Postdoctoral Fellow

Do you have a strong desire and almost unlimited potential to build a record of excellence in the field of strategy and entrepreneurship? Then the department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) invites you to apply for this position as a postdoctoral fellow. 

As our postdoc, you collaborate closely with Associate Professor, Dr Richard Haans on one or more flagship databases. In your role, you focus on building theory‑driven insights from these large‑scale textual data, moving beyond traditional numeric indicators to capture meaning, creativity, and strategic intent. By doing so, you help to reshape how research in strategy and entrepreneurship conceptualises competition, categorisation and innovation. There is ample room to shape projects, initiate new ideas and co‑author papers aimed at top‑tier journals.

This position offers you an intellectually open environment, strong methodological support and the freedom to develop an independent research trajectory while contributing to a coherent, high‑impact programme. If you enjoy working with rich data, care deeply about theory, and want your work to speak to core debates in strategy and entrepreneurship, this role is for you.

As our postdoc fellow, you join a terrific and exceptionally collegial and international group of tenure-track faculty. A group which includes Dr Jens Friedmann (Bocconi), Dr Patricia Klopf (WU Vienna), Beyers Louw (Maastricht University), Patia McGrath (University of North Carolina), Dr Christopher Sabel (BI Norwegian Business School), Emanuel Ubert (Universita della Svizzera Italiana/USI), and Dr Caroline Witte (Copenhagen Business School).

We take pride in our high-performance research culture. Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) ranks third in Europe in terms of 2020-2024 UTD top journal output. RSM’s faculty members routinely publish in top-tier journals like the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Organization Science and Management Science. Additionally, RSM faculty members regularly serve as editors and associate editors of top journals like Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management and Journal of Management Studies. We are also proud of our outstanding PhD programme, which has a strong record of placements at peer institutions like INSEAD, HEC, Cambridge University (Judge), University of Warwick, University of South Carolina (Moore), Aalto University, and McGill University. 

You work closely with Dr Richard Haans on a portfolio of ambitious empirical projects that leverage and expand multiple large databases. A defining trait of these projects is that they will use text as data that reflects positioning, differentiation, and strategic choice. 

The research culture and resources set by RSM’s research institute, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), aim to provide you with the best conditions in which to conduct outstanding research.

In addition to having the required strong social and communication skills, your contribution reaches across the research process: from developing theoretical arguments to constructing text‑based measures, and from designing empirical tests to writing papers for leading journals. 

You provide space to co‑create ideas, not just execute them. We encourage you to initiate new research questions, explore methodological innovations, and develop an independent research profile that complements the broader programme. 

We are particularly interested in talking with you when you have experience in one or more of the following areas: 

• large-scale textual analysis
• machine learning
• causal inference
• econometrics. 

Your work in this role contains a small teaching load of maximum 20%. This corresponds to teaching approximately one master elective course and master thesis student supervision. 

You work with large‑scale, text‑heavy datasets to study how entrepreneurs and organisations navigate competitive dynamics, categorisation, and optimal distinctiveness.

For this work, you possess a doctorate degree in management, strategy, economics, psychology, or other related quantitative and/or social science domains. Alternatively, you are in your final year of dissertation research. 

This is a full-time temporary position with a contract for 38 hours per week starting January 2027 (with a flexible start date into early 2027). The contract duration will be for two years.  

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied position in an enthusiastic team, with excellent employment conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU).

This position is 1 FTE – 1 FTE, and the start date is 1 January 2027, and you are based at Campus Woudestein in Rotterdam at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).  

The salary depends on your knowledge and experience, and for full-time appointment (38 hours) amounts to between €4,728 and €6,433 gross per month (Scale 11), in accordance with the CAO-NU. 

The contract will be entered into for a period of one (1) year and, if proven suitable and continued in the same position, under unchanged (financial and/or organisational) circumstances, may be converted into a permanent contract.

Everything else we have to offer you can be found below:

• Everything you need for a good work-life balance: working from home by arrangement, 41 holiday days based on a 40-hour working week, 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end bonus, and a significant discount on a membership at our campus sports centre.
• A sustainable, inclusive and diverse working environment with an open culture where you can be yourself and we look out for one another and for the world. Take advantage of our cycling allowance, for example, or participate in networks such as Young@EUR, Fame, or QuEUR.
• Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.
• A good pension with ABP to which we contribute 2/3, discounts on various collective insurance schemes with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, Allianz, and a commuting, working-from-home and internet allowance.
• Combining your job with parenthood, or is this something you're planning for the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid supplementary birth leave for partners, and there is a childcare facility on campus (childcare at your own expense).
• Moving to the Netherlands for a job at EUR? You may be able to make use of the Expat Scheme if you meet the requirements of the Dutch Tax Authority, and our Dual Career Programme also helps your partner find a great job. 

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a distinct social vision on education and research – our mission being 'Creating positive societal impact'. EUR employs over 4,100 staff and nearly 33,000 students from 140 countries follow our academic education. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way - Making Minds Matter. We are global citizens: connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded and socially engaged. These Erasmian Values serve as our internal compass and make Erasmus University recognisable and distinctive to the outside world. Guided by these values, with a broad perspective and an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and viewpoints, our staff collaborate closely on solving societal challenges from dynamic and cosmopolitan Rotterdam. Thanks in part to the high quality and positive societal impact of our education and research, and our characteristic mentality, EUR can measure itself against the top European universities. www.eur.nl

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers.
www.rsm.nl

Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship

Are you interested in this vacancy? Be sure to send us your cover letter and recent CV before applications close on Friday, 3 July 2026. 

Depending on your availability, interviews will be conducted virtually or in-person. We will continue to receive applications until the position has been filled.

Please ensure that your application includes all of the following: 

• A job market paper
• Research statement
• Teaching statement
• Teaching evaluations (if available)
• Three letters of recommendation 

Do you have any questions or need more information about this vacancy? Please contact Richard Haans via email at haans@rsm.nl.