Master thesis at HEC Lausanne

Topics for research master theses come from the research projects we're currently working on and our collaborations with companies. Mostly, these projects are hands-on and involve collecting and analyzing data. Plus, you'll need to dive into the latest studies and discussions in the field to find out what questions haven't been answered yet.

Themes include

  • Management and Economics of digital markets and platforms
  • Management and Economics of data and AI
  • Management and Economics of intellectual property
  • Entertainment industries: music, movies, books, video games, comics, photography, etc.

What I expect from you (at least 2 out of 3):

  • Interest in the digital economy, from the perspective of Strategy, Information Systems or Marketing
  • Interest and skills in quantitative methods, including econometrics and Machine Learning or formal modeling
  • Successful participation in at least one of the following courses: "Strategy in Digital Markets", "Strategy of Innovation", "Platforms and Digital Business Models"

Examples of theses I have supervised recently:

  • The Impact of Ancillary Fee Presentation and Disclosure Timing on Price Perception and Booking Intent in Airline Digital Interfaces
  • Chopin vs. Copyright Trolls - An In-depth Analysis of Copyright Enforcement on YouTube
  • Between Neutrality and Value Creation: A Two-Sided Market Perspective on Personal Data Intermediaries
  • Designing Modular and Flexible Workflows for Agent-based Algorithm Auditing
  • Market Performance Prediction Using Machine Learning
  • Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Firms: A Reality Check
  • The Influence of the Chicken-and-egg Problem on a Two-sided Platform Growth Strategy
  • On Product Certification for Newcomers in the Luxury e-Commerce: A Field Experiment

Formal guidelines

  • There are no strong formal requirements, but it is important that your work follows a coherent structure and is concise. Concrete guidelines for citations can be found here.
  • Excellent master theses follow the format of a paper published in the top journals in terms of structure and length (no more than 30 pages excluding appendix).
  • The introduction is a mini-version of the entire thesis, motivating the research question, introducing the setting, data, and method, foreshadowing the results, summarizing the implications, and placing it into the body of existing knowledge. A good introduction can only be finished when the entire thesis is finished.