So it turns out that although you do without a salary for a few years, from the age of 31 to 33 you earn more money for the rest of your life. Job insecurity has been increasing, especially since Corona, and distance universities are booming. But what exactly does it look like?

Current study on distance learning

To get a better insight I show them Trend study FernStudium 2021 in the following on. The study particularly emphasizes that Corona particularly promotes digital distance universities and is largely responsible for the boom in digital distance learning. In particular, the online campus, online lectures and online exams are meant but can also be reached by e-mail, online self-platforms and video recordings.

According to the study, 96% of the 6,400 respondents are satisfied with the course and 63% find it equivalent to face-to-face courses. More than 66% are continuing their education in their current job by studying and are hoping to take a higher position and take on more responsibility (approx. 50-60%). To this end, more than 60% of the students finance their studies with their own money or with family money. The employer only provides support in 30% of the cases or is not informed at all in almost 70 of the cases. According to the study, 60% of the graduates surveyed were able to change their careers. For 55% it was a better salary and for 50% better tasks. The learning time is often on the weekends and averages 8 hours.

My new position as a lecturer

In Germany there are almost 3 million students . Almost 10% of them are distance students. But the field has been growing massively since COVID. One of the largest distance learning universities with more than 30,000 students is the IU – internationale Hochschule. I started here as a lecturer alongside my full-time position since April 1st, 2021. I hope to be able to help students get a degree here. I’m already looking forward to my first lecture. I will take on a lecture in the business informatics course. It’s roughly about IT project management.

Conclusion

Distance learning can be worthwhile and often leads to a better position or higher salary. The majority are also satisfied with their studies and invest 8 hours a week in their studies. I’m also starting out as a lecturer at such a university and I’m looking forward to my first lecture. If you want to know more about the university, then write to me!

Der Beitrag Distance learning: facts and figures as well as my new position as an honorary lecturer erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

My tip: Find a clear aspect with a question and examine it deeply and comprehensibly.

In this article, I will use the metaphor of a landscape and binoculars to show you how to narrow down a topic for a thesis in a meaningful way and stay focused. I also give specific examples of how you can transfer the metaphor to topics.

My experience: As a graduate, it is important for you to be able to filter out specific parts of large and complex issues and to observe them in depth. You will be prepared for this with your thesis. An example is a large IT project that consists of 900,000 lines of software code. You have to look for specific aspects and work through them little by little. It is exactly the same in the thesis.

Choose your landscape and analyze individual aspects

Look at the picture. You will see a lighthouse, a narrow strip of coast and the sea. You examine a landscape that contains three elements. But that’s far too much for a thesis. It is therefore important to concentrate on one aspect. So first take a look around the landscape.

That means concretely : The landscape is an overarching theme, such as digitization. There are many aspects of the landscape that you can investigate. The lighthouse, the coastal strip and the sea each have an aspect such as technology, collaboration, IT service management, … – while the main topic (landscape) is found through brainstorming, you can find the aspects by looking around the landscape (literature analysis on digitization) .

At this point you know your main topic, e.g. digitization, and roughly know which aspect, e.g. agile teams, you want to investigate. At this point you can say that you are writing a thesis that examines something with, for example, digitization.

Find a part of the landscape that you want to study

Now it is not possible to observe the entire landscape but only a section. That means, like in my example, you have to pick a part. I chose the narrow coastal strip. Now the motto is: stay focused! Even if there is a cool party in the lighthouse and the Black Pearl swims on the sea. You don’t care at all! Stay on the narrow coastal strip with the action. In any case, don’t wander.

In concrete terms this means: You will examine digitization and the aspect of agile teams or the use of software for virtual collaboration. You can hide all other aspects such as legal frameworks, frameworks or costs, etc. Of course, that’s exciting, but you can then examine it after you’ve finished your thesis.

You are now ready to say that your thesis examines an agile team in digitization or collaboration technologies in the field of digitization, for example.

