Master Thesis Supervision

The MAS and MSc students are welcome to define and propose their own theses topics within our core areas. If you are not sure about the topic, you can have a look at our tutors' personal webpage (people's sections: Senior Researchers and Ph.D Students) and apply with a research proposal that satisfies your interests, and also theirs. Sometimes, our tutors have pre-defined thesis topics on their personal webpage to which you can directly apply.

Usually, we recommend to write an empirical Master Thesis, based on qualitative or quantitative data. Indeed, it is very challenging to offer new insights with a conceptual or purely theoretical thesis. The data analyzed could be focused on a particular industry, a specific phenomenon, or oriented to solving a practical problem in a company.

Please refer to this link for answers:

https://mtec.ethz.ch/studies/programme-elements/master-thesis.html

Here are some tips for a successful proposal:

• It is important that your proposal bases itself not only on company-specific problems, but also has a theoretical base, especially on competitive strategy, open innovation, and knowledge management. Try to frame your proposal on theories we use, such as the knowledge-based view of the firm. Understanding and then referencing academic papers in the proposal is very important. 
• Try using company-specific or practical wording as little as possible.
• Answers, one by one, all the questions asked in the proposal with details (i.e. not just 5 words per answer). We appreciate detailed analysis, as it shows you are a very motivated and curious student.
• Look at the profiles of our tutors (people's sections: Senior Researchers and PhD Students) and apply with a research proposal that satisfies your interests, and also theirs.
  

Once you submit your application to the coordinator, we will review it with the team. If a tutor of our Chair is interested by your profile and interests, the coordinator will let you know. Then, you will be able to start the Master Thesis at our Chair under the tutor's supervision.

Please note, that it is of primary importance that there is a constructive synergy between the interests of the student applicants and of the tutors. There needs to be a good fit.

Our Chair is quite competitive, we receive an enormous amount of applications, and we unfortunately cannot accept all of them due to capacity limit. In case you do not receive any email from the coordinator within two weeks, it means we decided to not proceed with your application, either because our capacity limit has been reached, or because no tutor feels knowledgeable enough on the research topic you are submitting.

We usually prefer if you submit only one application. If your first application was not accepted, you can try again with a better proposal, but we favor first-time candidates. Therefore, we strongly recommend to make your first proposal as good as possible.

 

Please find an example of successful protected pageMaster Thesis proposal herelock. Please note that your own proposal's topic must be developed independently, the example given here is purely for guidance purpose.

Unfortunately, we do not publicly state whether we have remaining capacity or not. We recommend applying 2-3 months in advance to boost your chance, especially if you wish to do your Master Thesis during the Spring Semester (safer to apply in October-November). If you wish to conduct your thesis in the Autumn semester, it is usually okay to apply a few weeks before starting.

We usually supervise around 30 Master Theses per year.

Yes, you can do your Master Thesis with a company, and this is very common for MAS students. Additionally to the supervisor and tutor at our Chair, you will need a supervisor from your company. The responsibilites of the supervisor in the company are very variable, from just being the company's contact person, to someone involved in the thesis actively.

Usually, our professor and the company sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). For a smooth process with ETH Zürich administration, we strongly recommend to sign the existing NDA of our Chair, instead of a company-specific NDA. Please request this NDA only after your application for a Master Thesis has been accepted by our Chair.

To complete your thesis work, you must submit to your supervisor:

• One copy of your report electronically (PDF), which must be submitted before the MTEC department's deadline.
• One or two copies, as per your supervisor's preference, of the printed hardcopy.

Hand-in via email the PDF (or share a drive link via email if the file is too heavy), and physically the printed hardcopy to your supervisor. Please include all relevant results such as transcripts, calculations, or other data that your thesis builds upon, which allows us to verify your results/findings/conclusions/propositions/etc.

The exact design or template (latex, MS word etc.) you use does not matter, as long as it fits the professional and quality standards of ETH Zürich. Although, we favor concised and well-written Master Theses, there is no requirement on the minimum (or maximum) number of pages (or number of references) of your Master Thesis. Please discuss that with your supervisor for specific guidance on these issues.

Relevant Academic Journals

• Management Science
• Long Range Planning
• Strategic Management Journal
• Organization Science
• Organization Studies
• Academy of Management Journal
• Academy of Management Review
• Research Policy
• Journal of Strategic Information Systems
• Administrative Science Quarterly
• Journal of Management Studies
• European Management Review
• MIS Quarterly
• Information Systems Research

Relevant Practitioner Journal

• MIT Sloan Management Review
• Harvard Business Review
• California Management Review
• European Management Journal

Relevant Conference

• EURAM
• EGOS
• Academy of Management
• Strategic Management Society Conference
• HICSS