PhD Stipend in How Firms Adopt and Govern AI A Sino-Danish Comparative Project (SDC)

Aalborg University Business School in partnership with the Sino-Danish College (SDC) at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) invites applications for a 3-year PhD stipend on how firms adopt and integrate artificial intelligence and what changes for the people capabilities and routines inside those firms across two very different institutional contexts: China and Denmark. The position is hosted by Aalborg University Business School Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and includes a mandatory research stay of at least 12 months at SDC/UCAS in Beijing. Appointment is open from 15 October 2026 or soon thereafter.

Your work tasks
AI is moving out of research labs and into the everyday operations of firms. The project treats AI adoption not only as uptake of new tools but as a change in how firms codify knowledge: prompts models workflows and governance routines make some expertise executable while creating new burdens of evaluation maintenance and revision. The pace is uneven across countries. Regulatory frameworks labour markets platform structures and the resources firms can actually draw on (access to model providers sector-specific data firm size and local implementation capacity) channel the same technology in very different ways. China and Denmark face the same wave but route it through fundamentally different institutional architectures which makes a structured comparison worth doing. The firm is the main empirical site but the project connects firm-level adoption to task-level change sectoral conditions and the wider institutional differences between China and Denmark.

The PhD candidate designs and carries out an original research project that asks how institutional environments shape firm-level AI adoption organisational capability building task reallocation skill demand and productivity outcomes in China and Denmark. The expected design combines quantitative analysis (firm-level data job postings occupational task data and administrative indicators where accessible) with qualitative firm case studies. The candidate is expected to make the connection between the two halves of the project explicit and credible.

Empirical anchoring is open. AI-intensive service sectors with traceable occupational structure (fintech marketing/RegTech HR analytics professional services with rich job-posting data) are natural candidates; final sector choice forms part of the candidates project description.

The candidate spends at least 12 months at SDC/UCAS in Beijing embedded in the co-supervisors research environment at the School of Economics and Management. The 12-month stay is mandatory by the design of the position.

Alongside the research project the PhD candidate completes the formal requirements of the Doctoral School (30 ECTS of coursework); contributes to SDCs master programmes through teaching and guest lectures (Digital Innovation research methods computational methods and case material from the candidates own fieldwork); contributes to the wider research environment at AAU including CAISA and the MASSHINE Lab; and develops a publication strategy for international journals in innovation studies organisation studies and digital transformation.

The position is supervised by a Danish main supervisor at AAUBS and a Chinese co-supervisor at UCAS with regular joint supervision meetings throughout the three years.

Your competencies
A strong Masters degree in a relevant social-science or interdisciplinary field is required: innovation studies economics of innovation economic geography organisation studies business data science digital transformation computational social science science and technology studies or a closely related area. Familiarity with one or both sides of the Sino-Danish comparison is a clear advantage; so is some knowledge of Mandarin Chinese (not a requirement but it shortens the path into Chinese-language context and data).

The right candidate is intellectually curious about how organisations actually integrate new technologies. We expect interest in how firms decide what to encode who has the standing to evaluate and revise what AI systems do on their behalf how work is reorganised around them and what new skill demands emerge.

The methodological profile is open. Quantitative qualitative and mixed-method proposals are all welcome provided the candidate can defend the chosen design and execute it. Comfort with applied data work and at least one mainstream programming environment for analysis is expected. Direct experience with NLP or large language models for research is welcome but not required; the priority is the ability to learn methods rigorously and use them to answer substantive questions.

The candidate should be able to plan and execute extended fieldwork independently work across two very different academic and organisational cultures and communicate clearly in academic English. We look for the kind of colleague who actively contributes to a research environment: sharing work in progress supporting peers and engaging with the teaching and outreach activities at AAUBS and SDC.

Qualification requirements
PhD stipends are allocated to individuals who hold a Masters degree. PhD stipends are normally for a period of 3 years. It is a prerequisite for allocation of the stipend that the candidate will be enrolled as a PhD student at Doctoral School of Social Sciences and Humanities in accordance with the regulations of Ministerial Order No. 1124 of September 19 2025 on the PhD Programme at the Universities and Certain Higher Artistic Educational Institutions. According to the Ministerial Order the progress of the PhD student shall be assessed at regular points in time. As part of the PhD study you are among other things required to complete PhD courses corresponding to 30 ECTS gain experience with teaching or other forms of knowledge dissemination and complete an external research stay outside of Aalborg University preferably 3-6 months at a foreign research institution. For this SDC-co-funded position the required external research stay is at least 12 months at the Sino-Danish College (SDC) / University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) in Beijing.

