PhD Programme in Business Administration

1–2 PhD candidates in Business Administration, specifically Strategy and Finance, with a focus on sustainable development within industry, public agencies and the financial market

The Department of Business Administration, Lund University, announces 1–2 four-year full-time PhD student positions in Business Administration, within the field of finance and/or strategy with a focus on industry, public authorities and the financial market. The PhD student(s) will receive a scholarship for the first year and be employed at the department the subsequent three years. The PhD student(s) will start in fall 2022, or a date to be agreed.

Research within this programme aims at contributing with empirical studies and increased theoretical knowledge of how instances of industry, public agencies and the financial market work with sustainable development and how these efforts can be improved in order for sustainability considerations to be integrated as a key component in financial and strategic decision-making. How can the finance market contribute to an efficient transformation for industry and public authorities, and what roles do policies and private initiatives, such as the EU Taxonomy, CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), the TCFD (Taskforce for Climate related Financial Disclosure) and TNFD (Taskforce for Nature related Financial Disclosure) frameworks, play? For companies developing new, sustainable products and services: what is required by them in terms of raising and allocating capital, technology development, innovation, commercialization and business model development. The candidate(s) are also expected to contribute to the development of innovative ways of working with sustainability that promote the sustainability transformation of industry, public agencies and the financial market.

Work tasks

The PhD programme in Business Administration at Lund University is a four-year programme for a doctoral degree. The doctoral degree consists of two parts, courses (90 ECTS credits) and a thesis (150 ECTS credits).

As a doctoral student you will mainly be working with your research project, but you can also be given more general tasks at the department, e.g. teaching, research or administrative work, in accordance with the regulations.

The positions are funded by means provided by the Sparbanken Skåne Center for Sustainable Enterprise, SSCEN. You will be a part of an interdisciplinary research environment consisting of other PhD students, postdocs and professors at LUSEM and LTH. You are expected to contribute actively to research within the interdisciplinary areas, both in collaboration and individually. The focus areas include:

• Information and data related to sustainability performance and suggestions for improvements that are relevant and useful in strategic and financial decision making within companies, public agencies and the financial market.
• How companies, public authorities and the financial market comprehend and work with sustainability-risk management and scenario analysis, as well as, how these practices can be enhanced with respect to e.g., physical and  transition risks related to sustainability.
• Investigation of the roles different public policies and private initiatives related to sustainability (EU Taxonomy, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and Taskforce on Nature- related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)) play in the sustainability transformation of  industry, public agencies and the financial market.
• Corporate strategic management and decision-making concerning sustainable innovation. This can include foresight studies and scenario analyses, technology development, innovation processes, commercialization and business model development including implementation.

The candidate(s) can choose to study these different questions in their entirety or focus in-depth on one of the different focus areas related to the management of sustainable innovation.

Eligibility/Entry requirements

To be qualified the applicants must, at the time of application, hold a Master’s degree and have completed 240 ECTS credits of university studies. Of these at least 90 credits must be accomplished in a subject relevant to the PhD programme, including a degree project relevant to the research studies, equivalent to at least 15 ECTS credits. A person may also meet the specific entry requirements if he or she has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

Basis of Assessment

Regulations concerning appointment as a doctoral student can be found in the Higher Education Ordinance Chapter 5, 1–7 §§ and SFS 1998:80. For appointment to the position, the applicant is required to be eligible for admission to the doctoral (PhD) programme in Business Administration.

The applicants will be assessed on the basis of their prospects of meeting the requirements for a doctoral degree (PhD) in Business Administration.

Particular emphasis will be based on the following:

• Academic results, particularly on the Master’s level.
• Bachelor’s and Master’s theses.
• Relevance and viability of the research plan.
• Any other results or distinctions which attest to the applicant’s ability to profit from the doctoral programme.

The PhD position requires a degree in Business Administration or a related subject area.

Application procedure

Your application should be written in English and sent as one single pdf file to [email protected] .

The application is to contain the following documents:

• A complete application form, found at: https://fek.lu.se/en/phd-studies/prospective-phd-candidates
• Letter of introduction
• Research plan of no more than 5 pages (2.000 words) stating the topic to be investigated and sources of data and methodology the candidate aims to use. The topic should be quite specific and belong to one of the areas listed in the subject area section (see above).
• Degree certificates of your Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees
• Copy of your Master’s thesis
• Executive summary (1.000 words) of your Master’s thesis, and, where appropriate, your Bachelor’s thesis
• Curriculum Vitae (2 pages)
• Copies of certificates and copies of any other documents that you wish to include in your application.

All submitted documents must be attested as to their authenticity.

The application should be sent to: [email protected]

Last day for applying is 10th August

For further information please contact:

Susanne Arvidsson, [email protected]

Thomas Kalling, [email protected]