Research Associate in Digitalisation, Skill Development and Firms in Creative Industries

Job id: 081966. Salary: £43,205 – £45,521 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 04 January 2024. Closing date: 04 March 2024.

Business unit: King’s Business School. Department: Strategy, Intl Mgt & Entrepreneurship.

Contact details:Prof. Marcela Miozzo / Prof. Damian Grimshaw. [email protected] / [email protected]

Location: Strand Campus. Category: Research.

Job description

This full-time post relates to funding received from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded Productivity Institute. The Postdoctoral Research Associate will work full-time over 24 months on two complementary projects entitled ‘Digitalisation, skill development and firms in creative industries’ focusing on original data collection and qualitative research in a sample of leading creative industry companies (in the games and broadcasting sectors).  

The research will investigate three questions: i) how do firms in creative industries develop skills and knowledge in response to digital technologies (including predictive AI)? ii) how do firms handle the generative nature of digital technologies to develop unique capabilities and competitive advantages? iii) how do they reconcile the need for efficiency gains and strategic innovation while integrating digital technologies into new and/or existing organizational practices and routines?  

The project will be hosted by and managed at King’s Business School (King’s College London), one of the academic partner institutions of The Productivity Institute. The project  is one of a cluster of projects exploring human capital, innovation, and productivity (see https://www.productivity.ac.uk/research/themes/human-capital/ for more information). 

The Research Associate will be managed by the three Principal Investigators, Prof Damian Grimshaw and Prof Marcela Miozzo at King’s College London and Prof Beatrice D’Ippolito at the University of York. The RA will also join the network of RAs and other academics working on projects funded by the ESRC Productivity Institute. 

You should hold a PhD in innovation studies, organisation studies, employment studies, sociology, economics, or management and have a track record of conducting qualitative research at high standards and delivering presentations at academic conferences.

This ESRC funded post will be offered on a fixed-term contract for 24 months

This is a full-time post.

Key responsibilities

• Background research: company and industry profiles; skill trends; digital technology use and development; productivity data;
• Co-development of theoretical framework;
• Identification and selection of the sample of leading creative industry firms;
• Organisation of data collection (including securing company access, conducting interviews, collecting secondary data and documenting preliminary empirical findings);
• Management of data in accordance with relevant KCL/ESRC data protection and ethics requirements;
• Thematic analysis of primary and secondary data;
• Planning of all project meetings;
• Participating in national and international conferences and workshops to present the results of the project to academic, policy and practice audiences; and
• Drafting of final project report and journal articles for submission.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

1.       PhD in innovation studies, organisation studies, employment studies, sociology, economics, or management (we will consider candidates who have submitted, or are close to submitting, their PhD but have not yet been awarded their PhD)*

2.       Research experience conducting interviews and adopting qualitative approaches to theory building

3.       Research expertise in digital technologies, skills and/or innovation and the challenges facing business

4.       Excellent oral and written communication skills

Desirable criteria

5.       Submitted a paper to a high quality refereed journal in a relevant field

6.       Interest in innovation management, economics of creative industries, employment studies or technology policy

Please include a PhD chapter and/or paper submitted to a journal with your job application.

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted or are close to submitting their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances, the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant (£42,099). Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

Interviews will be held on 20th March 2024

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearance.