Here is the official text for this announcement. Please contact Asbjørn or me if you are interested, and/or to discuss a project proposal.

BI Norwegian School of Management and SINTEF ICT announces a PhD scholarship for the project ”NETworked POWER. Innovation by social software”

BI Norwegian School of Management is an internationally leading business school, with a broad research production, a strong international network, and 18000 students at all levels. The school offers a four year doctoral program in business administration. The program features five areas of specialization: Finance and Economics, Strategic Management, Marketing, Leadership and Organization, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

SINTEF ICT is an internationally leading research institute, delivering research-based competence, services and products.

NetPower is a four-year collaborative project between Devoteam daVinci, Innoco, Induct, Bengler, Seniornett, The Norwegian Labour Party, BI Norwegian School of Management (Department of Strategy and Logistics) and SINTEF ICT. The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council. NetPower has funding for a PhD scholarship, and is looking for a person to fill this four-year position.

Social media for innovation

The evolution of social media the last few years has created new challenges and opportunities at many levels of society. We see the emergence of a strong culture for sharing and exchanging knowledge and experience through new, technologically facilitated network applications. This forms the background for NetPower’s objective: To create social software for innovation, with a focus on private enterprises and non-profit organizations. Within NetPower, Induct creates solutions for Devoteam daVinci and Innoco, and Bengler creates solutions for Seniornett and the Norwegian Labour Party.

The candidate’s research focus will primarily be on the innovation potential of social media for businesses. A suggested research agenda may be 1) To identify and analyze the demands and needs of users and user organizations. 2) To find solutions to challenges around broad participation, privacy and security. 3) To evaluate and analyze solutions. 4) To create knowledge about how social media can be adopted within different organizational cultures. 5) To contribute to theory about social media and strategic innovation.

We are seeking candidates from a wide knowledge background – possible perspectives include, but are not limited to, innovation strategy, including open and/or user-centered innovation, disruptive innovation, strategy process, social network evolution, technology evolution and strategic management of knowledge and knowledge-based companies.

Formal qualifications and personal attributes

The position will be formally located at the Department of Strategy and Logistics, BI Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, Norway. A candidate should have a completed Master of Science degree with a grade B or higher, and be able to speak and understand Norwegian (for collecting and analyzing data within the target organizations). Relevant working experience is, of course, preferable. Appointment to a position as Doctoral Scholar is conditioned on admittance to BI Norwegian School of Management’s doctoral program in accordance with the admission requirements.

The Ph.D. project is central to NetPower – this is where most of the work on open innovation processes and the value of social software in business will be done. The position demands an ability to initiate and follow up relevant research work in close contact with the project partners Devoteam daVinci, Innoco and the software developer Induct. The results should primarily be academically directed, but also useful for the business partners. The candidate must be able to publish in English and deliver within tight deadlines.

We offer:

You will be part of two strong research environments. As a Ph.D. candidate your main place of work will be with the Center for Technology Strategy, a research center focusing on the relationship between technology evolution (especially within software) and the strategic potential and processes of companies. The research center, at this point, has two additional Ph. D. candidates, and is a part of the Department of Strategy and Logistics, currently with about 13 Ph.D. candidates and 45 faculty members.

As a project participant in NetPower, you will in addition collaborate closely with the HCI research group at the department of Collaborative and trusted systems at SINTEF in Oslo. This is the leading research environment on social media within Norway.

The four-year scholarship is set according to the Norwegian State Salary Scale, and currently pay NOK 344,200 per year. The scholarship involves 25% (35 hours) teaching and/or research assistant responsibilities.

For more information about the position as well as some guidance on the proposal, please contact Espen Andersen (self@espen.com, +47 4641 0452) or Asbjørn Følstad (asf@sintef.no, +47 2206 7515). Additional information about the doctoral program and admission requirements can be obtained from the Program Director Dora Sigurdardottir at BI Norwegian School of Management, (dora.s.sigurdardottir@bi.no, +47 46 41 00 57).

The application should include the following:

• Certificate of a Master of Science degree or equivalent with a grade B or higher, please include transcripts of grades
• Other relevant certificates and transcripts
• A project proposal (5-10 pages including topic, proposed method, schedule)
• CV
• Letters of recommendations from relevant employers/tutors providing evidence of your skills as a researcher (if any)
• Certificates from previously completed courses at the doctoral level, if requesting approval of these for the PhD programme at BI Norwegian School of Management (see last section of § 3.1.1 in our PhD Regulations on BIs website)
• A complete list of all publications and/or other documented relevant activities. Please note that certified documentation of formal qualification must be submitted in order to be evaluated.

Applications must be submitted electronically through BI’s website (www.bi.no, see under “vacant positions”, direct link here.). Women are encouraged to apply.

The Department Council of the Institute for Strategy and Logistics will evaluate the project proposals. Candidate
s may be asked to come for a formal interview. Thereafter the project proposal will be sent to the Doctoral Programme Committee for approval.

The application deadline for this scholarship is November 1, 2009. Documentation may not be submitted after the deadline.