Bachelor Thesis, Master Thesis, IDP
📌 Key facts
Contents
- 💡 Background
- 🦾Who We Are
- 🎯 Goals
- 🧠Topics of Interest
- 🎓 Profile
- 📚 Further Reading
- 📄 Requirements to any Work
- 📬 How to Apply
💡 Background
Media representations of entrepreneurs have a powerful influence on entrepreneurial aspirations (e.g. Levie, 2010; Radu and Redien-Collot, 2008; Hindle and Klyver, 2007). Media representations of female entrepreneurs shape perceptions of society and the business world about the characteristics of a typical female entrepreneur as well as about their business acumen (Achtenhagen and Welter, 2007, p. 205; cf. Smith and Anderson, 2007; Bruni et al., 2004; Langowitz and Morgan, 2003; Pietiläinen, 2001).
- Media representations influence whether women perceive business ownership as a desirable and attainable form of economic activity – and if so, what type of business ownership they aspire to. They thus shape the strength and direction of women’s entrepreneurial aspirations (see Radu and Redien-Collot, 2008 for media influences on entrepreneurial aspirations in general).
- Media representations influence expectations and perceptions of women entrepreneurs held by investors, clients, business partners and other individuals whose actions and decisions directly impact an entrepreneur’s business success (Bruni et al., 2004).
In newspaper articles female entrepreneurship tends to be discussed as a deviation from ‘normal’, male entrepreneurship (Ahl 2004, 2007). It is depicted as less purposeful, professional and successful (Achtenhagen and Welter, 2007; Bruni et al., 2004) and as driven by women’s personal concerns – with the latter generally perceived as less valuable to society than business motivations (Bruni et al., 2004).
🦾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 the representation of female entrepreneurs
- Investigate the following questions:
- Do gender differences exist in the representation of entrepreneurs?
- What are the key topics in the portrayal of female vs. male entrepreneurs?
- What are consequences of the (biased) portrayal of female entrepreneurs (e.g., on entrepreneurial aspirations of girls and young women)?
- Are female entrepreneurs punished more harshly for unethical behaviour than male entrepreneurs (e.g., receive stronger medial backlash)?
- How can media outlets de-bias their representation of entrepreneurship?
- 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
- (Gender) Stereotypes & Biases
- Entrepreneurship
- Female Leaders & Entrepreneurs
- Social Norms
- Media
- Language
🎓 Profile
- Reliable and self-driven
- Enthusiasm for DEI & Entrepreneurship
- 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
Why Female Entrepreneurs Welcome The End Of The Girlboss Era-Once And For All
I n October 2021, Rent the Runway cofounder Jennifer Hyman took her 12-year-old subscription fashion company public at a $1.7 billion valuation, valuing her 5.1% stake at nearly $49 million. The 41-year-old CEO was one of only about 25 American women in history to go public with a company she had founded.
www.forbes.com
The Sunsetting of the Girlboss Is Nearly Complete
Emily Weiss, the founder of Glossier and a face on the Mount Rushmore of start-up culture, will no longer be the beauty company's chief executive. On Tuesday, Emily Weiss, the chief executive of Glossier Inc., announced that she would be stepping down from the top role at the skin care and beauty brand she founded in 2014.
www.nytimes.com
How the myth of the 'girlboss' harms emerging women in tech
'The culture is anxiety-inducing' On Lafayette Street in SoHo, young, fashionable women lined up around the block to enter a minimalist, millennial oasis, the most perfect Instagram feed brought to life. Staff members glided around the store in pastel pink suits, each embodying the kind of girl that Glossier made us all want to be: beautiful, yet effortless.
techcrunch.com
Female founders under fire: Are women in the startup world being unfairly targeted?
Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today. Last fall, Audrey Gelman seemed to be on top of the business world-or at least one pale-pink corner of it.
fortune.com
They Still Live in the Shadow of Theranos's Elizabeth Holmes
Female entrepreneurs said they were constantly compared to Ms. Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, who faces trial soon. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android .
www.nytimes.com
Women Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review to Outline the Boundaries of Scientific Literature
In recent years, the study of women entrepreneurship has experienced great growth, gaining a broad consensus among academics and contributing above all to understanding all those factors that explain the difficulty of women in undertaking an entrepreneurial career. This document tries to contribute to the field of study, thanks to a systematic analysis through the publications present in the topic.
www.frontiersin.org
'Surfing on the ironing board' - the representation of women's entrepreneurship in German newspapers
Notes 1. Due to i.e. time-lags of causes on effects as well as the interrelatedness of different factors contributing directly and/or indirectly to the career choice of potential entrepreneurs, such cause-and-effect relationship is impossible to operationalize and quantify. 2. Data come from GENESIS ONLINE, an online database of the Federal Statistical Office ( 2006 Federal Statistical Office.
www.tandfonline.com
journals.sagepub.com
journals.sagepub.com
journals.sagepub.com
journals.sagepub.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Performing and unperforming entrepreneurial success: Confessions of a female role model
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT Female role models are increasingly used in enterprise support to encourage women to open businesses. Although varied in detail, their public narratives generally follow a limited number of plots where hard work overcomes all obstacles and leads to emotionally fulfilling, rewarding careers while societally enabled resource accumulation and financial returns are rarely mentioned.
www.tandfonline.com
'Girl boss': When empowerment slogans backfire
Back in 2014, American entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso popularised the word "girl boss". Adding a hashtag prefix, she sent it rocketing into public consciousness as the title of her autobiography, a bestseller that later became a TV series, and that described her transformation of an eBay vintage store into the multi-million-dollar fashion brand that is Nasty Gal.
www.bbc.com
📄 Requirements to any Work
We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:
- Infograph - visually represent some of your work (find examples here)
- Slide Deck - summarise your research and possibly present it
- Extract most important sequences from podcasts, videos, and other media
- 3-4 Tweets about the most important findings and summarizing the topic
- optional: Medium Article - let people outside the university know about your research and start your personal brand
📬 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Nadja Born (e-mail below) 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!
👉 nadja.born@tum.de