NEWS For the 18th year in a row, the organization FEI awards the “Oscar Sillén Prize for Best Thesis in Business Administration” to the best Swedish thesis in the field. 2020 the award goes to USBE alumnus Angelos Kostis for his thesis "Coping with Interpartner Uncertainty in Interorganizational Interactions".
– I am very excited about the fact that my thesis and its focus are acknowledged as important and relevant. Undoubtedly, it is an honor that my doctoral thesis received this highly prestigious award. It is gratifying that the subject of my thesis, which focuses on the notion of interpartner uncertainty in interorganizational relations, is noticed in this type of forum. Receiving the Oskar Sillén prize is itself a motivation for the future and an extra boost for producing high quality research. I want to thank both the jury, my academic advisors Prof Maria Bengtsson and Associate Prof Malin Näsholm, and everyone who has in some way contributed to the dissertation over the years, says Angelos Kostis.
Angelos Kostis, Department of Informatics and USBE alumni, Umeå University.
ImagePrivat– We live in an ever-changing world where organizational realities are marked by unpredictability and organizations are constantly confronted with uncertainty, not least with uncertainty in inter-organizational relationships. Whilst interorganizational relationships are important means for achieving demanding strategic goals, they are also highly unstable and uncertain. Understanding the multiple facets of uncertainty organizations face and shedding light on the ways in which they can manage such multifaceted uncertainty is important and my thesis addresses this by offering knowledge that can support organizations understand and cope with a key challenge they are constantly confronted with: interpartner uncertainty. In my thesis, I unpack the multifaceted nature and sources of uncertainty, which is particularly prominent when the relationship falls within coopetition, ie relationships that consist of both cooperation and competition, since the partners then only have partially common interests. In addition, light is shed on three distinct yet still interconnected dimensions of the uncertainty coping process - managerial cognition, relationality, and materiality.
After earning his PhD from USBE, Angelos Kostis is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the SCDI AI Lab at the Department of Informatics, Umeå University. He is also a Visiting Scholar at SCANCOR, Stanford University.
– In the near future, my plan is to focus on producing high quality and relevant research related to the manner in which organizations engage with Artificial Intelligence. Since last year I have had the pleasure of getting a Kempe scholarship and working with Professor Jonny Holmström, who further motivated me to explore the imbrication processes between IT and organizations. I recently received the news that I got a Wallander scholarship from the Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse, which is a great honor too. I am thankful about all these, as they are extra boosts for the future and encourage me to further delve into research topics residing in the intersection between organization theory and Information technology.
Read the thesis: Coping with Interpartner Uncertainty in Interorganizational Interactions