Find suitable binoculars for observing the landscape

Now it is time to look at the landscape with binoculars. But there is no such thing as “one pair of binoculars”, there are many. Binoculars 1 have wide-angle lenses, binoculars 2 darkened and binoculars 3 tele-angle lenses. Each binocular gives a different view of the landscape and shows different facets: very precise, dark, very distant, …

You can imagine for sure: if you give the binoculars to three people, each of them will tell you something different about the landscape. For example, one person would prefer to see the structure of the landscape with very little zoom and another more specific details such as plants on the coastal strip with a detailed lens.

Why are you doing that? The world is complex, and even if you have found the aspect, there are still many numerous angles to the aspect – Specifically: if you ask 10 people about agility, you will get 10 answers. So take a look at it. Furthermore, you prevent someone from saying: Well, for me the research is not right or I am missing the aspect. You can then say, for example, that the research was done from the perspective of top managers or from the perspective of costs.

In concrete terms this means: One point of view is your view of the world. From which point of view do you want to see the world or the aspect of the thesis? Examples are a group of people. Managers often see the world differently than employees. In this way, you examine agile teams from the point of view of employees, which also limits your interview partners and literature selection. Theories or certain aspects are also useful, such as conflict potentials of agile teams, cost efficiency of collaboration tools and much more.

You can now fully name the topic and also design the title. Examples are:

• Agile teams in the age of digitalization – a view from the perspective of executives
• Collaboration structures of virtual teams – an empirical survey of employees
• ERP Systems in SMEs – A Study of Cost Efficiency
• Virtual contract negotiations – a theoretical consideration based on the prisoner’s dilema

Bottom line: look at an aspect of the landscape with a specific pair of binoculars

You notice that it is easy to get bogged down with a thesis. It is therefore important to define a topic very well and to stay focused. To do this, first look for a landscape that you want to observe (main topic, e.g. digitization) and look around: What aspects of the landscape are there. You choose an aspect of the landscape such as the coastal strip and observe it very closely (e.g. agile teams or collaboration technologies).

Now you should also observe the aspect sensibly. Use binoculars to do this. But there is no such thing as “one pair of binoculars”, rather many with a wide variety of lenses. The lenses represent your point of view and help to limit the aspect of your thesis in a meaningful way through a group, theory or fact. Now it’s time to stay focused!

I hope this simple metaphor can help you with your thesis. Of course, you start with a detailed analysis of the literature. I have put together two reading tips for you.

• Reading tip: Find topic
• Reading tip: Find a topic with a practice partner

Der Beitrag Finding a topic, focusing and narrowing down theses:: The lighthouse binoculars metaphor erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Look at journals

Option 1 is that you go to the VHB Jourqual website and look at the rankings. On https://www.vhbonline.org/ look under tables for download. You will find the tables on various topics such as general business administration, business informatics or logistics and much more.

Now look at the Business Information Systems table and look at the journals by title. Does the title of a journal roughly correspond to your subject area? For example, the Journal of Computeral Finance might have useful articles on financial informatics. If you find such a journal, take a look directly at the journal. What topics were covered in the last three editions? For example, you can currently find topics such as IT governance, work 4.0, big data or smart products in one of my favorite magazines, the HMD Handbuch der Wirtschaftsinformatik. If you already have a specific topic in mind, feel free to look for which articles the magazine has recently published on it. If you have a good article take it as inspiration and build your work on it. Of course, you cite the article and explain the essential findings that form the basis of your work.

Academic databases

Another idea is that you are using an academic database. Examples are Emeraldinsight, Springerlink, Scholar or Sciencedirect. For example, you want to write about the agile organization. To do this, go to the Emeraldinsight website and search for Agile Organization. Then search for the search term and filter for “newest posts first”. Look at the headings for the past 12 months. Which topics are covered? In the example, these are the influence of agility on the supply chain, the influence of digitization on production, agile controlling and the influence of technology on agility.

