Doctoral Researcher

We are inviting applications for a two-year fixed-term Doctoral Researcher (PhD student) position in Industrial Sales, with the intention to extend the position for an additional two years. The doctoral research will be positioned in the intersection of three increasingly relevant areas of research: industrial sales and environmental sustainability, with digitalization as an important enabling force for sustainable transformation. The doctoral researcher will join the Industrial Sales research group within the Industrial Engineering and Management Unit at Tampere University. The position is located in the Faculty of Management and Business and is connected to the Center of Industrial Sales Excellence. B2B firms face increasing pressure to respond to climate change, resource scarcity, circular economy transitions, decarbonization, and evolving environmental regulation. These developments are reshaping industrial operations and practices and market preferences, and consequently how firms create and capture value and consequent, and thus also customer needs and expectations, drastically changing what is industrial sales and business now and in future. Digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, digital platforms, digital product passports, and IoT-based solutions, can enable industrial firms to respond to these challenges. They can support firms in understanding customer needs, demonstrating economic and environmental value, developing circular business and sales models, and facilitating collaboration across value chains and ecosystems. The selected doctoral candidate will explore how industrial sales can respond to these megatrends: how B2B sales should be managed and how it can contribute to environmental sustainability, and how digital technologies can enable this transformation. Relevant research questions may address, for example, how industrial firms commercialize sustainable and circular and low-carbon offerings and solutions, how sales organizations communicate and demonstrate economic and environmental value, how sustainability changes customer needs and buying behavior within industrial value chains and at the market, and how digital technologies enable new sales approaches, processes, and capabilities. The specific dissertation topic will be developed together with the selected doctoral researcher.