Jana Holthöwer wins Nicolaas Mulerius Foundation PhD award 2024

The Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) is proud to announce that Jana Holthöwer has won the Nicolaas Mulerius Foundation Dissertation Prize 2024 for her dissertation titled ‘Robots to the rescue? Shaping service experiences in healthcare and beyond'. Holthöwer received the award for the best University of Groningen dissertation defended in 2024 during the Ceremony of Merits 2025.

In her dissertation, Holthöwer focused on how consumers can be stimulated to be more accepting, satisfied of and compliant with service robots in frontline settings, especially in health and elderly care. Robots are often seen as a solution to staff shortages, yet our understanding of how they work in real-world organizational settings still lags significantly behind the pace of technological development. Holthöwer obtained her PhD degree in October 2024 and was supervised by Professor Jenny van Doorn and Professor Koert van Ittersum. Her research contributes to a better understanding of how robot characteristics and contextual factors can influence the service experience and enhance interactions with service robots. This is essential to ensure the successful integration of service robots in the health realm. Holthöwer: “Robots aren’t just tools anymore - they shape how people experience care, support, and service. The key is not using them everywhere, but finding the moments where they truly add value.’’

Previous awards

In April, she received the Best PhD Thesis Award 2024 from FEB and she recently also became a finalist at the EMAC-Enginius Doctoral Dissertation Competition that supports and celebrates excellence in doctoral research. This competition is an initiative of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) and is sponsored by software company Enginius. Holthöwer is currently an assistant professor at FEB’s Department of Marketing, where she continues her research on service technology, artificial intelligence and human-robot interaction.

Read more about Jana Holthöwer’s research.

The Nicolaas Mulerius Foundation Dissertation Prize

The Nicolaas Mulerius Foundation Dissertation Prize, the successor to the Wierenga-Rengerink Dissertation Prize, is awarded annually to the UG PhD student who has submitted the best dissertation in the previous calendar year. Each faculty nominates one candidate and the final winner is selected from the nominees by a jury consisting of the current Rector Magnificus of the UG and a number of former rectors magnifici. Only exceptionally good dissertations are eligible (at least cum laude).The winner receives €10,000 for further academic development. The prize money is made available by the Nicolaas Mulerius Foundation.

Questions? Please contact Jana Holthöwer.