Final Thesis

Students working on their final thesis for gradutation should show and improve their ability to work on a recent, scientific or practice-oriented, research topic. 

Thesis content

We accept both empirical and conceptual theses, but please note that the amount of work will be approximately the same for both. Even if you want to focus on a topic particularly relevant for practitioners your thesis needs to have a sound theoretical basis and must fulfill the requirements of a scientific thesis. Please note accordingly that you cannot submit a practice-only topic, e.g., a business plan, as your thesis.

In case you intend to write a thesis on a topic of your choice, we further require you to submit a proposal. This proposal should be about 1⁄2-1 page (single-spaced), and clearly specify (1) your research question, (2) how this research question ties into an ongoing academic debate, (3) how, for this debate, your question is at least to some degree novel, interesting, and relevant, and (4) how you plan to answer your research question. Accordingly, we expect to see engagement with academic literature already in the proposal.

Additional information for theses in Innovation and Organization Design (Prof. Alexy)

Requirements

• Bachelor thesis: Successful participation in the lecture "Introduction to Entrepreneurship", and successful completion of a project study at the Entrepreneurship Research Institute
• Master thesis: Successful participation in at least one Advanced Seminar (Advanced Topics Seminar is not sufficient) offered by the Entrepreneurship Research Institute

Procedure

Please check the descriptions of available topics below for further details. If you believe that one of the topic fits your interests and your study program, please contact the potential advisor directly for your application.

If you intend to work on a self-selected topic, please check our team members’ research interests for a potential advisor and apply with a proposal (please note the requirements listed above and below) to the team member directly.

If you unsure which team member to contact, or if you think multiple team members could advise you, please send only one email to our thesis coordinator who can also answer any questions you may still have.

Application

To apply for a thesis, please provide the following information:

• Short letter of motivation (please indicate your preferred topic or provide a sketch of your self-selected topic)
• Curriculum vitae
• Current transcript of records
• Proposal (required for topics proposed by students, optional for topics proposed by us)

We do not consider incomplete applications.

Duration

• Bachelor thesis: 3 months
• Master thesis: 6 months

Supervision

In addition to individual supervision, we offer a seminar on academic research and writing (2 days) to support our students in the thesis writing process. The seminar is mandatory for all students writing their thesis with the Chair of Entrepreneurship (Prof. Patzelt) and the Professorship in Entrepreneurial Behavior (Prof. Breugst). For the Professorship Strategic Entrepreneurship (Prof. Alexy) the seminar is mandatory for students who have not successfully completed the Advanced Seminar in Strategic Entrepreneurship, and highly recommended to the students who have.

You will find important guidlines, information, and suggestions for theses and seminar papers written at our institute at this page.

Note that legal regulations are made by the administration of TUM School of Management. Please contact them in case of any ambiguities.