company thesis questions

The top 10 thesis defense questions (+ how to prepare strong answers)

Crafting a thesis is significant, but defending it often feels like the ultimate test. While nerve-wracking, proper preparation can make it manageable. Prepare for your thesis defense with insights on the top questions you can expect, including strategies for answering convincingly.

Mastering the thesis defense: cultivate a success mindset

Question 1: why did you choose this particular topic for your research, question 2: how does your research contribute to the existing body of knowledge, question 3: what are the key findings of your research, question 4: can you defend your research methodology, question 5: how did you analyze the data and what challenges did you encounter, question 6: what theoretical frameworks or references underpin your research, question 7: how did you address ethical considerations in your research, question 8: in what ways does your research contribute to the field, question 9: how did you ensure your research was free from bias, question 10: where can future research go from here.

Nurturing a success mindset for your defense is pivotal. This means adopting a mental outlook geared towards achieving favorable outcomes during your thesis defense. To truly excel in this pivotal academic moment, it’s imperative to cultivate both confidence and composure.

Confidence enables you to present your research with conviction, while composure allows you to navigate any challenges with grace and clarity.

Remember, you know your thesis best, so trust in your expertise.

In essence, a success mindset encompasses the belief in your abilities, coupled with the ability to remain calm and focused under pressure.

Stay composed and focused, relying on your thorough preparation. If you encounter a question you can’t answer, gracefully guide the conversation back to familiar topics.

Use strategic responses when needed. For example, if a question goes beyond your thesis scope, acknowledge its relevance but steer back to your focused areas. Similarly, if you’re unfamiliar with a theory or literature, admit it but offer related insights or perspectives.

By embracing these principles and staying confident and adaptable, you’ll navigate your thesis defense with ease.

This question delves into the origins of your academic journey, aiming to understand not just what you studied, but the underlying motivations and processes that drove your exploration. It’s not merely about the superficial aspects of your research, but rather about the deeper intellectual curiosity that ignited your quest.

To effectively respond, take the opportunity to elaborate on the intricacies of your journey. Begin by unpacking the specific interests or questions that sparked your intellectual curiosity in the subject matter. What events, experiences, or influences led you to delve into this particular area of study? Providing an anecdote or example that vividly illustrates the genesis of your scholarly pursuit can be helpful.

Moreover, discuss the gaps you identified in the existing literature that motivated you to contribute to your field. What deficiencies or unanswered questions did you observe? How did these gaps inspire you to embark on your research journey with the aim of filling these voids? By articulating the specific shortcomings in the current body of knowledge, you demonstrate a nuanced understanding of your research area and underscore the significance of your work.

Additionally, highlight any personal or academic experiences that played a pivotal role in steering you towards your chosen topic. Whether it was a transformative educational experience, a profound personal interest, or a meaningful encounter, these experiences can offer valuable insights into the origins of your scholarly pursuits.

In summary, when articulating your narrative, consider the following key points:

• Unpack the specific interests or questions that sparked your intellectual curiosity.
• Discuss the gaps in the existing literature that motivated your research.
• Highlight any personal or academic experiences that influenced your choice of topic.

This question delves into the vital role your research plays within the existing body of knowledge, urging you to articulate its significance and impact. It’s not merely about the subject matter you’ve studied, but also about the unique contributions and advancements your research brings to your field. To effectively respond, delve into the intricacies of your work and its implications for the broader academic landscape.

Begin by emphasizing the novelties and breakthroughs your research introduces. Highlight specific aspects of your study that represent advancements in understanding or methodologies. Whether it’s a novel approach to a longstanding problem, the discovery of new phenomena, or the development of innovative methodologies, these contributions underscore the significance of your research within the academic community.

Next, describe how your work engages with or challenges current conversations in your field. Discuss the existing paradigms or theories your research builds upon or critiques. Articulate how your findings contribute to ongoing debates or reshape prevailing understandings. By positioning your research within the broader context of scholarly discourse, you showcase its relevance and impact on the evolving landscape of your field.

Illuminate how your findings could influence future research trajectories. Explore potential avenues for further inquiry that emerge from your research findings. Consider how your work opens up new questions or areas of exploration for future researchers. By identifying these potential research directions, you demonstrate the forward-looking nature of your work and its potential to shape the future trajectory of your field.

In summary, when addressing how your research contributes to the existing body of knowledge, consider the following key points:

• Emphasize the novelties and breakthroughs your research introduces.
• Describe the conversations in your field that your work engages with or challenges.
• Illuminate how your findings could influence future research trajectories.

Addressing the question of your research’s key findings demands skill, as it necessitates succinctly summarizing your work while conveying its significance. To effectively respond, distill your findings into digestible takeaways that encapsulate the essence of your research. Identify the central discoveries or outcomes of your study, ensuring clarity and conciseness in your presentation.

Furthermore, relate these findings to the broader implications they hold for your field. Articulate how your research contributes to advancing knowledge or addressing pressing issues within your academic discipline. Consider the potential impact of your findings on theory, practice, or policy, highlighting their relevance and significance within the larger scholarly community.

Additionally, be prepared to elucidate the nuances and complexities involved in your results. While providing a concise summary of your findings is essential, it’s equally important to acknowledge the intricacies and limitations of your research. Discuss any methodological considerations, unexpected outcomes, or areas for further investigation, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of your work.

In summary, when addressing the key findings of your research, consider the following key points:

• Distill your findings into digestible takeaways.
• Relate the outcomes to the broader implications they hold for your field.
• Be prepared to shed light on the nuances and complexities involved in your results.

Defending your research methodology entails a comprehensive understanding of its rationale, alignment with research objectives, and acknowledgment of potential limitations. It’s not merely about explaining the methods employed but also justifying why they were chosen over alternative approaches. To effectively respond, delve into the intricacies of your methodology and its implications for the study.

Begin by elucidating the reasons for selecting the chosen methodology over alternatives. Discuss the specific advantages or suitability of the selected approach in addressing the research questions or objectives. Consider factors such as feasibility, appropriateness for the research context, and compatibility with the theoretical framework guiding your study.

Furthermore, explain how your chosen methods align with your research objectives. Articulate how the selected methodology enables you to achieve the intended outcomes and contribute to answering the research questions. Discuss how each methodological choice supports the overall research design and furthers the overarching goals of the study.

Be prepared to discuss the limitations inherent in your chosen methodology and how you mitigated them. Acknowledge any constraints or shortcomings associated with the selected approach, such as potential biases, sample size limitations, or data collection challenges. Demonstrate your awareness of these limitations and discuss the strategies implemented to address or minimize their impact on the validity and reliability of your findings.

In summary, when defending your research methodology, consider the following key points:

• Justify the methodology with reasons for selecting it over alternatives.
• Explain the methods’ alignment with your research objectives.
• Be ready to discuss the limitations and how you mitigated them.

Addressing the intricacies of data analysis involves not only outlining the techniques employed but also navigating the challenges encountered and evaluating the reliability and validity of the interpretations drawn. When responding to inquiries about data analysis, it’s essential to provide a comprehensive understanding of the methodologies employed, the obstacles faced, and the strategies utilized to ensure the accuracy and credibility of the findings.

Begin by outlining the techniques used for data analysis. Describe the specific methods, tools, and software employed to process and interpret the data collected. Whether it involved quantitative statistical analysis, qualitative coding techniques, or a combination of both, provide insights into the analytical framework guiding your study. Additionally, discuss the rationale behind the chosen analytical approach and how it aligns with the research objectives and questions.

Next, share the hurdles faced during the data analysis process and how you overcame them. Reflect on any challenges encountered, such as data cleaning issues, missing data, or unexpected patterns in the dataset. Discuss the steps taken to address these challenges, whether through iterative refinement of analytical techniques, consultation with peers or supervisors, or adaptation of the research design. Highlighting your ability to navigate obstacles demonstrates resilience and resourcefulness in overcoming methodological challenges.

Furthermore, discuss the reliability and validity of your data interpretation. Evaluate the rigor and credibility of your analytical process, considering factors such as data integrity, consistency, and relevance to the research objectives. Discuss any measures taken to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings, such as inter-coder reliability checks, triangulation of data sources, or member checking with participants. By critically examining the reliability and validity of your data interpretation, you provide insights into the robustness of your analytical approach and the credibility of the conclusions drawn.

In summary, when addressing inquiries about data analysis, consider the following key points:

• Outline the techniques used for data analysis.
• Share the hurdles faced during the process and how you overcame them.
• Discuss the reliability and validity of your data interpretation.

Exploring the theoretical underpinnings of your research involves delving into the foundational frameworks and seminal works that informed your study’s conceptual framework and analytical approach. When responding to inquiries about theoretical frameworks , it’s essential to provide a comprehensive understanding of the theories and references that shaped your research, elucidate their influence on your hypothesis and analysis, and reflect on the potential contributions or revisions your study may offer to existing theoretical foundations.

Begin by naming the key theories and seminal works that guided your research. Identify the theoretical frameworks that provided the conceptual scaffolding for your study, as well as the seminal works that shaped your understanding of the research area. Discuss how these theories and references informed your research design, methodology, and analytical approach, providing a theoretical lens through which to interpret your findings.

Elucidate on how these frameworks shaped your hypothesis and analysis. Describe how the theoretical perspectives and insights gleaned from seminal works informed the development of your research questions, hypotheses, and analytical framework. Discuss the ways in which these theoretical frameworks guided your data collection and interpretation, influencing the selection of variables, measures, and analytical techniques employed in your study.

Reflect on how your research may contribute to or revise these theoretical foundations. Consider the implications of your findings for advancing existing theoretical frameworks or revising established paradigms within your field. Discuss how your research extends or challenges current theoretical perspectives, offering new insights, conceptual refinements, or empirical evidence that may enrich or reshape prevailing theories. By critically examining the relationship between your research and existing theoretical frameworks, you provide insights into the broader theoretical implications and contributions of your study.

In summary, when addressing inquiries about theoretical frameworks, consider the following key points:

• Name the key theories and seminal works that guided your research.
• Elucidate on how these frameworks shaped your hypothesis and analysis.
• Reflect on how your research may contribute to or revise these theoretical foundations.

When addressing ethical considerations in your research, it’s essential to demonstrate a commitment to upholding ethical standards and protecting the rights and well-being of participants. Responding to inquiries about ethical protocols involves explaining the steps taken to ensure ethical conduct throughout the research process, describing the consent process and data protection measures implemented, and mentioning any institutional review board (IRB) approvals obtained.

Begin by explaining the ethical protocols you followed. Detail the ethical guidelines, codes of conduct, or regulatory frameworks that informed your research design and conduct. Discuss how these guidelines influenced decisions regarding participant recruitment, data collection methods, confidentiality protocols, and data storage procedures, emphasizing your adherence to ethical principles throughout the research process.

Describe the consent process, if applicable, and how you protected participants’ data. Provide insights into how informed consent was obtained from participants, including the procedures used to inform participants about the research purpose, risks, benefits, and their rights. Discuss any measures taken to safeguard participants’ privacy and confidentiality, such as anonymizing data, securing data storage, and limiting access to sensitive information, ensuring the protection of participants’ identities and personal information.

Mention any institutional ethics review board approvals you obtained. Highlight any formal ethical review processes or approvals obtained from relevant regulatory bodies, such as IRBs or ethics committees. Discuss how the research protocol was reviewed for compliance with ethical guidelines and standards, including considerations of participant welfare, informed consent procedures, and data protection measures. By acknowledging the oversight and approval of institutional review bodies, you demonstrate your commitment to ethical integrity and accountability in conducting research involving human subjects.

In summary, when addressing inquiries about ethical considerations in your research, consider the following key points:

• Explain the ethical protocols you followed.
• Describe the consent process and data protection measures implemented.
• Mention any institutional ethics review board approvals obtained.

When discussing the contributions of your research to the field, it’s essential to highlight the novel insights and potential impact your thesis offers. Responding to inquiries about your research’s significance involves detailing the unique perspectives and fresh understanding it brings to the academic discourse, as well as considering its implications for future research or practice and arguing its relevance within the broader academic community.

Begin by detailing the novel insights your thesis provides. Articulate the key findings, discoveries, or perspectives that distinguish your research from existing literature and contribute to advancing knowledge within your field. Discuss how your study fills gaps in current understanding, challenges established assumptions, or offers innovative approaches to addressing pressing issues, highlighting its potential to generate new avenues of inquiry and broaden the scope of scholarly discourse.

Discuss how your findings might influence future research or practice. Consider the implications of your research for shaping future scholarship, informing policy decisions, or guiding professional practice within relevant domains. Reflect on the potential practical applications, theoretical advancements, or methodological innovations stemming from your findings, highlighting their significance for advancing the field and addressing real-world challenges.

Be prepared to argue the relevance of your research within the broader academic community. Articulate the broader significance of your study within the context of current debates, trends, or priorities within your discipline. Discuss how your research aligns with existing scholarly agendas, contributes to interdisciplinary dialogue, or addresses pressing societal concerns, underscoring its relevance and potential impact on shaping the direction of future research and practice.

In summary, when addressing inquiries about the contributions of your research to the field, consider the following key points:

• Detail the novel insights your thesis provides.
• Discuss how your findings might influence future research or practice.
• Be prepared to argue the relevance of your research within the broader academic community.

When ensuring the integrity of your research and minimizing bias, it’s crucial to maintain objectivity and rigor throughout the study. Responding to inquiries about bias involves discussing the steps taken to uphold objectivity, describing any blind or double-blind procedures employed, and acknowledging and mitigating any unavoidable biases that may have arisen during the research process.

Begin by discussing the steps taken to maintain objectivity and rigor. Detail the strategies implemented to minimize the influence of personal biases, preconceptions, or external factors on the research outcomes. This may include adhering to a predetermined research protocol, using standardized procedures for data collection and analysis, and engaging in peer review or validation processes to ensure the reliability and validity of the findings.

Describe any blind or double-blind procedures employed in the study. Explain how blinding techniques were used to prevent bias in data collection, analysis, or interpretation. This may involve withholding certain information from researchers or participants to minimize the potential for conscious or unconscious bias to influence the results. Discuss how these procedures were implemented and their impact on enhancing the credibility and impartiality of the research outcomes.

Acknowledge any unavoidable biases that may have emerged during the research process and discuss how they were mitigated. Reflect on the inherent limitations or sources of bias in the study design, data collection methods, or participant selection criteria. Discuss the steps taken to minimize the impact of these biases, such as conducting sensitivity analyses, controlling for confounding variables, or triangulating data sources to corroborate findings.

In summary, when addressing inquiries about bias in your research, consider the following key points:

• Discuss steps taken to maintain objectivity and rigor.
• Describe any blind or double-blind procedures employed.
• Acknowledge any unavoidable biases and discuss how they were mitigated.

When considering the potential trajectory of your research topic, it’s essential to identify areas where further investigation could yield valuable insights, discuss unexplored questions that emerged from your research, and reflect on the limitations of your study as starting points for future research endeavors. Responding to inquiries about the future direction of research involves suggesting fruitful areas for further investigation, highlighting unresolved questions, and leveraging the limitations of your study as opportunities for future exploration.

Begin by suggesting areas where further investigation could be fruitful. Identify specific gaps, ambiguities, or unanswered questions within the existing literature that warrant additional inquiry. Consider emerging trends, advancements in technology or methodology, or pressing societal issues that may inform potential research directions. Propose research topics or hypotheses that build upon the findings of your study and extend the boundaries of current knowledge within your field.

Discuss unexplored questions that arose from your research. Reflect on any unexpected findings, anomalies, or areas of ambiguity that emerged during the course of your study. Consider how these unanswered questions or unresolved issues could serve as catalysts for future research endeavors, prompting further investigation into related phenomena, alternative explanations, or novel research methodologies.

Reflect on the limitations of your study as starting points for future research. Acknowledge any constraints, biases, or methodological shortcomings that may have influenced the outcomes or interpretations of your study. Discuss how these limitations provide opportunities for future research to refine methodologies, address confounding variables, or explore alternative theoretical frameworks. Consider how addressing these limitations could enhance the validity, reliability, and generalizability of future research findings within your field.

In summary, when addressing inquiries about the potential trajectory of your research topic, consider the following key points:

• Suggest areas where further investigation could be fruitful.
• Discuss unexplored questions that arose from your research.
• Reflect on the limitations of your study as starting points for future research.

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40 Thesis Defense Questions

Practicing answering thesis defense questions in a mock thesis defense is the best way to get ready for this challenging step in your academic career. Aside from knowing your research project inside and out, you must have solid strategies for tackling different question types and talking about why you chose your research topic. You might have already answered questions related to your research interests in your research interest statement and grad school interview questions , but now after years for in-depth study, it's time to really test what you have accomplished! Check out some of the hardest thesis defense questions below and read our expert responses!

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Article Contents 11 min read

What to expect in a thesis defense.

A thesis defense is your chance to demonstrate your in-depth knowledge and expertise in the topic of your research thesis. While you will be able to take charge of the narrative and present your research to those on your thesis committee, the professors will prod you to test how well you know and understand your topic. The questions are mostly open-ended and give you the chance to showcase your knowledge and understanding, as well as any future plans you may have regarding your research topic.

A thesis defense usually lasts between one and two hours, depending on the area of your research. It starts with you giving a presentation of your interest, findings, and conclusions. After you have finished, the committee members will ask you questions based not only on your presentation, but also on your written thesis as they will have read it before your presentation. Lastly, the committee might approve your thesis or suggest changes to your paper.

Preparing thesis defense questions requires you to start well in advance. While the duration of your thesis defense might vary as per your institution's requirements, the major idea is to defend your research. Thus, you should go about preparing for your thesis defense questions by taking the following steps.

Interested in a quick overview of the section below? Check out this infographic:

Re-read your thesis for clarity

Your thesis defense questions will be based on what you have written in your research paper. Hence, it is a good idea to re-read your paper. You should be clear on the concepts and understand your research well. It might have been some time since you would have submitted your paper, so a revision should be the starting point of your preparation.  

Have an answer strategy and structure

Plan a strategy to answer the panel’s questions. Keep your answers direct, but elaborate on the research details wherever necessary. If you do not know the answer to a question, that is alright. The key is to be able to formulate an answer even if you do not possess enough knowledge to answer at that point in time. For instance, if a question is about the content of your research, you can say something like “I am not certain my research touches on the question you are asking, but my research has led me to Dr. X. Based his evidence, I would have to conclude that…” Having a strategy for answering even the most unexpected questions can be a life saver in these situations!

Most of the thesis defense questions can be easily predicted based on your research. You can prepare a list of possible questions when you are going through your paper. Getting to know the committee can help you in preparing better. Their areas of expertise can help you in determining what they might ask. Once you have a list of questions, you can start brainstorming how you might answer them. 

Prepare your slides in advance

If you require visual aids such as slides, it is a good idea to prepare them beforehand. You can double-check the slides and make sure that your presentation will run smoothly on the day of your thesis defense. Make sure your slides are arranged in the correct order. 

Attend a thesis defense of other candidates if it is an open event

If your institution allows it, you can visit a thesis defense of other candidates. This will give you an excellent idea of what you can expect in your meeting. If it is not possible to attend the event, you can speak to your peers to find out how their meeting went and what questions were asked.

Dress appropriately for your meeting

The thesis defense meeting is a formal event, and hence you should be dressed in formal clothes. While there are no strict dressing rules, you should consider it something equivalent to a job interview. Don’t just wear your T-shirt and appear in front of the committee. Your formal suit is a better option for the occasion.

Practice speaking for your meeting

Take your preparation to the next level by practicing your presentation. This activity will give you the confidence for the actual meeting and presentation. You can request your academic peers to help you out in the practice task. Based on their feedback in the mock session, you can improve for the actual session. Make sure to prepare well for the mock session as if you are preparing for the actual session. You can also practice your speech and body language in the mock session. If you used thesis writing services , these professionals would also be the ideal people to test you in a mock thesis defense – don’t hesitate to reach out to them again!

Sample Thesis Defense Questions and Answers

1.    what is your research study all about.

In your answer, you should summarize your research in a few sentences. The question is simple but requires technical expertise for a better explanation of concepts. For instance, if you completed a thesis in an attempt to explain the constituents of dark matter in the universe and particle accelerators, you could frame your answer like this:

In this research, the different aspects of dark matter and its detection models have been investigated. The cosmic ray positron excess observed by the PAMELA detector has been discussed and explained through the construction of models of decaying dark matter. The cosmic-ray electron and positron spectra were studied assuming a general Dirac structure for the four fermion contact interactions of interest. A supersymmetric leptophilic Higgs model was constructed to explain the possible excess of gamma rays in the galactic center. Finally, by the use of Razor analysis, an improvement on the dark matter collider searches is considered.  

2.    Why did you choose this study?

This question requires you to answer what motivated you to pursue the study in the first place. Your answers could touch on your interests in the area of the study. For example, if you conducted a study called “Media Combat: The Great War and the Transformation of American Culture” then you can shape your answer like this:

The First World War (1914-1918) has always been a topic of fascination for me, and my prime interest lies in exploring the state of society at that time. I wanted to analyze the formation of a nationalized, wartime cultural apparatus during the United States' involvement in the war and how theatre and music transformed the relationship between the government and American citizens. 

3.    Why did you choose this particular title for your research?

The title of your thesis captures the main point of your research, which is why it is so important to use an appropriate title. Your committee will want to know how you came to the final decision of naming your work. For example,

I chose the title “Dark matter in the heavens and at colliders: Models and constraints” for my research thesis because my research attempts to explain the constituency of dark matter as it occurs in the universe. “The heavens” is another word for the universe. Dark matter can also be created in particle accelerators such as the CERN collider. I have attempted to provide an explanation for both of the cases through the use of models, along with describing the constraints which exist in the current times due to certain scientific limitations.

4.    What is the scope of your study?

In your answer, you have to define the boundaries of your project and define exactly what you are studying. There can be several elements involved but you have to define the parameters that you have chosen to study. For example,

My study is on the efficacy of equity stocks in the US market. For my study, I have chosen 50 companies listed on the NASDAQ. You can review the names of these companies on page 5 of my thesis.

5.    What phenomenon were you trying to understand with this research?

Describe the focus concept of your thesis in the answer. For example,

In our study “Motivation to volunteer”, we were looking to study the Theory of Planned Behavior by analyzing the behavioral and normative beliefs that influence attitudes and subjective norms.

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6.    Who will be most interested in your research?

