PhD student positions in Business Administration with a focus on entrepreneurship, ownership, and family business Jönköping
International Business School (JIBS) is hiring two PhD students in Business Administration on a full-time basis (100%). Starting
date is January 1st, 2027, or according to agreement. As a PhD student you will be enrolled in a highly qualified education within
a thriving research environment. You will also have many opportunities to enhance your teaching skills and personal development.
For more information about our PhD program, please visit our information page. We offer fully financed positions to our doctoral
students who receive competitive salaries for their work as employees of JIBS. Most of your time will be devoted to your doctoral
studies (80%) including coursework and writing a doctoral thesis. The coursework consists of both mandatory and elective PhD
courses. Remaining time (20%) is allocated for teaching and administrative tasks. We seek candidates motivated to pursue an
international research career and with a strong drive to conduct high-quality academic research. This call is focused on three
focus areas: entrepreneurship, ownership, and family business. Your research interest must fall within at least one of these three
areas. Proposals outside this scope will not be considered. Topics within the three focus areas include: - Entrepreneurial actors
and processes, including entrepreneurs’ goals, cognition, emotions, identity, well-being, decision-making, and behaviors. -
Strategy and organizing in entrepreneurship, management, organizational processes, and team dynamics within entrepreneurial
ventures. - New venture creation, growth, and exit, including international entrepreneurship and the spatial, regional, and
institutional conditions for entrepreneurship and innovation. - Gender, diversity, and inequality in entrepreneurship, including
differences in entrepreneurial careers, access to resources, and financing. - Meanings and implications of ownership, including
ownership rights, psychological ownership, ownership competence, and how owners' goals shape organizational goals. - Strategy,
governance, finance, investment, and accounting across different ownership forms, including family, foundation, cooperative,
employee, state, and dispersed ownership. - Responsible ownership and the exercise of ownership over time, including ownership
transitions, long-horizon commitments, and the governance of ownership across generations. - Family business governance, strategy,
and organization, including family governance bodies, professionalization and non-family managers, internationalization, and the
heterogeneity of family owners and family firms. - Entrepreneurship and innovation in family firms across generations, including
transgenerational entrepreneurship, corporate venturing, portfolio entrepreneurship, and family offices as investors. - Family
dynamics across generations, including relationships and conflict, next-generation development, leadership succession, family
goals and identity, and family wealth. Research centres at JIBS The three focus areas of this call are pursued within our
interdisciplinary research centres. We expect your research interest to resonate with at least one of them, and your research
proposal should state which one. More information about Centre research can be found on the respective web pages. Centre for
Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO) conducts research on family business and on ownership more broadly, addressing the
heterogeneity of family owners and family firms, family business governance, strategy and succession, responsible ownership, and
the interplay between family, ownership, and business across generations. CeFEO and JIBS is ranked first in the world for family
business studies. Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE) conducts research on entrepreneurship, innovation,
and firm dynamics in their spatial and institutional context, addressing new venture creation and growth, entrepreneurial
ecosystems, and the regional conditions that enable or constrain entrepreneurial activity. Media, Management and Transformation
Centre (MMTC) conducts research on entrepreneurship, strategy, and organizing under technological and institutional change,
addressing how entrepreneurial actors and owners create and renew businesses in transforming industries, including media, digital
platforms, and artificial intelligence. Qualifications Admission to our doctoral program requires: - Been (or soon to be)
awarded a degree at second-cycle level (Master). - Achieved at least the equivalent of 240 ECTS credits, of which a minimum of 60
ECTS credits must have been achieved at the second-cycle level. - Achieved at least 90 ECTS credits in Business Administration.
The main language of research and teaching at JIBS is English. You must be fluent in both written and spoken English to be
eligible for our doctoral program. Application Please submit the documents listed below. All of the documents listed are
required, and only complete applications will be considered. Applications missing one or more of these documents will be
disregarded without further assessment. All documents must be submitted in English. - A letter of intent, answering the following
three questions: Why do you want to be a PhD student? Why do you want to be a PhD student at JIBS? Why should we select you for
such position? - A preliminary research proposal (max. 3000 words), describing your present research interest, explaining how it
fits within one of the three focus areas of this call, and outlining which of our research centres it connects to. The research
proposal should contain a short statement explaining if/how AI was used in its preparation. - Your CV. - Attested documents on
relevant background (academic transcripts, degree diplomas, evidence of prior teaching and/or industry experience). - A copy of
your Master thesis (if not finished at the time of application, please send a current draft or an executive summary of it) and,
where applicable, other publications. - A reference letter from a person who can evaluate your academic potential. - Contact
information (name, phone numbers, and email) of two additional references. Applications that do not include all of the documents
listed above are incomplete and will not be assessed. Assessment Candidates will be assessed based on the following criteria: -
Formal qualification requirements for admission into the PhD program. - Quality of application documents. We value genuine
research interests and discourage AI-generated research proposals. - Excellent academic merits, signaling the potential to pursue
excellent research in business administration. - Personal profile and motivation for further studies. - Fit with JIBS’ working
culture and with one of the three focus areas of this call. - Fit with at least one research centre at JIBS. Applications for
the PhD position should be submitted no later than midnight CET, October 1, 2026.