Bachelor's and Master's Theses

Students who are interested in writing their thesis at the Chair of Marketing (Prof. Dr. Martin Natter) must follow our requirements. BA and MA theses can be written in either German or English.

Students writing their thesis with us engage with current, data-driven research questions that are theoretically informed and practically relevant. Methodologically, our theses tend to be quantitative (e.g., statistical modeling, experiments), but we do offer qualitative theses on occasion (e.g., literature reviews). Many projects build directly on real-world marketing problems, particularly in pricing, promotion, sustainability communication, and digital consumer behavior.

Our topics are published on the Business Theses Market of the department. You are also invited to propose your own topics there: https://theses.business.uzh.ch

The guidelines of the faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics are binding. All necessary information on the general framework, graduation dates, the application, the OLAT process and the registration for graduation can be found here: https://www.oec.uzh.ch/en/studies/theses.htm

At our chair, we study how marketing instruments, especially pricing and promotion, shape consumer decision-making and firm behavior, with a strong focus on sustainability, digital markets, and socially relevant outcomes. Our research combines marketing, consumer psychology, and behavioral science, and regularly translates into empirically grounded Bachelor’s and Master’s theses.

Typical topics available for BA and MA theses include, among others:

Pricing, Promotion, and Consumer Responses

• Innovative pricing mechanisms and participative pricing (e.g., pay-what-you-want)
• Dynamic pricing and promotional strategies
• Feedback mechanisms in usage-based pricing models (e.g., usage-based insurance)
• Price- and promotion-based incentives for sustainable consumption

Sustainability Marketing and Communication

• How retailers define, pursue, and communicate sustainability goals
• Sustainability advertising and the classification of sustainability claims
• The effectiveness and limits of sustainability labels (e.g., organic labels, biodiversity information)
• When “too much sustainability” becomes counterproductive for consumers
• Consumers’ understanding of sustainability and its impact on behavior

Retailing and Digital Markets

• Product returns in online retailing and managerial strategies to reduce them
• Transparency and misleading advertising claims on social media
• Consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility communication
• Sustainability communication in online and omnichannel retail contexts

Consumer Decision-Making, Values, and Psychology

• The role of personal values in consumer behavior
• Risk preferences and investment decisions
• Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and its implications for well-being and consumption
• How consumers assess complex sustainability trade-offs in everyday decisions

Sustainable Innovation and Preference Dynamics

• Adoption of sustainable food innovations
• Dynamic changes in consumer preferences over time
• Psychological and contextual drivers of sustainable innovation uptake

You can apply for a thesis at our chair via the Theses Market of the Department of Business Administration. For the application we require the following information:

• Curriculum vitae (PDF-document)
• Transcript of records showing attended courses of the marketing group (PDF-document)
• Each topic may require additional special prerequisites and knowledge as stated in the project description, for instance programming skills (e.g. R, SPSS, Python)
• Motivation letter stating your interest in the topic and your ability to fulfill all requirements. The letter must also include the confirmation to fulfill or have fulfilled the following prerequisites:
  • Availability of required time to complete a thesis within 6 months: BA = at least 540 hours, MA = at least 900 hours
  • Having notice of the guidelines of the faculty and of the current “Guidelines for writing your thesis at the Chair for Marketing”
  • Having well-founded knowledge in literature research as offered in the module “Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten” (EAW) and in the workshop on Literature Research in Business, Finance, and Economics offered by the University library 

The requirements of our chair are defined in our guidelines for BA and MA theses (PDF, 11 MB).

Writing a thesis is a full-time job. For a bachelor’s thesis you must invest at least 540 hours within 6 months (18 Credits * 30h), for a master’s thesis at least 900 hours (30 Credits * 30h), which corresponds to almost 40h a week during the whole period.

The table (PDF, 91 KB) shows the process starting with the application for a topic several months before the intended start and the milestones within the 6 months that our faculty allocates for the completion of a BA or MA thesis.

Preparation for the application:

• Carefully read our Guidelines for BA and MA theses
• Familiarize yourself with prerequisites, dates, and topics.
• Chose a topic in the theses market and prepare the required documents for the application.
• Refresh the knowledge acquired in the mandatory module “Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten” (EAW) and inquire the information and videos offered for Economics on the website of the University Library Zurich. In addition, we also recommend to visit the online course of the library with a self-test evaluating your knowledge, and the workshop on Literature Research in Business, Finance, and Economics offered twice a year in DE and EN.

The chair may require an oral defense after submission of the thesis. In particular if there are doubts about the independent authorship of the work, for example in cases of suspected unauthorised use of AI or other tools. Whether a defense will take place is decided by the chair on a case-by-case basis. Students will be informed in due time. Studens have no entitlement to an oral defence taking place or not taking place.

Once you agreed with a supervisor on the offered topic, she or he will upload it on OLAT and send you a confirmation by e-mail. In the same message you’ll be invited to access the OLAT-group by using the given link.

Once you selected the link and thus joined the course, you have 24 hours to select the thesis topic. With your selection, your personal workflow on OLAT starts and the binding deadline will be recorded. You must submit your final thesis digitally in OLAT no later than this deadline. Theses submitted later are considered to have been failed. Please be aware that the deadline is defined to the minute precisely and this must be adhered to! You find all official information on the OLAT-process on the faculty page.

There will be at least two meetings with your supervisor. The first meeting will take place as soon as the student has created an outline for the thesis (5 to 6 weeks after the starting date): the conceptional framework will be defined and the writing process can start. The second meeting (usually 3 to 4 months after the starting date) focuses on finalizing the framework, discussing the (hypothetical) experiment, and (potential) data analysis.

The following documents have to be completed, signed and submitted together with the thesis:

• Publication Agreement (PDF, 69 KB)
• Declaration of Independence (PDF, 51 KB)
• Declaration of the Usage of AI (PDF, 94 KB)

Please find answers in our FAQ document (PDF, 104 KB)!

For more questions, please contact us by e-mail.