If you are interested in writing your Master Thesis at our chair, please read the following sections:

• Requirements for Master Theses
• Guidelines for Master Theses

Please find here all information from the WIWI StudienServiceCenter.

The current as well as the completed Master Theses written at the Chair of International Marketing can be found here:

• Current Master Theses
• Completed Master Theses

Requirements for Master Theses

The current requirements to be considered as a candidate for a Master Thesis in the Chair of International Marketing are:

• Successful completion of Data Analysis for Marketing Decisions as well as International Marketing Research 1 (OR Marktforschung 1) courses.
• Willingness (and sufficient knowledge!) to prepare the Master Thesis in English.
• Participation in the Masterkonversatorium throughout the Master Thesis period.
• A high level of dedication and commitment

Application Procedure

Interested students fulfilling the above requirements should prepare a two page proposal (plus references & appendices) addressing as far as possible the following questions:

1. What is the study all about? (i.e. the research objective(s)
2. Why is the topic important and for whom? (i.e. the importance of the study for researchers, managers, policy makers and/or the general public)
3. Where and how will the study be conducted? (i.e. an outline of the proposed methodology)
4. When will the study be completed? (i.e. a provisional timetable)

When preparing a proposal, students should ensure that (a) their topic has a clear international dimension,  (b) the research questions asked address a gap in the literature and/or an important problem in practice, and (c) the student has the relevant knowledge/skills for successfully carrying out the study.
Although, in general, the responsibility for identifying a suitable Master Thesis topic lies with the student, specific topics may be proposed by staff in the Chair of International Marketing. Students interesting in doing Master Thesis in the Chair of International Marketing may find it helpful to consult the “Guidelines for Master Theses”  on our homepage and also speak to some of our current students writing their thesis at the Chair of International Marketing (see the list below).

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Guidelines for Master Theses

These notes have been prepared to give you the information that you will need in order to complete your  Master Thesis at the Chair of International Marketing successfully. They set out the basic rules and the “dos  and don’ts” of the process, as well as giving some more general advice on how to undertake a Master Thesis.
Please read them carefully and early!

What is the Master Thesis?

The Master Thesis provides you with the opportunity to put together the various skills that you have acquired in the course of your studies, and to demonstrate your competence as a researcher. It allows you to apply your acquired skills in studying a specific International Marketing topic; produce original research through the application of an appropriate social science method; undertake data analysis; and, finally, present your results in writing. It sounds daunting, but students generally manage to produce their Master Thesis in time and even enjoy doing it!

The Master Thesis is a major piece of work which all students on the University of Vienna’s Masters degree programmes undertake. To reflect its importance you should devote a commensurate amount of time to it.

There are four main differences between the Master Thesis and the essays that you are accustomed to writing for your other courses:

1. It is focused upon a topic that you have chosen.
2. It is based upon your own original research.
3. It reflects your own thinking, based on your study of International Marketing literature and the data you collect.
4. It allows you time to develop your ideas, and space to present them.

Choosing a topic for your Master Thesis

The choice of your Master Thesis topic is your responsibility. This is a major element of your study at the University of Vienna, and you must achieve a pass grade in order to be awarded a degree. It is most important that you choose an area you are happy to work in, and in which you are confident of your abilities, because you will be spending a lot of time on it, and ultimately this will be an important item on your CV!

Ideally, we would like you to come up with the basic topic idea, though it is likely to be modified after discussion with a member of staff. Once you have done so then you should approach a potential supervisor to discuss the details and ask them if they would be willing to supervise it.

Supervision Arrangements

Your supervisor is a member of staff who will guide you through the various stages of your Master Thesis. She or he should be your first point of contact for all matters relating to your Master Thesis. You should meet with her or him roughly every fortnight but you will usually have most contact at the start of the Master Thesis to discuss your ideas and when he or she has had the chance to read and comment on draft chapters of your Master Thesis. It is best to come to a supervision session with some specific issues to discuss. If you want comments on a draft, you should make sure that you give it to your supervisor with enough time before you meet for her or him to read it. Supervisors are expected to read no more than one draft of each chapter in the Master Thesis.