Conclusion

Using these recommendations you can work out a topic quickly and easily and apply it to existing ones build scientific knowledge. You don’t need a lot of time for this. You need to look at the headings of the publications as a priority will quickly get a feel for the topics in your subject area are important and discussed. You should have found an interesting publication you should read this and see which other papers are cited there have been. You can and will also find other exciting publications quickly identify the foundation paper for your future thesis.

Reading tip: Find topic

Der Beitrag Problems finding the topic – Bachelor and Master thesis erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Abstract

Renowned scientists like to be seen as being from one other galaxies that are far superior to ordinary citizens. they seem endowed with magical abilities and a special gift. So or something like that is the cliché of a scientist in practice. Naturally The achievements of the scientists are often outstanding, but they also serve certain research designs to study complex problems. The Bachelor’s or master’s thesis is the last milestone for the degree Graduating and often introducing students for the first time with research designs in touch.

In this essential, the basics of the empirical Social research explained and recommendations for finding a topic for the Thesis given. Then four research designs are presented, supplemented by tips for cooperation with a practice partner. recommendations on dealing with topics such as plagiarism and citation style round off the essentials. The content should teach lecturers and students from the fields of business administration and business informatics as an aid in the conception and creation of a Thesis serve.

who should read this essential

• Lecturers and students from the field of Business administration and business informatics

Tags

• Bachelor thesis
• master thesis
• Expert interview
• Literature analysis
• survey
• Grounded Theory

What You can find in this essential

• Basics and background to empirical social research
• Definition of a scientific topic
• seven Research designs in business informatics
• Thesis with practice partner

Der Beitrag New book: “Research designs in business informatics – recommendations for bachelor and master theses” with Springer-Verlag in progress erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Both methods represent a counter to classical research. They make concrete interventions in the environment and use new methods to solve problems. The actual research is not the data collection but the way to the solution or the development of the prototype. At the same time, this is also the big criticism: You produce a solution that is quite subjective and strongly tailored to a problem.

In business informatics it is usually used to develop a software prototype. If you are programming software, then this approach can be useful.

Approach of the methods

Design Science consists of two processes: “Build” and “Evaluate”. The background is the creation of a prototype or software. Before performing Design Science, you should plan a system concept and the test environment.

In this example in the figure, we want to develop software for measuring service innovations, which was my bachelor thesis. What is important is not the prototype but the way to get there. So the search process for the solution. Incidentally, the design science can include a small literature analysis in advance, if necessary. The figure shows that the procedure often contains different iterations. In bachelor theses, however, I often experience that it is just an iteration.

To evaluate the software, you should combine another procedure such as an interview or questionnaire. In this way, the solution competence of the prototype can be ensured and feedback can be collected. You usually proceed in iterations: Prototype -> Feedback -> Prototype -> Feedback etc.

Conclusion

Clearly, both methods are very suitable if you want to develop a prototype or software for your thesis. Criticism lies in the “hands-on” mentality of the approach as a poorly defined scientist and a more practical approach. Some researchers therefore reject the design science methodology. I then recommend the more established action research to be preferred.

Both methods aim to solve problems through analysis, action, evaluation and adaptation in different iterations. An alternative could also be used in action research in testing theories in practice through a prototype.

For experienced programmers, the creation of software is a good way to get away from classic research methods in the thesis and to create something “to touch” but still use a scientific method.

Der Beitrag Thesis: Building a prototype with action research and design science erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Details of the individual citation styles

In this paragraph, I would first like to show you exactly how a quote is made in the APA style. First, note the sources in the bibliography. An example is:

Lindner, D (2019). SMEs in digital change . Heidelberg: Springer Gabler.

