PhD in Customer Development Capabilities of Start-ups

Position PhD-student

Irène Curie Fellowship No

Department(s) Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences

FTE 1,0

Date off 06/10/2024

Reference number V39.7719

Job description

Are you eager to contribute to helping start-ups change into scale-ups? Are you actively interested in new product development, discovering new business models, and commercialization? Are you looking forward conducting research on the interface of entrepreneurial capabilities, customer development, marketing, and sales? Then, we are looking for you to support our research team in the prestigious project “From Start-up to Scale-up: making an impact using Start-up Data.” The project is funded by the Provincie Brabant and executed in collaboration with important partners from the Brabant ecosystem, e.g., Braventure and the Brabantse OntwikkelingsMaatschappij (BOM).

Being the birthplace of many start-up companies, the province of Brabant is very innovative. However, few of these start-ups develop into scale-ups. That is, few young companies enter a phase of accelerated growth to become a major company that provides a lot of employment in the region and creates substantial societal impact. To remedy this, several organizations (like the BOM) provide training and support to start-ups. So far, much of this training and support is based on intuition, and the effects of this training and support are not consistently monitored.

The research project “From start-up to scale-up” aims to investigate and increase the effectiveness of this training. It aims to develop a scientifically validated approach to supporting start-ups and build a database that enables continued monitoring of the start-ups. The research project consists of two PhD projects: one that focuses on the development of the entrepreneurial team and one that focuses on the customer development process. The current vacancy describes the latter PhD project.

Commercial activities are vital for new ventures to ensure their growth and survival, but previous research has been silent on developing these capabilities in these firms’ infancy. Entrepreneurship literature acknowledges the importance of sales activities in new ventures (e.g., first sale) but does not indicate which customer development capabilities are needed for that, nor how to develop these capabilities. This PhD project aims to develop a framework for customer development capability, to develop and test a scale to monitor this capability, and to develop and test a training module to improve this capability. The study is based on insights gained from literature that has investigated how new ventures in a sense-and-probe approach learn how to leverage new technology in the marketplace successfully. Such literature includes, but is not limited to, studies on the customer development model (e.g., Blank 2006), the lean start-up method (e.g., Ries 2011, Leatherbee and Katila 2020), the scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision-making (e.g., Camuffo et al. 2020), and effectuation theory (e.g., Sarasvathy 2001, Read et al. 2009).

Tasks for this PhD project include: 1) a literature study of relevant literature streams, 2) a review of training and coaching modules and current data collection, 3) developing design criteria/a framework, 4) scale adaptation/development/validation, 5) intervention study, 6) interpretation of results, and 7) consultancy report on improved development stage. Reports on intermediate steps are foreseen to help knowledge dissemination.

Organization

The PhD position is located in the Innovation Technology & Marketing (ITEM) group (for more info https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/innovation-technology-entrepreneurship-marketing/) in the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (IE&IS) of Eindhoven University of Technology. You will be supervised by Prof. dr. E.J. Nijssen (TU/e) and Prof. dr. B. Hillebrand (Radboud University Nijmegen).

As the overarching research project consists of two PhD projects, you will benefit from collaboration with the other PhD candidate (stationed at Tilburg University). You will also benefit from the other partners in the research project, i.e., Braventure, BOM, and the incubators of the universities of Tilburg, Eindhoven, and the Provincie Brabant. These partners will facilitate interviews with start-ups and stakeholders, provide information about current efforts in start-up training, and support in building a database.

Ensuring the practical relevance of the research and disseminating knowledge during the project are key aspects of this research project, and you are expected to play a major role in them. A steering committee will help manage the project and accomplish these goals.

Job requirements

• You have a Master’s degree (or an equivalent university degree) in Industrial Engineering, Marketing, Innovation Management, Entrepreneurship, Business, or another relevant field.
• You have a strong affinity for interdisciplinary research and collaboration with industry/start-ups.
• You have strong analytical skills; multivariate statistics and quantitative modeling are your competencies.
• You are a strong conceptual thinker able to model complex business situations in a theory-driven model or framework, using surveys and experiments as a methodological setup.
• You are socially skilled, such that you easily connect with others.
• You can work autonomously as well as in a team.
• You do not easily give up when you face setbacks.
• You like to take the initiative and can work on a challenging topic that has both fundamental and applied research aspects.
• You have excellent verbal and written communication skills, both in Dutch and in English.

Anticipated starting date: 1 November 2024

Conditions of employment

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale P (min. €2,872 max. €3,670).
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates. 

Information and application

More information

Do you recognize yourself in this profile and want to know more? Please contact Prof. Dr. E.J. Nijssen, professor in innovation & marketing, e.j.nijssen@tue.nl or +31 40 247 2368.

For information about terms of employment, please contact Nathalie van Eijs, HR-officer, hrservices.ieis@tue.nl.

Please visit www.tue.nl/jobs to find out more about working at TU/e!

Application

We invite you to submit a complete application using the 'apply now'-button on this page. The application should include a:

• Cover letter in which you describe your motivation and qualifications for the position.
• Curriculum vitae, including a list of your publications and the contact information of three references.
• Brief description of your MSc thesis.

We look forward to your application and will screen it as soon as we have received it. You can send us your application through the online job portal of the TU/e. We do not accept applications sent by e-mail. Screening will continue until the position has been filled. As mentioned, the project is anticipated to start by November 1, 2024.