POSITIONS: Business Model Innovation in the Area of Sustainable Energy

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

From: Podoynitsyna, K.S. [K.S.Podoynitsyna at tue.nl]
Date: Fri 6 Jan 2012 18:54

TU/e will be the home university for the entrepreneurship PhD position as part of the SELECT+ Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programme, 2012 Intake: http://www.exploreselect.eu/SELECTPhD/ProgrammeDescription/tabid/1266/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

The deadline for the application is January 31st, 2012.
The PhD candidate will start in September 2012 with a 4-year contract.

Project description:
Each new business, venture or commercialization effort has to have at least one functional business model. Business model is a representation of how firms create and appropriate (i.e. monetize) value (Morris et al., 2005; Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2009). The same basic technological idea can have many applicable business models and the choice for particular business models (although often it is implicit) determines to a large extent the success of the commercialization efforts. One of the reasons why the commercialization efforts for the sustainable energy technologies have had limited success is that they tend to involve traditional business models. At the same time, research shows that business model innovation pays off (e.g. Zott and Amit, 2007; IBM Global CEO study, 2008). Emerging yet scattered evidence from particular firms suggest that business model innovation rather than pure technology and R&D innovation tend to drive success of firms within the sustainable energy setting. 
However, how exactly the business model innovations should be conducted still remains unclear. Thus, a very promising yet untried way to solve the aforementioned challenges for sustainable energy commercialization is to apply structured business model innovation.

In particular, we’ll seek to overcome the main barriers to commercializing sustainable energy technology by:
1.       1. Systemizing and analyzing the existing successful business model innovations in the sustainable energy
2.       2. Looking at the existing successful business models in other sectors, and investigate whether such models can be also fruitfully applied in the sustainable energy setting. 
3.       3. Developing and testing structured creativity techniques to come up with an innovative business model, to generate novel successful business models for the sustainable energy sector. This approach is termed structured as it rests on identification of patterns in successful business models rather than on chance-driven brainstorm sessions.

University and group profile:
The home university assignment will be with the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM, www.item-eindhoven.nl)  group, which is part of the department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The group consists of some 49 full-time and part-time staff (full, associate and assistant professors, post docs, PhDs, guests and support). In 2010 the group had 9 PhD defenses and delivered 33 MSc theses. In terms of entrepreneurship teaching, the ITEM group has experience in conducting both Summer Schools and various trainings for the technology PhD students, and in conducting the yearly unique course on Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management for management and business PhD students. As the identified business school is embedded in a technology university (TU/e) it results in a deep understanding of the engineering mindset.

The research program of the ITEM group focuses on New Business and New Product Development Processes and is one of the leading programs in the world in terms of quality, impact, productivity and societal relevance (QANU Research Review 2010). The group includes world leading experts in the field of new product development (prof.dr. F. Langerak and prof.dr. A. Di Benedetto) and entrepreneurship (prof.dr.S. Romme and prof.dr. G. Duysters). Moreover, the group has recently taken two prominent scholars in entrepreneurship (prof.dr. S. Shane) and innovation (prof.dr. A. Griffin) on board as visiting professors. 

Specific PhD project requirements:
We are looking for a person with a research interest in business model innovation and/or sustainable energy. Ideally you have already done a project in one of these areas either during your studies or work. You did a masters study in a management related discipline or in another relevant social sciences area such as sociology or economics. You are capable of working independently, have strong analytical skills and the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing. You should be fluent in English. 
While both the home university and the industrial partner will be located in the Netherlands, the host (second) university will be located in another European country, most probably in Sweden. Thus, you should be also prepared to travel. The mobility scheme can be found here: 
http://www.exploreselect.eu/SELECTPhD/ProgrammeDescription/ProgrammeOverview/MobilityScheme/tabid/1283/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

More information and application procedure:
The final PhD candidate will be employed on a paid contract.
You can find more information on the SELECT+ program, the 2012 Intake theme and application details at:
http://www.exploreselect.eu/SELECTPhD/ProgrammeDescription/tabid/1266/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

You can apply directly via the SELECT+ website:
http://www.exploreselect.eu/SELECTPhD/Howtoapply/tabid/1271/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
Please be sure to specify that you are applying for the Entrepreneurship PhD position.

Should you have further questions about the project contents, please feel free to contact me.
For questions on the administartive procedure and SELECT+ in general, please contact selectplus at kth.se .

Best regards,
Ksenia

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Dr. Ksenia Podoynitsyna | Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and New Business Development
Eindhoven University of Technology | Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM)
Den Dolech 2, Connector 0.04 | PO Box 513 | 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Tel. +31 40 2473640 | Fax. +31 40 2468054 | E-mail: K.S.Podoynitsyna at tue.nl 
www: http://www.item-eindhoven.org