Tip: Use one for this Source management program . I use Mendeley. These are free and help with work. Once you’ve put this in, there are two ways to cite the source:

• Indirectly: According to Lindner (2019) … // Agility is important (Lindner 2019)
• Direct: “It is important that we are agile” (Lindner 2019, p. 5)

For the other citation styles has Scribbr already an overview very well summarized.

Special cases when quoting

Now there are some special cases that often present students with great challenges. These are:

• Cite website
• Cite articles with no author or year

Quoting a website is very easy. Just take the URL and search for an author such as this article: Dominic Lindner or take Agile Companies. You then need a request date.

IfM. (2017). Definitions of SMEs and Mittelstand. Retrieved from https://www.ifm-bonn.org/definUNGEN/ viewed at 05/05/2020.

Now there are some white papers with no year. This is also quite easy, just use: Lindner (no year) – that means without a year. It is only important that you can assign the sources in the text. You can quote as follows even without an author: oA (2015). However, I think that you should always find an author in the paper. If necessary, it is a company like Capgemini or they take the middle part of the URL, for example: Agile companies. This shouldn’t happen unless you find a source in a message in a bottle that washed up on you.

Try to use sources without year and author only very rarely and only if there is no other way.

Correct description of sources and non-academic sources

No matter which of the four types of citation you choose: You have to present the selected literature, i.e. write it down.

You are now using sources to create a text. Once you run a source, you should also describe it well. Answer the following questions:

• Is it a study or a practice article?
• What was the author’s goal / context?
• How did the author research?
• What are the most important results in terms of my research question?

Reading tip: Literature analysis

To make this clearer for you, I will show a small example based on two sources on the subject of “efficiency of agile teams”. The first is a practice source and the other is an academic source.

In a textbook, Gloger (2012) explains that teams can achieve greater efficiency using the Scum method and that such methodologies in particular are a sensible solution for introducing agility in many teams. The author only uses his own experience and individual cases from his professional environment for argumentation, but gives exciting impulses. The study by Lindner et al. (2018). In a group discussion with 6 SME decision-makers from Germany, the authors conclude that complex projects such as process digitization require greater autonomy in the execution of work and exploratory procedures, which is given by agile methods and leads to greater success.

You will notice that I have always named the authors and the research goal. Then I presented the methodology (e.g. interviews with 300 agile teams from SMEs in Ireland) as well as the most important results for the research question. You pack source to source according to this scheme. You also notice that I have set a limit for the practical – not academic – textbook. I showed. that it is a specialist book and that the findings are not based on academic methods but on personal experience.

Reading tip: Can I only use academic literature?

Conclusion

You will notice that quoting is not difficult and that you have to adhere to rules that have been formulated. You should just read them and familiarize yourself with them. To do this, use a literature management program and it will be easier. Note a few special cases and write down the literature sensibly.

swell

Gloger, B. (2013). Scrum . Munich: Hanser Verlag.

Lindner, D., Ludwig, T., & Amberg, M. (2018). Work 4.0 – Concepts for a new way of working in SMEs. HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik , 6th (1), 17.

Der Beitrag How do I properly describe and cite sources? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

The basics create a basis for the reader and is like a lexicon

The basics are the foundation of the work and explain the most important terms without reference to the research question. As a first step, you have to consider which terms you want to include. I always recommend using the terms from the title and research question. For example: Effects of digitization on SMEs with a focus on knowledge-intensive service providers – should contain the words digitization, SMEs and knowledge work. You can now include terms that are often used in your work, such as Scrum. You should also define all research methods used (explanation, advantages and disadvantages).

Important: The aim is that you give the reader a basis so that he can understand your work. You do not have to carry out a literature analysis but explain the terms and research methods to the reader in a completely general way, just like in a lexicon.

You can imagine the structure like a Wikipedia page or a lexicon like the Gabler Lexicon. For example, you want to explain work. The Gabler Lexicon already has the term here very well lit from every nook and cranny. Quote the article, mix in 2-3 sources and you have already explained the term meaningfully. The same is also true for research methods. I recommend 1-2 pages per term for terms and 2-3 pages for research methods.

