You will have an appointment at the department of Organization, Strategy & Entrepreneurship (OSE) at the School of Business and Economics (SBE), Maastricht University. This PhD project will be embedded within the research theme Creativity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE), which is one of the seven research themes of School of Business and Economics.

In explaining firm-level variance in innovation and entrepreneurship, this PhD project will focus on the characteristics and preferences of those high-level parties who control and run companies, namely the owners, directors and top managers.

Strategic management scholars taking the upper echelons perspective, have long recognized that personal experiences, preferences and dispositions of top executives (TMT) influence firm strategies and performance. For instance, by understanding the risk-proclivity of managers we can assess firms' propensity to engage in such firm strategies as corporate venturing. Top managers also shape the organizational work environment and hence certain characteristics of TMTs are more conducive for creativity, explorative or exploitative firm innovation. Since TMTs are not static, entry and exit of executives may also have an immediate but long-lasting consequence for various organizational outcomes.

Scholars taking a corporate governance perspective have argued that different types of shareholders have different (non)financial objectives, risk preferences, and time horizons. This, in turn, has an impact on firm-level strategic decisions related to, for instance, R&D spending, open innovation partnerships, exploration versus exploitation, and ecological innovation. While this impact of owners on firm strategies may be rather direct, it can also be indirect by shaping the corporate governance system (i.e., the incentive and monitoring system) in which top managers operate. In this PhD project, we will also aim to investigate how configurations of multiple owner types, rather than individual owner types, affect these organizational outcomes.

This PhD project will be largely quantitative in nature, investigating how data on owner, board and TMT attributes can be used to predict firm-level innovation and entrepreneurship processes using sophisticated statistical tools.

Applicants should hold either a research master’s degree or a 120 ECTS master-level equivalent (i.e., either one 120 ECTS master degree, or two 60 ECTS master degrees), and show excellent (‘honours’-level) results in prior studies, quantitative skills, and fluency in both spoken and written English. Moreover, candidates should share our ambition to conduct high quality research with academic and societal impact.

• A PhD position is as full-time appointment (1.0 FTE) for the duration of four years (initially 12 months and - after positive evaluation - extended to four years).
• Intended start date is no later than December 2019
• The gross starting salary amounts to €2325 per month, and will increase to €2972 in the fourth year
• In addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• For more information on the terms of employment of Maastricht University and the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO) look at the website: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > Support > UM employees.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 18,000 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Department of Organisation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship

The department of Organization, Strategy & Entrepreneurship is a leading, international and dynamic scientific environment with a pleasant and constructive working atmosphere. The quality of the department as well as the School is, amongst others, reflected by the Triple Crown accreditation by EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA.