The PhD position is a full-time position for a period of four years. During these four years, you will follow PhD-level coursework (if needed), plan and conduct your PhD research, and teach.
The research ideas will be defined by the student together with the supervisory group, and should fit with the larger project that this position is a part of. The project involves coaching small business owners, and our role is to use the information those entrepreneurs provide in the process as data for academic research. The project allows us to have rich quantitative information about the hard and soft aspects of entrepreneurship in a setting that resembles a field experiment. Your role involves choosing some of those aspects, developing theory about them, testing that theory using the data, and writing papers about those efforts. For example, we already have published a paper about emotion regulation skills making entrepreneurs happy in their work and personal life.

Starting date of the position: TBD but no later than September 1, 2022.

Your duties
You will work in close collaboration with the supervisor team (see below) and other Faculty on:

• identifying new research questions
• understanding the theoretical foundations and prior literature
• identifying fundamental relationships between entrepreneurs and their ventures
• writing computer code (typically using R) to analyze quantitative data
• presenting research findings at international conferences
• writing up findings for publication in (top) international journals
• developing your thinking and research skills through classes and seminars
• participating in departmental functions (e.g., research seminars & meetings)
• teaching, including undergraduate tutorials and the supervision of MSc and/or BSc thesis projects

Expected output: The PhD student aims to generate research that can be published in top-tier journals. The final results of the research are published in a PhD dissertation.
We are looking for candidates with:

• masters' degree (preferably a Research Master's) in business administration, business data science, management, organizational behavior, organizational psychology or a related field (candidates with a degree in psychology are encouraged to apply
• excellent speaking and writing ability in English, ideally with experience writing for a scientific audience
• motivation to take responsibility for research projects and carry them through to completion
• statistical skills and command of standard software packages for analyzing quantitative data (e.g., R), and a willingness to develop these skills further
• intellectual curiosity, eagerness to learn, and openness to criticism

Fixed-term contract: 1 year.

A challenging position in a socially involved organization. You work with researchers who are among the world top in their field, with strong records of publishing in top-tier journals. You work within a project that directly helps entrepreneurs in growing their small business, implying immediate societal impact.

The salary will be in accordance with university regulations for academic personnel and amounts €2,434 (PhD) per month during the first year and increases to €3,111 (PhD) per month during the fourth year, based on a full-time employment. The job profile: is based on the university job ranking system and is vacant for 1 FTE.

The appointment will initially be for 18 months with an intermediate evaluation after 18 months with a possibility to extend it for 30 months (totaling 4 years). An educational plan will be drafted that includes attendance of courses (if needed) and (international) conferences. End-result should be a PhD degree. The Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities is applicable.

Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as:

• a maximum of 41 days of annual leave based on full-time employment
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

The ambition of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is clear: to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. We strive to be a university where personal development and commitment to society play a leading role. A university where people from different disciplines and backgrounds collaborate to achieve innovations and to generate new knowledge. Our teaching and research encompass the entire spectrum of academic endeavor - from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is home to more than 26,000 students. We employ over 4,600 individuals. The VU campus is easily accessible and located in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research.

Diversity
We are an inclusive university community. Diversity is one of our most important values. We believe that engaging in international activities and welcoming students and staff from a wide variety of backgrounds enhances the quality of our education and research. We are always looking for people who can enrich our world with their own unique perspectives and experiences.

School of Business and Economics
The School of Business and Economics (SBE) provides high-quality education and excellent research in business administration and economics with a focus on contributing to the social, economic and ecological challenges of our time. Whether it is the use of robots in society or big data, labour market participation or flexibility in the labour market, traffic jams or the housing market, flash crashes in the stock market or choice behaviour in gambling, leadership or change management: we believe in goal-oriented scientific research and understand that progress in academics, the business community and society is achieved through cooperation, openness and social responsibility.

At SBE, all of our highly-motivated colleagues work together closely in a stimulating, dynamic and international environment to achieve our collective goal of encouraging society to make informed choices. Approximately 4,200 Bachelor's and Master's students and 1,700 executive students are enrolled at the School, and employs roughly 500 people.

The Department of Management & Organization
At the department of Management & Organization we see research and teaching in a mutually supportive relationship and foster an academic spirit that holds up the unity of education and scientific research. We strive for excellence in research by making a strong contribution to international scholarly debates. At the same time, we stimulate innovative and progressive teaching methods and close interaction with our students. Members of our department have received prestigious teaching awards, while we also have a strong track record in research by publishing regularly in leading journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Studies, and Organization Science. We encourage heterogeneity in research methodologies and endorse both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The Department has a collaborative ethos with staff actively working together on research projects and papers. We also organize regular seminars and workshops both about how to improve our research and our teaching. Our group is highly diverse in terms of cultural backgrounds and we enjoy working in an international environment. For more information about the department and our people, see our website: https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/faculties/school-of-business-and-economics/departments/management-organization.
The PhD Candidate will enhance and contribute to the Department's teaching and research activities and be member of the entrepreneurship section. The research program of this section focuses on core topics in the field of entrepreneurship such as the creation and growth of new firms and industries, the psychological and cognitive underpinnings of entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship and strategic renewal, and the dynamics of regional clusters and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Important outlets for the group are Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.