Deutsch Intern
Sinologie in Würzburg

Prof. Dr. Doris Fischer

Chair China Business and Economics

Prof. Dr. Doris Fischer has held the Chair of China Business and Economics at the University Würzburg since 2012. Since April 2021 she is also Vice President of Internationalisation and Alumni of the University of Würzburg.

After studying Business Administration and Chinese Studies at the Universities of Hamburg and Wuhan, Doris Fischer completed her PhD in economics at the University of Gießen. Her numerous publications on China’s economy reflect her long-term research interests in competition, innovation and industrial policies and the incentives they create for economic actors.

Current research projects investigate characteristics of energy transition and related industrial policies under the administration of Xi Jinping (DFG-Projekt Industriepolitik), local self-organisation in the context of the Chinese energy transition (DFG-Projekt LoSAM) and the impact of the Chinese social credit system on companies and global governance (bidt-Projekt). Further research addresses the development of the Chinese innovation system in international comparison and the interplay of innovation policies and entrepreneurship in China.

Earlier in her career, Doris Fischer worked as assistant professor in the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of Duisburg and as senior economist at the German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn. She was guest professor at the Faculty of Economics at Seikei University (2007) in Tokyo and at the Chinese Studies Department of the Freie Universität Berlin (2010). From 2010 to 2012, Doris Fischer coordinated the international research project 'Technological Trajectories for Climate Change Mitigation in China, Europe and India' (project homepage), a collaboration between the DIE, the Institute of Development Studies (Sussex), the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University (Beijing) and the Indian Institute of Development, Delhi.

From 2017 to 2019 Professor Fischer led the German expert group for the German-Sino Plattform Innovation (Deutsch-Chinesische Plattform Innovation).

From 2019-2021 Doris Fischer was Chairwoman of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Asienkunde/German Association for Asian Studies (DGA) and was speaker of the Association for Social Science Research on China (ASC, 2017-2017). Doris Fischer is member of the examination committee for the  DAAD Program ‘Sprache und Praxis China‘ and regularly acts as peer reviewer for the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), die Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, die Volkswagen Foundation as well as academic journals such as Energy Policy, World Development, Journal of Environment and Development, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, China: An International Journal, Climate Policy, Journal of Development Studies, Asien, Issues& Studies, Asian Economic Journal.

Together with Prof. Dr. Jörn-Carsten Gottwald (University of Bochum) and Dr. Katja Levy (Berlin) she is co-editor of the academic book series „China – Politics and Economics“, published by Nomos.

Topics in Research and Teaching

  • Sustainability-oriented innovation systems (with a focus on renewable energies and electro mobility)
  • Theoretical and practical insights of China’s economic transition
  • Competition, industrial policies and regulation in China
  • China’s changing role in the global economy
  • China’s policies toward developing and emerging economies

Publications and lectures

See list of publications, lectures  and conference participation.

Networks

Follow my work on linkedIn.com, researchgate, academia

Research Projects

Political Steering of Strategic Industries in China: Assessing renewable energy transition management (DFG 2018-2020)

The importance of renewable energies for local self-regulation in China (DFG 2019-2021) - part of the DFG research unit LoSAM

Learning from the “frontrunner”? A multidisciplinary analysis of the Chinese Social Credit System and its impact on Germany (bidt 2020-2023)