Research and Innovation Projects

This is an advanced course on research design for business information systems research, including qualitative and quantitative approaches. It prepares students to undertake a piece of qualitative and/or quantitative business information systems research for their Master Thesis, by developing appropriate knowledge, understanding and transferable intellectual and practical skills. Skills such as the ability to frame a research interest or problem, evaluate relevant literature, generate research questions or research objectives, the ability to understand a conceptual framework, the ability to select and justify a particular research design and methodology and the ability to act as an ethical researcher, will be developed. Students gain confidence in a range of cognitive and practical skills suitable to conducting research projects in a range of international business contexts. They understand and apply the important methods and techniques for collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative empirical data. They learn how to report critically on research outcomes.

In this module students familiarise themselves with a topic of their interest. The result is a proposal for the master thesis, which consists of a problem statement, a literature review and the research design. There are two types of master theses:

• Application-oriented research: The thesis answers questions of practical relevance for enterprises and demonstrate an impact on the business.
• New Business: The thesis deals with an innovation that can lead to founding a startup company. The thesis has to deal with both the technical innovation and the market research.

In the master thesis the students deal with a concrete, practically relevant topic in the area of business information systems. There are two types of Master Thesis:

• Application-oriented research: The topic of the master thesis must be research based (generating new knowledge, applying research methods and transparent presentation) and has to help answering questions of practical relevance for enterprises and demonstrate an impact on the business. Research can be done in cooperation with an enterprise located in Switzerland or anywhere in the world.
• New Business: The thesis deals with an innovation that can lead to founding a startup company. The thesis has to deal with both the technical innovation and the market research. There is the possibility to deal with the technical innovation and the market research in two linked master theses.