Chair of Entrepreneurship

Master Theses

1. Topics

We welcome you to write your thesis with our chair.
When applying via our Olat-form, you can indicate a preference order of the following topic areas:

  • Digital Entrepreneurship, Business Models, and Performance
  • Artificial Intelligence in Entrepreneurship and Strategy
  • Entrepreneurial Finance, Crowdfunding, and ICOs
  • Digital Transformation, Platforms, and Analytics
  • Digital User Behavior and Social Media Strategy

2. Application and Procedure

  • Applications are possible via Olat  approximately one month before the start of lectures until the start of lectures.
  • At the beginning of the lecture period you will then receive the acceptance notification
  • Within the first two weeks of the semester, there is a joint kick-off meeting for admitted students, which provides the basics for the thesis and clarifies questions
  • After the kick-off, there is an initial meeting to identify the topic with the supervisor
  • Approximately 4 weeks after the kick-off, students submit their exposé - if this is accepted, official registration takes place soon after and thus the start of the processing period
  • Towards the end of the lecture period of the semester an interim presentation takes place
  • Duration and deadline are determined by the examination regulations and the registration date - as a rule, the processing time is at least 6 months, since empirical papers are regularly written.
  • After submission, the final presentation takes place at the start of the following semester.

3. General Conditions

  • Final theses at the chair have to be written in English language
  • Only empirical theses are regularly assigned
  • Theses in connection with practice partners are possible in principle. However, our experience with past collaborations has shown that certain conditions must be met for a successful collaboration:
    • Only master's theses (no bachelor's theses) with practice partners are supervised. The reason for this is that a thesis supervised by a practice partner is usually associated with special effort. Therefore, it is unfortunately not possible to supervise theses with a processing time of less than 6 months (e.g. Bachelor theses).
    • It has to be agreed at an early stage and before applying for a master thesis together with the practice partner and the chair supervisor of the desired subject area:
      • what role the practice partner will play in the work, what expectations s/he has; and in particular what promises of support and data access s/he will provide,
      • what research question will be addressed that meets the expectations of all parties and satisfies the examination requirements for an academic paper.
    • You structure your research proposition according to this Template, which you then discuss with professor Steininger via e-mail.
    • Further requirement: The partner unconditionally agrees that the results of the thesis may be published, if necessary in anonymous form. As a matter of principle, we do not supervise theses with a so-called blocking notice (Sperrvermerk), according to which the work is not publicly accessible.
    • Why do these requirements exist? The academic expectations of high-quality theses and the expectations of practice partners can sometimes differ significantly. This can lead to a tension between the different expectations for students and therefore to significant additional work in order to fulfill the expectations for all sides and at the same time to clarify legal issues under time pressure. Therefore, we have decided to communicate these regulations transparently and to support all parties involved.

4. Interim and Final Presentations

During their supervision, all students present their thesis project twice.

  • Around the middle of the official processing time (towards the end of the semester's lecture period), an interim presentation takes place in which all students present the status of their own thesis, exchange experiences already made and, if necessary, work out solutions to problems and challenges of a thesis through discussions. This presentation is a supporting service that is not evaluated to foster open and free discussion within the group.
  • After timely and complete submission of the Master's thesis, each student will be given a date for the final presentation in order to present the results and answer questions in front of supervisors and fellow students. The presentation usually takes place at the end of the semester/the beginning of the following semester. At this point, students just starting their Master's thesis will also participate in the colloquium to gain insights into the further process and best practices.

5. Submission

Within or, at the latest, by the end of the official processing period, each student will hand in the following material:

  • To the chair and to the Department of Examination Affairs, via e-mail:
    • 2 PDF files of your thesis in one named version and one anonymous version.
    • Use the following syntax (where XX are the initials of your advisor):
      • BA_2020SoSe_XX_lastname_title.pdf ("normal" version).
      • BA_2020Se_XX_anonymous_title.pdf (anonymous version).
      • Example:
      • BA_2020SoSe_GC_Mueller_Evolution of TAM.pdf.
      • BA_2020SoSe_GC_anonymous_Evolution of TAM.pdf. 
  • At the Department of Examination Affairs, physical:
    • Two hardcopy copies of the thesis 
    • One of the hardcopy copies must include a CD-ROM or USB stick, on which are stored:
      • Your thesis in a named version (PDF and Word)
      • Your thesis in an anonymous version (PDF and Word)
      • All Excel, SPSS, Stata, Atlas.ti, or other raw data used as the basis for calculations referenced in the final paper
      • All accessible data (xls, doc, pdf) and export from Zotero resources as Zotero RDF with files
      • All documents taken from the Internet (esp. web pages) in PDF format
      • All other documents (e.g. articles from scientific journals) available in electronic format
      • The data carrier should be attached to the last cover page of one of the bound copies in a suitable envelope
      • All remaining (paper form) documents must be retained and made available as needed until the grade has been officially communicated
    • How to submit:
      • by personally posting it to the mailbox
      • by mail 
      • by personally handing it in at the Department of Examination Affairs

6. Templates

  • Word format templates, citation templates as well as further instructions for theses will be made available via OLAT.
  • We strongly suggest that you use the free bibliography software Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/