Jan Ross recently joined the Faculty of Economics and Business as an associate professor within the Department of Global Economics and Management. After spending more than a decade of his academic career in London, he discovered Groningen as hidden gem in the north of the Netherlands, not too far from his family and his hometown in Germany.

Why did you choose Groningen?

“I discovered this hidden gem in the north of the Netherlands while I travelled between Groningen and London for almost a year, as my wife had started a new position at the University of Groningen and I still worked in London. In that period, I got to know the university, some FEB colleagues, the vibrant city, and the green surroundings with canals and lakes. It is just a 3-hour drive away from part of my family. My hometown in Germany, Cuxhaven, is also close by. A position opened in the Department of Global Economics and Management (GEM) in Groningen, and I applied. I enjoy the mix of economists and international business scholars in the department, it forces me to think about my research more broadly and communicate it in a way that both sides understand. FEB is much larger than what I was used to in my prior institution, covering a broad variety of research areas with various colleagues across departments engaging in similar conversations from different perspectives. I find that very stimulating.”

Could you tell us about your career so far?

“After some time in the automotive industry, I decided to go back to university and do a PhD. I realized I had more questions than answers, and academia provided the time to dive deeper into topics I was curious about. As a doctoral candidate at the University of Augsburg, beyond engaging in research, I had the opportunity to help develop the teaching program and interact with students in the classroom. I enjoyed that. After I finished my dissertation, I was lucky to get a postdoc position at Imperial College London. At that time, the Business School there was relatively new, and they had a large group of postdocs in my department from about 15 different countries. It was a melting pot of ideas and inspiring discussions. I loved it, it gave me the opportunity to learn from others and advance my research skills. Later, I got a position as an assistant professor at Imperial and then as a tenured associate professor.”

Where do your research interests and expertise lie?

“I am interested in strategic decision-making under uncertainty. As levels uncertainty are currently skyrocketing, business leaders need answers on how to tackle uncertainty, what trade-offs to consider, and how to bridge the external and internal (firm) environment. Unfortunately, most of the traditional strategy textbooks do not deal well with this topic, and if they address it, it is more of an afterthought. That is also an issue in teaching, in my view. My field is still catching up here. My research on resource allocation, decisions under uncertainty and competitive strategy tries to contribute, by providing insights on R&D decisions, entry decisions, capacity decisions, and strategic positioning under uncertainty. In short, I seek to provide insights on how firms manage downside risk when competing in changing environments and how to capitalize on the upsides in uncertain environments.”

What is the societal relevance of your research?

“Our society faces extremely challenging, complex, and uncertain problems, ranging from climate issues, pandemics, geopolitical tensions and technological shifts, to wars. In this situation, it is essential to make effective decisions. Yet, a study from McKinsey pointed out that we often fail to account for uncertainty. At the same time, employees need guidance and explanation from their leaders; most of us don’t like uncertainty and frequent shifts in direction. My research focuses on how firms can make better decisions when outcomes are uncertain, when it is difficult to predict what others will do, when it is difficult to reverse a decision, when risks are hard to quantify, and when there is a high degree of interaction across decisions. By improving how decisions under uncertainty are made, I seek to help organizations build their resilience and be more adaptable when navigating the fog of uncertainty.”

What can we expect from you in the future?

“I will continue to focus on advancing insights and practice on decisions under uncertainty. My position within GEM opens up opportunities for collaboration and research on international business environments that face many interconnected uncertainties. Most studies tackle only one uncertainty. Interactions between various uncertain factors are challenging to study and may require different methods, datasets, and collaborations with scholars from other fields. Regarding teaching, I plan to make uncertainty the core of my teaching and connect with local businesses. I think, as academics, we can do much more to use different formats to exchange ideas, frameworks, and theories with businesses – connecting with them by having projects with students could benefit both businesses and students.”

What publications from your body of work are you the proudest of?

“Thinking about all my past research, I realized that some projects stand out as they have helped my career forward in the challenging academic environment. As postdocs, my co-author Dmitry Sharapov and I took quite some risk by embarking on a study using sports data from sailing to study outcomes of imitation decisions under uncertainty. We managed to get it published in the Academy of Management Journal, which is widely seen as a leading management journal. Another project that started during my time as a postdoc looked at the effect of academic entrepreneurship on the production of scientific knowledge. It was published in Organization Science. It took many years; there were an endless number of robustness tests, further analyses, and replications of three existing studies with our data. A third project that I am proud of is a paper we published recently on resource idling, also in Academy of Management Journal. In economic downturns, companies shed or idle resources due to a lack of demand. We find that this comes with the erosion of organizational capabilities and, when restarting the business, firms struggle with their reactivations. These concerns influence a firm's forward-looking decision to idle under uncertainty. Our research reveals sources of heterogeneity in these decisions and helps understand how firms adapt to uncertain environments.”