Maintain regular contact with your supervisor; she or he can help you refine your ideas and can give suggestions for things to read or how to overcome problems. It is your responsibility to contact your supervisor to set up meetings and to discuss your progress. Your supervisor is not expected to contact you. Also, please plan ahead. Your supervisor has other responsibilities and is not expected to drop everything to meet you, to read your work, or to give feedback.

If, for any reason, you are unhappy with your supervisor, you should discuss this with her/him first. If you are still unhappy you should see Univ.-Prof. DDr. Diamantopoulos or the Studienprogrammleiter.

Size & Scope of the Master Thesis

There is no general page limit but it should be apparent that the Master Thesis has to be a substantive piece of scientific work. A good approach is to start the Master Thesis with a critical review of relevant literature identifying existing research gaps. This, in turn, serves as the  starting  point  for  subsequent conceptualisation and hypotheses development. Long repetitions of already existing work are not necessary, a  short summary and a clear reference to the quoted sources is sufficient.

Concept definitions must be precisely formulated and clearly explained in the context of the topic. It is advisable to check for consistency in definitions between different approaches in literature. In cases of inconsistencies, a rationale for the chosen approach must be provided.

The overall structure of the work has to resemble the approach taken to address the research question at hand and should be kept relatively simple. You should construct a preliminary  structure of the work and discuss it with your supervisor as early as possible. One example can be found in the latter section ‘Writing your Master Thesis’.

The readability of the work is of paramount importance. An uninformed reader must be able to follow the thread of the Master Thesis and deepen her/his knowledge by the cited references. Constantly ask yourself the following basic questions which will help you to keep on track:

1. What is the problem at hand?
2. Why is it important?
3. How can the problem be addressed?
4. Can a different approach address the problem in a better way?

Timeframe for the Master Thesis

A Master Thesis involves a substantial amount of time to complete and therefore has to be pursued with true commitment. The Chair of International Marketing allows 12 months time to its completion and appreciates dedicated work. To achieve this goal, regular meetings with your supervisor as well as attendance at the Masterkonversatorium throughout the semester are important and must not be taken lightly.

Writing your Master Thesis

Always keep in mind that it is the written text that is evaluated. However much time and effort has gone into the research, the assessment stands or falls on the quality of the written text. Therefore the structure and  clarity of the Master Thesis are both crucial. There is no one right way to write a Master Thesis because each project is unique; however, the following guidelines should help:

• Title page needs to be designed according to a draft available at the StudienServiceCenter which you can find here.
• Acknowledgements. It is courteous to thank people for any help you have been given. Acknowledgements are usually placed at the beginning of the dissertation after the title page and before the contents page.
• Abstract giving a short overview of the work in your Master Thesis in the language of the Master Thesis. If the language of your Master Thesis is not German then a second abstract in German should be added to the appendix.
• Table of contents giving page numbers for all major section headings.
• Introduction which sets out the general topic that you researched, the specific questions that you addressed, and why these are interesting and important from a theoretical/managerial point of view.
• Review of literature by other scholars which informs the theoretical and empirical issues underpinning your own research. While you should show that you know what others have written on the topic, do not simply summarise previous research. Instead, write a critical review of the literature which explains why the pieces you review are important and how they inform your own project.
• Methodology presenting a discussion of the research methods adopted. Explain which method or methods you adopted, why these were appropriate, what the possible limitations of your methods were, and how you analysed the data.
• Presentation and Analysis of the Results. The form of these will obviously depend upon the kind of research you undertook. Whatever method you used, however, you need to make sure that the assertions you make in your analysis and discussion can be justified in relation to your research findings. To do so, you will need to provide the appropriate evidence (tables, quotations,  etc.) in the text.
• Discussion in which you draw together the different parts of the Master Thesis. Here you should connect your own empirical research back to issues or concepts you considered at the beginning of the Master Thesis and to the literature you reviewed.
• Conclusion. Here you should discuss the overall implications of your study for international marketing theory and practice. You should also address your study’s limitations and suggest avenues for further research.
• References which provide full citations for all of the sources (public documents, scholarly literature, internet resources, etc.) that you have mentioned in the text. It is vital to make sure that you do this   properly (see next point for advice on referencing). Do not include works that you read but did not cite in the Master Thesis itself.
• Appendices: Where relevant, your Master Thesis will include appendices. Copies of cover letters, interview schedules or questionnaires should be presented in an appendix. You may also include some statistical tables not analysed in the text. In general, try to keep Appendices to a minimum. Additionally, you are expected to append a German as well as an English summary (1-2  pages  each).

