Research & Master Thesis

The master thesis is your opportunity to show your potential as a next generation manager. During this period, you will interact with internationally-recognised companies and well-known researchers in the field of Business Information Management. 

The writing of your master thesis – the report of your scientific study – is the most important part of the Business Information Management programme. Everyone is well prepared for their theses with a short course on essential research skills in the Research Clinic from November until January. You will learn how to define and write your master thesis proposal and how to conduct research in your specialised field. Staff involved in this MSc will present their current research projects, and you will be invited to link your master thesis to one of these projects. 

You will be assigned a faculty member who is an expert in the subject area of your research proposal. He or she will be your coach for the remainder of the master thesis trajectory and from this point on, you will work with your coach in carrying out research during the spring and summer aiming to graduate in September. Some students work with their supervisors to co-author articles during their MSc studies; this is a great way to become acquainted with post-graduation PhD opportunities. 

The following research projects are offered as Master thesis opportunities: 

Business Agility

Today’s highly dynamic business environment requires businesses to adjust and act swiftly; to be agile. This research project investigates the drivers and enablers of business agility. Business sectors coming under scrutiny include financial services, mobile telecom, energy, logistics and governmental agencies. Business partners include Hewlett-Packard and 25 large companies and agencies. 

Business Process Outsourcing

Approaching Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) as strategic partnering, this project identifies best practices in BPO service provision in order to facilitate their adoption throughout the BPO sector, in particular, building win-win relationships between European customers and Indian service providers. Business partners include Tata Consultancy, ABN Amro, Management Development Institute, and Gurgaon India. 

Intelligent Agents 

The DEAL (Distributed Engine for Advanced Logistics) project aims to design, implement and evaluate a distributed, agent-based intelligence system for the planning, executing and automated trading of capacity within transportation networks. Business partners include Almende, Post Kogeko, Groeneveld, and Vos Logistics. 

Location-based Mobile Business (latch) 

The goal of LATCH is to assess the viability and profitability of building and running a multi-lingual, geographically-oriented distributed online repository of cultural heritage information with extensive location-based functionality. Business partners include Raqoon software Iceland, Telecom Italia Lab. 

Innovative Auction Markets

‘The Marketplace of the Future’ project analyses how and why markets are in transition, and uses laboratory and field experiments to test the impact of innovative auction markets. Business Partners include Accenture, eBay, FloraHolland, Fruitmasters and Negometrix. 

Smart Business Networks 

This project investigates the new ways of doing business in a network environment, where companies co-operate closely in providing the highest possible added value for their joint end-customers. The structure of these networks, as well as the role and position of individual companies in this network, are analysed in practice using simulations and in a business networking game. Business partners are ABZ, Delta Loyd, and Cordys.

Worlds of Work 

The Worlds of Work project investigates how companies and knowledge workers explore new ways of working. We developed a survey tool that measures the dimensions of work of individuals and how the impact of innovations and new ways of working will result in changes to job satisfaction, flexibility and productivity of knowledge workers. The survey tool and in-depth case study research will contribute to your theoretical and practical knowledge. Business partners are Microsoft, De Unie and Rabobank.