

What are you going to do?

• Pursue and complete a PhD thesis within the appointed duration of four years, during which you will follow PhD level coursework, plan and conduct your PhD research;
• actively collaborate with the researchers from Amsterdam Business School;
• present research findings at international conferences;
• submit your work to prestigious management science journals;
• assist in teaching activities, such as tutorials and MSc thesis supervision.