You can talk about who may be affected by your research and the parties who can potentially benefit from the research. Take a look at this example:

My sociology thesis on “Impact of social media on youngsters” can be of interest to sociology academics, social media companies, education experts, and parents of youngsters in general.

7.    Did your research questions evolve during the process? If so, how?

Often, qualitative research questions change over time with respect to the responses that you might get from your focus group. Or you might just change your question as you do lab research or general text research. You can describe the change to the evaluating committee. For example,

We started our study to understand the impact of the new public policy change on recycling of vinyl waste through installation of garbage bins specifically for vinyl products. However, after interviewing some of the respondents in the target community, we found that the rule is actually irrelevant to their behavior and thoughts because the percentage of vinyl waste in that specific locality was very low and it didn’t need the installation of dedicated bins for the purpose. Going by their frustrations with the current economic insecurity, our study evolved into the impact of costs incurred by public policy changes.           

8.    What gaps did you intend to bridge with your research?

Your research thesis must eliminate the present gaps in the concepts related to your subject topic.

The relationship between hard water and its effect on the size of the kidney stone is not clear yet, so we analyzed the mineral composition of hard water to determine its impact on the size of the kidney stone.

9.    Why is your research significant?

The answer to this research question should outline the impact of your research on your field of study. You may talk about the new insights contributed by your research and its impact on society.

Through my study on “The effect of chamomile in reducing stress and promoting better sleep,” patients with insomnia and anxiety will be able to find alternative treatments without the use of medicinal drugs. The medical abilities of chamomile will promote the usage of ingredients in nature and will encourage the community to plant more herbs and trees.

10. What did you find in your research?

You may describe your research in a few sentences in this answer. For instance,

In our study on “Impact of artificial fluoride in water on the human body,” we found that excessive exposure to high quantities of Fluoride can result in tooth discoloration and bone issues in humans since it has neurotoxic qualities. 

11. What research findings surprised you?

When you conduct research, you come across findings that you were not expecting earlier. If you had such an experience, you might describe the same to the evaluation committee when you answer this question. For example,

I was expecting that business promotion through social media would not be a good idea for rural enterprises in developing countries in my comparative analysis of the usage of traditional and contemporary marketing methods. But I was surprised to learn that 68% of rural textile businesses in Nigeria promote their products on Instagram.

12. What is the validity of your findings?

You have to talk about the conditions in which your research findings would be valid.

In my research, I have considered test anxiety to be involving both nervous system activation and negative thoughts. Thus, my measure of test anxiety has included the elements of both nervous feelings and negative thoughts, the conditions in which my findings are valid.

For example,

For studying the differential protein expression, its localization, and distribution at different levels, we used the method of immunostaining in our research.

14. What sources did you use for data collection?

You would have used several sources to search for data for your topic. You may elaborate on those sources. You might have referred to databases, content on the web, or even conducted primary research by interviewing prospects. Thus, you can talk about these sources. Refer to the following answer:

To understand the impact of the current tax regime on skilled workers, we interviewed 150 subjects in 5 months. Additionally, we referred to databases and scholarly works available by authors who had previously conducted such studies for previous tax laws and rates. 

15. How can your research be put into practice?

This question talks about the practical implications of your research. You should talk about how your research is beneficial for society and how it can help in eliminating current issues.

In our research titled “Effectiveness of Meditation on Reducing the Anxiety Levels of College Students in the US,” we discovered that students who practiced meditation at least thrice a week were two times more likely to score better in their exams, owing to the positive impact of meditation. So, this research finding can help in the reduction of mental health issues among students. A suitable course of action would be to hold meditating sessions a couple of times a week. 

16. How will your findings contribute to the related area of knowledge?

Our study on medicinal analysis of herbs conveys information about various medicinal benefits of chamomile in treating depression and contributes to the area of medicinal botany.

17. Did you experience any limitations in your research?

Our research on “Impact of smoking on β-cell function and risk for type 2 diabetes in US citizens” finds that smoking increases the risk of diabetes among smokers. However, smokers might be affected by some genetic conditions which can protect them from diabetes. 

18. What sampling techniques did you use?

When conducting research, it is practically not possible to study the entire number of elements. So, you would be using a method to select a sample population.

In our study “Impact of consumption of soda on the health of teenagers in Corpus Christi”, we used area sampling to divide the city into several areas and then selected some clusters for our sample group.

19. What are the dependent and independent variables in your research?

In research, several variable factors impact your study. You can describe these variables. Independent variables have values which are not affected by other variables in your study. On the other hand, the dependent variables have values that change with changes in the independent variable. For example,

In our study on “Impact of online tutoring on test scores”, the independent variable is the nature of the classes i.e., online and the participants' test score is the dependent variable.

20. What areas do you suggest for further research?

As a researcher, you should be able to describe what further areas are open for research with the addition of your research to the field. This can act as a starting point for future researchers. For example,

In my research on “Effectiveness of Acetaminophen in treating sports induced injuries”, I discovered that administering Acetaminophen is not very effective for treating joint pains such as the knee. This further suggests measures for the regulation of Acetaminophen in the production of painkillers for body pain and the search for alternative compounds.

Practice Questions

After taking a look at the sample answers, now try answering these questions by yourself:

Do you have any closing comments? "}]">

After submitting your research thesis for evaluation, you have to appear before a panel of professors and present your work; afterwards, they will ask you questions about your research.

You have to plan and prepare for your thesis defense. Review your paper and anticipate the questions that the committee can ask. Practice with mock defense sessions using professional servicesand make improvements based on their feedback. Be prepared with a strategy for answering any question asked by the panel.

Your research thesis should be on a topic of your interest. Scan your course syllabus to find something that makes you curious. Or, you can even refer to your grad school career goals statement to review what got you interested in grad school in the first place. Shortlist a few topics and zero down to the one that excites you the most.

The first step in preparing for a master’s thesis defense is to revise your research paper and write down a list of questions that the committee might ask. Find answers to those questions and get ready for your presentation. Practice your presentation beforehand. Try to attend a thesis defense of other candidates to know what you can expect in your session. 

You will get questions related to what you have mentioned in your research paper. The most common starting questions are “what is your research about?" and “what was your motivation behind choosing this topic?” Later on, the committee asks you more detailed questions on research methodology, literature review, study variables, research findings, recommendations, and areas of further research.

You can get help from a grad school essay tutor for your research thesis writing. They can help you in developing writing skills and reviewing your work. They can proofread your work and provide recommendations on areas of improvement.

You can include your research thesis on your grad school CV to show your practical knowledge and skills. You can add the details of the study in a separate section for research experience.

Immediately after the thesis defense, the evaluation panel will decide whether to approve your paper as submitted or request some changes, or reject it.

To pass a thesis defense, a majority of the panel members must approve the defense. In case of more than one vote against you, you can fail the thesis.

A thesis defense can last for two hours or longer, depending on your area of research.

Your thesis defense presentation should include the focus concept, findings, recommendation, and conclusion.

The contribution of your thesis towards your degree differs as per institution. You can refer to your course handbook for exact details. In most cases, the committee needs to approve your thesis for you to graduate from your degree.

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BeMo Academic Consulting

Hi Jeff! Yes, this can also be one of the questions you are asked in a thesis defense!

That is good

Hello Eshetu! Thanks for your comment. Glad you found this helpful!

Very helpful

Thanks, Abel. Glad you found this helpful. 

Helpful thank you.

Hi Lagat! Thanks!

As an 11th-grade student, I don't have any experience in thesis or research defense in general. Me and my groupmates will be conducting our research title defense next week, this is invaluable information for us. Thank you!

You are very welcome, Kate!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS, I REALLY APPRECIATE.

Hello Stephanie! Thanks for your comment.

EMELDA NAFULA NYONGESA

This is a good guideline to post graduate students (Masters and PhD) CPA:Emelda Nyongesa

Hi Emelda! Thanks!

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17 Thesis Defense Questions and How to Answer Them

A thesis defense gives you the chance to show off your thesis work and demonstrate your expertise in your field of study. During this one- to two-hour discussion with the members of your thesis committee, you'll have some control over how you present your research, but your committee will ask you some prodding questions to test your knowledge and preparedness. They will all have read your thesis beforehand, so their questions will relate to your study, topic, methods, data sample, and other aspects.

A good defense requires mastery of the thesis itself, so before you consider the questions you might face,

1. What is your topic, and why did you choose it?

Give a quick summary in just a few sentences on what you've researched. You could certainly go on for hours about your work, but make sure you prepare a way to give a very brief overview of your thesis. Then, give a quick background on your process for choosing this topic.

2. How does your topic contribute to the existing literature? How is it important?

Many researchers identify a need in the field and choose a topic to bridge the gaps that previous literature has failed to cover. For example, previous studies might not have included a certain population, region, or circumstance. Talk about how your thesis enhances the general understanding of the topic to extend the reach beyond what others have found, and then give examples of why the world needs that increased understanding. For instance, a thesis on romaine lettuce crops in desert climates might bring much-needed knowledge to a region that might not have been represented in previous work.

3. What are the key findings of your study?

When reporting your main results, make sure you have a handle on how detailed your committee wants you to be. Give yourself several options by preparing 1) a very general, quick summary of your findings that takes a minute or less, 2) a more detailed rundown of what your study revealed that is 3-5 minutes long, and 3) a 10- to 15-minute synopsis that delves into your results in detail. With each of these responses prepared, you can gauge which one is most appropriate in the moment, based on what your committee asks you and what has already been requested.

4. What type of background research did you do for your study?

Here you'll describe what you did while you were deciding what to study. This usually includes a literary review to determine what previous researchers have already introduced to the field. You also likely had to look into whether your study was going to be possible and what you would need in order to collect the needed data. Did you need info from databases that require permissions or fees?

5. What was your hypothesis, and how did you form it?

Describe the expected results you had for your study and whether your hypothesis came from previous research experience, long-held expectations, or cultural myths.

6. What limitations did you face when writing your text?

It's inevitable — researchers will face roadblocks or limiting factors during their work. This could be a limited population you had access to, like if you had a great method of surveying university students, but you didn't have a way to reach out to other people who weren't attending that school.

7. Why did you choose your particular method for your study?

Different research methods are more fitting to specific studies than others (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative ), and knowing this, you applied a method that would present your findings most effectively. What factors led you to choose your method?

8. Who formed the sample group of your study, and why did you choose this population?

Many factors go into the selection of a participant group. Perhaps you were motivated to survey women over 50 who experience burnout in the workplace. Did you take extra measures to target this population? Or perhaps you found a sample group that responded more readily to your request for participation, and after hitting dead ends for months, convenience is what shaped your study population. Make sure to present your reasoning in an honest but favorable way.

9. What obstacles or limitations did you encounter while working with your sample?

Outline the process of pursuing respondents for your study and the difficulties you faced in collecting enough quality data for your thesis. Perhaps the decisions you made took shape based on the participants you ended up interviewing.

10. Was there something specific you were expecting to find during your analysis?

Expectations are natural when you set out to explore a topic, especially one you've been dancing around throughout your academic career. This question can refer to your hypotheses , but it can also touch on your personal feelings and expectations about this topic. What did you believe you would find when you dove deeper into the subject? Was that what you actually found, or were you surprised by your results?

11. What did you learn from your study?

Your response to this question can include not only the basic findings of your work (if you haven't covered this already) but also some personal surprises you might have found that veered away from your expectations. Sometimes these details are not included in the thesis, so these details can add some spice to your defense.

12. What are the recommendations from your study?

With connection to the reasons you chose the topic, your results can address the problems your work is solving. Give specifics on how policymakers, professionals in the field, etc., can improve their service with the knowledge your thesis provides.

13. If given the chance, what would you do differently?

Your response to this one can include the limitations you encountered or dead ends you hit that wasted time and funding. Try not to dwell too long on the annoyances of your study, and consider an area of curiosity; for example, discuss an area that piqued your interest during your exploration that would have been exciting to pursue but didn't directly benefit your outlined study.

14. How did you relate your study to the existing theories in the literature?

Your paper likely ties your ideas into those of other researchers, so this could be an easy one to answer. Point out how similar your work is to some and how it contrasts other works of research; both contribute greatly to the overall body of research.

15. What is the future scope of this study?

This one is pretty easy, since most theses include recommendations for future research within the text. That means you already have this one covered, and since you read over your thesis before your defense, it's already fresh in your mind.

16. What do you plan to do professionally after you complete your study?

This is a question directed more to you and your future professional plans. This might align with the research you performed, and if so, you can direct your question back to your research, maybe mentioning the personal motivations you have for pursuing study of that subject.

17. Do you have any questions?

Although your thesis defense feels like an interrogation, and you're the one in the spotlight, it provides an ideal opportunity to gather input from your committee, if you want it. Possible questions you could ask are: What were your impressions when reading my thesis? Do you believe I missed any important steps or details when conducting my work? Where do you see this work going in the future?

Bonus tip: What if you get asked a question to which you don't know the answer? You can spend weeks preparing to defend your thesis, but you might still be caught off guard when you don't know exactly what's coming. You can be ready for this situation by preparing a general strategy. It's okay to admit that your thesis doesn't offer the answers to everything – your committee won't reasonably expect it to do so. What you can do to sound (and feel!) confident and knowledgeable is to refer to a work of literature you have encountered in your research and draw on that work to give an answer. For example, you could respond, "My thesis doesn't directly address your question, but my study of Dr. Leifsen's work provided some interesting insights on that subject…." By preparing a way to address curveball questions, you can maintain your cool and create the impression that you truly are an expert in your field.

After you're done answering the questions your committee presents to you, they will either approve your thesis or suggest changes you should make to your paper. Regardless of the outcome, your confidence in addressing the questions presented to you will communicate to your thesis committee members that you know your stuff. Preparation can ease a lot of anxiety surrounding this event, so use these possible questions to make sure you can present your thesis feeling relaxed, prepared, and confident.

Header image by Kasto .

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Developing the Research Question for a Thesis, Dissertation, or Doctoral Project Study

MethodSpace will explore phases of the research process throughout 2021.  In the first quarter will explore design steps, starting with a January focus on research questions. Find the unfolding series  here .

Dr. Gary Burkholder is a co-author of Research Design and Methods: An Applied Guide for the Scholar-Practitioner . Dr. Burkholder was a Mentor in Residence on SAGE MethodSpace in December 2019, and is a regular contributor. See his practical advice for research faculty and students here .

Contrary to what you may think or have heard, creating a suitable research question to guide a thesis, dissertation, or doctoral project study does not necessarily follow a linear process. However, this does not mean that getting to the research question is not rigorous! There are clear steps to get to the research question (see Crawford, Burkholder, & Cox, 2020).

Generate the initial idea.

Complete a thorough investigation of the literature in the relevant domains.

For those pursuing the research doctorate, identify gaps in theory and empirical knowledge that result in a research problem and purpose statement.

For those pursuing the applied doctorate, draw upon expertise to identify gaps in practice that allow the development of the practice-based problem and purpose statement.

Identify the principal research questions from the problem and purpose statements.

Generating the Initial Idea . This is arguably the most creative part of the process and generates the initial enthusiasm in engaging in formal research. Most of the time, whether theoretical or practical, students get an idea because of something that sparks their interest. Someone having a personal experience with obesity and subsequent weight loss and have an interest in learning more about why particular weight loss programs seem to work. In professional settings, the practitioner may notice that a process or activity isn’t working correctly. For example, children in school may not be adapting to online learning as quickly as they should. In a company setting, a middle manager may be surprised that employees are not adapting to working remotely as quickly as they had thought. In a healthcare setting, a nurse notices that patients are taking too much time completing forms in the clinical practice office and that there may be other more efficient ways to complete this activity that would result in less waiting time. Whatever the source, consider these observations as initial “hunches” that might lead to an interesting research study that can allow you to contribute to theory or practice in a way that suits your own expertise.

Reviewing the Literature .  The purpose of original research is to address a lack of knowledge in theory or practice. Therefore, once you have your initial idea, the next step is to take a look at the literature that addresses the topic of your idea. There is a vast selection of journals in all disciplines, both theoretical and practice-oriented, that provide excellent resources for your investigation. The goal for now is to read enough literature to establish that this is an important topic for further exploration and to see if anyone has written about it. Has research already been completed that provides ways to address your initial idea? If yes, then the study probably won’t be worthy of doctoral level research (although you may actually find the answers to issues in the workplace that you are looking for!). Whether you are trying to solve a problem in practice or theory, reviewing the existing literature is important to see what others have already done. Remember, the goal of doctoral level scholarship is to add to the existing body of knowledge regarding theory or practice. At this stage, if you find sufficient literature to help you address your initial question, then it is time to put that idea aside and pursue others that may yield a more innovative contribution.

