What are the options and what is the process for my PM/MSc SET Activation Phase (master thesis)?

Get acquainted with your PM/MSc SET master thesis options

In the Activation phase of the PM/MSc SET, you will carry out a challenge that you design yourself.

You can choose from five options, which are guided by the challenge owners:

• Option #1: Idea Validation - Discovering the product-market fit for your idea (Supervisor: Dr. Thomas Funke)
• Option #2: Sustainability Initiatives - Researching and Designing for Social and Behavioural Change (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sami Asad)
• Option #3: Career Growth - Pivoting towards a new path and creating opportunities (Supervisor: Marion Trigodet)
• Option #4: Topics supervised by further lecturers
• Option #5: Human-Centered AI products (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dr. Ana-Maria Olteteanu or Prof. Dr. Nellie Marangou)
• Option #6: Strategy for Life: Work on Your Personal Growth Plan (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Thomas Maidorfer)

Each of these challenges can be accessed within the app, and provides a structured series of milestones which will give you some orientation and help you to make progress in performing your challenge in the given timeframe.

What is the process for starting your activation project?

• Their availability (some supervisors can only supervise a specific number of students, so it’s always best to check in advance)
• Their opinions on your initial thesis idea

• Problem statement: Discuss the specific challenge, problem or opportunity you aim to address
• Mission connection: Discuss how this project relates to your mission.
• Action plan: Provide a timeline of how and when you will address the thesis milestones, and complete your thesis. This is especially important for keeping yourself on track and allowing your supervisor to check-in on your progress

The Challenge Journal aka. Master’s Thesis

Your MSc SET Activation Thesis project should be documented in a Challenge journal, 45 pages in length* (not including references and appendix/supplementary material). This should include a record of what you’ve done, why you’ve done it, and what you’ve found out. The journal can include multiple formats. For example, you could include pitch decks, prototypes and/or presentations in the sections on what you’ve done and what you’ve found out.

The key sections that could be included (depending on your topic) are:

1. The challenge statement – What was the challenge you decided to work on, and why did you decide to address this challenge? How does this relate to your personal mission statement?
2. Key research questions and issues – What are the key questions and issues you needed to answer during your challenge? You should expect to address one or two main questions or issues, which may break down into several sub-questions or sub-issues.
3. Your process – What evidence did you collect to answer the research questions? How did you collect the evidence? What market research or other real-world research did you carry out and why did you decide to take that approach?
4. Your results/product/service/initiative – What did you find out? Present your findings for each question or issue.
5. Your conclusions – What are the implications of your findings? What are your main takeaways and what are your next steps?

* The PM SET Masters thesis challenge journal should be 30 pages in length.

The Formalities

This document outlines standard practices in academic writing and should facilitate your work. If you decide to deviate from the standards outlined, for example, using different citation formats (e.g., APA instead of Harvard) or numbering schemes, this is fine, as long as it is consistent across the entire document. There is one chapter in the guide that you have to adhere to without exception: “Guidelines on Plagiarism and the Resulting Legal Consequences”.

Literature Research

The following sources are available to help you. You can access them with a VPN and your WU student access code.

• Digital library of WU Vienna: https://www.wu.ac.at/en/library/ - this is the main page, where students can start researching
• Fit4Research - the WU Library’s eLearning program: https://learn.wu.ac.at/open/fit4research/en/index
• Remote access to the digital library is available with student identification Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien: VPN Connections - Network & Infrastructure - Services (wu.ac.at)

How is the thesis assessed?

What makes a good Master’s Thesis overall?

• Identifying an interesting and relevant problem/business challenge, defining it clearly, and stating its (practical) relevance.
• The problem/issue is gradually approached in a clear, comprehensive, and persuasive manner.
• The process is documented detailed and comprehensible.
• The results are clear and evident and are discussed accurately.
• The Master’s Thesis is completely rounded. Hence, it does not contain superfluous tangents, but clear and thorough argumentation.

Below, you can find a more detailed overview for these requirements based on six categories:

1) Topic & Content
2) Relevance to academic subject/practice
3) Methodology
4) Coherence, Consistency and Argumentation
5) Literature and citations
6) Formal requirements

In order to create the best possible thesis, check that each of the six categories are addressed in your thesis. You can use the below thesis evaluation guide to guide you.

To ensure that you address the categories and meet the evaluation criteria (see below) for the Master Thesis, make sure that you stay in close connection with your supervisor to avoid misunderstandings and shortfalls early in the process.

For the Master’s Thesis, it does not suffice to merely list various literature sources one after the other; rather, they must be critically incorporated into your paper and be independently processed and inter-connected.

