The Business Management and Organization-chair group at Wageningen University is looking for a PhD researcher to relate strategy, organisation, and entrepreneurship literature in studies on green urban enterprises, to promote the sustainability of cities.
Over half of the global population lives in urban areas. Cities are vibrant centers for food halls, community gardens, green walls, and urban farming, but cities also feature obesity, heat islands, floods, and food deserts. Urban agriculture, food gardening, greening initiatives, and other 'Edible City Solutions' (ECS) are expected to result in major environmental, and social benefits, as well as realising commercial opportunities for (social) entrepreneurs.
Then how is food provision in cities best safeguarded in times of ongoing urbanisation and climate change? In this context in particular, the traditional view of companies as autonomous entities, driven by profit for shareholders, is challenged, and stretched. Firms are expected to behave socially responsible and environmentally sustainable, sharing created values with stakeholders. The use of urban landscapes for food production is a major step towards more sustainable cities. Grassroots initiatives empower local communities, creating green businesses and jobs, which strengthen economic developments, while fostering social cohesion. The strategic potential and challenges of bottom-up (social) entrepreneurship in the context of Edible City Solutions (ECS) is clear.
The main objective of this PhD-project is to shed light on Edible cities phenomenon embedded in strategic management, organisation, and entrepreneurship literatures. Drivers and characteristics of relevant business models will be identified and analyzed, relevant stakeholder dependencies and support of startups and more mature firms will be studied; the potential for upscaling and/or replication will be explored.
Leading questions for the PhD-project may be; do agricultural, economic and social innovations at firm level lead to lasting, feasible edible city solutions that promote sustainable development? What are the types, and characteristics of more resilient initiatives in this area? What are the social and environmental requirements and impacts of green urban enterprises that create shared values? What are, more generally, the properties of new food landscapes, either competing with or merging into existing food provision systems?
The PhD researcher participates in the ERA-NET-project "EdiCitNet - Edible Cities Network. Integrating Edible City Solutions for social resilient and sustainably productive cities". EdiCitNet leverages the substantial benefits that ECS have locally, and catalyze their replication in the EU and globally. Front Runner-cities, like Rotterdam, supported by an interdisciplinary consortium, demonstrate, consolidate, and advance their unique experiences, and transfer their knowledge and formats to Follower Cities, determined to replicate successful ECS.
The PhD is based in the Business Management and Organisation chair group at Wageningen University. The PhD researcher is familiar with, uses and further develops a triple bottom line Business Model Canvas (3BMC) and related instruments / tools from the disciplines of strategic management, organisation theory, and the entrepreneurship literature. Field research will at least cover ECS-initiatives in Rotterdam, and other front-runner cities. The PhD will support the co-implementation of Living Labs on innovative ECS in Rotterdam.

EdiCitNet is an Innovative Action-project, funded by the European Union, under the Crosscutting activities Work Programme of Horizon 2020 (ERA-NET). The interdisciplinary consortium covers a wide range of stakeholder groups, from city authorities, SMEs, NGOs and academia, encompassing European front running cities and 8 follower cities from Africa, China and the Americas.

We invite you to apply for this position as a self-steering social scientist, interested in exploring strategic management, organisation, and entrepreneurship literature in a study of (grass roots) initiatives for socially resilient and sustainably edible city solutions. You are a team player in an international, interdisciplinary project to advance sustainable, livable and healthier cities. Over the employment period, you are expected to advance your teaching skills, and participate in PhD level courses yourself.

You should have the following qualifications:

• Hold a MSc or MPhil in management, or related social science disciplines, such as economic sociology, and sustainable entrepreneurship.
• Are able to relate such disconnected fields as strategic management and social entrepreneurship.
• Are intrinsically intellectually motivated to grow and excel in academic research.
• Demonstrate social and academic skills, e.g., by a high grade point average, an innovative thesis, and suited field research experience.
• Are able to run explorative research involving demanding data sources, and a variety of analytical techniques.
• Have an excellent command of English (see the specific language page), and preferably of Dutch.
• Have affinity with grassroots initiatives about food / green provisioning in urban areas.
• Are interested in working with a diversity of urban stakeholders in heterogeneous urban field projects.

We offer a stimulating work environment at a global top university in life sciences. For your research, you work with interesting partners at the frontier of Edible City Solutions, and will directly impact the quality of life in cities, and have the potential to build an unique professional academic profile.

Successful candidates are appointed as employee (promovendus) in a fully salaried, four-year PhD position at Wageningen University. We initially offer a temporary contract for 18 months, which shall be extended by another 30 months after a positive evaluation. The offer concerns a fulltime employment (38 hours per week), starting ideally by March 2019. The gross salary starts at € 2325 the first year and increases up to € 2972 in the fourth year, based on a fulltime appointment. In addition, we offer an attractive benefits package, including additional holiday allowances (8%) an end- of-year bonus (8.3%), the ABP Pension scheme, next to training and career development.

Wageningen University & Research

Wageningen University & Research (WUR)
Delivering a substantial contribution to the quality of life. That is the focus of WUR- each and every day. Within the domain, healthy food and living environment, we search for answers to issues affecting society - such as sustainable food production, climate change and alternative energy. At WUR, every day 6,500 people work on 'the quality of life', turning ideas into reality, on a global scale. Could you be one of these people? We give you the space you need. For further information about working at WUR, look at https://www.wur.nl/en/Jobs.htm

The Business Management & Organisation chair group (BMO) is a chair group in the Social Sciences Group of Wageningen University. Central in the BMO-research program is the quest for understanding and managing the rapidly developing chains and networks, with a special focus on innovation, governance and sustainability in food provision. BMO is pivotal in the BSc program Management and Consumer studies, and the Master Management, Economics and Consumer studies, and we delivered advanced courses and MOOCs on Biobased & Circular Economy, and on (social) entrepreneurship. In research, BMO typically uses a mixture of methodologies. BMO's excellent position in research was acknowledged by the latest international peer review committee, that evaluated its research quality as excellent, its viability as excellent; and its societal relevance as very good. More information about the Business Management & Organization-group can be found at https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Chair-groups/Social-Sciences/Business-Management-Organisation.htm