The Chair of Innovation Economics and Entrepreneurship supervises bachelor and master theses in the fields of Science-based Innovation as well as Competition Policy and Innovation.

Q&A about theses

Bachelor theses

• What are the requirements for the registration of the bachelor thesis?

  The Module Handbook specifies that you must have achieved 90 credits before starting the bachelor thesis. In addition, you must have successfully completed a seminar within the scope of the elective modules Economics or Business Administration. It does not matter at which chair you have completed your seminar.

• What is the time schedule for the registration?

  Basically, the Guidelines and Registration Periods of the Examination Office apply. Please note that the registration at the Examinations Office must be done several months before announcing your topic. Before you register at the Examinations Office, please write a short email to inno@wiwi.uni-muenster.de. In this email, please tell us in which period you would like to write your bachelor thesis with us. We will answer you whether we still have supervision capacities in this period.

  If we give you a confirmation of supervision, we ask you to register at the Examination Office as soon as possible for your and our planning security.

• In which subject areas can I write my bachelor thesis?

  We generally supervise papers regarding our two main research areas, i.e.:

  1. Science-based Innovation: how does the transfer from research results at universities to innovations in companies work?
  2. Competition Policy and Innovation: how should the government set competition rules to push innovation?

  Within these areas, there is range of possible questions that you can explore in your bachelor thesis.

  Do not hesitate to tell us your areas of interests or topic ideas and we will develop a specific topic proposal considering your preferences. Therefore, please consult with your advisor before your topic is officially announced.

• How long is my processing time?

  The normal processing time is eight weeks. If you are writing your bachelor thesis during your studies, the period is extended to twelve weeks. You can find more information on this and similar questions on the Page of the Examination Office.

• What formal requirements do I have to consider when I write my bachelor thesis?

  As a rule, a bachelor thesis at our department should consist of about 30 pages. This refers to the main text of your thesis and includes the figures and tables used. However, the cover page, title page, indexes, bibliography, appendices (including all figures and tables used) as well as the affidavit and the declaration of consent for the plagiarism check are not included.

  Follow the formatting and citation guidelines below. We recommend using our Word format template, in which all the guidelines are already set up. If you do not want to use Word for writing your thesis or if you have further formal questions, please contact your advisor.

• What is the procedure in the editing phase?

  You should first research literature on your topic and draft an outline, which you discuss with your supervisor. As you write, make sure that your paper always follows a common thread and that each step is aimed at answering the research question. If you face problems during the writing process or have questions that you cannot solve on your own, contact your supervisor.

• What is the submission process?

  Bachelor theses must be submitted via the Thesis Uploader no later than the legal submission date on the guide card. You must submit your work digitally only; it is not necessary to submit bound copies.

  If performing computer-based statistical analyses (e.g., using R, Python, or Stata), you must include the appropriate code when submitting your thesis digitally. Please comment in detail on your code and the process of your analysis. If the code is not handed in at the same time as your paper, the paper will be graded as "not handed in".

  For final papers, there is no colloquium (i.e., no oral exam) after submission. A feedback discussion is of course possible. As soon as your grade is recorded on FlexNow, you can contact your supervisor about it.

• Do you have further questions?

  Write an email to inno@wiwi.uni-muenster.de or to your supervisor.

Projektstudium und Masterarbeiten

Please read the general Information of the Examination Office about Project Studies and Master Theses.

Writing a master thesis is usually linked to participation in a project studies. If you have not completed your project studies at our chair but you want to switch to us for the master thesis, please write an email to inno@wiwi.uni-muenster.de

• What are the requirements for the enrolling in the project study?

  You can always send us an email to inno@wiwi.uni-muenster.de if you want to write your project studies at our department. If you are enrolled in the VWL master program at the University of Münster, no further prerequisites apply. However, please consult with us before registering at the Examination Office to make sure we have the necessary supervision capacities. For this purpose, please let us know an approximate time schedule for writing your project study and master thesis.

  There are no fixed time limits for the completion of the project study. We recommend planning three months for the project study.

• Does the chair suggest topics for the project study and the master thesis?

  In general, the development of a meaningful research question is part of the project study. We therefore ask you to think in advance about the direction in which you would like to do your research. Feel free to send us a short abstract, about half to one page, outlining why your topic is interesting, what a specific research question might look like, and what methods you want to use. This abstract is non-binding and is primarily intended to give us an idea of your areas of interest.

