LEARNING OUTCOME

The purpose of the bachelor´s thesis is to give students an opportunity – by working in depth with a limited subject area
– to independently demonstrate their ability to formulate a business-related topic, select relevant literature, process data,
conduct analyses, apply methodologies, make critical assessments and present answers to questions raised in the
problem statement.

The thesis serves the following purposes:

• To further develop the ability to give an independent, systematic and clear treatment of a certain topic.
• To train the ability to independently identify and analyze relevant problems
• To solve a practical problem by a systematic use of an appropriate choice of theory and methodologies.
• To train the ability to independently acquire and handle academic knowledge through independent studies of
relevant literature, and to cultivate the ability to evaluate and briefly account for the central elements in a large
literature base.

THESIS GROUPS

Students may choose to write alone or in groups of up to 4 students.

TYPES OF THESES

You can choose topics containing theoretical, empirical and/or practical aspects. But irrespective of the topic chosen, the
use of relevant theory and literature is fundamental to the thesis.

An empirical paper: The idea is to gather knowledge on a specific topic and to relate theory to empirical observations, e.g.
by using existing data, by using questionnaires or experiments.

A case study: A case study approach involves an analysis of a specific occurrence or process in an actual company or
another type of organization. The purpose of a case study is to provide descriptions, analyses and suggested solutions to
problems in relation to the case in hand. Case studies will involve the use of quantitative and/or qualitative methods for
data collection.

A theoretical paper: This type of thesis builds on a theoretical model or a generic problem. Often a theoretical thesis is
based on existing literature studies in which a theoretical problem is analyzed. This type of thesis is the least common.

No type of thesis is superior to others and no topics guarantee a high grade. The grade is based solely on whether the
topic is thoroughly analyzed, the results clearly presented and whether you are able to demonstrate your knowledge of
current theories and analyses, competent application of methods as well as independent critical judgment.

CHOICE OF TOPIC AND REGISTRATION

A “Thesis day” will be held on Thursday in week 41 marking the initiation of the work with the thesis. Further information
about the “Thesis day” will be announced on CampusNet.

The topic of the thesis is typically based on an actually existing problem, that is, an issue within the academic fields of the
bachelor program. It may be problems in a given organization (private or public company, interest group, etc.), an
industry or a sector of the community.

You choose/define the topic for your bachelor´s thesis yourself; however, it has to be within the academic frames of the
chosen department.

When choosing the topic you might:

• be inspired by a problem, an observation or a phenomenon that you find interesting

• be inspired by models and theories, from your previous study program, that you find interesting

It might be helpful to discuss ideas for topic(s) with a possible supervisor for your thesis. The basis of such a discussion
could be a short description of your ideas containing: The problem, an initial problem statement, reflections on the theory
that will be used and reflections on an empirical basis. Some of the previous bachelors’ theses can be found at
www.theses.asb.dk. But remember just to use them as inspiration!

The working title of the thesis and the name of the supervisor must be announced to the Registrar's Office no later than
the 1st of December or first Monday thereafter.
Before this deadline, you are to formulate a working title and have it accepted by a supervisor. The title is typically only
a draft of the problem and does not have to be the final problem statement. If you are unable to find a supervisor as the
deadline approaches, use the form at the Study Portal to ask the relevant department to assign a supervisor to you.
CONFIDENTIALITY

When you contact a company about a possible cooperation in connection with a study report, the company often wants
written guarantees concerning confidentiality between you and the company. A template for a confidentiality agreement,
which you can adapt to suit your needs, can be found here:

Confidentiality agreement

Note that your supervisor and the external examiner both have implicit confidentiality through their jobs. However, some
companies might still ask for a confidentiality agreement between AU and the company. A link to this confidentiality
agreement can be found on this page:

http://studerende.au.dk/en/studies/subject-portals/business-
administration/counselling/bachelorsthesis/confidentialtheses/

Note: When handing in your thesis, you will be asked whether or not it should be ‘open shelf’ (i.e. accessible to others in
the future). Choosing ‘closed shelf’ will ensure you full confidentiality as only your supervisor and the external examiner
will see your thesis.

THE SUPERVISION PROCESS

It might be difficult for the supervisor to follow the progress of your working process. You should, therefore, consider how,
where and when best to use the supervisor.

Supervisors place great emphasis on the fact that you take responsibility for your own learning, including the ability to
structure your thesis and plan the working process in a suitable way.

