Final theses

The Professorship for Entrepreneurship and Organization Studies supervises Bachelor and Master theses in the areas of entrepreneurship, organization studies and management more broadly, mostly with a conceptual or qualitative orientation. You can either come with a fixed topic idea or you can specify a broad area of interest out of which a research question will be developed in the course of the supervision.

The aim of the thesis process is to support you in developing an independent piece of scientific work. This entails:

• transforming entrepreneurial, organizational or managerial problems or questions into a scientific research design,
• developing the ability to formulate research questions,
• searching for and reviewing academic literature,
• learning to apply at least one scientific method for answering the research question (e.g. a systematic literature review, qualitative research methods or a conceptual development),
• complying with ethical aspects of research,
• communicating about the research by presenting core arguments, methods, results and general/theoretical implications in written and, if required, oral form.

APPLICATION AND SELECTION
The selection procedure at the Professorship for Entrepreneurship and Organization Studies is inseparably connected with the formal procedure for coordinating supervision places at the School of Management & Technology. The application deadline is communicated by the Study Dean’s Office, and selection decisions are communicated in keeping with the regulations by the Study Dean’s Office.

To apply, please send an up-to-date performance record from QIS in addition to a brief explanation of your general interests and topic ideas using the "EN_Kick-off-page" form that you can find in the downloads section below to your desired supervisor from our team. If the number of applications exceeds the available supervision capacities, decisions on acceptance/rejection are made based on your course performance in your entrepreneurship and management courses and seminars.

Please refer to the examination regulations for the general formal and procedural requirements.

In case we agreed to supervising your thesis, please note the following process and enter the corresponding deadlines:

Summer term 2026:

• Submission of the thesis by August 31, 2026
• Registration of the Bachelor´s thesis by June 30, 2026
• Registration of the Master´s thesis by February 28, 2026
• Dates for the defense (Bachelor's theses): September 21 or 25, 2026
  Please book the timeslot for your Thesis Defense via consultation hour module on MyStudy.

Winter term 2026/27:

• Submission of the thesis by March 15, 2027
• Registration of the Bachelor´s thesis by January 11, 2027
• Registration of the Master´s thesis by September 15, 2026
• Dates for the defense (Bachelor's theses): April 8, 2027

Please book the timeslot for your Thesis Defense via consultation hour] module on MyStudy.

If this schedule is not feasible for you, we unfortunately cannot supervise you.

Our supervision focuses on the creation of a research proposal, which then forms the basis for the independent writing of the thesis. The research proposal must be approved before the thesis is registered. You can book mentoring sessions on MyStudy via the consultation hour module. After each session, you will prepare a summary of the meeting (What was discussed? How are you implementing the feedback received?), which you need to share with your supervisor for approval.

PROPOSAL 

Your proposal (about 2-3 A4 pages) should explicate the following aspects:

• A working title
• Introduction and problem description
  • Motivates the research (What’s the problem/puzzle? Why is it relevant – theoretically and empirically?)
  • States the (overarching) research question
• Theoretical background
  • Which theories and concepts are used to address this question and why?
  • What is the state of the field in theoretical and empirical research (theories, empirical results and research gap/issue)?
  • Which specific sub-questions result from this framework?
  • Is there a preliminary conceptual model?
• Intended method (literature review, qualitative study, quantitative study)
  • Research design
  • Data collection
  • Data analysis
• Preliminary structure of thesis
• Expected timeline
• Core references 

COLLOQUIUM/FORUM
Based on current study regulations, Bachelor students are required to take a Bachelor Colloquium, and Master students a Master Forum. You may select any of the ones on offer.

THE FINAL THESIS: STRUCTURE AND FORMAL REQUIREMENTS
Final theses composed at the Professorship for Entrepreneurship and Organization Studies adhere to the style guide of the Institute of Management & Organization (see below). The submission format is set by the current study regulations.

DEFENSE (only for Bachelor Theses)
Upon submission, we will begin to assess your final thesis. Once this is complete, we will set up a meeting (online or in person) in which you will get to defend your final thesis. This meeting will take about 30 min. For this meeting, we ask you to prepare a 5-min summary of the key arguments of your final thesis (slides are optional). This summary will serve as a springboard the subsequent discussion.