An example of the above structure is shown below:

Plagiarism

If it appears that you have presented the work of others as your own, this constitutes plagiarism and is therefore a form of academic misconduct. The Chair of International Marketing’s guidelines on plagiarism can be found on the website under Plagiarism. There are very strict penalties for those students found to have plagiarised.

Presentation of the Master Thesis

The general format of the Master Thesis is based on DIN A4 paper (210 x 297 mm), upright format, double sided, and the margin should be selected that a binding is possible. The font of the study should be Times New Roman with 12pt, 1.5 line-spacing with full justification. The use of bold, italic, and underlined formatting is appreciated but should not impede the consistency of the text. The headline should include the name of the respective chapter while the footer should only contain the page number. Please also note that, due to pseudonymisation of data during plagiarism control, no personal data (matriculation number, name, etc.) may be included in your thesis from page 7 onwards.

Footnotes can be used but should be limited to making important clarifications or references to other fields of research. Footnotes are definitely not a place to stuff numerous quotations and remarks.

The use of tables and figures is recommended if they help to illustrate or understand the text. They should be consistently numbered, titled and clearly presented. Abbreviations and codes used in the tables should be made clear, perhaps in a key at the bottom of the table. Only include tables and figures that are mentioned and discussed in the text. If the table is based on data other than your own, always provide the source of the table or the data at the bottom of the table.

Special attention should be given to the use of correct English grammar and syntax. A good recap on English grammar can be found at “The  American  Heritage  Book  of  English  Usage”. The most exhaustive online dictionary for English/German and vice versa is LEO. 

For guidelines on academic writing please browse through the following:

• Introduction to Academic Writing
• Advice on Academic Writing
• The Guide to Grammar and Writing
• The Online Writing Lab
• The Center for Academic Writing
• The Writing Center

The printout of the Master Thesis has to be of good quality (preferable no inkjet printers), emphasising the readability of the text and duplex printed. A sloppy manuscript may give the appearance of sloppy work in general and your mark could suffer as a result. Master  Theses  are  required  to  be  additionally  handed  in  electronically.  For  information on the electronic submission and some general formal requirements see: https://wirtschaftswissenschaften.univie.ac.at/service/studienservicecenter/schriftliche-arbeiten/master-magisterarbeit/#c49373 and https://mtbl.univie.ac.at/storage/media/mtbl02/2006_2007/2006_2007_226.pdf

Citation

Correct citation is very important and the Master Thesis must not include any mistakes in this regard. The Chair of International Marketing does not suggest a specific citation system but it is indispensable that the chosen style is consistently applied throughout the Master Thesis. The following sites give useful guidelines on citing:

American Psychological Association (APA):

• www.apastyle.org
• http://www.creighton.edu/fileadmin/user/reinert/docs/instruction/APA.pdf
• www.vanguard.edu/uploaded/research/apa_style_guide/apastyleessentials.pdf

Harvard:

• http://guides.library.uwa.edu.au/c.php?g=380288&p=2575698
• www.mendeley.com/guides/harvard-citation-guide

A good overview of various citation styles:

• http://guides.library.uwa.edu.au/c.php?g=361770&p=2443621

Additionally, information on citation can be found in most international journals such as:

• Journal of Marketing Research
• Journal of International Marketing
• Journal of International Business Studies
• Journal of Consumer Research

Other Resources

You should definitely read the Academic Writing guidelines on our homepage and you may also find the following books helpful when planning/writing your Master Thesis.

• Eco, U. (1990), Wie man eine wissenschaftliche Abschlussarbeit schreibt, Müller: Heidelberg. •Ebster, C. and Salzer, L. (2002), Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftler, WUV: Wien.
• Glatthorn, A.A. and Joyner, R. (2005), Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation: A Step-by-Step Guide, A Corwin Press Publication: Thousand Oaks.
• Hart, C. (2004), Doing Your Masters Dissertation, Sage Publications: London.
• Rössl, D. (2002), Die Master Thesis in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Facultas: Wien.
• Walliman, N.S.R. (2004), Your Undergraduate Dissertation: The Essential Guide For Success, Sage Publications: London.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact a member of staff of the Chair of International Marketing.

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