Therefore, you must be able to argue for your theoretical and methodological choices along the way and the quality of
your final bachelor’s thesis is your responsibility alone. The primary task of the supervisor is to act as an academic
sparring partner, play the devil’s advocate and challenge your work along the way – not to approve of your individual
choices and work along the way.

Normally, the first supervision meeting will be based on a written presentation from you. At the first supervision meeting
you and your supervisor will also typically discuss and agree upon how the supervision is to take place subsequently,
including planned absence by the supervisor (holidays, conferences, etc.) during which supervision is not possible.

Please note that the supervisor will not necessarily read or assess the whole or parts of the thesis before it is handed in,
and that the supervisor’s approval of the method in no way guarantees that the thesis will pass. However, the supervisor
can inform you if the level of ambition in the thesis seems to be insufficient.

SPECIAL SITUATIONS

If you have any problems, such as personal or health problems which will affect your ability to complete your thesis, or
you have unsolvable problems with fellow students in your group, contact the Student Counsellor’s Office to get
information on how to handle this. For any major changes affecting your thesis, please inform your supervisor after
contacting the Student Counsellor’s Office.

In case of problems between you and your supervisor, try to sort it out with the supervisor by asking to discuss the
problems directly. If this is not possible, you should contact the Program Coordinator at the department (Christian
Waldstrøm at BADM; Per Madsen at ECON).
THE THESIS

CONTENT

Given the grade description the thesis should be based on a well-defined and well-structured problem statement. Also, it is
important that relevant theories, methodologies, concepts and data form the basis of both the problem statement and
problem treatment, and that a reason is given for your choice of model and methodologies compared to the specific
problem.

In the assessment of the thesis, it will be emphasized that it is possible for the reader to judge both the basis of the
analyses and the analyses themselves.

In this connection, please consider carefully:

• Choice of approach to and methodology of the study

• Assessment of the data basis for the study (cf. the criteria attached to the approach to the study chosen)
• Assessment of the relevance and merits of the theories and models chosen
• Validity of the statements concluded.

The thesis must feature an abstract in English (regardless of the language of the rest of the thesis) of 3,000-4,000
characters excl. blanks. The abstract is included in the overall evaluation of the thesis, and it must be placed in the
beginning of the thesis, before the introduction.

Every thesis is to contain a sufficient description and analysis of the topic. It is important that there is a clear connection
between the topic, the problem statement, solution proposals and considerations concerning implementation – i.e. that
there is a clear structure and flow throughout the entire thesis.

The thesis should end with a conclusive section, which contains all the conclusions from the thesis – even though there
have been conclusions throughout the thesis. The conclusion should not present new questions or discuss problems which
have not been part of the analysis. If you have something to add after the conclusion, you should do it in an additional
paragraph. Thus, it is a requirement that the introduction and the conclusion are coherent in content.

LIMITATIONS

The maximum size allowed for the thesis (in number of characters excl. blanks) is defined by the number of students:

• 1 student = 110,000 characters excl. blanks (equivalent to roughly 50 pages)

• 2 students = 154,000 characters excl. blanks (equivalent to roughly 70 pages)
• 3 students = 187,000 characters excl. blanks (equivalent to roughly 85 pages)
• 4 students = 220,000 characters excl. blanks (equivalent to roughly 100 pages)

Note the following:

• All parts of the main thesis (front page, abstract, list of contents, footnotes, references, etc.) count towards this
total. Only the appendices are excluded from this total.
• Figures, illustrations etc. inserted as pictures count as 800 characters regardless of their size.
• There are no minimum limits for the thesis
•
• There are no “+ 10 % rules” for these size limitations and your supervisor cannot give you permission to write
more than the maximum limit. It is part of the academic qualification that the student can organize and adjust the topics
for the thesis so it fits the size limits and therefore exceeding the limit will negatively influence the evaluation of the
thesis.

You DO NOT have to identify which part each group member wrote.

FRONT PAGE

The front page of the thesis must include the following information:
• Name of student(s)
• Month and year
• Name of the department
• Title of thesis
• Name of supervisor
• Number of characters excluding blanks

LANGUAGE AND LAYOUT

According to the Competence and grade description, the use of language in the thesis is part of the total evaluation.
Therefore, please make an extra effort to write properly. There are no formal requirements to layout regarding such
elements as line spacing, margins, fonts, header or footer – as long as your thesis is readable and is within reasonable
frames.

TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively. They must be easily readable/understandable and accompanied by
an explanatory note, including a citation if they are referenced from another source. In principle, the notes should allow
the tables to be studied and understood independently of the text. However, analyses and interpretations of the tables and
figures must be given in the text.
APPENDICES

You can enclose appendices where you find it necessary to include extra material such as (but not limited to):
• Supplementary information about the empirical setting
• Interview guides, transcription, questionnaires, etc.
• Reports used as sdary data sources
Consider placing large appendices on CD-ROMs or USB-media instead of printing large files.

Note: The thesis is evaluated solely on the basis of the contents of the main thesis and therefore the main thesis must be
a complete and meaningful document independent of the appendices.

CITATIONS

Generally, the reader must always be able to evaluate the reliability in the problem solving process, no matter if it
happens on a theoretical or empirical basis. Precise source references are very important, as it makes it possible for the
reader to seek further information in the source material.

Verbatim copying, paraphrasing, unprocessed summarizing or direct translation which is not clearly referenced to the
source material will be considered plagiarism (see section on plagiarism and cheating). If you are in doubt, please ask
your supervisor.

Therefore, summaries of source material, reprinted or slightly edited figures, tables, etc. are to appear clearly and with
exact source reference.

You are to use the Harvard Referencing System (, i.e. literature references are to be found in the ongoing text and not as
footnotes, e.g.:

• According to Porter (1982), there are several ways to describe this: “…

• “Several authors have developed models, which describe this phenomenon (Jensen, 1983; Olson & Møller, 1982;
Reynolds, 1976).

When more than two authors are responsible for a reference, it should be specified only by the first author followed by “et
al.”
like:
• (Christensen et al., 2000) or Christensen et al. (2000).

Direct quotes can be used to a some extent, and they must be clearly marked as quotes, by indentation, use of italics
and/or use of quotation marks. The exact page number(s) from the source must be added, e.g.:

• ”Contracts are used primarily when their usefulness is perceived to be greater than their cost” (Roxenhall &
Ghauri, 2004, p. 261).

If not quoting specific passages, the exact page number(s) is not used in the citation, unless there is a special reason for
this, e.g. when referring to a specific table or graph.

If it is not possible (or too costly/time consuming) to find the original source, write the citation for both the original source
and the source referring to the original, e.g.:
• ”… organization structures (Mintzberg, 1980 in Brooks, 2004)”
so that both the original source and the source you have used are mentioned.

If you use Internet sources, please cite them as follows:

• (http://www.jp.dk 2007)

Furthermore, the source must appear clearly when it concerns other people’s evaluations, e.g. from interviews.

LIST OF REFERENCES

At the end of the thesis (but before any appendices) you are to put a single list of references which contains all the
sources you have referred to in the text (and only those!).
• Sources are placed alphabetically by first author’s last name.
• More sources of the same author are placed according to date of publication.
• You are not to divide the sources into primary and sdary literature.

Books are to be referenced as follows:

• Sonnelly, James H. & William, R. George (1981). Marketing of Services. Chicago: American Marketing
Association. Chapters in edited books are to be referenced as follows:
• Nevin, John R. & Smith, Ruth a. (1981). The predictive accuracy of a retail gravitation model: An empirical
evaluation. In: Kenneth Bernhardt (Red.), The changing marketing environment, pp. 15-33. Chicago: American
Marketing Association.

Papers in academic journals are to be referenced as follows:

• Wensley, Robin (1981). Strategic marketing: Betas, boxes, or basics. Journal of Marketing, 45(3), pp. 173-182.

Newspaper or magazine articles are to be referenced as follows:

• Grunert, KG 2006, ‘Convenience: Så tag på gourmetrestaurant’, Børsen, 8 June, p. 11.
Interviews are to be referenced as follows:
• Interview with Hans Von Bravo, Hansen & Søn, Viborgvej 45, 8600 Silkeborg, Tuesday 1st October, 2008.
Internet sources are to be referenced as follows:

• Albanese, A 2009, Fairer compensation for air travellers, media release, 29 January, Minister for Infrastructure,
Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, viewed 30 January 2009,
<http://www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/aa/releases/2009/ January/AA007_2009.htm>

It might be a good idea to include copy of the Internet sources in the appendices since the pages/documents you refer to
may be removed, moved to a different site, or updated.

