Up to 8 PhD Students in Business Studies - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Department of Business Studies is the largest department within the Faculty of Social Sciences at Uppsala University, with its approximately 140 co-workers and 2000 undergraduate students. We conduct extensive PhD education and have about 35 PhD students. The research schools MIT and FIRE are also connected to the department. The department conducts research and provides PhD education in the following fields: Accounting/Finance, Entrepreneurship, International Business, Marketing and Organization/Management.

This year, we are planning to employ up to 8 PhD students:

• 2 general PhD student employments in Business Studies, financed through Faculty funding. We would like to see applicants in Organization and Marketing but also in Accounting, International Business and Entrepreneurship.
• up to 6 PhD student employments in Business Studies related to the following research projects:

Project 1: After the Crises: Organization and Professional Work in Response to the Pandemic

We seek to recruit one doctoral student to work with questions of organization and professional work in the public sector, particularly higher education. We want to focus on what happens to professional work during and after the Corona pandemic; how the organizing of professional work may change and how it influences the daily work of different professional groups. The candidate will work in conjunction with two ongoing research projects; one on the development and role of hybrid professionals in the public sector, and the other on the organizing of administrative work in universities. Questions about the role and function of professionals and professional work, the development of new professions, and the relation between professions and organizations will be central to the work.

During the pandemic, we note that universities have made a series of changes to the way work is organized, administered, and coordinated and to the way decisions are made. How have decision-making structures, support activities, and coordinating efforts been affected and possibly changed during the pandemic? What consequences do these changes have on the key organizing principles of the university? What happens to the day-to-day work of professionals and hybrid professionals in different positions? These kinds of questions could be explored within the frames of this PhD position.

Number of positions: 1

Note: This position is subject to availability of external funding. Funding will be in the form of scholarship during the first year, thereafter PhD employment.

Project 2: The Performance of Global Innovation Partnerships Supporting Pharmaceutical Firms in the Fight against Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat to global health which is already killing several hundred thousand people around the world every year. In parallel, the antibiotics industry is rapidly shrinking as both large pharmaceutical and small biotech firms are struggling with increasingly challenging science and decreasing revenues from antibiotic sales. To revive the industry before it is too late, industry, government, and civil society has joined forces in forming a number of large global innovation partnerships with the mission to support the development of new antibiotics. However, these innovation partnerships are still new and research has yet to catch up with understanding them, for example drivers or obstacles to their performance. This PhD project joins an experienced group of researchers working in the interface between business, innovation, and pharmaceuticals to investigate how different types of innovation partnerships can strengthen innovation in the antibiotic industry. The project will be anchored firmly in business studies, and particularly in international business. However, for a deeper understanding of firms in the antibiotic industry, it will also draw on contacts with companies and the multi-disciplinary environment of the Uppsala Antibiotic Center. At this center, students from across the scientific disciplines at the university learn together about the fascinating field of antibiotic resistance. The empirical context of this project will also involve collaboration with a number of global innovation partnerships based in, for example, Boston, Geneva, and Copenhagen.

Number of positions: 1

Note: This position is subject to availability of external funding.

Project 3: AI-based RegTech

This project is funded by The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanities and Society (WASP-HS). The project will include an associate senior lecturer and two PhD students who will study AI applications in the financial markets, and more particularly AI applications designed to help financial businesses comply with abundant statutory requirements on risk management and reporting. Businesses in the financial markets are in the midst of a period of overwhelming legislative activity from multiple levels of norm-making in Europe and internationally. The tendency in new legislation has been to introduce ever more detailed control, supervision and enforcement. This situation has created a surge in the market for advanced data services for compliance management, i.e. managing compliance with regulation (but also with business codes, contracts, and ethical standards), known as RegTech. The most advanced of these applications are based on artificial intelligence algorithms. However, AI-based RegTech also raises questions and concerns, perhaps most importantly with regard to the very purpose of reporting standards and internal monitoring. This project will produce empirical results and develop theory for an informed discussion on what uses of AI-based RegTech in the financial markets do indeed serve the purposes of legislative and ethical policies, and what uses do not.

Number of positions: 2

Note: Because of the legal aspects of the projects, it is a merit for applicants to hold a university degree in law.

Project 4: AI and the Financial Markets: Accountability and Risk Management with Legal Tools

This project is funded by The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanities and Society (WASP-HS).  The project will be carried out by a team of 3 senior researchers, 2 postdocs, and the intended PhD student. We will examine the management of risks (real or perceived) that emerge from the use of AI algorithms in the financial sector. Law is developing, but legislators cannot keep up, so businesses need to find their own ways of regulating accountability with regard to AI applications using contracts, insurance policies, and so on. The project will be carried out using a combination of traditional legal research methods and empirical research methods. Legal materials and contracts will be analysed with legal methods. Such analyses will be complemented with qualitative interviews with key players in the industry. The senior researchers and the postdocs are all trained legal scholars. In order to complement the team we need a business researcher who can both introduce to us others the theoretical aspects of business studies while developing with us a new theoretical understanding of risk management with legal tools. This person is the intended PhD.

Number of positions: 1

Note: Because of the legal aspects of the projects, it is a merit for applicants to hold a university degree in law. This position is subject to availability of external funding.