Show in the pages what the term means in various contexts and end each sub-chapter with: In this work the term is understood as XY or, in the case of research methods: There are numerous ways to carry out a literature analysis. In this work the methodology of Webster and Watson is preferred. I recommend setting up the thesis like this (Chapter 1 is the introduction):

Chapter 2: Research methodological fundamentals with sub-chapters
2.1 Basics of empirical research
2.2 Literature analysis
2.3. Expert interviews
2.4. Qualitative survey

Chapter 3: Conceptual Basics
2.1 SMEs
2.2. digitalization
2.3 Knowledge work

Important: Of course, you also have to do a little literature search on Google and databases. But this is far less detailed than the main analysis. You just have to define the term meaningfully without reference to the research question.

The literature analysis examines a wide variety of contents and has a precise procedure

A search in academic databases using search strings describes, summarizes, evaluates, clarifies and integrates similar results and approaches ( Fettke 2006). Although this does not primarily generate new knowledge, it can help to structure the existing knowledge and to build on it. The procedure includes the literature search, literature evaluation and analysis and interpretation in the context of the research question.

A literature analysis follows a precise procedure such as

• Webster and Watson 2002 (is the original paper for literature analysis)
• Fettke 2006 (a good addition to business informatics)
• Vom Brocke et al. 2009 (Deepens the search for literature again)
• Mayring 2000 (Deepens the evaluation of the literature again)

So you show exactly how you searched for literature and only evaluate meaningful content in the context of the research question. I have already written a large article about it, which I attach as a reading tip.

Reading tip: Literature analysis

Conclusion

You notice that the basics, as the name suggests, provide a foundation and have nothing directly to do with the research question, but rather lay a foundation that someone is able to understand your work. The literature analysis, on the other hand, follows a precise scheme and provides findings adapted to the research question.

Der Beitrag Bachelor or master thesis: what is the difference between basics and literature analysis? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

As a rule, you present results and research methods neutrally and show what you have found without commenting too much. For example, you list the content of literature or statements from interviews that you have done.

Now it is important to discuss these results and to show the reader what can be hidden behind the data and which statements in current literature are the same which contradict which and which limitations there may be.

example : You walk into a room with 5 people and 2 pictures. In the results, they describe what these people look like, what they do and which images are in the room. In the following, you will discuss what connection the people could have, what the images could mean and much more.

Discussion of the research design

What is often and happily forgotten is a discussion of research design. Often students use a literature analysis and expert interviews because it fits. But why did you choose these methods and what separates them from other methods and what might have come out of a different research design?

Reading tip: Limitation of research methods

You should know exactly the advantages and disadvantages of research methods (see reading tip). First, discuss why you used the research methods and point out the benefits. For example, qualitative research is more suitable for exploratory issues and quantitative research is more suitable for standardizable issues. Surveys are particularly well suited to recording a large number in order to achieve a higher general validity, but interviews help to explore rather unknown fields with open questions. You may also find similar studies that have used a similar approach. In contrast, what did you do differently and what was better?

Remember that you should justify the methods well. To do this, you must first familiarize yourself with the methods and deal with them. I’ve written an article on almost every methodology on the blog. These can certainly provide an initial orientation.

discussion of the results

In this part you discuss the results. Are there possible connections between the results, which are new, which have already been mentioned in the existing literature and many other questions. Possible limitations and approaches for further research are also part of the discussion. The important thing is to interpret the results and, above all, to clearly present surprising facts. For example: it is not uncommon for companies to have significantly more technology than they did a few years ago, but it would be surprising if, for example, it is said that the budgets should no longer be there. Also delimit the results of similar studies. Do you have similar results or do they differ?