PhD candidates must have achieved the grade 10 or above in the Danish grading system (or the equivalent in a different grading system) for their Masters Thesis/final exam.

Please visit the website of the doctoral school for further information on admission requirements.

Who we are
The PhD candidate joins the Innovation Knowledge and Economic Dynamics (IKE) research environment at Aalborg University Business School working closely with the principal supervisors group on AI exposure measurement computational innovation studies and digital transformation. The supervisor is also Chief Scientist at CAISA the Danish National Centre for AI in Society (a national consortium led by University of Copenhagen and Aalborg University) and Co-Lead of AI Denmark the national AI initiative of the Danish Industrial Foundation. The PhD adds the comparative China dimension to a wider AAUBS research effort on AI adoption and labour-market change.

On the Chinese side the candidate is hosted at the School of Economics and Management at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) integrated into the MOE Social Science Laboratory of Digital Economic Forecasts and Policy Simulation led by Professor Ying Liu. There is an active group of PhD students and postdocs working on digital economy fintech and computational methods on Chinese-language data and the candidate becomes part of the wider Sino-Danish College research community in Beijing.

The position is intended to be structured as a double-degree PhD. The successful candidate will be enrolled at both AAU and UCAS subject to the rules and requirements of both universities and may receive PhD degrees from both institutions on completion.

Links: AAU Business School: AAUBS IKE research group: CAISA: SDC: MASSHINE Lab: to apply
Your application must include the following:

• Application stating reasons for applying and qualifications in relation to the position
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Diplomas (bachelors and masters degree diploma including grades)
• Project description (approx. 8 pages). Read more about the project description
• Applicants WHO are planning to complete a doctoral thesis in English and who do not have English as a first language or WHO have not completed an English language-based Masters programme (or an equivalent educational achievement in English) shall provide documentation that they have passed one of the following official tests with the respective minimum score: IELTS (band score): 7 TOEFL (paper-based): 600 TOEFL (internet-based): 100. The language test must be no more than five years old at the time of the application
• Other relevant documents

The application must be submitted in English via Aalborg Universitys recruitment system which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aalborg Universitys website.

Aalborg University wants to reflect the surrounding society and has diversity as a core value. Therefore everyone regardless of personal background and orientation is encouraged to apply for the position.

SDC eligibility and conditions
This PhD position is within the SDC/UCAS framework and is co-funded by the Danish SDC Office. Under the Partnership Agreement between the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and the Danish universities Chinese citizens including citizens of Taiwan Hong Kong and Macao are not eligible for PhD positions co-funded by the Danish SDC Office. Chinese citizens are invited to apply for available SDC PhD positions through UCAS. The successful candidate must apply for enrolment at UCAS within one month of taking up employment at AAU. Affiliation on all academic publications must list AAU as the first affiliation and Sino-Danish College (SDC) University of Chinese Academy of Sciences as the second.

Project description guidance
The project description (maximum 6 pages) should articulate the candidates own approach to studying firm-level AI adoption and its organisational consequences in a comparative ChinaDenmark setting. It should be specific about the proposed empirical strategy (data sources sectoral focus qualitative access plan) the methodological tools the candidate intends to use and how the candidate plans to use the 12-month research stay at UCAS. Candidates are not expected to converge on a specific theoretical or methodological framework; they are expected to demonstrate that they have one and can defend it.

Aalborg University wants to reflect the surrounding society and has diversity as a core value. Therefore everyone regardless of personal background and orientation is encouraged to apply for the position.

Do you have any questions
If you have any questions about the position you are more than welcome to contact us. You will find contact persons at the bottom of the jobpost.

Further information
Read more about our recruitment process here.

The assessment of candidates for the position will be carried out by qualified experts.
Shortlisting will be applied. This means that after the application deadline the head of the department with the assistance of the hiring committee will select the applicants to be assessed. All applicants will be informed whether they have been shortlisted for assessment or not.

The hiring process at Aalborg University may include a risk assessment as a tool to identify potential risks associated with new hires ensuring the safety compliance and integrity of the workplace.

Read more about The Doctoral School of Social Sciences and Humanities

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Salary and terms of employment
The employment is in accordance with the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities (the Appointment Order) and the Ministerial Order on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities (in Danish).

Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with the collective agreement between the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations and the state (AC collective agreement) (in Danish)

There is a mutual probationary period of 3 months for the position.

As an SDC-co-funded PhD the appointee states Aalborg University as the first affiliation and Sino-Danish College (SDC) University of Chinese Academy of Sciences as the second affiliation on all academic publications including the dissertation.

Aalborg University - Knowledge for the world
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