On completion, the linguistically, i.e., grammatically and orthographically, flawless Master’s Thesis must be submitted to the supervisor for perusal.

Thesis Evaluation Criteria

Keep in mind, that the Activation Phase is not only about your challenge journal aka. your Master’s Thesis, but also about the process of how to get there. The challenge structure helps you with this process and in further developing your competencies. Therefore, the different options hold several deliverables that help you in reaching your challenge. For each of the challenge options and its deliverables, you find the evaluation criteria listed directly in the challenge page in the app. All deliverables will be summarized in the Challenge Journal, which will be graded according to achieved with honors, achieved, and not achieved.

While the requirements for the thesis are to include the deliverables for your specific option, these aspects of the thesis will be graded using the Austrian academic grading system:

• Excellent (1): Excellent performance
• Good (2): Generally good, some flaws
• Satisfactory (3): Balanced, number of substantial flaws
• Sufficient (4): Performance corresponding to minimal criteria
• Unsatisfactory (5): Requirement for further work

Below, you can find specific descriptions for each grade which cover the topic & content, relevance, methods, coherence & consistence of arguments, and provision of evidence.

Description of Roles Assigned to You and Your Supervisor

The roles can be described as follows:

Your Tasks

You are responsible for the Master Thesis. Apart from the main content-related work, this responsibility includes timely formulation and conforms to the rules of research:

• Identifying the subject
• Writing the Master Thesis according to research standards
• Agreeing with the supervisor on important questions
• Incorporating feedback and receiving further criticism

Your Supervisor’s Tasks

The role of the supervisor is that of a mentor. He/she assists you in your work and offers advice and assistance. At the end of the day, he/she is responsible for evaluating the research paper. For this reason, his/her job includes amongst other things:

• Constructive feedback on the content to be used in the paper
• Support in the face of problems, decisions, etc.
• Answering questions
• Evaluating the paper

Submission Process of the Master Thesis

Your Master’s Thesis can be uploaded via the WU Moodle platform. Please keep in mind that only files in PDF format can be submitted. The final version will be scanned by state-of-the-art plagiarism software.

Team Thesis

Writing a Master's thesis as a team of 2 is possible with the following conditions:

• The topic must allow for collaborative work. For example, the development of a joint start-up idea.
• The size of the thesis increases accordingly (PM: 60 pages, MSc: 90).
• Ideally, you document who was responsible for which part of the thesis.
• You can both submit the same thesis document, but with a personalized cover sheet and individually signed.
• You both need to upload the thesis to the ToU and WU portals.

Form of the Master Thesis

When writing a Master Thesis, formal rules have to be taken into consideration:

• Page limit
• Linguistic form
• Cover sheet
• Design of the manuscript
• Description of the information in charts and figures
• Citing sources
• Compilation of the bibliography

Page Limit

Please bear in mind that for the Master of Science (MSc) there is a page limit of 45 pages (+/- 10%) and the appendix (max. 10 pages, for supplementary material such as graphs, and charts). The Professional Masters (PM) page limit is 30 pages (+/- 10%) and the appendix (max. 10 pages, for supplementary material such as graphs, and charts).
Please bare in mind that an MSc thesis should be of greater scope and depth than a PM thesis. This acts as a guide and you should discuss with your supervisor the equivalent work in other formats, including pitch decks, prototypes, and/or presentations.

Linguistic Form

Your challenge journal has to be error-free regarding punctuation and orthography. Choose objective formulations and pay attention to comprehensibility.

Cover Sheet

Please attach the cover sheet (below) to your MA thesis.

Headings and Continuous Text

Headings structure a text and demonstrate the importance of individual sections. Different levels of structure must be indicated by different heading levels. Paragraphs that are of equal importance receive headings of the same level. When framing a structure, different levels of heading can be used:  1. Heading (1. Level) 16pt, bold  1.1 Heading (2. Level) 14pt, bold  1.1.1 Heading (3. Level) 12pt, bold  1.1.1.1 Heading (4. Level) 12pt, italics  No full-stop is placed at the end of a heading. There is no other text in the line of the heading. This is continued with spacing (one or two lines) in the next line.  The continuous text is composed using a common proportional font such as Arial, Times, Calibri or Verdana. 11 pt (Arial) or 12 pt (Times, Calibri and Verdana) are suitable as font sizes. The line spacing must be set at 1.5 lines. It should be noted that once technicalities have been chosen then they must be used in a uniform manner throughout.