  We generally supervise theses in the fields of Innovation Economics and Competition Policy. As a rule, a master thesis at our chair should have an empirical focus. If you do not have any concrete ideas or preferences, we can arrange a first consultation session in this regard. Clarify the details with your supervisor.

• What is the time schedule for registering the master thesis?

  Basically, the Guidelines and Registration Periods of the Examination Office apply. Please note that the registration of the master thesis at the Examination Office must be done several months before announcing your topic. Please keep the corresponding deadlines in mind and take care of a timely registration. The project study does not need to be completed when you register your master thesis at the Examination Office. However, please note that there should be several weeks between the submission of the project study and the announcement of the topic of your Master thesis so that we have sufficient correction time.

• Can I still change my topic between the project study and the master thesis?

   In principle yes, but this should be done in close consultation with your supervisor.

• How long is my processing time?

  The normal processing time is five months. You can find more information on this and similar questions on the page of the Examination Office.

• What formal requirements do I have to consider when writing my project study or master thesis?

  In general, a project study at our chair consists of about 12 to 15 pages, the master thesis about 50 pages. This refers to the main text of your thesis, including the figures and tables used. However, the cover page, title page, indexes, bibliography, appendices (including all figures and tables used) as well as the affidavit and the declaration of consent for the plagiarism check are not included.

  The general page format guidelines also apply. We recommend using our Word format template linked in the corresponding paragraph. If you do not want to write your paper in Word, or if you have further formal questions, please contact your advisor.

• What is the procedure in the editing phase?

  The procedure and the content structure of the project study are very individual, depending on the topic. You will draft a research outline of your master thesis by developing a suitable research question, researching literature and doing some initial data work. At the beginning of your master thesis, you should then draft an outline, which you will discuss with your advisor. As you write, make sure that your thesis always follows a common thread and that each step is aimed at answering the research question. If you face problems during the writing process or have questions that you cannot solve on your own, contact your supervisor.

  You are scheduled to present the current status of your work to faculty members during your project study. This presentation is intended to provide you with an opportunity to address questions and get feedback and ideas before you complete your project study. Please inform your supervisor two or three weeks in advance so that an appropriate date for your presentation can be scheduled.

• What is the submission procedure?

  Master theses must be submitted via the Thesis Uploader no later than the legal submission date of the guide card. You must submit your work digitally only; it is not necessary to submit bound copies.

  If performing computer-based statistical analyses (e.g., using R, Python, or Stata), you must include the appropriate code when submitting your thesis digitally. Please comment in detail on your code and the process of your analysis. If the code is not handed in at the same time as your paper, the paper will be graded as "Not handed in".

  For final papers, there is no colloquium (i.e., no oral exam) after submission. A feedback discussion is of course possible. As soon as your grade is recorded on FlexNow, you can contact your supervisor about it.

• Do you have further questions?

  Write an email to inno@wiwi.uni-muenster.de or to your supervisor respectively.

General guidelines for formatting and citation

The cover page must include the following information:

• Name, surname
• Title of the paper
• Type of thesis: seminar paper/bachelor thesis/master thesis; for seminar papers include the title of the seminar
• Chair and university
• Topic author and supervisor
• Address, email address, student-ID
• Date of submission

Use the following format guidelines:

• DIN-A4, margins top, left and right 3cm, bottom 2cm
• 1.5 line spacing, 1 line spacing for footnotes and in tables
• Font and size: Times New Roman 12 pt or Arial 11 pt
• Justification
• Page numbering: The title page has no number, all indexes are to be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals, the pages of the text section are numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals.

Citation:

• Cite directly in the text (Harvard citation or American citation style). Example: (Smith 2003) or (Smith 2003; Bonini 1963) or (Chenhall and Romano 1989).
• For three or more authors, cite only the first author in the text using the suffix "et al.". Example: (Broadbent et al. 1996)
• For verbatim citations of an outside text, include the appropriate page numbers. Example: (Jones et al. 1995, p. 17). This is not necessary for other forms of text references.
• For hints on how your bibliography should look like, please use the format template.

Format template

• Fornat template for theses: English version

Please remember to include an affidavit and consent form for the use of plagiarism software at the end of your paper. You can find the corresponding forms on the Page of the Examination Office.