DISSERTATION TOPICS

The Agder University College PhD in International Management Dissertation
DISSERTATION TOPICS
Examples of areas of study for the PhD dissertations (a non-exhaustive list):
Innovation in multinational enterprises
Human resource development in multinational enterprises
Time pressure, organizational rhythms and coordination in multinational enterprises
Flexible specialization and new organizational forms in international projects
International teams - coordination and leadership
Corporate governance of micro-finance institutions
Corporate governance of multinational business and non-business organizations
Corporate Governance internationalization and the globalization and performance of firms
Multinational business and the role of corruption in developing countries
Management of International information systems
Global information systems and economic development
International business strategy in emerging markets
Implementing of international business strategy
DISSERTATION ADVISORS
A dissertation advisor is appointed for each PhD student at the time of admission. This person plays a key
role in guiding students through the program. Normally, the professor accepting the student's application
in the first place also becomes the dissertation advisor.
Interaction with the advisor is instrumental in helping the student to integrate both required and elective
coursework which reflects the student's unique interests. Some of the possible advisors at AUC are:
Possible main advisors: Core faculty of PhD programme
Otto Andersen is Professor of international marketing. His education is from the Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration. From 1972 to 1986 he worked at the Bodø University College,
where he taught marketing and marketing research. He has been a member of the Agder University
College faculty since 1986. His research and teaching interests are mainly related to the
internationalisation of the firm, to international marketing research and to research methods. He has
presented papers at international conferences and published in international journals. Andersen is
presently advising two PhD students and has acted as external examiner in several dissertation defences.
Andreas W. Falkenberg is Professor of international business specialising in international marketing,
cultural differences and ethics. After working for several years in the shipping industry, he completed a
PhD in marketing at the University of Oregon. His dissertation focused on cultural differences between the
US and Japan. After three years as an assistant professor at Michigan State University, he moved to the
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) in Bergen, Norway, as an associate
professor. While at NHH, he was instrumental in starting a master programme in international business as
well as a master’s programme in Poland. His research interests have focused on marketing strategy,
cultural differences and various aspects of business ethics, particularly in the area of justice as applied to
multinational economic organisations. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Washington
and at Texas Tech University and has lectured in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Japan, China, Turkey
and Sweden. He has taught PhD courses while at NHH. He serves on the editorial board of the journal of
MacroMarketing and chaired the EMAC conference in Bergen in 2001. He joined the faculty at the Faculty
of Economics and Social Sciences at Agder University College in 2003. He holds a Professor II position
at NHH.

The Agder University College PhD in International Management Dissertation
Joyce Falkenberg is Professor and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences. She
has her PhD from the University of Oregon. Her dissertation focused on strategic change and adaptation
given changes in the environment. Later research has continued the focus on strategic change and
emphasized how change is implemented. Before coming to AUC in the summer of 2003, Joyce
Falkenberg was a member of the faculty at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business
Administration. During that time she taught in many different international programmes, including NHH’s
Master of International Business; executive master programmes in St. Petersburg, Russia and Poland;
and held seminars in Latvia, China, Switzerland, and Germany. Falkenberg has served on the Executive
Board of the Academy of Management Business Policy Division and on the Editorial Board of the
Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Strategies and Journal of Applied Behavioral
Science. She has served as dissertation chair and committee member for five dissertations and has
taught five PhD courses at NHH. She holds a Professor II position at NHH.
Jan Inge Jenssen is Professor of management, with a PhD degree in business administration from the
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen. He is a graduate from the Agder
University College and the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. His doctoral
dissertation topic was on social networks and entrepreneurship. Jenssen has published in international
journals, including International Journal of Maritime Economics (2003), Maritime Policy and Management
(2003), Journal of Entrepreneurship (2004), International Journal of Innovation Management (2004), and
Corporate Governance (2004). He is also the author and co-author of several books. His main research
field is entrepreneurship and innovation.
Harald Knudsen is Professor of international management and presently Dean of the Faculty of
Economics and Social Sciences. He will terminate his deanship in 2005 in order to concentrate on
teaching and research. He is educated in the USA and holds a PhD from the University of Oregon. His
dissertation “Expropriation of Foreign Private Investments in Latin America” from 1972 focused on
international political risks. After returning to Norway, he was involved in the NHH/UiB project on power
distribution in Norway, examining the role and power of multinational business in Norway. He has, since
1976, held a number of administrative and leadership roles in the then Agder College (rector from 1980-
1983) and from 1994 Agder University College. He was elected dean of the Faculty of Economics and
Social Sciences in 2000. His recent research has been in the area of diversity and learning. He is an
associate member of faculty at the Templeton College, Oxford University, where he is involved in several
leadership programmes based on the concept of “jazz and leadership”. Professor Knudsen has served on
doctoral advisory committees and doctoral commissions at the Norwegian School of Business and
Economics (NHH), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the Copenhagen
Business School.
Trond Randøy is Professor of strategy and international management, and Director for the Centre for
International and Maritime Business, at Agder Research. He is educated both in Norway (PhD from
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, 1994) and the USA (MBA from University
of Oregon, 1988). His doctorial dissertation focussed on the motives and determinants for foreign direct
servicing based on a survey of Norwegian foreign direct investment. His current research focus is on
internationalisation, corporate governance, and business strategy. Professor Randøy has published more
than twenty scientific articles and book chapters in internationally edited volumes. He has recently
published in journals such Journal of International Business Studies (2005), Journal of Banking and
Finance (2003), Journal of Business Venturing (2003), and Journal of Management and Governance
(2002). Randøy has taught PhD courses and been the external examiner for dissertation defences.
Maung K. Sein is Professor of Information Systems (IS) at Agder University College (AUC) Norway. A
Ph.D. graduate from Indiana University, USA, he has served at Georgia State University, Florida
International University and Indiana University, all in USA and at the University of Bergen in Norway. His
current research interests are Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in national
development, IT in public sector, and, e-Government. He has also conducted research in end-user
training, human-computer interaction, conceptual database design, systems development methods, data
warehousing, computer personnel, and IS management. He has published widely in such prestigious
journals as Information Systems Research, Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ),

