PhD student positions in Business Administration

Jönköping University · Jönköping, Sweden

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Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) is one of four schools within Jönköping University. We offer an international and team-oriented workplace with competitive education programmes, across Bachelor, Master and Doctoral levels, as well as a thriving research environment and many opportunities for personal development. Our mission is to advance the theory and practice of business, with specific focus on entrepreneurship, ownership and renewal. Our guiding principles are: international at heart, entrepreneurial in mind and responsible in action. These principles cut across our mission and all our activities. They signal the role we wish to play in relation to all our stakeholders. JIBS is triple crown accredited by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA. Recent assessments of research productivity and impact rank JIBS first in Sweden in business administration and economics and first in Europe and second in the world in entrepreneurship. In the latest Financial Times European Business School ranking, JIBS was ranked among the top 100.

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.

Jönköping University is a modern institution, characterised by internationalisation and an entrepreneurial spirit. We attract highly qualified, inventive and enterprising people from all around the world. We develop new knowledge and share our expertise through solid collaborations with industry and business, the public sector and other higher education institutions. We offer an equal and inclusive workplace and we welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds. For more information, visit www.ju.se

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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

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.