Bachelor and Master Theses
Please note that the Chair of Marketing & Customer Insight can only supervise theses of students in the Faculty of Business Administration.
Bachelor Theses
The application for bachelor theses is only possible through STiNE:
Students are notified about the registration period for the bachelor thesis through a STiNE e-mail.
Registration of the individual bachelor thesis (= application for admission of the individual bachelor thesis):
- Winter semester: until February 15
- Summer semester: until August 15
Your contact person is Dr. Alexa Burmester( alexa.burmester"AT"uni-hamburg.de) at the Chair of Marketing & Media (Professor Clement).
Master Theses
There are two possibilities to write a master thesis at our chair:
- Direct application or
- Central allocation
For further information see below.
1. Direct Application
Direct Application:
You can either apply for one of our topics or with your own topic proposal.
Please note: It is not a prerequisite that you have attended a seminar at our chair.
Topic Announcement:
We publish topics quarterly (around the 15th of the month). You can find our current topics here (pdf).
Suggesting your own topic:
Send a proposal for your topic to Katja Berger.(katja.berger"AT"uni-hamburg.de) In this proposal you should explain your research questions on approx. one page and also explain how you intend to solve them. This also includes dealing with the scientific literature on this topic. Please note: Your topic should fit with the research interests of our chair.
Further information about the direct allocation of master theses:
Prerequisites: Please note the current requirements of the Academic Office (pdf in German)
Successful completion of a seminar at the Chair of Marketing and Customer Insight is not a necessary prerequisite for writing a master thesis, but is strongly recommended.
Application documents: Please send the following documents in PDF format to Katja Berger(katja.berger"AT"wiso.uni-hamburg.de):
- Application form (pdf) including topic preferences (we try our best to accommodate them)
- CV in tabular form (including high school (Abitur) and Bachelor grades),
- a copy of your Bachelor transcript,
- overview of previous examination results (available from the academic office),
- topic requests for a suggested topic: Proposal, one page text (What is the problem and how do you want to solve it?) and central references.
Start date: The work should be started at the latest before the next allocation round. You must complete an application form for admission to the master thesis. You can download the form here (pdf).
Deadline: You must complete your theses within six months (applies to both empirical and literature theses) .
Content/type of thesis: Our chair offers literature (What does one know from the literature about a certain topic?) and empirical theses (market research project).
Scope of thesis:
1) For literature theses a maximum of 50 pages (including tables and figures, without directories).
2) For empirical theses, it is possible to write a maximum of 30 pages in the style of a scientific working paper. Given the difficulty of presenting a 6-month Master's thesis topic on 30 pages, we offer to read an initial version of the thesis. This draft must be submitted no later than 6 weeks before the official deadline. The reading of the first version does not constitute a final correction, but serves to point out improvement potentials in argumentation and comprehensibility.
Support: We provide close supervision because we want your work to be as good as possible. Please note our instructions for the preparation of seminar papers and theses (pdf in German).
2. Central Allocation
Central application for a master thesis in the marketing department
(please include a list ordering the marketing chairs according to your preferences)
Participating chairs:
- Chair of Marketing & Branding (Prof Dr. Henrik Sattler)
- Chair of Marketing & Media (Prof. Dr. Michel Clement)
- Chair of Marketing & Pricing (Prof. Dr. Karen Gedenk)
- Chair of Marketing & Customer Insight (Prof. Dr. Mark Heitmann)
- SVI-Endowed Chair of Dialogue Marketing (Prof. Dr. Kay Peters)
Application deadlines: 30.01., 30.04., 30.07., 30.10.
Application documents:
- CV
- Current transcript
- List of preferences for marketing chairs
- Preferred start date of master thesis
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Allocation: The allocation to chairs is based on preferences and free capacities. You will most likely be assigned a thesis if:
- marketing is your major,
- your preference list includes all five chairs.
Further applications will be considered if there are free capacities.
A change between chairs is not possible once you have been allocated.
Topic: Following the central allocation, you agree on a topic with the chair to which you have been assigned. In the case of the central allocation, it may happen that the supervising professor will assign you a topic. If you have concrete ideas for a topic, please contact the respective chair directly and do not apply via the central allocation procedure.
Here you will find information on the direct allocation of topics:
- Chair of Marketing & Branding (Prof Dr. Henrik Sattler)
- Chair of Marketing & Media (Prof. Dr. Michel Clement)
- Chair of Marketing & Pricing (Prof. Dr. Karen Gedenk)
- Chair of Marketing & Customer Insight (Prof. Dr. Mark Heitmann)
- SVI-Endowed Chair of Dialogue Marketing (Prof. Dr. Kay Peters)
Registration: You must register your thesis at the latest before the next central allocation.
Notes on Scientific Research
You can find notes on the conduct of scientific research at the Institute of Marketing here (pdf). Note that this document is available in German only. You may also use the Word template provided by us, which should help you implement the formal guidelines.