Postdoc po­s­i­tions in entrepreneur­ship

Copenhagen Business School invites applications for one or more postdoc positions in entrepreneurship at the Department of Strategy and Innovation. The expected starting date is 1 September 2026.

Research within the Department of Strategy and Innovation is focused on Strategy, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and International business. The four areas are the pillars the department rests on in its teaching and research activities. The number of staff in the department is approximately 80. This includes about 45 faculty members (professors, associate professors, tenure track assistant professors), 7 administrative staff members, and 30 members of staff who are hired on temporary contracts as research assistants, post docs or PhD students.

The department’s goal is to host an internationally leading environment for research and teaching in strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and international business. The theoretical foundation for research in these areas integrates perspectives from several fields, combining strategy and/or internationalization theory with insights from economics, sociology, psychology, and economic geography. Methodologically, the department places considerable emphasis on the solid application of empirical methods, featuring qualitative interview studies, surveys, register data, or experiments.

The teaching of the department is very diverse across programs and areas and largely falls within the four research areas of the department, i.e. strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and international business.

The postdoc positions are time-limited to 2 years (with a possible extension to a third year) and connected to the research activities of Professor José Mata on topics such as: What leads individuals to create new ventures? What makes some existing organizations more entrepreneurial than others? Which strategies do people and organizations adopt to become entrepreneurial? What are the implications of the strategies adopted for the success of the ventures? What are the consequences of the presence of such organizations for society?

A diverse set of factors will be analyzed to answer the questions above, in particular:

• what motivates, enables, and hinders successful entrepreneurship by women and immigrants at different stages of the life cycle of firms; how these forms entrepreneurship have changed over time in different geographies.
• the constraints affecting entrepreneurial organizations and the strategies followed by them to engage resources in their ventures, namely in terms of mobilizing funds, but also employees, and founding and managerial teams;
• the role of organizations supporting the creation of new entrepreneurial ventures, and the extent and effectiveness of such support.

The analysis will mostly rely on empirical methods, namely on the analysis of: Large-scale microdata sets, in particular, the high-quality Danish microdata; Experiments, both in the laboratory and the field; Other types of primary data like own surveys and secondary data collected by third parties.

The ideal candidates for the positions will be recent PhD graduate with a deep interest in this domain who can provide research support in terms of literature reviews, analyses, and join as an author on various projects. Solid technical skills in empirical analysis, in addition to thorough training in the relevant research literature (strategy and entrepreneurship), are desirable. A solid background in Economics is a plus.

Qualifications:

• Applicants will have completed a PhD in Management, Economics, or another related social science discipline before the beginning of the fellowship. Prior work (including but not limited to dissertation) involves working with large datasets.
• A solid academic record and consistent work ethic are required.
• Well-developed organizational and oral/written communication skills are required.
• Motivation for research required. The ideal candidate will be thinking of this position as a platform to build skills toward taking on a research professorship in the future.
• Willingness to move to and live in Denmark.
• Working knowledge of Stata is desirable.

For further information about the research projects, please contact Professor José Mata: jm.si@cbs.dk. Information about the department is available at www.cbs.dk/si.

Appointment and salary will be in accordance with the Ministry of Finance’s agreement with the Central Academic Organization. A small personal research budget for travel and conference participation will be available. Information about CBS as a workplace is available at https://www.cbs.dk/en/about-cbs/jobs-cbs.

Application

Applications must be sent via the electronic recruitment system, using the link above.

The application must include:

• Cover letter.
• A (short but clear) description of one research project that the applicant would be willing to conduct during the post-doc period.
• Proof of qualifications and a full CV.
• Indication of 3 academic references, who will be asked to send letters for shortlisted candidates.
• Any relevant information indicating experience in research management, industry co-operation, and international cooperation.
• A complete, numbered list of published or unpublished manuscripts with an * marking the 3 to 5 academic productions to be considered during the review. If you have a job market paper, please indicate so.
• Copies of the manuscripts marked with an *. Only publications written in English will be taken into consideration.

Recruitment procedure

The Recruitment Committee will shortlist a minimum of two applicants; when possible, five or more applicants will be shortlisted. The shortlisted applicants will be assessed by the Assessment Committee.

All applicants will be notified of their status in the recruitment process shortly after the application deadline.

The applicants selected for assessment will be notified about the composition of the Assessment Committee and, later in the process, about the result of the assessment.

Once the recruitment process is completed, each applicant will be notified of the outcome of their application.

Copenhagen Business School must receive all application material, including all appendices (see items above), by the application deadline.