Bachelor's and Master's Theses
Students who are interested in writing their thesis in Marketing in the Digital Economy (Prof. Dr. Andrea Giuffredi-Kähr) must follow our requirements. BA and MA theses can be written in either German or English.
Students writing their thesis with us engage with current, data-driven research questions that are theoretically informed and practically relevant. Methodologically, our theses tend to be quantitative (e.g., experiments), but we do offer qualitative theses on occasion (e.g., literature reviews). Many projects build directly on real-world marketing problems, particularly in branding and digital consumer behavior, including influencer marketing and online retailing (more details in the research focus).
Our topics are published on the Business Theses Market of the department. You are also invited to propose your own topics there: https://theses.business.uzh.ch
The guidelines of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics are binding. All necessary information on the general framework, graduation dates, the application, the OLAT process and the registration for graduation can be found here: https://www.oec.uzh.ch/en/studies/theses.htm
Application: Prerequisites and Documents Needed
You can apply for a thesis with us via the Theses Market of the Department of Business Administration. For the application we require the following information:
- Curriculum vitae (PDF-document)
- Transcript of records showing attended courses of the marketing group (PDF-document)
- Each topic may require additional special prerequisites and knowledge as stated in the project description, for instance programming skills (e.g. R, SPSS, Python)
- Motivation letter stating your interest in the topic and your ability to fulfill all requirements. The letter must also include the confirmation to fulfill or have fulfilled the following prerequisites:
- Availability of required time to complete a thesis within 6 months: BA = at least 540 hours, MA = at least 900 hours
- Having notice of the guidelines of the faculty and of the current “Guidelines for writing your thesis in Marketing in the Digital Economy (PDF, 247 KB)”
- Having well-founded knowledge in literature research as offered in the module “Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten” (EAW) and in the workshop on Literature Research in Business, Finance, and Economics offered by the university library
Writing a Thesis in Marketing in the Digital Economy
The requirements are defined in our guidelines (PDF, 247 KB).
Writing a thesis is a full-time job. For a bachelor’s thesis you must invest at least 540 hours within 6 months (18 Credits * 30h), for a master’s thesis at least 900 hours (30 Credits * 30h), which corresponds to almost 40h a week during the whole period.
The table (PDF, 91 KB) shows the process starting with the application for a topic several months before the intended start and the milestones within the 6 months that our faculty allocates for the completion of a BA or MA thesis.
Preparation for the application:
- Carefully read our Guidelines for BA and MA theses
- Familiarize yourself with prerequisites, dates, and topics.
- Chose a topic in the theses market and prepare the required documents for the application.
- Refresh your knowledge acquired in the mandatory module “Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten” (EAW) and consult the information and videos offered for eEconomics on the website of the University Library Zurich
- In addition, we also recommend to visit the online course of the library through a self-test evaluating your knowledge: https://dlf.uzh.ch/openbooks/studifitkurs/ and the workshop on Literature Research in Business, Finance, and Economics offered twice a year in DE and EN
Registration and Submission via OLAT
Once you agreed with a supervisor on the offered topic, she or he will upload it on OLAT and send you a confirmation by e-mail. In the same message, you’ll be invited to access the OLAT-group by using the given link.
Once you selected the link and thus joined the course, you have 24 hours to select the thesis topic. With your selection, your personal workflow on OLAT starts and the binding deadline will be recorded. You must submit your final thesis digitally in OLAT no later than this deadline. Theses submitted later are considered to have been failed. Please be aware that the deadline is defined to the minute precisely and this must be adhered to! You find all official information on the OLAT-process on the faculty page.
Supervision Process
There will be at least three meetings with your supervisor. The first meeting typically takes place at the beginning of the thesis to clarify the scope and address initial questions. The second meeting is scheduled once the proposal has been completed (approximately 3–5 weeks after the start date). The third meeting focuses on discussing the design and implementation of the empirical study (for empirical theses) and/or the development of the conceptual framework (for non-empirical theses).
After submission of your thesis in OLAT and before the thesis is being graded, and oral presentation of the thesis for the supervisors might be required.
Declaration and Agreements
The following documents have to be completed, signed and submitted together with the thesis: