After completing the module, students will be able to conduct independent empirical research projects in the field of start-up research. The will be able to develop research questions and hypotheses independently based on relevant scientific literature on entrepreneurship and start-ups. Students will be able to collect suitable data for investigating start-up processes, founders, start-ups, or young companies, or obtain such data from existing data sources, document it transparently, prepare it methodologically correctly, and analyze it using appropriate statistical methods. In addition, they can interpret empirical results in the context of existing start-up research, discuss them critically, classify them both theoretically and practically, and reflect on the methodological limitations of their own research.

Based on the planning and implementation of their own empirical research project with a thematic focus on start-up and entrepreneurship research (the available project topics are announced on the chair´s website), students go trough all phases of a scientific research process. This includes specifying start-up-related research questions, deriving hypotheses based on literature, planning and implementing data collection and data use, and statistically analyzing and processing the results. Finally, the restults are presented, discussed in light of current start-up research, and critically reflected upon in terms of theoretical implications, practical relevance, and methodolocial limitations.

You can find the complete module descriptionhere.