For many students, the thesis is initially a book with seven seals. The tasks are clear: should you do research and not write a term paper and find a topic? Quite a lot of effort! In this article I would like to provide the basics of empirical research so that you can understand: What is research? Reading tip: Find topic There are many types of research. I am concerned with empirical social research in this article because it is the dominant mode for business informatics and economics. Empirical social research mainly deals with social and human issues (Döring and Bortz 2015). Use cases in the context of companies and society are: Research into behaviorResearch into doingExploration of coexistenceExploring the experience of people. Research means collecting data Your goal is to scientifically investigate facts and to obtain so-called reliable knowledge. To investigate such issues, you need to collect empirical data through…

You have been writing your thesis for some time and now you are slowly beginning to despair. Then you have put the topic too far or the supervisor criticizes you all the time and you just don’t know what to do? I would like to give you two tips on this. Tip 1: take a little distance! Most of the time you are in tunnel vision yourself and can no longer think clearly. You’re stuck and can’t really come up with a meaningful idea. My tip would be to take a break for 1-2 days and go for a drink with friends. Then talk to your supervisor in peace and watch the work from a distance. Tip 2: less is more! I often notice that the students keep the subject far too ready and complex. Interviews should be paired with a survey, which lead to an ultimate framework. This framework…

Are you starting your thesis soon and are you looking for a topic right now? Are you also currently planning to develop a framework similar to the Nobel Prize and to agilize the whole of Germany or to re-prove major theories? That’s great, but also a lot of effort. You are a young researcher! Start with small steps! You always have to keep in mind that this is your first (bachelor thesis) or second (master thesis) real research work. If I used a research method in my doctorate, I usually first attended a 3-day seminar and learned it properly. So you first have to learn a lot in the empirical and research theory basics. Ask yourself the following questions: What is a structured literature analysis according to Mayring?How does this differ from Webster and Watson?How do I perform a correlation analysis and what is the difference to regression analysis?How can…

You don’t know exactly how you want to proceed with your thesis and you are considering whether it should be quantitative or qualitative? Then I have good news: just do both! Reading tip: Qualitative and quantitative research Mixed Method combines the advantages of both types The mixed method approach means that you use various quantitative and qualitative research methods (Kuckhartz 2014). The advantages are that a research question can be illuminated by several research methods. The advantage of the thesis is that you can shed light on a question in two ways and make findings that were not possible on purely qualitative or quantitative research (Roch 2017). Different variants of the mixed method approach There are different versions of the mixed method approach. To do this, look at the following illustration. The mixed method approaches usually have a dominant research method. This can be qualitative or quantitative. It is seldom…

You know that: The bachelor thesis – you start and want to change the world: Build a framework that completely changes companies or a new type of theory to scale agility in the company! I think these visions are really great, but perhaps as a young researcher you should narrow it down a bit in your first research paper to only 30 pages. I often get calls and inquiries for help for one Bachelor thesis in my telephone hours . I would therefore like to shed some light on the dark in this article. Let’s be honest: The primary goal of the bachelor thesis is to learn something and to get the degree. You can still change the world afterwards in your doctorate. Mistake 1: A bachelor thesis does not solve a practical problem or utopia At the beginning, many of you spoke to a practice partner or supervisor and…

You are currently writing your thesis or are just in the initial phase and ask yourself: ” What is actually my result? “You have a specific research question but you don’t know exactly what a result might look like? I would like to explain three possible ways of finding the results of a thesis in more detail. Hypotheses Theses are not subject to any specific set of rules and are therefore vaguely defined. In science, however, one uses the hypothesis which is more specifically defined and creates a connection between at least two variables. Examples are: Agile companies generate more sales than traditional companies.With Scrum, work results can be achieved faster than with Kanban.Employees in agile teams require less salary than employees in traditional teams. You will notice that I always put 2 variables in context. You have the following options for deriving hypotheses in your thesis: Formulate hypotheses at…

Every big project starts with the first step and your work starts with a good introduction. This should take the reader with it and give an overview of the thesis. An introduction is not only good for the reader, but also for your supervisor. The introduction can serve as an expose to make a topic palatable to the supervisor. An expose is according to the Dudens a written and explanatory summary of the facts. An introduction or an expose consists of the following building blocks: introduction to the topicMotivation on the subjectDefinition and explanationCurrent figures and reference to the topicExisting knowledge on the topicCriticism and Research GapApproach of the work and expected results Download tip: Example of a good introduction introduction to the topic With the first sentence you pick up the reader. Imagine that the reader has just cleaned their apartment and is now reading your work. So mentally…

Are you currently looking for a topic for a thesis and you don’t yet know exactly how to proceed? Are you looking for literature and want to form a topic from it but you cannot find anything or the supervisor does not accept the topic? Then I would like to show you three ways that can help you with this dilemma! Tip: You should roughly know in which direction you want to go, eg big data, agility, etc. If you don’t already know, then take a look at mine Topic areas for digitization as inspiration. Requirement: existing literature In the academy you always build your knowledge on other studies (existing knowledge). So to do this you need to find other studies first. It is not or hardly possible to research a topic freely without literature in the thesis. You can do that if you later want to win the Nobel…