Why should you write your thesis at IMSM?

• We offer you the opportunity to gain insights in the field of Interactive Marketing & Social Media.

• You will use quantitative methods to analyze big data.

• Your topic will have practical relevance and could include working with an industry partner.

• You will get the opportunity to actively participate in conducting state-of-the-art research in a young and interdisciplinary team. 

Who can write a final thesis with us?

We prioritize supervising students of marketing SBWLs, specifically Digital Marketing, but we also supervise students in the BBE program and students of other SBWLs.

It is important that you are familiar with the general rules of writing a scientific paper, for example, by taking a“Grundlagen des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens” course (GWA). 

All final theses written with us have to be based on empirical evidence and include a quantitative analysis. That is why you should be comfortable programming and applying quantitative methods.We do not supervise literature reviews.

Choosing a topic

• Take a look at the list of currently available topics to find out if any of them match your preferences.

• Apply for the chosen topic by filling in an application form (available here in German and here in English) and sending it to the supervisor mentioned in the topic announcement.

After you send us your application, your potential supervisor will invite you for an interview to meet you and explain the topic to you in more detail. After that, if the feedback from our side is positive, and you are still interested in the topic, we expect you to make a decision whether to accept the topic within no more than a week.

In very rare cases, we also supervise theses which emerge from students' own topic ideas. If you have an idea for a topic, specify it in the application form. Make sure that it (1) clearly connects to our research areas, and (2) describes your research questions, hypotheses, planned methods, and managerial implications. Send it to the supervisor that you think would best suit your topic, or to Alicja Grzadziel. Please be aware that finding a suitable topic on your own is very hard, and we usually do not suggest you go down that route. We recommend selecting a topic from our list of open topics.

Writing your proposal (exposé)

Your first important task is to write an exposé to clarify the topic of your thesis and the way you plan to approach the research problem. The exposé is a contract between you and your supervisor, so that it is clear what we expect you to deliver. It is also intended to help you structure your thesis well, and it should cover:

• a working title of your thesis;

• the motivation of the research problem;

• identification of the research gap and clear contribution of your work;

• your planned approach of how to solve the problem, including a proposed research method;

• managerial implications of your work;

• short outline of the thesis;

• preliminary literature list;

• a plan of your work stages, including biweekly milestones.

Your supervisor will provide feedback on three different versions of your exposé  (+ you’ll get one-time feedback from Prof. Dr. Abou Nabout). After each round you will have the opportunity to revise it. This process should take no longer than 4 weeks.

If the proposal is in line with our requirements after the three rounds of feedback, your bachelor thesis topic will be officially registered. 

Please note that we put considerable effort into editing your exposé, but we do not provide feedback on any other written part of your thesis before you officially submit it.

BBE Students: Before diving into your thesis writing process, you will have to fill in the Bachelor's Thesis Agreement and upload it in the BBE Bachelor's Thesis Agreement Canvas WU Club (new from July 10th 2023).

Writing your thesis

During the writing process, please keep your supervisor up to date on your progress. 

It is important to follow the formatting and writing guidelines of a bachelor thesis. You can find the guidelines for writing the thesis on the Department's website (in German and in English), where you can also find a thesis template with information on the formatting requirements, referencing rules, as well as specific tips for writing different parts of the thesis.

Use of AI-powered tools

We are not against using AI-powered tools. However, when you use AI in the writing process, it should mainly be to improve readability and language of your thesis (think of tools for checking grammar or spelling, reference managers, etc.).

When using generative AI tools (GPT, Bard, Copy.AI, …), you should carefully phrase your prompts, and always review and edit the result, as AI may generate output that can be biased, incomplete, or simply incorrect.

If you have used a generative AI tool at any point in the process of writing your thesis, you should include this statement at the end of your work:

While writing this thesis I used [NAME of TOOL] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool, I carefully reviewed and edited the content as needed. I take full responsibility for the content of my thesis, and I understand that an unacknowledged but detected use of generative AI will be considered as academic fraud.

Handing in your thesis

You should submit your thesis no later than 12 weeks after the official registration. The submission process includes the following steps:

• Fill out the cover page (in German or English) and place it at the beginning of your thesis.

• Upload your thesis via Learn@WU. Once your thesis is submitted, it cannot be changed.

• Once you submit your thesis, it is automatically checked for plagiarism. This includes both a check for similarity to published work and an AI-writing check. This website contains all the relevant information on plagiarism and on how cases of (suspected) plagiarism are dealt with at WU.

• Send your supervisor a copy of the thesis in .docx format, along with all data you used, and your commented analysis code.

Grading

• Generally, we will try to correct and grade your thesis within 4 weeks.

• Your thesis will be graded based on a grading scheme, which you will get from your supervisor at the beginning of the writing process. 

• Please make sure you meet all the prerequisites for your grade in LPIS.

• You will be informed about your grade via LPIS. Congratulations!

Links

• List of our open topics

• Topic application form: English and German

• WU final thesis guidelines: WISO and BBE