PhD position in Tackling Fixophobia: Addressing the consumer side in the move towards a repair economy for electronic products

Have you ever wondered why consumers tend to replace their electronic devices instead of repairing them? Are you motivated to delve into the psychological processes underlying consumers’ decisions regarding the repair (or not) of their owned products? Are you enthusiastic about developing and empirically testing innovative (marketing) ways to motivate consumers towards repair? If so, then we have the perfect opportunity for you!

The Marketing and Consumer Behaviour group of Wageningen University is looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious PhD candidate to fulfil an essential position in the NWO funded project “Tackling fixophobia: Improving repair practices for consumer electronics”. The project aims to develop a circular economy for consumer electronics.

In today’s linear economy, the rapid replacement of consumer electronics leads to CO2-emissions, resource scarcity, e-waste and pollution, thereby providing important environmental and societal challenges. Extending the lifetimes of consumer electronics is essential to tackle these challenges. A repair economy in which all value chain actors (incl. consumers) adopt repair practices can lead to such extended product lifetimes. Yet, currently all relevant actors experience barriers that withhold them from trusting, accepting, and adopting repair practices, leading to ‘Fixophobia’.

In general, the “Tackling Fixophobia” project aims to provide the much-needed scientific theories, societal tools, and repair system innovations to encourage a multi-actor system change and enhance trust, acceptance and adoption of repair practices for consumer electronics. To achieve societal impact, we collaborate intensely with a unique consortium, including all actors in the consumer electronics value chain: Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), (design) consultancies, retail, repair organisations, consumer organisations, network/trade organisations, and waste organisation. Three PhD students will work on this project (for more information, see: NWO-KIC Circular Economy).

In the current PhD position, you will work together with all project partners, and investigate the consumer perspective. Your responsibility will be to examine the factors that influence consumers’ repair behaviour, to develop a taxonomy of marketing and service innovations for repair, and to develop interventions that stimulate consumers to engage in repair practices. This will result in the development of a marketing repair tool and a thorough understanding of the consumer perspective. Moreover, in the final project you will intensively collaborate with the design (TU Delft), value chain (University of Maastricht) and law partners (Erasmus University) to together develop an integrated framework on repair. Interdisciplinary research is thus a valuable part of the project.

You will work here
The Marketing and Consumer Behaviour group is one of the leading research and teaching groups in the fields of marketing (research) and consumer behavior related to food, sustainability, and agribusiness. The research is led by Dr. Ilona de Hooge. You will be co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Hans van Trijp and Prof. Dr. Ruth Mugge (Delft University).

As a PhD candidate, you will be enrolled in the Wageningen University Graduate School (WASS). The Graduate school provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff, and a mentor. You will also participate in a Doctorate Education Programme, in which you further develop your research, teaching, and interdisciplinary skills.

Requirements:

• You have: a completed MSc University degree;
• background in consumer behavior (e.g. consumer science, marketing, social psychology, behavioral economics). Other backgrounds will not be considered;
• a high level of and interest in sustainable/circular marketing/consumer behavior;
• statistical/ modelling skills and experience with quantitative data collection (survey research, lab and natural experimental research are parts of this project);
• an interest in conducting qualitative research (conducting interviews is part of this project);
• openness and willingness to collaborate with people from other scientific disciplines, and the ability to interact effectively with both academic and diverse stakeholder audiences;
• clear scientific ambition in the conduct and publication of the research (the project is expected to result in a PhD thesis and scientific publications);
• ability to work independently as well as in a team, take initiative, and work towards results in a systematic way;
• the curiosity and motivation to address important real-world problems through rigorous and ambitious academic inquiry;
• an interest in student-focused teaching (10% of your position will include teaching);fluency in English language.

For this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognized Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here.

Salary Benefits:

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more, up to 40 hours per week;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will receive a fully funded PhD position and you will be offered a course program tailored to your needs and the research team. The gross salary for the first year is € 2.770 - per month rising to € 3.539,- in the fourth year in according to the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale P). This is based on a full-time working week of 38 hours. We offer a temporary contract for 18 months which will be extended for the duration of the project (4 years) if you perform well.

There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “Best University” in the Netherlands for the 19th consecutive time.

Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.

Our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research's International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees and students coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, we can assist you with any additional advice and information about for example helping your partner to find a job, housing, or schooling.

Finally, certain categories of international staff may be eligible for a tax exemption on a part of their salary during the first five years in the Netherlands.

38 hours per week

Droevendaalsesteeg