Bachelor’s thesis:

Students, who are interested in writing their bachelor’s thesis at the Chair of Entrepreneurship, need to specify Prof. Raith as first choice in the centralized application procedure. The exact timing of the thesis is done by the examination office at the end of the previous semester. Bachelor’s theses and the corresponding final seminar are only offered in the summer semester by our chair. Management and Entrepreneurship students willing to write the final paper in the winter semester are kindly asked to contact the chair of Prof. Spengler. Approximately two weeks before the beginning of the semester we publish a list of potential thesis topics on our website. We coordinate the exact assignment of the topics after registration closing at the first organizational meeting. For this purpose, please send a ranking of three subjects you are interested in to steffen.burchhardt@ovgu.de or christoph.starke@ovgu.de

We strongly encourage own topics for the bachelor’s thesis. These should be previously introduced in a personal conversation about literature, aims of the work and first approaches. After the topics have been assigned students are allowed a two-week reading time. In the following week all participants will present their topics in a colloquium (10-12 minutes), which primarily has a guiding character. In the colloquium the precise orientation and initial approaches are discussed to specify the broad topic. Towards the end of the eight weeks of preparation a second round of presentations (10-12 minutes) will be held at which all participants present the main results of their work for discussion.

In preparation it is recommended to attend the Academic Skills Coue during winter term, which is provided by the Chair of Entrepreneurship as well to ensure the best possible preparation for scientific work. In addition, it is recommended to attend the elective course “Venture Creation” in advance of or parallel to this course. A broad overview of the range of topics is provided by the course “Entrepreneurship” in the first semester.

Master’s thesis

Students interested in writing their master thesis at the Chair of Entrepreneurship should have successfully completed two seminars of our chair within their master’s program. Master's theses can be registered in both the summer and winter term. Interested students should dispute well with the search for a custom topic before the semester starts. A general reading in the entrepreneurship literature and course material is particularly useful as a starting point. In preparation for an initial meeting with the chair an about two-pages long document should be sent by e-mail describing the problem and target of the thesis as well as giving literature classification. At the same time the issue needs to be motivating fundamentally, briefly describing the methodology and outlining initial ideas. These information serve as a basis for discussion with one representative of the academic staff of the chair to state the topic precisely and to determine an appropriate supervisor. As supervisors all employees of the interaction center are considered referring to the scientific profiles. In exceptional cases, a subject can be determined by the chair as well. Shortly before the start of the semester, when the topic should already be described precisely, a 20-minute presentation serves to introduce the first literature review, the specification of the scientific method and the other schedule. Research assistants than arrow in the subsequent discussion on the basis of the presented structure of the work and give support to the thematic focus. The official notification of the Master’s thesis at the examination office follows directly by submitting the questionnaire to the chair. Starting than, a period of 5 months preparation time is granted. The second presentation in the Master's Degree Seminar is designated to the discussion of the results approximately two to three weeks after releasing the results serving as a defense declamation.

For both colloquia there is a mandatory attendance for all students who currently prepare a master’s thesis at our chair. This way, students get deep insights into further areas of entrepreneurial research and get to know different scientific approaches at the same time. 

Format of the thesis

The attached template serves as an orientation for the layout of the theses.