📌 Key facts
💡 Background
In Q2 2022 alone, more than 700 startups were founded in Germany (Statista, 2022). The majority of these startups consist of a founding team with more than one founder. While this brings advantages, e. g., in terms of different previous experiences, it also increases the risk of leaving the team due to team conflicts (Howarth, 2022).
To find out more about what makes a startup team thrive, we are conducting a large-scale longitudinal study on predicting startup success. After the recruitment of cofounding teams, we will administer online questionnaires and execute an on-site study in which we will record the founders' behavior (e.g., via video recordings, EDA measurement). The initiative can be found online and is called “The Gottman Initiative”.
The whole project is based on the work of marriage researcher John Gottman, who found that emotional valence, physiological arousal, and conflict styles during an argument are (amongst others) predictors of marital failure. We are interested in whether these predictors also affect the failure of young businesses. The following master’s theses are currently available:
NEW (2024)
- Topic 1: You Stress me Out! Effects of Physiological Arousal in New Venture Dyads during Conflict (Applications accepted)
- Topic 2: Laugh is the Key – The Role of Positive Emotion in New Venture Dyads during Conflict (Applications accepted)
- Topic 3: Is there something like a Positive Founder Conflict? We recorded more than 130 conflicts in founding teams (15-minute videos). Which conflict topics did the founders choose? Do they demonstrate positive conflict behavior (such as showing respect, entering the conversation gently) and how does this affect the long-term results of the company? Excellent grades and fluency in German required. Please apply at jennifer.ettner@tum.de.
- Topic 4: Create your own topic (Applications accepted)
Gottman found that the physiological arousal and ability to self-soothe during conflict in newlyweds predicts the success of their marriage. We are interested in whether physiological arousal during conflict also affects the success of young businesses.
Gottman found that the relation of positive and negative emotions during conflict in newlyweds predicts the success of their marriage. We are interested in whether these emotional states also affect the success of young businesses.
We have a data set of more than 100 start-ups you can use to design your own topic. Send us your proposal or your ideas where you want to make an impact. Consider the “Topics of interest”.
Your role will be to work with our team at the chair of strategy and organization and other master's thesis students on subject recruitment and data collection. Methods will include (dependent on your topic) online questionnaires, qualitative and quantitative content analyses, video analyses of emotions (using emotion software), and physiological measures.
🦾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.
🧠 Topics of Interest
- Entrepreneurship
- Personality (individual and composition)
- Emotional intelligence
- Conflict styles
- Team cohesion
- Marriage research
- The four horsemen of the apocalypse
- Venture success
- Positive emotions
- Experimental design
- Start-up founder (e.g. demographics)
- Venture industry
- Venture capital
🎓 Expectations
- Support of start-up recruitment and on-site data collection (dependent on topic)
- Analysis of questionnaires, video data, physiological measures (dependent on topic).
- Previous experience or interest in psychological topics and methods (such as content analyses, online questionnaires, experimental design…) is a plus.
- Since the experiment will be conducted in German, native German language skills are mandatory.
📚 Further Reading
Gottman, J. M., & Levenson, R. W. (1992). Marital processes predictive of later dissolution: behavior, physiology, and health. Journal of personality and social psychology, 63(2), 221.
Gottman, J. M., Cole, C., & Cole, D. L. (2019). Four Horsemen in Couple and Family Therapy. In Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy (pp. 1212-1216). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
📬 How to Apply
- Please send your complete application documents (CV, Transcript of Records, Research Proposal) in one pdf file to christian.wimmer@tum.de
- Research Proposal (1 page) must include
- Research question that aligns with the project (please refer to topic 1 to 3, see above)
- Max of 10 key references relating to this topic and concise summary of these key references
- Suggested hypotheses
- Statistical/analysis approach
- Start date: please indicate your preferred start date in your application
After reading the thesis description, you still have questions? Feel free to contact your potential thesis supervisors 
Please note: It is just a proposal. You will get more time at the beginning of your theis to further extend your methodology and finetune your topic.