Headings should be written with only the first letter capitalized (with the exception of names), i.e 1.1 Amphibian responses to sustainable forestry in a Malaysian timber reserve.

Referencing sources in the text

We recommend citing relevant sources in the continuous text – the Harvard method– (author(s), year, page(s)). This is more practical than Footnotes as often used in German-speaking countries. Once a certain citation method has been chosen then it must be used in a uniform manner throughout.

Appendices

Appendices contain material that is too large for inclusion in the text or would interrupt the flow of the presentation if it were to be cited in detail such as pitch decks, prototypes, research tools (such as structure interview guides or questionnaires) and the like.

Diagrams and Charts

Charts are used to give a compact overview of material (mainly numerical but, to a certain extent, information such as e.g. parts of a questionnaire). Indeed, each chart is a component of the paper and should, however, be understandable on its own terms. For this reason, all abbreviations (apart from the usual statistical abbreviations) must be explained and the unit of measurement stated. The presentation of all charts should be uniform, especially in relation to idioms, the structural format and similar letterings. When it comes to charts and diagrams, please take into consideration:

1. Each chart and diagram must be interpreted in the text. Interpreting means: presenting the core information and highlighting contexts. It is wrong to describe a chart with its figures in the text.
2. Wherever a chart or diagram is interpreted in the text, then it must be clearly referred to, while
3. Every chart and diagram must be understandable on its own terms.
4. Longer charts or charts whose content is not necessarily contained in the text (the chart fills up an entire page for example but two values are only entered in the text), can be placed in the appendix.
5. Diagrams are not charts (and vice-versa).
6. Every type of non-textual presentation of material that does not occur in chart form is summarized under the concept of the diagram. Diagrams contain photographs, graphs, diagrams, and schemata amongst others.
7. Each chart has a succinct but convincing heading.

Text Citation: Source Data

Direct (literal) citation is always reproduced to the letter and set in inverted commas. As a general rule, longer citations are – if they are absolutely necessary – formatted in a different way in order to increase visibility and displayed with an indent. Direct, analogous reference to citations (“paraphrases”) must also be labeled (mainly with “cf.”) since it hereby involves an external body of thought despite there being a description in your own words. In case they are absolutely necessary, longer citations are usually formatted in a different way and with indention for greater emphasis.

The work of an individual author

... previous pre-occupation with this phenomenon (Müller, 1954, p. XY) ...

...  Müller (1954, p. XY) already dealt with this phenomenon ...

The work of two authors

… further analysis (Schmid & Maier, 1973, p. XY)…

The work of several authors

Only the name of the first author is stated, followed by “et al.“ and the year

… Maier et al. (1981, p. XY)

Secondary Citations

In the case of secondary citations, the original source is no longer available or accessible. The citation belonging to the author of the original research paper that is no longer available appears in the text followed by parentheses or if this citation is already in parentheses, after a comma followed by the note “cited by” and details of the respective source that is available to the author. However, the original work that is not present must be cited in the bibliography.

Müller (1954, cited by Barnabas, 1960) (Müller, 1954, cited by Barnabas, 1960)

Further information and examples on the Harvard citation style can be found under the following link: http://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=9572296

Referencing Software

If you use a lot of external sources, to facilitate the writing process and the finalization regarding referencing/bibliography, it is highly recommended to use relevant software (e.g., EndnoteWeb, Citavi, Mendeley). It is not so important which of these tools you use; it is suggested to already start using it from the beginning of the literature search process, as you can connect it with the digital libraries of WU, import relevant references, add digital copies of the paper etc. so that administering all your resources and finalizing your document will be much easier and smoother.

For further reference, check out the relevant section in:

• Fit4Research - the WU Library’s eLearning program: https://learn.wu.ac.at/open/fit4research/en/index

Guidelines on Plagiarism in your thesis and the Resulting Legal Consequences

Whoever carries out academic writing and research, usually builds on the works of others. Academic progress would be unthinkable without this; as one would have to “invent the wheel each time”. However, there are clear rules as to how one should handle other people’s ideas, findings, and formulations. One of the most important standards is the correct citation of those ideas which one is building. On the other hand, whoever employs the “copy-and-paste” strategy and simply copies his papers from the internet (or parts of it), whoever incorporates citations or translations from foreign-language texts without naming the sources or even uses a “ghost-writer” for instance, and pretends that their work is his own, clearly contravenes these standards; all these rule violations are summarized under the concept of plagiarism. By plagiarism one usually understands the conscious improper incorporation of extraneous intellectual property. This definition already shows that plagiarism by no means contradicts academic standards – in many cases, they also violate original copyright, which already represents a punitive action (Höllerer/Kloibhofer (2006), p. 60f.).

