📌 Key facts
- When: Start anytime. Applications are open!
- How to apply: Send us an e-mail (at the end of this page) with your CV and a grade report.
- 📌 Key facts
- 💡 Background
- 🦾 Who We Are
- 🎓 Profile - what we value
- 📝 How to Apply
- 📬 Contact
💡 Background
Understanding retail investors’ risk tolerance is a core prerequisite for suitable investment advice and portfolio decisions, yet practice varies widely in how risk is assessed and communicated. This thesis delivers a systematic view of the academic evidence and a structured mapping of how risk profiling is currently done in the market.
The thesis aims to (1) synthesize what research says about measuring risk tolerance and related constructs (risk preference, risk capacity, risk perception) and (2) map current market practices for risk profiling across institutions and information providers. Based on these insights, the thesis identifies gaps and proposes future research questions (optionally: a first concept for an empirical study/experiment on risk elicitation or communication).
Potential outcomes:
- Systematic Literature Review: Definitions, measurement instruments (questionnaires vs. choice tasks), reliability/validity, known biases, and implications for financial decision-making.
- Desk research (market mapping):
- How banks and financial service providers currently assess risk (e.g., suitability/risk-profiling questionnaires, categorization, communication formats).
- How information providers (e.g., educators/coaches/content providers) identify and communicate investor risk (e.g., heuristics, self-tests, behavioral cues).
- Gap analysis & research agenda: 3–5 prioritized gaps + testable research questions; optional sketch of an experiment (e.g., different question formats or framings and their impact on measured risk tolerance and portfolio choices).
🦾 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 Organisations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies, and organisations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.
🎓 Profile - what we value
- Interest and basic knowledge of: Personal finance, financial markets and financial literacy.
- Organizational skills and proactive communication.
- Reliable and self-driven working style.
- Proficient German language skills are preferred for research in the German market.
📝 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Simon Hochstraßer by submitting your CV and grade report. Please also briefly outline why you are interested in that topic and why you would be a good fit. Please don't use ChatGPT for your cover letter. If you prefer, you can also write to me in German.
📬 Contact
Simon Hochstraßer (Chair for Strategy and Organisation)
👉 simon.hochstrasser@tum.de