PhD Special Call: Decoding Danish Firm Innovativeness from the Consumer Perspective (2 Positions)
Aarhus BSS Graduate School, Aarhus University invites applicants for two three-year PhD scholarships within the research project “Decoding Danish Firm Innovativeness from the Consumer Perspective”, affiliated with the Danish Innovation Index (DII) at the PhD Programme Management, and will establish the Danish Innovation Index as a research excellence group at the Department.
The positions are available from 1 September 2026 (or as soon as possible thereafter).
The research project
The overall aim is to explain how Danish firms come to lead in firm innovativeness as perceived by consumers, and what can be learned from these firms for innovation practice and theory. The research departs from the premise of the Danish InnovationIndex: firm innovativeness can (and should) be assessed by those who receive innovations - consumers.
The projects will leverage the Danish Innovation Index database, which includes multi-year consumer perceptions across 20 industries and close to 100 Danish companies.
Empirical work may be complemented with additional data collection and causal designs (e.g., online experiments), as well as relevant methods (e.g., big data, panel analysis, semantic analysis, simulation), depending on the candidate’s methodological profile and project proposal.
Applicants may propose projects within one of the following focus areas:
Digital and commercial innovation (Track A),
Responsible innovation (Track B).
Note: Digital and commercial innovation should include emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, spatial computing). “Responsible innovation” is to be defined by the candidate and may relate to sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, well-being, or similar themes.
The two projects will be supervised by Associate Professor Darius-Aurel Frank, who was awarded the Carlsberg Semper Ardens Accelerate grant for this project. Co-supervisors will be Associate Professors Lina Fogt Jacobsen and Helle Alsted Søndergaard.
Job description
The PhD projects will contribute to the overall research aim of “Decoding Danish Firm Innovativeness from the Consumer Perspective”. Applicants may propose a project within either of the two focus areas:
Track A: Digital and commercial innovation (should include emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, spatial computing)), or
Track B: Responsible innovation (to be defined by the candidate and may relate to sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, well-being, or similar themes).
The PhD projects are to be carried out as part of the research project. The PhD student's role in the research questions listed above will depend on the chosen candidate and his / her own PhD project description related to the topic of the overall project. Applicants must therefore include a project description outlining how they intend to conduct their PhD research within the frames of the overall project.
During the project, the PhD student will complete the PhD education as outlined in the rules and regulations for the PhD programme.
These are three-year PhD projects funded by the Carlsberg Semper Ardens Accelerate grant.