Potential research project ideas for PhD Fellowships at Oslo Business School

We reference to the advertisement for PhD fellowships, these are some relevant project ideas within the different research areas of Oslo Business School.

  • Economics

    Using economic theories possible projects are:

    • Policies for the green transformation of the economy: To what extent should governments actively support new green businesses? How can governments avoid creating “green”, white elephants? Why do not governments just introduce green taxes, and let the market decide which green projects to move forward?  
    • The Norwegian economy at a cross-road: Global climate policies will reduce the value of Norwegian petroleum deposits. Should the government steer investments away from the petroleum sector? What is the role of government in creating new businesses to replace the petroleum related industries?
    • Transport towards 2050: Norway has apparently had great success with its electric vehicle (EV) policy. The question is whether it is sustainable in the longer run given its high costs. In what ways could EV support policies be made more efficient? Could the batteries in EVs also be used for supply of electricity to the grid in time of electricity shortages? Self-driving cars and vans are probably coming in the near future – how should governments prepare for this?

    Professor

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    Head of section

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  • Finance and accounting

    Corporate finance and governances addresses questions such as what drives the value of firms, how their financing through financial friction effects the value of the firm, and how ownership and control effects the firms value and its stakeholders. Sustainable finance addresses issue of the environmental, social and governance effect investment decisions in the financial sector, and their long term effects. Public accounting and public cost control addresses how the government adapt and uses accounting and cost analysis to make efficient decisions on behalf of our society.

    Head of section

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  • Organisation and management

    The organization and management group has an emphasis on human aspects in various organizational context. We welcome applications within organizational behavior, HRM, arts management and the management of professions.

    Our research within organizational psychology focuses on relational leadership, human resource management (HRM), work motivation, occupational health and well-being, virtual teams and processes, work climates and performance.  Our faculty is involved in several ongoing research projects with importance for both the academic field and for society, such as leader health and well-being, new ways of working – activity-based workplaces and remote working: implications for well-being and work relationships.

    Within HRM we further study workplace learning and skills in organizational contexts. Our research on HRM also covers strategic, institutional and international aspects of HRM. Current topics include employee compensation and role of HR department within organizations.

    Head of section

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    Professor

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    Our research within professions and organizations studies how professional practice is performed and transformed in organizations. Management and leadership in a professional context are topics of main interest. Do ideas about management and leadership wary in different professions and do institutional logics in the organizations collide with them? This is a novel intersectional field of research and involves scholars from different disciplines (mainly sociology and business). A PhD student recently defended his dissertation within this area.

    Head of section

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    Professor

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    Our research within arts management covers a range of issues pertaining to the art and culture sector – organisation, leadership, economic and working conditions, audiences and marketing. Research focus has been working conditions and careers for artists, professional identities and leadership skills, as well as management of events and volunteers. Several recent publications cover artists and cultural workers’ coping with the Corona pandemic. Careers among self-employed, volunteer motivation and festival management are other topics of particular interest at the moment.

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    Associate Professor

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  • Strategy, innovation and marketing


    The academic unit of Strategy, innovation and marketing conduct research and disseminates expertise in a variety of fields, including strategic management, digital innovation, services innovation, marketing and consumer behavior. Also, the unit holds strong expertise in business communication and entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on ‘born globals', innovation driven enterprises and internationalization processes. The unit has interdisciplinary collaboration through the research group ‘Digital Innovation and Strategic Competence in Organizations’ (DISCO). This research group develop research-based knowledge about how new digital technologies are used and the organizational consequences of this use. Digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), block chain, the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and the Augment Reality, are predicted to cause major changes across individual-, organizational- and societal levels of analysis. At present, there is limited research describing the use of these technologies, and as a consequence also limited strategic competence related to how work practices, organization and business models change when digital technology is introduced into organizations.

    Head of section

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  • Public administration and governance

    The research group is multidisciplinary, with research on public policy and governance. Our research  concentrates on public management reforms, digitalisation, organisational changes, governance and co-operation, local-central government relations, urban governance, democracy and citizenship, European integration, strategic planning including performance management, change management, accountability and auditing, and evaluation. In addition to ongoing research on these topics, the research group currently has several large externally funded research projects within digitalisation and local democracy, international trade policy and the welfare state, reforms and change in higher education, and trust-based management in Nordic cities. The research group welcomes applications from the subject fields of political science, sociology, law, organisation and management.

    Examples of potential projects:

     “Covid 19 pandemic and urban governance”

    The Covid-19 pandemic poses challenges to cities worldwide. Politicians and managers are forced to make hard choices when balancing the interests of e.g. businesses, children and youths, elderly and social justice. Even in Norway, where the national government has taken a leading role in the regulations related to Covid-19, cities still handle these challenges differently. Hence, the pandemic raises several questions concerning multilevel governance and inter-sectoral collaborations at the local level. Furthermore, the pandemic has made city-citizen communication more important, but also more challenging. To a large extent the pandemic has propelled digital communication and participation channels, and hence, the pandemic raises several questions concerning digital participation and digital governance. We welcome projects that address some of these questions through a comparative study of Norwegian cites, or by comparing Norwegian cities with Scandinavian or European cities.

     “Public sector reforms and governance”

    The public sector has for more than 40 years been changed through many reforms of different types and at different levels. Many of these reforms have been designed for transforming parts of the public sector to use more diverse forms for organising, financing and managing the public administration than by traditional bureaucracy, grants, and rules only. The result is that the public sector today is permeated by management thinking and practices from several public management paradigms, i.e. traditional public administration, new public management, and new public governance. Adopting relevant and effective forms of governance for and in public sector organisations among all the available options is challenging. Public policy and administration therefore need more knowledge on how different ways of organising and govern public sector organisations work and how reforms, management and public leadership affect organisations and the society. We welcome research that study the design, implementation, use, and impacts of reforms and public management tools such as strategic mergers in the public sector, organisational design, strategic planning, change management, human resource management, performance management, organisational control, and evaluation, including comparative studies.

     “Digital platforms and democracy”

    Digitalisation is transforming modern societies. Digital government has developed from electronic data management and the paper free office to digital case processing, access to information on the internet and online communication as the main rule. Now, there is an increasing emphasis on digital transformation, where digitalisation is considered less as a tool, and more a new principle for the organisation of public administration, service delivery, participation and democracy. Governments all over the world have placed considerable ambitions relying on digital solutions to innovate and improve public output, but also in enhancing democratic processes. We invite applicants who are interested in exploring how digital technologies change the way public authorities interact with citizens and stakeholders. Furthermore, we are looking for candidates who want to investigate the democratic implications of the use of digital technologies and how they contribute in shaping the future of democracy.

    Head of section

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