In order to identify a case of plagiarism as such, a cursory glance in the specialist literature often suffices or simple research via online search engines or databases. Stylistic changes, especially elaborate concepts or a lack of relevancy for the problem at hand, are not usually hidden from the view of lecturers and supervisors and are the first sign of plagiarism and copying. In addition, many universities – including the Vienna University of Economics and Business, for example – already use special software which makes it easier to track down cases of plagiarism. Of course, it is not always easy to determine where the adoption of external ideas stops and one’s own work begins. Writing an independent or academic paper is certainly not an easy task. You must remember that the essence of your work is not to seek information and perfect formulation but, rather, to show through independent analysis of content with regards to the research issue at hand that/how you have managed to understand it. If you take the afore-mentioned ideas and assistance to heart, then you will be able to deal with this task with ease – and all of that without any copying (Höllerer/Kloibhofer (2006), p. 60f.).

The following guidelines address standards that have been set in the event of plagiarism (or suspected plagiarism) or suspected fraud in academic work (diploma theses, master theses, dissertations), bachelor theses, seminar papers, and/or any other written work demanded from students that serve as a (partial) basis for the evaluation and grading of courses (hereinafter referred to as student work).

Originality of Student Work

To be given a positive grade, student work must fulfil the legal criteria for originality pursuant to the laws governing university studies (see in particular § 51 (2) lines 7, 8, and 13 of the Universities Act 2002).

Work can be considered original only if the main emphasis of the work is based on the individual student’s own intellectual achievement, i.e., the work must have more to offer than solely the collection and presentation of previously existing sources. The degree of originality can vary depending on the topic, type, and scope of the work.

Plagiarism

University studies law: Pursuant to the laws governing university studies, work is considered to be plagiarized if the criterion of originality as defined by the laws governing university studies is not given. This is the case, for example, if the work of a third party is incorporated into the student’s own work, wholly or in part. Partial incorporation of the work of a third party is acceptable only if the necessary degree of originality for the work in question is still given and all applicable copyright provisions (quotation rights) have been adhered to.

For further detail, you may also refer to the WU Vienna’s guide to plagiarism and the plagiarism directive.

Copyright: Pursuant to intellectual property laws, work is considered to be plagiarism if other persons’ ideas are incorporated into the work, and this incorporation does not fall under the regulations concerning license-free usage (quotation rights). Any license-free use of third-party works or parts thereof in a work is only admissible if identified as such ("small quotation," "large quotation") and the source of the third-party work is provided (§ 46 lines 1 and 2, § 57 (2) Austrian Copyright Act). This also applies to translations and international works. The standards and guidelines applicable to the respective academic discipline are to be complied with. Austrian copyright law differentiates between the “Kleinzitat” (small quotation), which is quoting only part of a work, and the “Großzitat” (large quotation), which is quoting an entire work.

Forms of Plagiarism

WU differentiates between minor and serious plagiarism. Minor plagiarism is defined as cases in which the standards of academic work are only slightly violated. This could be, for example, if only a few individual sentences have been incorporated into the work and either incorrectly quoted or not cited at all. In serious plagiarism, the criterion of originality is not sufficiently given in the student’s work. This is the case if large portions of the work are not the student’s own original work and are either incorrectly quoted or not cited at all. The boundaries between these two forms of plagiarism are not always clear. The ultimate decision on whether a particular case of plagiarism is minor or serious lies with the supervisor.

Other Forms of Academic Frauds

In addition to plagiarism and suspected plagiarism, these Guidelines also address cases in which the work was written for the student by a third party, either wholly or in part (so-called “ghostwriting”).

Reporting Obligations with Regard to Plagiarism and Ghostwriting

The supervisor is responsible for informing students of the necessary requirements for the assigned work, and to give students instructions regarding the work. In addition, the supervisor shall explain the meaning of plagiarism and other forms of academic fraud and inform students of their legal consequences as described in these guidelines. This obligation to provide information is sufficiently fulfilled if a notice to this effect is posted outside the respective academic unit.

Use of Plagiarism Detection Software

All student work can be checked for plagiarism using detection software during the grading process. Plagiarism detection software is intended as a complementary measure in addition to the supervisor’s own evaluation of the contents and form of student work. All bachelor, master, and diploma theses, as well as dissertations, are routinely subjected to mandatory plagiarism detection using the detection software.

