PRE-INFORMATION VACANCY NOTICE

Vacancy: Marie Curie PhD Fellowship (1x) in Strategic Management – focused on Fintech Networks
European Commission funded – Fixed term for 4 years

FINDER PROJECT

FINDER, a competitive Marie Curie Research and Training Program funded by the European Committee stands for: Fostering Innovation Networks in a Digital Era.

The FINDER program sets out to Foster Innovation Networks in a Digital Era (FINDER). Appointed Marie Curie FINDER PhD Fellows will investigate the innovative collaborative arrangement amongst organizations – grassroots, incumbents and the wider society – as they inclusively explore digital technology for new product or market development. Unique features of this European Industrial Doctorate are: an in-depth investigation of innovation dynamics at emergent ecosystems and complex organizations;  industry-led complementary training in the domains of Professional Innovation Management; a bespoke program of FINDER network events that bring together doctoral researchers, academics, practicing managers and policymakers interested in innovation and a total of 18 months placement at one of Atos’ European business hubs (Frankfurt / Madrid). The research and training program is driven by a collaboration of Radboud University and Atos, teaming up in this trajectory over a period of four years.

FINDER accommodates five high caliber and full-time PhD positions, facilitating first-class PhD and in-company training at the crossroads of Fintech academia and business. Recently a vacancy has become available. For this purpose we are looking for an intellectually curious candidate who aspires to gain a doctorate in the discipline of Management.

Vacancy: 1 Marie Curie PhD Fellowship in Strategic Management – focused on Fintech (1.0 FTE)
FINDER PROJECT, workstream #3: ‘Alternative business models in digital ecosystems’. More information can be found here.

In good times and bad, firms regularly reshape themselves. Firms may re-align organization structure with strategy and changed external circumstances (Puranam & Gulati 2009), intervene to stimulate specific activities (Okhuysen and Eisenhardt 2002; Aalbers, 2019), or downsize during challenging times (Dougherty & Bowman 1995). Also under such challenging circumstances entrepreneurship takes place. Intra/entrepreneurs often have to build organisations in order to perform activities for which markets are not yet ready, or even are the first to render solutions to navigate out of crisis. Accordingly, entrepreneurs and managers must consider the design of business models and even to building businesses to execute transactions which cannot yet be performed in the market. While reshaping firms (e.g., changing structure or size) is both important and frequent, it is also relatively understudied. Moreover, extant research (e.g., on downsizing and turnaround) typically focuses on traditional outcomes (e.g., profits) with less emphasis on such things as collaboration, knowledge creation and innovation at the individual or team levels. The study of business models at the intersection of strategy and entrepreneurship research involves an exploration of how firms do business at the system-level under such challenging conditions. Conditions typical to be expected also in the wake of COVID with economic prospects scaling down substantially across various industries.  Such inter-disciplinary investigations are essential for understanding how firms may re-align organization structure with strategy under suddenly changing external circumstances, with the implications of digital transformation potentially helping different emergent ecosystem actors to outperform in this new landscape. Europe’s financial services industry presents an example of these sort of dynamics, facing both technology-driven as well as institutionally-driven challenges in re-inventing and exploring alternative business models as well as entering into economically uncertain times as economic crisis looms on the horizon.

Therefore, this quantitatively oriented research project investigates the following research question: What are the characteristics of alternative business models in digital ecosystems? Which factors facilitate their development as firms reshape themselves in the face of sudden crisis? This project brings together research on antecedents, processes and consequences associated with organizational reshaping and consider the role of technology as enabler or constraint in this process.  The project outline allows for the combination of diverse theoretical and methodological approaches targeting single or multiple organizational levels. The project has good access to the European financial services industry and the fintech community in particular as inroads to original data collection and industry exposure as well as access to the major academic business data repositories (Icon, Crunchbase, Lexus Nexus, etc.).

As a Marie Curie FINDER PhD Fellow you will be responsible for:

• Delivering prescribed project objectives on time and within budget.
• Collaborating with other researchers at the Institute for Management Research (IMR) at Radboud University and Atos Europe.
• Communicating and providing information to academic and industrial supervisors including regular attendance at formal supervisory meetings.
• Conducting doctoral research while being placed at Atos, in order to support a dedicated impact case.
• Attending and preparing reports for regular meetings with other members of the FINDER team, to report progress, agree future work and exchange data/experience.

