Two doctoral students are invited to fundamentally reimagine the role of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in sustainability transformations. Are you interested in understanding how the capacity of SMEs to realize change is co-constituted by the entanglement of organizations and matter – from infrastructure to technologies and environments? Do you believe that just and sustainable futures require a fundamental rethinking of our current practice, including how we relate to and negotiate with the material world?
About the project
This research investigates how businesses mobilize matter to advance sustainability transformations. Centring on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this research challenges traditional conceptualizations of these actors as static organizational units circumscribed by institutional rules, available resources, or adaptive capacities. Instead, it approaches SMEs as always-emergent assemblages – sites where human and more-than-human entities intra-act and shape organizational pathways. This project addresses three interrelated questions i) how are sustainability strategies in SMEs formed by the physical environment (workspaces, scale of production, technologies); ii) how does matter co-constitute circular practices and shape the capacity of collective organizing among SMEs, and iii) how are material realities co-constituted and changed through SME-driven sustainable entrepreneurship. Through these questions, the project explores the deep entanglement of SMEs with their material surroundings and how intra-actions between these organizations and their environment reconfigure materials, products, and production systems in processes of sustainability change.
Your role
As an integral part of the MATTER (Material Agency Through Transdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Research) Lab, you will be supported to independently design and implement your research, collaborate with partners and researchers, and lead and contribute to academic publications and continuous knowledge exchange. Your own research will be situated at the intersection of organizational studies, sustainability research, and new materialism. Accordingly, you will be learning how to conduct inter- and transdisciplinary research. While your project may be embedded within a specific field, your research will engage with different disciplinary approaches, methodologies, and theories relevant to understanding and redefining the entanglement of SMEs and their environments in the context of sustainability transformations. Given the new materialist orientation of the MATTER Lab, your research may explicitly engage with posthumanism, feminism, antiracism, political ecology, anticolonialism, and alternative approaches such as indigenous and global south perspectives. Both empirical and theoretical work will be central to your PhD project. The direction of your project and the scope of your research will be defined together with Professor Christopher Luederitz within the first months after your arrival.
As part of the MATTER Lab, your responsibilities extend beyond your PhD work, as you will be contributing to team activities and other tasks, including
Participating in and organizing team meetings;
Contributing to social media outreach;
Presenting at events and conferences;
Supporting and mentoring other members;
Contributing to developing and maintaining databases;
Contributing to Lab research, gathering empirical data, running workshops, and supporting collaborative projects;
Contribute to the collective learning and inclusive environment of the MATTER Lab.
The offer
Two four-year PhD positions at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR under the supervision of Professor Christopher Luederitz. The PhD will be supported through an annual stipend of $ 25 000 – $ 28 000. You will have the opportunity to conduct your PhD project as part of the Institute for research on SMEs (InRPME) at UQTR. InRPME brings together more than thirty researchers working on topics related to SMEs and entrepreneurship, alongside postdoctoral fellows, doctoral and master’s students, and research professionals (www.uqtr.ca/inrpme). As part of your doctoral studies, you will enroll in the Doctorat en Administration des Affaires.
Your profile
The appointee to this position will have the following requirements
A master’s degree in administration or management (M.Sc.) or business administration (MBA), or a degree deemed equivalent to one of these;
At least three years of relevant experience in a business or institutional setting;
Experience with qualitative research and interest in ethnographic research, transdisciplinary research, and action research, among others;
Strong interest in advancing academic discourses and practice-oriented research;
Strong organizational skills and capacity to work independently and collaboratively within an interdisciplinary team;
Excellent skills in written and spoken French and English.
Women, persons with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, racialized people, and members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities are actively encouraged to apply because equity and diversity are an integral part of academic excellence and impactful research.
How to apply
Interested candidates are invited to submit the following documents by February 28, 2026
A 1-page cover letter, outlining personal motivations, qualifications and your experiences relevant to the position;
A 2-page statement (excluding references) outlining your intention to contribute to understanding and reimagining of SMEs in sustainability transformations (including theoretical approach, methodology, and envisioned empirical research)
A detailed curriculum vitae;
A list of courses taken, and grades obtained;
A copy or link to your master's thesis;
The names and contact information of three referees who may be contacted for letters of reference
The application should be addressed to Christopher Luederitz and submitted to the following email address: christopher.luederitz@uqtr.ca
Results
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until February 28. The PhD program officially begins on September 1, 2026, though an earlier start date may be arranged for interested candidates. Candidates who are not selected will be notified by the end of March.
Contact
For any questions about this application, please contact Christopher Luederitz at christopher.luederitz@uqtr.ca