The Agder University College PhD in International Management Dissertation
Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery (CACM), The Information Society, and
Human Computer Interaction and presented his research around the world. He has lectured widely on
different aspects of research methods such as research approaches and their philosophical paradigms
and has conducted workshops and seminars on research methods at several universities in USA, Norway,
Denmark, Finland and Tanzania. He has served or is serving on editorial boards of MISQ, MISQ
Executive, Communication of the Association of Information Systems, and E-Service Journal and guestedited
a special issue of CACM. He has chaired and has served on program committees of several
international conferences. He is currently a member of the steering committee of the Norwegian network
on ICT and development. He has chaired and served on doctoral dissertation committees in universities in
USA and Denmark and has served as external examiner of doctoral defence at universities in USA,
Canada and New Zealand.
Professor IIs dedicated to the PhD programme in International Management
Professor II faculty members (20% positions) are used to supplement the AUC faculty members. Currently
these professors have been recruited for this task:
• Professor Gabriel R.G. Benito, Copenhagen Business School and BI Norwegian Faculty of
Economics and Social Sciences
• Professor Masaaki Kotabe, The Institute of Global Management Studies, The Fox School of
Business and Management, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Professor Oded Shenkar, Ford Motor Company Chair in Global Business Management, Fisher
College of Business, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
• Professor Sigurd Troye, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH)
Faculty members with competence in research methods
Only full professors and associate professors holding a PhD are included on this list of senior faculty
members. Those with the title of full professor have been through normal procedures for appointment.
Associate Professor Anne Ryen not included in this list, although a central faculty member in the area of
qualitative methods.
Senior faculty members with competence in research methods
Name Degree Title (AUC) Area
Greve, Arent PhD Professor II Research methods
Holbek, Jonny PhD Professor,
Emeritus
Research methods
Johnsen, Hans Christian
Garman
PhD Professor Philosophy of science
Jungeilges, Jochen PhD Professor Research methods
Troye, Sigurd Villads PhD Professor II Research methods
Philosophy of science
Sein, Maung PhD Professor Research methods
Storesletten, Leiv PhD Professor Research methods, mathematics
Sæther, Arild Professor Philosophy of science
Aasland, Dag G. PhD Professor Philosophy of science
Resource faculty members
The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences has 102 faculty members. Of these there are a number of
professors with expertise in the broader areas of Management, Organisation, Strategy and Marketing.
Other faculty members hold specific international competences, for example, in the area of international

The Agder University College PhD in International Management Dissertation
economics, international finance and international entrepreneurship. These faculty members provide an
important linkage to the various business disciplines.
The resource faculty members can serve, along with the members of the core faculty, as advisors within
specific dissertation topics. In addition, some are support faculty members for specific courses (see
course syllabi for details). We list these resource faculty members in the table below. Again, we have
included only senior faculty members.
Other senior resource faculty members
Name Degree Title Areas of specialisation
Havnes, Per Anders PhD Senior
Researcher
(Agder
Research)
Hernes, Helge PhD Associate
Professor
Kalsaas, Bo Terje PhD Associate
professor
Koekebakker, Steen PhD Associate
International marketing, entrepreneurship,
European industrial policy
Organisation theory, management
Professor
International logistics and supply chain
management
International Finance, Financial
Economics, Maritime Economics
Kristiansen, Stein PhD Professor Emerging markets and international
entrepreneurship
Nylehn, Børre Professor Organisation theory, development and
local government
Nyhus, Ellen PhD Associate International consumer behaviour,
professor household economics
Sødal, Sigbjørn PhD Associate International Economics, Game Theory,
Professor Maritime Economics
Thorsvik, Jan PhD Professor Organisational theory, management