This part is particularly difficult because, in contrast to the research methods (clear advantages and disadvantages), you can only orient yourself, if at all, on possible similar studies. So you need to fully understand your findings and write down critical questions and discuss them. This requires a lot of personal effort and hardly anyone can help you with it.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the discussion is one of the hardest parts of a thesis. It distinguishes very good from good work and shows how well you have understood the topic. While the collection of data, for example interviews, follows a stringent procedure, you have to think hard in the discussion and examine and discuss the data from all aspects. Take enough time to write down critical questions before the discussion and try to discuss them.

A high-quality discussion is the hallmark of a good scientist!

Der Beitrag Discussions in the thesis erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

What are academic sources?

The supervisor must have told you to use academic literature. But what is academic? Of the VHB-JOURQUAL3 is a ranking of economically relevant journals based on the judgments of the VHB members. The VHB4 should also come soon.

Over 1,100 members of the VHB have made a total of 64,113 reviews of magazines in the last few months. Of the 934 journals that were up for review, 651 journals exceeded the threshold of 25 reviews and received a rating. These are divided as follows:

• 22 outstanding and globally leading scientific journals in the field of business administration (A + = 3.4%),
• 72 leading academic business journals (A = 11.1%),
• 217 important and respected scientific business journals (B = 33.3%),
• 273 recognized academic business journals (C = 41.9%) and
• 59 scientific business journals (D = 9.1%).

The advantages are that academic sources are carefully checked for quality by so-called reviewers and are therefore more mature than a journalistic article. Academic articles can be quoted at any time and you can choose one of the usual styles (APA, Havard Style, …). As a rule, you mark the source in the text as Lindner (2018) or, in the case of direct quotations: “Example text” (Lindner 2018, p. 5) with page number. You can collectively collect the sources using a tool such as Mendeley or Citavi and generate a list of sources. I am deliberately not explaining that software does all of the work for you.

Reading tip: Source management

Can I no longer use sources from practice?

I think fundamentally that practical sources are just as relevant and why should good sources from practice not be able to be used in the work? Of course, you should use such sources with a certain amount of caution and labeling. A practical source usually indicates a lack of quality control and often high subjectivity or journalistic background. I give three examples of how I use a practical source after an academic source:

Example 1: In the context of SMEs, the topic of big data is also being examined in a dedicated manner. Ivers et al. (2016) 152 SMEs from Ireland on the topic of Big Data. The results are that big data is viewed rather hesitantly due to the lack of financial power and the high costs of data protection. Niebler and Lindner (2019) express further concerns and risks in a practical specialist book and see them in the area of data protection, possible monitoring, manipulation and uselessness of the evaluations of big data. – taken from Lindner and Leyh (2019)

Example 2: Lindner et al. (2018) examined three SMEs in a study and found that work 4.0 scenarios such as remote work, agile methods, flextime, freedom of choice in IT, flexible employment contracts, home office and much more lead to a higher level of satisfaction among specialists as well as a successful Recruiting in SMEs can be achieved. A practical study by the recruiting company Hays (2018) shows that a lot is tested in the context of agility, but not everything works. taken from Lindner and Leyh (2019)

Example 3: In a study by the Federal Association of the German Aerospace Industry (2019) it was found that around half a million drones are currently in commercial use. A concrete example is above all DHL: According to an article in a trade journal, the company says that in field trials since 2014, parcels have been delivered with drones (DHL Paketkopter T3N 2018). taken from Lindner (2019)

It is important that you explain the sources correctly and classify them into academic and non-academic sources. They distance themselves from the sources and show the content neutrally. Undertone: Here reader: There are different sources that I present to you from academy and practice.

In any case, coordinate the use of practical sources with the supervisor beforehand, as some supervisors do not tolerate practical sources. This is a matter of opinion.

Reading tip: Literature analysis

How do I correctly quote sources from practice?

