BTH 2412 Bachelor Thesis - International Business
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APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014
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BTH 2412 Bachelor Thesis - International Business
Responsible for the course
Jon Erland Lervik, Eli Moen
Department
Department of Communication - Culture and Languages
Term
According to study plan
ECTS Credits
15
Language of instruction
Norwegian
Introduction
The bachelor thesis is an integrated part of the course International Business. It is an independent piece of work where the students must demonstrate an ability to deal with (real-life) problems and solve them accordingly. The bachelor thesis is a compulsory part of the course and thus of the bachelor’s programme. In order to write the thesis, students should form groups of two or three. Based on request, it is possible to write individually.
Learning outcome
The overall objective of the bachelor's thesis is to give the students an opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and skills that they have acquired in their studies (substantive and methodological)
Acquired knowledge
During the process of writing a bachelor's thesis, students will learn how to use their theoretical understanding in the field of international business to explore or even solve a problem. Also they will acquire knowledge of how to plan and execute a project, how to collaborate successfully, and how to effectively write up a report.
Acquired skills
The students should demonstrate some expertise and ability to carry out a major assignment, i.e. be good project managers. They should also be able to make a knowledge contribution by bringing understanding to an international business problem or issue. Overall, the bachelor’s thesis should demonstrate that the students are able to develop research questions, perform literature search and write a literature review, select research method(s) and collect and analyze data, interpret results and write it up in a structured manner. They should also demonstrate knowledge of how to properly refer to materials (books, articles, the Internet) that have been used as
sources.
Reflections
Writing a bachelor thesis should give the students an opportunity to reflect on different perspectives and possible consequences of the perspectives chosen. Also, ethical considerations on issues such as confidentiality, anonymity, different forms of consent, plagiarism are often necessary. Also, they will learn how to treat their own data, i.e. not "over interpret" or "under interpret" such data in order to make the data fit is an important issue to reflect on.
Prerequisites
BST 2411 International Business.
Compulsory reading
Recommended reading
Books:
Myers, Michael D. 2013. Qualitative research in business and management. 2nd ed. SAGE. chap 3,5,7,9,10,13
Salkind, Neil J. 2013. Exploring research. 8th ed. Pearson education. chap 1 -10, 13-14
Course outline
- The challenges of writing a bachelor thesis
- Searching for literature and writing a literature review
- Choosing design and research methods
- Analyzing and interpreting your data
- Structure and style of a bachelor thesis
Computer-based tools
It's learning
Learning process and workload
It is expected that the students take responsibility for working on the thesis. The students shall fill in a registration form where the chosen topic is defined. After this the students are assigned a supervisor. It is expected that the students be well prepared for the meetings with the supervision. Every student group is entitled to up to three hours of supervision.
In order to support students' progress they will have to attend four compulsory seminars. The seminars will reflect the course outline. Each seminar will last about two hours and the students are required to document their own progress in one form or another. Guidelines for writing Bachelor thesis are to be found on the web-site @BI.
The students will be divided in groups, and in each seminar there will typically be 4 - 5 groups. Students who have not taken part in the seminars and/or have not delivered documentation can expect to be called in for an oral examination.
| Activity | Hours |
| Participation in introductory lecture | 2 |
| Participation in library information | 2 |
| Preparation for seminars | 40 |
| Preparation for hand-ins during the semester | 80 |
| Participation in seminars 4 x 2 hours | 8 |
| Thesis work | 265 |
| Supervision | 3 |
| Recommended use of hours | 400 |
Examination
A bachelor thesis concludes the course. The assessment of the bachelor thesis accounts for 100% of the total grade.
The bachelor thesis can be completed individually or in groups of up to three students. Group solution is recommended.
Examination code(s)
BAC xx111 Bachelor Thesis, counts 100 % towards the final grade in BAC xx14 Bachelor Thesis - International Business, 15 credits.
Examination support materials
All support materials are allowed.
Re-sit examination
A re-sit examination is offered in connection with the next ordinary course..
Additional information