Bachelor Thesis, Master Thesis, IDP
📌 Key facts
Contents
💡 Background
Digital technologies illustrate an integral part of entrepreneurial processes and outcomes (Steininger, 2019). Yet, the increasing use of digital technologies in the context of entrepreneurship has led to new ethical challenges for entrepreneurs and their ventures (Martin, 2019). On the one hand, digital technologies can help businesses to achieve their objectives more efficiently, whereas their misuse can result in negative ethical consequences such a intransparency (Mittelstadt, 2019), privacy concerns (Baron and Musolesi, 2017) or biases (Gebru et al., 2018). The inherent nature and characteristics of digital technologies hence play a significant role in understanding and mitigating these ethical risks, as the ethical use of digital technologies is crucial for organizations to build their reputation and social responsibility (Martin et al., 2017).
Digital technologies assert an inherently malleable and pervasive nature (Lobschat et al., 2021). The pervasive use of digital technologies illustrates the omnipresence of digital technologies in entrepreneurial business models and processes (Yoo et al., 2012), whilst the malleable nature of digital technologies encompasses the unpredictable and changeable use thereof (Lobschat et al., 2021). Even if introduced with the best intentions, the unintended consequences of algorithmic opacity and the datafication of the workplace (Gal et al., 2021) provide the breeding ground for ethical risks. Digital opacity disguises the organizational landscape and the datafication of the workplace oversimplifies the organization potentially causing problems associated with transparency, privacy and bias.
Socialization-based perspective proposes that society imposes different role expectations on men and women, and these expectations cause sex differences in unethical behaviors. People behave consistently with the stereotype attached to their social roles (Eagly, 1987). Because women are stereotyped as more communal and less selfish than men (Eagly & Wood, 1991), role expectations may explain why women would want to behave less unethically than men (McCabe et al., 2006; Westbrook et al., 2011). Prescriptions associated with some roles, such as the role of an entrepreneur, can potentially override prescriptions associated with other roles such as being a female (Franke et al., 1997; Robin & Babin, 1997).
🦾Who We Are
The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future. Topics such as Agile Organizations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership, and Teams. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies, and organizations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.
🎯 Goals
- Explore the state-of-the-art of ethical behavior, entrepreneurship, and gender stereotypes
- Investigate the following questions:
- What are the most common ethical dilemmas faced by entrepreneurs in the digital age?
- Do entrepreneurs perceive societal pressure to behave more vs. less ethical based on their gender (i.e., do female entrepreneurs experience more pressure than male entrepreneurs to behave ethically?)
- How does the public react to the unethical behavior in entrepreneurship depending on the entrepreneur’s gender?
- Make your results visible
The scope of your thesis will be determined based on your background, type of thesis, and personal interests.
🧠 Topics of Interest
- (Un)Ethical Behaviour
- Entrepreneurship
🎓 Profile
- Reliable and self-driven
- Enthusiasm for Entrepreneurship & Ethics
- Ability to do sophisticated internet and desk research, and connect with practitioners
- Passionate to learn more about the future and do research with impact
📚 Further Reading
📬 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Sara Kappelhoff by submitting your CV and grade report. Please also briefly outline your tentative research idea (research question, data and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)
We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!
👉 Sara: sara.kappelhoff@tum.de