Sources from practice are often PDF’s, magazines or blog articles like this one. Basically, you quote exactly the same with the exception that you often specify a retrieval date. Example:

Wirtschaftswoche (2019) – Article name accessed on April 14, 2020. domain.de/article_name

Often you will not find the author’s name or the year. For the year you can either use the current year or the abbreviation for no year – example: Wirtschaftswoche (oJ) If you cannot find an author, then take a look at the URL or in the imprint of the website. For example, you could cite my blog article under Dominic Lindner or Agile-Unternehmen.de. You can also cite studies by Capgemini or Accenture simply by naming the company. Note: Check out the copyrights a little beforehand. For example, it is always possible to use graphics from academic papers (Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 3.0) by naming them. You can always find the licenses on the pages of the journals. In the academy this is always this license in 99% of the cases. In practice books, the license belongs to the publishers and you should at least make sure that you are allowed to take it. If necessary, write to the author.

Reading tip: Quotes here in the blog

Conclusion

Practical sources are often a great addition and round off the work because they contain further relevant information. However, it is important to use them carefully and with a certain distance. In general, I think that any work should always present both practical and academic sources according to relevance. In my work, practical sources are always delimited by a note for the reader.

Swell:

Lindner, D., & Leyh, C. (2019). Digitization of SMEs – questions, recommendations for action and implications for IT organization and IT service management. HMD – Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik , 22.

https://www.hays.de/documents/10192/118775/hays-studie-effizienz-und-agilitaet.pdf/e16bd7c5-3d70-ef68-7466-4fffd4d89d90

Federation of the German aerospace industry. (2019). The German drone market . Retrieved from https://www.bdli.de/meldung/der-deutsche-drohnenmarkt-hat-grosses-potenzial-deutschland-darf-aber-international-nicht. Seen 10.10.2019

T3N. (2018). DHL delivers parcels by drone for the first time. Retrieved from https://t3n.de/news/dhl-privatkunden-paket-drohne-705041. seen 07/18/2018

Niebler, P. & Lindner, D. (2019). Data-based decision-making – a guide for entrepreneurs and decision-makers. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.

Lindner, D., Ludwig, T., & Amberg, M. (2018). Work 4.0 – Concepts for a new way of working in SMEs. HMD – Practice of Business Informatics , 55 (1)

Lindner, D. (2019). SMEs in digital change – results from empirical studies on work, leadership and organization. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.

Ivers, AM, Byrne, J. & Byrne, PJ. (2016). Analysis of SME data readiness: a simulation perspective. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development , 23 (1), 163-188. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSBED-03-2014-0046

Der Beitrag Should I only use academic sources and how do I quote correctly? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

In this article I would like to address a very frequently asked question: “I plan to XY, can I do it like that?”. Examples are:

• I want to include non-academic sources in my work
• I would like to do expert interviews before the literature analysis
• I would like to include a study that has limited relevance to the topic

First of all, the good answer: You can basically do anything if you meet two criteria:

• You justify it sufficiently in the work
• You coordinate it with the supervisor

I recommend this approach for anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Coordinating with the supervisor is quite easy and I don’t think you need any tips. Make an appointment and explain the advantages of your new approach in a meaningful way. Now we come to the justification. Here students stumble often and I would like to give some help in the form of examples.

example 1 : You can justify the inclusion of specialist literature (non-academic) very easily, stating that the study is not academic but can still add value to the topic.

Example 2: You want to do an expert interview before the literature analysis because you want to narrow down the topic in this way. Just write that: Due to the complexity of the topic, relevant content will be narrowed down through an open interview with experts.

Example 3: You don’t want to define your terms in the basics because there are too many and are often only used in one place. The important terms of this thesis are defined in the course of the thesis because they are only used in places and for better readability.

You will see that it is very easy. Just don’t hesitate and tell the reader clearly why you are deviating from one possible standard and why you are considering other steps. Whoever has justified has nothing to fear in the end – provided the supervisor agrees to your work.

Der Beitrag Bachelor or master thesis: Can I do it this way? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.