Fundamentals of Business Administration

a.y. 2020/2021

Rules for the Thesis Works

Premise: Those students who wish to write their thesis in the Fundamentals of Business Administration subject are kindly requested to read carefully the following rules.

1.    Theses can be assigned only when the number of remaining exams is equal to 4 (or lower than).
2.    A thesis mostly composed of a literature review often takes 6 months to be completed.
3.    An analytical thesis, instead, is considered, by the supervisor of this subject, as a thesis mostly based on the rigorous collection, processing and interpretation of business data. This kind of thesis usually takes between 6 and 9 months of work. In this subject, only strictly analytical theses can be considered as eligible for recommendation (i.e. segnalazione).
4.    The development of an analytical thesis often implies the student’s direct relationship with one or more firms. In this regard, students should be proactive in the search of appropriate case studies. Eventually, the supervisor can also help. Once the analytical thesis has been completed, the supervisor will approve its final discussion only if its content, especially in terms of data information developed, has been formally approved also by the involved firm(s).
5.    The student and her/his supervisor discuss (and hopefully agree) about the topic of the proposed thesis during their first meeting. In this regard, the thesis must always relate to one of the topics discussed during the course. The student’s pro-activity in suggesting ideas is greatly appreciated. On this side, exploring the webpage containing the titles of the dissertations completed over time could help.
6.    Once the topic of a thesis has been defined, the supervisor will guide the student through the supposed structure of her/his work (i.e. 3 chapters). In this regard, the supervisor could also provide the students with previously discussed (and eventually awarded) theses (e.g., published and/or prize winner theses) for temporary guidance.
7.    Particular reasons (for example, in the case of ERASMUS students) can enable the e-supervising modality (e.g. through skype connections). Anyway, e-supervising cannot happen outside the supervisor’s office hours scheduled weekly.

Students can develop thesis about these five topics:

• Managerial work
• The startegy and the organisational governance
• The voluntary disclosure of financial and non financial information
• Business Planning
• Management accounting