USE OF REFERENCE PROGRAM

The library offers several Reference Manager Programs on their homepage, such as EndNote, BibTex or Refworks. The
library even offers tutorials on how to use such programs. Use the reference manager you are most comfortable with, and
use it consistently in your writing. This will save you a lot of time at the end when creating your bibliography.
Furthermore, you can be sure that the bibliography is complete and consistent.
Normally, you can export the citation of source from the database directly into your reference manager, which saves you
the time of putting all the information in by hand and ensures the data is correct and complete.

CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM

For all rules regarding plagiarism and other forms of cheating refer to the official rules at AU:
http://studerende.au.dk/en/studies/subject-portals/business-administration/teaching-and-
examination/exams/cheatingatexams/

THE ORAL DEFENCE OF THE THESIS

The oral defence is an individual evaluation of each student based on group defence (when 2 or more students write
together) of your Bachelor's thesis which is held with your supervisor and an external examiner. After handing in the
bachelor’s thesis, the group-responsible student will receive an e-mail from the department with information about when
the thesis defence is to take place (at the latest 8 weeks after it is handed in), and it is his/her responsibility to give this
information to the rest of the group.

All BSc(B) and BScB(IM) students must write their thesis in English, but for these students and all other students writing
their thesis in English, the oral defence can be in Danish, if the supervisor is Danish-speaking and accepts it.
The oral exam starts with a presentation of the thesis (approx. 5 min). This initial presentation can be used for a quick
presentation of the purpose and results of the thesis, but it can also be beneficial to use the time for selecting one or two
areas in the thesis which you want to emphasize, e.g.:

• A discussion of some of the selections and delimitations which have been made
• Considerations concerning how to proceed with the topic
• Correction of essential mistakes or pointing out of defects in the thesis
• Relevant additions which have become available after the thesis was handed in (e.g., from the media, literature,
feedback from the case company, etc.).

If you are part of a group, there are no requirements concerning the division of content in the first 5 minutes.
There are no requirements concerning how to make the presentation (poster, cue card, PowerPoint on your laptop, etc.).
However, it is your own responsibility to make sure that any technical challenges are solved and do not take time from
your presentation.
Thereafter, the supervisor and the external examiner will take over, and the examination takes altogether (incl.
deliberating, grading and feedback):

• 1 student = 45 minutes
• 2 students = 60 minutes
• 3 students = 75 minutes
• 4 students = 90 minutes

COMPETENCE AND GRADE DESCRIPTION

The bachelor’s thesis is assessed by the supervisor and an external examiner - on the basis of the written thesis and the
oral defence - according to the Danish 7-point grading scale. For more information about this scale see:
http://en.iu.dk/publications/fact-sheets/danish-grading-scale

In the evaluation of the extent to which the student meets the objectives of the bachelor’s thesis, emphasis is placed on
the student’s ability to:

• Identify and describe the topic of the thesis

• Select the appropriate theories, methodologies and source material for treating the topic
• Argue in favour of and account for the solution proposals of the thesis
• Write a well-structured thesis in clear and correct language
• Account for the content of the thesis and being able to discuss various elements related to the thesisat the oral
defence

Grade 12: Excellent is given for an outstanding performance which demonstrates the complete fulfillment of the
objectives of the bachelor’s thesis with no or only a few unimportant deficiencies.
The performance demonstrates the ability to confidently select and apply theories, methodologies and sources appropriate
to the topic described, and to analyze, argue and conclude on a well-substantiated basis. The bachelor thesis is of high
quality in terms of both linguistic communication and structure.
The oral defence demonstrates the ability to present and discuss the topic of the thesis and the conclusions in a well-
structured and reflective manner.

Grade 02: Satisfactory is given for a satisfactory performance that demonstrates the minimum acceptable degree of
fulfillment of the objectives of the bachelor’s thesis.
The performance demonstrates the ability to analyze and describe a problem by using relevant theories and source
material and some degree of systematic approach. However, there are a number of methodological weaknesses, and the
student does not take a sufficiently critical or in-depth approach to the source material, and as a consequence the problem
appears inadequately substantiated. The thesis meets the basic requirements for academic theses but is not tightly
structured, and the writing skills lack confidence.
The oral defence demonstrates a lack of focus in the presentation and in the ability to reflect on and put into perspective
the student’s approach of the problem.

If you get an insufficient grade to pass your thesis, the Registrar’s office can inform you about how to proceed next.