Professor or Professor of Practice in Digital Transformation, especially Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (089218)

Surrey Business School is seeking to recruit a Professor of Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This is a senior appointment to the Department for Digital Economy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and it is part of an ambitious recruitment initiative that will bring four or more additional colleagues into the Department, further strengthening the existing team. The appointee will also be a member of the Centre of Digital Economy (CoDE).

Surrey Business School is a mid-sized business school with over 100 academic staff members from around the globe, and a highly cohesive and collegial atmosphere. We are accredited by AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and by AMBA (the Association of MBAs). With a strong Senior Management Team led by its Dean, Professor Ansgar Richter, we are ambitious in building a world-class interdisciplinary business school where innovative thinking is accelerated into action. We are growing strongly, both in terms of our size, and in terms of the quality and impact of our work. Specifically, we put a heavy emphasis on research excellence. Our faculty regularly publish their research in top journals in their fields of expertise. Our colleagues have joined us from prestigious universities and business schools worldwide, with recent appointments including individuals who earned their PhD at institutions such as Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Chicago, LSE, and elsewhere. In 2018, Surrey Business School co-organised and hosted the first Academy of Management Specialized Conference on “Big Data and Managing in a Digital Economy”, which attracted over 400 scholars from 37 countries. Based in Guildford just outside of London, the University of Surrey is an outstanding international University with an enterprising spirit.

The members of our Department for Digital Economy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation are engaged in interdisciplinary, collaborative research on how the digital economy transforms the organisation of entrepreneurial ventures, changes the nature of competition, alters the innovation process, stimulates the emergence of innovation ecosystems, impacts social innovation and related areas. The Department also offers two degree programmes on the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and is involved in the provision of our doctoral programme.

The Centre of Digital Economy, led by Professor Annabelle Gawer, is a multidisciplinary centre dedicated to understanding the social, technological, economic, managerial, organisational, political and ethical implications of the digital economy. Examples of research include work on digital platforms, innovation ecosystems, e-government, the internet of things, new forms of media, and related topic areas. Members of the team come from the fields of Strategy, Information Systems, Organisation Theory, and Sociology. Through our Business Insights Lab, we work closely with companies and other partner organisations. In particular, we have strong links with many technology-oriented start-ups and established firms in London, Surrey, and the South-East of England in general. For further information about Surrey Business School, please visit our website (http://www.surrey.ac.uk/business-school).  

We are in the process of expanding both the Department and the Centre, integrating further capabilities in the area of the digital innovation, digital entrepreneurship, and technology management. We are looking for a strongly research-active academic with an excellent track record of publications in top international journals. We are particularly interested in candidates whose work focuses on entrepreneurship in the digital economy, business model innovation, digital transformation, disruptive technologies, and the economics and management of innovation processes. The ideal candidate will have experience in managing a growing academic unit. You will play a strong role in developing the research, teaching and collaboration agenda of the Department and the Centre for Digital Economy: Supervising PhD students, collaborating with early career researchers, and attracting and managing externally funded research programmes. There will be ample opportunities for you to become active in business engagement and executive education. We will also expect you to become engaged in our degree programmes in the area of entrepreneurship and innovation management.

This is a senior appointment, and the position is equivalent to a Full Professor (with tenure) at other institutions. Conditions and compensation will be at internationally competitive standards and be commensurate with the appointee’s experience and expertise.

Candidate presentations and interviews are planned to take place in mid January 2019.  

For informal discussion please contact the Dean of Surrey Business School, Professor Ansgar Richter (a.richter@surrey.ac.uk), or Professor Annabelle Gawer (a.gawer@surrey.ac.uk).

Closing Date: 07 Dec 2018
Category: Research & Teaching