Optimizing Your PhD

OPTIMIZING YOUR PHD
Jan Recker
QUT Workshop
November 15, 2020

Cologne Institute for Information Systems | Chair for Information Systems and Systems Development | Prof. Dr. Jan Recker
About myself
 I study how very large or very small firms deal with
digitalization.
 How their processes change.
 How their products change.
 How their organization changes.
 Broadly speaking, I focus often on issues of process, design,
and/or representation.
 My field research mostly draws on quantitative, qualitative and
computational methods.
 My current interests include:
 How do small and large organizations deal with digital innovation
and transformation?
 How do products, processes, and organizations change through
digitalization?
 How can digital solutions help building a sustainable future?

Institute for Information Systems | Chair for Information Systems and Systems Development | Prof. Dr. Jan Recker
My Three Main Messages Today
Do not compromise on Hygiene
Skills and nurture your Motivator
Skills
Practice Engaged Scholarship. Expand mindfully for network
effects.

#01Message
Manage Hygiene and Motivator
Skills.
Dissatisfaction
Success
Requirements
exceeded
Requirements
not met
Hygiene Factors
 Rigor
 Command of the literature
 Theoretical foundation
 Writing
Motivator Factors
 Relevance
 Phenomenon
 Uniqueness of data

#01Message
Skills.
 How do we optimize hygiene skills?
 Seek method experts as co-supervisors.
 Attend workshops beyond your course requirements.
 Workshop your papers.
 Read.

#01Message
Skills.
“As a scientist, you are a
professional writer.”
Joshua Schimel, “Writing Science”, Oxford University Press.

Cologne Institute for Information Systems | Chair for Information Systems and Systems Development | Prof. Dr. Jan Recker
#01Message
Skills.
 How many books have you read?
 What is a great article that you
know? Why?
 Who is a great writer? Why?
 Do you know professional writers
personally?

#01Message
Skills.
 How do we nurture motivator skills?
 Follow content alerts from journals.
 Go to industry events, read industry press, speak to industry.
 Do not step into the “we followed the approach by XXX” trap.
 Be driven by phenomena, not by method, theory, or problem.
 Problems in the literature are by necessity historical.
 Go out and observe the real life instead of trying to find holes in the literature.
 Your focus should be on events in the real world and the question “why is that?”

#02Message
Practice engaged scholarship.
“The Duty of Intellectuals in Society
is to Make a Difference.”
Sir Thomas More (shortly before his execution in 1535).

A common misconception
 Publish or perish is not about succeeding. It is about surviving.
 Dissemination is not impact: You do not suceed as a scientist by getting
papers published. You succeed by creating impact.
 What is impact?
 Citations?
 Rankings?
 Tweets?
 Changes in the world that go back to your ideas?

Engagement and Impact is a choice of
identity, not method.
Research Practice
IMPACTING
Change
Research Findings
UNDERSTANDING
Inspiration
Empirical Evidence

Example: Positive Deviance

Impact first, papers later.
• Mertens, W., Recker, J., Kummer, T.-F., Kohlborn, T., & Viaene, S. (2016). Constructive
Deviance as a Driver for Performance in Retail. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 30, 193-203.
• Mertens, W., Recker, J., Kohlborn, T., & Kummer, T.-F. (2016). A Framework for the Study
of Positive Deviance in Organizations. Deviant Behavior, 37(11), 1288-1307.
• Mertens, W., & Recker, J. (2020). How Store Managers can Empower their Teams to
Engage in Constructive Deviance: Theory Development through a Multiple Case Study.
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 52, 101937.
• Mertens, W., & Recker, J. (2020). Can Constructive Deviance be Empowered? A Multi-
level Field Study in Australian Supermarkets. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 54, 102036.

#03Message
Expand mindfully for Network
Effects.
“You will never again have as much time
to learn new things, methods and
techniques than you have now.“
Michael Rosemann, in my final year as PhD student

Build a Portfolio View of your Research
Crafting an Idea
Identifying a Research
Question
Designing a Study
Theory Development
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Manuscript
Development
Paper Revision

Some rules about your portfolio
 Make sure you always have the buckets sufficiently filled but
not too full.
 Make sure the items work across the portfolio.
 Always work on the piece that is closest to being finished. New
ideas are always more attractive.
 Discipline is critical.
 Manage your co-authors (supervisors).

Expand your Portfolio mindfully.
Three strategies
1. Maintain interest in a theory, and explore a variety of
domains and methods.
2. Maintain skills in a method, and apply to various theories and
domains.
3. Maintain a domain of interest, and vary method and theory.

You don‘t have to do it all at once.
Researcher
Results as outcomes
Engagement and impact
Benefits as outcome
Scholar
Theory as outcome
Projects
Programs
Ideas
Problems Public Intellectual
Change as outcome
Postdoc timePhD time Tenure clock time Mid‐life crisis time

Set yourselves values you want to life by.
 Read. Read again. Read more. Read everything. Read outside the box.
 Do what you want to do. Not what others want you to do.
 Enjoy what you do. Look after yourself.
 Engage. If you don’t like something, do something about it.
 Don’t be busy being busy.

Remember you are doing extra-
ordinary things.
Celebrate progress, not success.

Prof. Dr. Jan Recker, PhD
Chaired Professor for Information Systems and Systems
Development
Cologne Institute for Information Systems
University of Cologne
email jan.recker@wiso.uni-koeln.de
web www.janrecker.com, www.is4.uni-koeln.de
twitter janrecker
youtube Jan Recker

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