Marie Curie PhD Fellowship:

Please note that this MARIE SKLODOWSKA-CURIE scheme is funded by the European Commission who has set specific eligibility criteria for this vacancy. The primary objective of the EID program is international mobility (i.e. move from one country to another) and this is a requirement for the Marie Curie PhD Fellow when taking up the appointment. At the time of recruitment by the Radboud University (NL), the candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to her/his recruitment under the project. The Fellow should be within four years of the start of their research career at the time of taking up the position. For details on the Marie Curie Fellowship ITN program please click here.

IMR:

Successful candidates will also be required to complete an application for and be accepted on the PhD program at Radboud University – Institute for Management Research. Applications from women, who are currently under-represented in this area, will be particularly welcome; however, the final recruitment decision will be based solely on merit.  For details on the Radboud IMR Centre for organization

Work environment: Radboud University (RU) in Nijmegen is one of the largest Dutch universities acclaimed for the quality of teaching and research. RU has seven faculties (including the Nijmegen School of Management) and enrols over 19,899 students. It was internationally ranked 156th by the QS World University Rankings and occupies a prominent position in Europe. RU is currently successfully coordinating 114 European Commission Research projects and 41 H2020 projects, ten of which are MC ITN projects.
The Nijmegen School of Management (NSM) is a leading academic centre of research and higher education, focusing on institutional and managerial issues within complex organisations.

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 120,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of € 13 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions through its Digital Transformation Factory, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across all business sectors. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Syntel, Unify and Worldline. Atos is listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

Benefits:

• employment: 1.0 FTE
• the gross starting salary amounts to €2,325 per month based on full-time employment, and will increase to €2,972 in the fourth year (P scale)
• in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• as a FINDER Marie Curie PhD Fellow you will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years
• you will be classified as a PhD Candidate in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO)
• generous benefits from the Marie Curie apply for the first three years (including relocation and extended conference funding facilities and a travel allowance), after which, in the fourth year, standard Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO) conditions will apply
• training and research on the intersection of academia and business
• generous travel allowances for conference and research purposes.
• you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation.

Requirements:

• hold a (Research) Master’s degree with a business or economics backgorund.
• be available for a starting date as soon as possible, per October 1st, 2020 at the latest;
• You should meet the Marie Sklodowska-Curie EID program eligibility requirements; :
  • The primary objective of the EID program is international mobility;
  •  At the time of recruitment by the Radboud University, the candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to recruitment under the project;
  • The Fellow should be an Early Stage Researcher: within four years of the start of their research career;
• evidence of independent research skills;
• experience in empirical research;
• willingness to combine both academic work and practitioner oriented activities (e.g. whitepaper drafting) in collaboration with a selection of the business FINDER partners (Atos, TQ, Voleo)
• demonstrable ability to work independently, to prioritize tasks, manage time and meet deadlines;
• proactive and self-organizing in the spirit of joint project delivery;
• willingness to relocate (Frankfurt / Madrid);
• strong interpersonal skills;
• high motivation to perform rigorous academic research and collaborate with industry;
• excellent communication skills, including a high standard of written and spoken English;
• willingness to work flexibly where necessary to fulfil the needs of the research project, including international travel and completing the industrial placement.

Desirable:

• affinity with the Financial Services and/or FinTech sector and the turnaround and restructuring theme;
• affinity with new technology and forms of collaboration as technology and new business model drivers;
• knowledge of R (statistics program) or other advanced statistical modelling programs; or advanced qualitative research methods.

Application and selection process:

• Application deadline: July 10^th, 2020
• Your application is only to be submitted via the “apply” button on the Radboud website and follow instructions. Click here for the vacancy.
• Your application should include and be limited to the following attachments:
  • Letter of motivation;
  • CV;
  • Part of your Master’s thesis;
  • a two page essay reflecting on the above research question showcasing your view on potential future research directions and (academic) relevance.
• Interviews will be set up digitally and will take place with a selection of the FINDER Selection and Evaluation Team (academic and/or business side of the team).
• You will be asked to give a presentation as part of the selection procedure. This presentation provides us with a better feel for your interest and potential. The presentation will be based on your submitted 2 pager.

Informal enquiries: Project Management Office FINDER, Ms Linda Buis: r.buis@fm.ru.nl

No commercial propositions please