Advancing Research on Innovation Management

Innovation Management studies how organizations bring innovations to life successfully. A successful innovation involves all actions needed to generate creative ideas and to turn these into attractive new products, services, and business models. The Innovation Management group at RSM is a team composed of several ambitious international faculty whose research focuses on creativity, idea management, leadership in innovation, standardization, collaborative innovation, and innovation strategies. We also execute large research projects in collaboration with leading organizations on, for instance, horticulture innovation and in the creative industries. Our research is often empirical and applies both quantitative and qualitative methods. As a PhD candidate in our section, you can choose to join one or more of the projects described below or elaborate your own project. Supervisors can vary per paper that you are working on.

Innovation, Creativity, Idea management, Co-creation, Project management, Complex systems, Leadership, Strategy, Sustainability, Diversity

Collaborative innovation: Innovation has become imperative for organizations and societies at large. Increasing pace of technological and market change forces organizations to collaborate in order to share risks and resources. In addition, the grand challenges of our time require solutions that are well beyond the limits of a single organization. But interorganizational collaboration has its own disadvantages such as cooperation and coordination problems. What are the conditions for interorganizational collaboration to succeed?

Do not hesitate to contact Birgül Arslan for information: b.arslan@rsm.nl

Idea management:  The successful management of ideas has become a strategic organizational capability and a source of competitive advantage. Many companies have set up idea management programs and incentives to facilitate the generation, development, and implementation of new product, service, process, and business model ideas. However, out of a pool of submitted ideas, typically only a few will be adopted and brought successfully to the market. How can firms effectively collect ideas from employees or other stakeholders over time, how can they identify and select the best ideas, and how can they channel these ideas into successful innovations?

Do not hesitate to contact Dirk Deichmann for further information: ddeichmann@rsm.nl.

Innovation & diversity: More and more organizations are diversifying their employee base to stimulate innovation. Diverse groups have members with different, unique knowledge, and by combining and integrating these different perspectives, diverse groups have the potential to come up with more creative and innovative ideas. However, diverse teams may be less effective at implementing these ideas due to biases against their ideas, coordination problems, and not having the right networks. How can diverse teams become more effective innovation teams?

Do not hesitate to contact Jasmien Khattab for information: khattab@rsm.nl 

Leadership in innovation: The internal political arena of companies is where innovation often takes place. In such a noisy arena, the project leaders who shout loudest get first access to funding. We study ways for project leaders to best communicate their ideas and vision for their innovation, so their ideas can win attention and funding.

Do not hesitate to contact Daan Stam or Juan Pablo Madiedo for further information: dstam@rsm.nl or madiedomontanez@rsm.nl

Innovation strategy: This project focuses on social and psychological foundations of innovation strategy, with a mission to create a positive impact by inciting innovative organizations ready to address the world’s current challenges. Innovation management entails processes of generating, selecting and implementing new products, services, and business models by leveraging the wider ecosystem. An innovation strategy plays a critical role in organizational renewal and survival because it inspires, directs and calibrates operational-level processes of generating, selecting and implementing innovations to achieve an organization’s strategic-level goals.

Do not hesitate to contact Murat Tarakci for more information: tarakci@rsm.nl

Micro-foundations of innovation networks: Recent research has shown that innovation does not “happen” in isolation; it occurs within a relational context in which single individuals and firms collaborate and compete with other actors in broader networks of social interactions. Despite this earlier research, important questions still have to be explored: To what extent do individual people with their idiosyncrasies (demographic features, psychology, and cognition) contribute to construct and shape innovation through the intra-organizational social networks in which they are embedded? What is the role of subunit, firm or industry-level characteristics in affecting the formation and the functioning of innovation networks?

Do not hesitate to contact Stefano Tasselli for information: tasselli@rsm.nl

Quantitative/qualitative/experimental empirical research methods can be employed (depending on the studied research questions).

Candidates applying for a PhD position within this research theme should have a background in business or management studies, sociology, economics, psychology, engineering, or other related fields. We are looking for candidates with very strong analytical and verbal abilities. Candidates with interest in quantitative, qualitative, or experimental research are welcome. The research group shares methodological rigor with a strong attention to theory development in combination with relevance for business and society. Candidates preferably have proven expertise and interest in statistical, experimental and/or computational skills, and should be eager to learn new methodological tools. Candidates that can strengthen the diversity of our community are especially encouraged and welcome to apply.

Required by ERIM

All application documents required by ERIM can be found here.

The project output is publication of papers in top tier management journals in innovation, general management, organization, strategy or operations management. These top tier journals are listed on the ERIM’s webpage (https://www.erim.eur.nl/about-erim/erim-journals-list-ejl/) as “STAR” journals.

The Innovation Management group at RSM consists of young and ambitious international faculty who publish in the very top management journals, in collaboration with several renowned international scholars and industry partners. The group has published in leading management journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Research Policy, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Journal of Product Innovation Management as well as in leading psychological journals of relevance for business such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Annual Review of Psychology and Psychological Science.

The Innovation Management group has strong connections with innovation management academics in pioneering universities. As a testimony to that, our PhDs conducted research visits at for instance NYU Stern, University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota, and Yonsei University in the past.

In its teaching the group links state-of-the-art management theories with business practice. We also develop training modules for executives concerning business model innovation and new business development. Some organizations that we closely collaborate with for teaching and research include DSM, Dutch Design Foundation, LEGO, Microsoft, Philips, Renault, Unilever, European Commission, and International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Innovation is of utmost importance for the performance of firms and economies. Corporate and political leaders consider innovation to be core to competitive advantage. To achieve these results, the proper management of innovation is therefore essential: creativity should be enhanced, new products and services should be brought to the market quickly and effectively, and increasingly the use of new business models serves as a platform to achieve desired results. In our group, each project’s objective is to produce valuable guidelines for executives to increase the innovativeness of their organizations, improve performance and gain competitive advantage.

All projects aim at advancing our understanding of important aspects of innovation management and to contribute to academic literature. Targeted contributions of each project listed above can be retrieved from the specified contact person.

ERIM offers fully-funded and salaried PhD positions, which means that accepted PhD candidates become employees (promovendi) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO).

Erasmus University Rotterdam aspires to be an equitable and inclusive community. We nurture an open culture, where everyone is supported to fulfil their full potential. We see inclusivity of talent as the basis of our successes, and the diversity of perspectives and people as a highly valued outcome. EUR provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, functional impairment, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes them unique. We look forward to welcoming you to our community.

For questions regarding the PhD application and selection procedure, please check the Admissions or send us an e-mail via phdadmissions@erim.eur.nl.