Legal Consequences of Suspected Plagiarism and Fraud

The supervisor is obligated to investigate and report all cases of suspected plagiarism and/or ghostwriting to the Vice-Rector for Academic Programs and Student Affairs (plagiate@wu.ac.at). If the suspicion of plagiarism or fraud is substantiated, criminal charges will be filed with the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Pre-evaluation: If plagiarism is suspected in the pre-evaluation phase, i.e. before work has been submitted for grading, the supervisor can either require the student to correct the issue or withdraw his/her supervision of the work, depending on the severity of the infraction.

If during the pre-evaluation phase the supervisor has reason to suspect that a student’s work is the product of a ghostwriter, the supervisor is obligated to investigate. If further investigation by the Vice-Rector for Academic Programs and Student Affairs confirms that the work was written wholly or in part by a third party, the supervisor is entitled to withdraw his/her supervision of the work.

During evaluation: If a student’s work is found to be lacking the required originality during the evaluation process, the degree of the infraction must be taken into account in the evaluation of the work:

• In cases of minor plagiarism, the student is to be given the opportunity to correct the issue. If he or she fails to do so, the work shall be given a failing grade.
• In cases of serious plagiarism, the work shall be given a failing grade.
• In cases of serious plagiarism, the supervisor is entitled to withdraw his/her supervision of the work.

Invalidation of Evaluation

If plagiarism or ghostwriting is detected after the work has already been graded, the grade for the work can be declared invalid by the Vice-Rector for Academic Programs and Student Affairs (§ 74 (2) Universities Act 2002).

Revocation of Academic Degrees

If a student's academic degree is determined to have been attained fraudulently because it was based wholly or in part on a plagiarized or ghostwritten work, the degree can be revoked by the Vice-Rector for Academic Programs and Student Affairs (§ 89 Universities Act 2002).

Copyright Law

Copyright infringements can lead to consequences under both civil law (authors are entitled to claim injunctive relief, removal of the infringing material, and compensation) as well as criminal law. Having work written wholly or in part by a third party can lead to consequences under criminal law.

Using AI for developing your Thesis challenge journal

To foster innovation in sustainability, entrepreneurship, and technology, we encourage exploring AI tools in your thesis project, unlocking opportunities for learning and creativity. However, it's crucial to balance AI's benefits with ethical responsibilities by avoiding plagiarism and crediting original creators, guided by our AI use guidelines.

For the thesis specifically we recommend the following:

• Use AI to supplement your ideas for talking points and general structure. Do not use AI to develop the core idea of your work.
• You may use AI to help develop thesis/essay text using your ideas as prompts. However, make sure to adjust this text based on your own research and understanding of the topic. Do not copy and paste large blocks of text from AI models into your thesis without revision.
• When conducting research, please use AI specifically meant to support research (such as Elicit, Semantic scholar, supper symmetry, consensus etc) rather than general text-based models.
• Review all AI citations, and do not rely solely on these. Engage directly with the research in order to gain an understanding of the topic’s context.
• Clearly attribute any text or information obtained from AI tools.

A thesis or essay is useful for developing your own research and review skills, including ideation, analysis and evaluation. Avoid using AI in place of developing these competencies.

IMPORTANT! As part of the review process, your work will be checked with plagiarism and AI detection software. If your work receives a plagiarism / AI use score above 10% similarity you will be required to resubmit your thesis. 

Formatting your Bibliography

The bibliography at the end of the paper contains the necessary information for the reader so that he/she can find the sources cited in the paper. Only those sources that are referred to in the text can be included in the bibliography. Each source reference in the text must be listed in the bibliography; vice-versa, each reference in the bibliography must be included in the text. Therefore, one must examine carefully whether each reference is presented in both places and that the source reference in the text accords with its presentation in the bibliography.

Data from the bibliography must be cited by means of a uniform method of citation and in alphabetical order. If you are using referencing software, the bibliography is generated according to the style you selected on a mouse click.

A possible way of organizing citation of the sources from the bibliography could look like this:

• Books

Author(s) (year): Book title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Authors’ names: Surname, first name (written out fully or with initials). In the case of several authors, these are separated by slashes.

• Journals

Author(s) (year): Title of the article. Name of the journal, Volume number (Vol.), Issue number (Iss.), Number of pages.

• Anthologies

Author(s) (year): Title of the article. In: Name(s) of the editor (ed.): Book title. Place of publication: Publisher. The number of pages.

• Dissertations

Instead of publication data – place of publication and publisher – the following data is listed: unpublished dissertation, university, place.

• Articles from the Internet

Author (year): Title of Article. http://www.url.com – retrieved on: date.