Project 5: Grand Challenges and the Hunt for New Modes of Governance

In this project, we depart from a larger question that concerns the opportunities of modern organizations to find new/identify alternative and develop existing modes of governance that can help them address some of the Grand Challenges that we as a society face. Contemporary organizations are largely left with two dominant governance philosophies: norm- and rule-based bureaucracy or management with its focus on competition, management by objectives and resource efficiency.

At the same time as these two philosophies are considered as almost natural, there are critical voices that point at the shortcomings of the modes of governance that are based on these philosophies. These shortcomings included among other things an increase in administrative burden and bureaucratization, weakening of core professions, difficulties to keep organizations accountable as well as challenges connected to issues such as work-related stress and wellbeing. With these issues in mind, in this project we address questions about how the dominant modes of governance can be reformed, supplemented or even replaced.

We are looking for a candidate who is interested exploring alternative (both contemporary and historical) modes of governance in and for public, private and non-profit organizations and their activities. The candidate will design his/her own project based on different types of explorative research methods suitable for identifying, describing and understanding organizations and organizational life. Archive studies, interview and case studies and/or ethnographies are some of the methods that can be employed.

Number of positions: 1

Note: Fluency (oral and written) in Swedish is a requirement. The project is a cooperation with University of Gävle and the PhD student is expected to share working time between Uppsala and Gävle. The employment is placed at University at Gävle. Anyone applying for this project must also apply for the "doktorandanställning i företagsekonomi, inriktning ordanisation" at University at Gävle no later than March 31, 2021 at https://www.hig.se/Ext/Sv/Om-Hogskolan/Arbeta-hos-oss.html , HIG-STÖD 2021/107.

General information

Duties: The duties of a PhD student are primarily focused on his/her own research education, (4 years full-time), 90 academic credits of courses and 150 credits research for the doctoral thesis. To a limited extent (maximum 20 %), the work may also involve other departmental duties, mainly related to teaching undergraduate courses – in which case the position may be extended to maximum five years. General rules about PhD education can be found (in Swedish) in Högskoleförordningen Chapter 5, 1-7 §§, in Uppsala University rules and in the General Study Plan for PhD studies at the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University.

Requirements: General entry requirement: an advanced level qualification, has satisfied fulfillment of the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits awarded at the advanced level, or has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way. Specific entry requirement: courses in Business Studies comprising 90 credits.

In order to receive a PhD position, the candidate needs to be admitted to the doctoral programme, and for this, his/her potential ability to pursue the programme is decisive.

Note that a master thesis that has not yet been completed and assessed by the application deadline is given respite until June 2, 2021.

Requirements - Language requirement: All applicants need to verify English language proficiency that corresponds to English studies at upper secondary (high school) level in Sweden ("English 6"). This can be done in a number of ways, including through an internationally recognised test such as TOEFL or IELTS, or through previous upper secondary (high school) or university studies.

The minimum test scores are:

• IELTS: an overall mark of 6.5 and no section below 5.5
• TOEFL: Paper-based: Score of 4.5 (scale 1–6) in written test and a total score of 575. Internet-based: Score of 20 (scale 0–30) in written test and a total score of 90
• Cambridge: CAE, CPE

More information about English language requirements

Specific requirement project 5: For project 5 (Grand Challenges and the Hunt for New Modes of Governance), fluency (oral and written) in Swedish is a requirement.

Additional qualifications for project 3 and 4: Because of the legal aspects of the projects, it is a merit for applicants to hold a university degree in law.

Criteria for assessment of applications: please see the criteria.

The application must include:

1. CV.
2. Certified graduation diploma and transcripts of academic records, and other relevant documents that prove general and specific eligibility.
3. Research proposal in either English or Swedish (max. 12,000 characters including spaces). The research proposal should address the main research questions and the relevance of the project, relate the project to relevant previous research in the field, and present issues regarding data and methodology.
4. Motivation letter. In the motivation letter you will have to specify which project position you are interested in.
5. Master thesis and books, articles, scripts, etc invoked. Note that a master thesis that has not yet been completed and assessed by the application deadline is given respite until June 2, 2021.
6. TOEFL/IELTS-test (or equivalent). Note that applicants with a master’s degree from an English-speaking university or programme do not need to prove their English skills by submitting a TOEFL/IELTS-test. Information about English tests can be found in the link above.
7. Two letters of reference/recommendation (for example, from university teachers or employers). The letters have to include the contact information to the referees (e-mail address and phone number). The recommendation should state in what way the referent has known the applicant. We are particularly interested in an assessment of the applicant in terms of our admissions criteria.  Instructions for recommendation letters.

Interview: An evaluation committee assesses the applications and provides a recommendation for which candidates should be called for interviews. Call for interviews will take place April 26-28, 2021 to selected candidates.

Salary: According to the local agreement for PhD students.

Starting: September 1, 2021.

Working hours: 100%.

Information about the positions is given by: Director of PhD studies Susanne Åberg, ph +46 (0)18 471 1391, susanne.aberg@fek.uu.se and administrator for PhD studies Golondrian Janke, ph +46 (0)18 471 1369, golondrian.janke@fek.uu.se.

You are welcome to submit your application no later than March 31, 2021, UFV-PA 2021/697. Only complete applications with supporting documents will be reviewed.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? If so, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus. You are also welcome to contact International Faculty and Staff Services at ifss@uadm.uu.se.