Developing the Problem in Research or Practice . The problem statement is probably the most important part of the doctoral capstone. In your problem statement, you succinctly identify what is currently know about the area of interest and what is not known. It is what is NOT known that identifies your unique contribution to scholarship in theory or practice. If you cannot identify what is not known, or what is commonly referred to as the gap in theory or the gap in practice, then you probably don’t have a study worthy of doctoral level scholarship. Once you identify the gap in theory or practice, you can then develop the statement of purpose that defines for the reader exactly what your study will add to the existing body of scholarship and/or practice.

The Research Question .  Once you have identified the practice or theory-based problem, you are then ready to propose the formal research question that guides your study. This is a succinct question that provides focus, describes the scope of the study, and provides insight into the direction of inquiry. There are important ideas to remember when crafting the research question.

All studies are guided by one or more research questions, regardless of whether they are quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods.

Fewer research questions are better than many. In most cases, studies are addressing one primary research question (and likely never more than 2 or 3). The research question provides focus of the study. The more research questions, the more unfocused the study may become.

For those doing qualitative studies or studies with qualitative components, do not confuse the research question with interview questions. There will likely be several interview questions, but interview questions are in service to addressing the key research question guiding the overall study.

In general, questions should not be framed as “yes or no”. For example, “What is the extent of understanding teachers have regarding training first graders to use tablets in acquiring knowledge?” is better than “Do teachers know how to train first graders to use tablets in acquiring knowledge?” The former is worded in a way that supports depth and breadth of observation and analysis.

Research questions must be aligned with other aspects of the thesis, dissertation, or project study proposal, such as the problem statement, research design, and analysis strategy.

To summarize:  Idea >Reviewing literature > Identifying the gap in theory or practice >Problem and Purpose Statements >Research question

Thus, there is a clear process for getting to the research question. However, there is fluidity in terms of how that process unfolds. Ideas, when explored further, may turn out to be just that and have to be scrapped for a different idea that can be pursued. Ideas can come from intuitive hunches or from extensive exploration and knowledge of a particular theory or practice. They may emerge from conversations with mentors or other experts in the field. This dance of ideas creates the initial sparks of excitement in social science research that leads to a rigorous and scientific process of generating the research question ultimately guiding the study.

Research Design and Methods

Crawford, L. M., Burkholder, G. J., & Cox, K. (2020). Writing the research proposal. In G. J. Burkholder, K. A. Cox, L. M. Crawford, & J. H. Hitchcock (Eds.), Research Design and Methods: An Applied Guide for the Scholar-Practitioner (pp. 309-334). SAGE Publications. 

Hypotheses: Introduction & selection of articles

Practical <> conceptual questions.

Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to write a thesis statement + examples

What is a thesis statement?

Is a thesis statement a question, how do you write a good thesis statement, how do i know if my thesis statement is good, examples of thesis statements, helpful resources on how to write a thesis statement, frequently asked questions about writing a thesis statement, related articles.

A thesis statement is the main argument of your paper or thesis.

The thesis statement is one of the most important elements of any piece of academic writing . It is a brief statement of your paper’s main argument. Essentially, you are stating what you will be writing about.

You can see your thesis statement as an answer to a question. While it also contains the question, it should really give an answer to the question with new information and not just restate or reiterate it.

Your thesis statement is part of your introduction. Learn more about how to write a good thesis introduction in our introduction guide .

A thesis statement is not a question. A statement must be arguable and provable through evidence and analysis. While your thesis might stem from a research question, it should be in the form of a statement.

Tip: A thesis statement is typically 1-2 sentences. For a longer project like a thesis, the statement may be several sentences or a paragraph.

A good thesis statement needs to do the following:

• Condense the main idea of your thesis into one or two sentences.
• Answer your project’s main research question.
• Clearly state your position in relation to the topic .
• Make an argument that requires support or evidence.

Once you have written down a thesis statement, check if it fulfills the following criteria:

• Your statement needs to be provable by evidence. As an argument, a thesis statement needs to be debatable.
• Your statement needs to be precise. Do not give away too much information in the thesis statement and do not load it with unnecessary information.
• Your statement cannot say that one solution is simply right or simply wrong as a matter of fact. You should draw upon verified facts to persuade the reader of your solution, but you cannot just declare something as right or wrong.

As previously mentioned, your thesis statement should answer a question.

If the question is:

What do you think the City of New York should do to reduce traffic congestion?

A good thesis statement restates the question and answers it:

In this paper, I will argue that the City of New York should focus on providing exclusive lanes for public transport and adaptive traffic signals to reduce traffic congestion by the year 2035.

Here is another example. If the question is:

How can we end poverty?

A good thesis statement should give more than one solution to the problem in question:

In this paper, I will argue that introducing universal basic income can help reduce poverty and positively impact the way we work.

• The Writing Center of the University of North Carolina has a list of questions to ask to see if your thesis is strong .

A thesis statement is part of the introduction of your paper. It is usually found in the first or second paragraph to let the reader know your research purpose from the beginning.

In general, a thesis statement should have one or two sentences. But the length really depends on the overall length of your project. Take a look at our guide about the length of thesis statements for more insight on this topic.

Here is a list of Thesis Statement Examples that will help you understand better how to write them.

Every good essay should include a thesis statement as part of its introduction, no matter the academic level. Of course, if you are a high school student you are not expected to have the same type of thesis as a PhD student.

Here is a great YouTube tutorial showing How To Write An Essay: Thesis Statements .

How To Find A High-Quality Research Topic

6 steps to find & evaluate high-quality dissertation/thesis topics.

By: Caroline Osella (PhD, BA)  and Derek Jansen (MBA) | July 2019

So, you’re finally nearing the end of your degree and it’s now time to find a suitable topic for your dissertation or thesis. Or perhaps you’re just starting out on your PhD research proposal and need to find a suitable area of research for your application proposal.

In this post, we’ll provide a straightforward 6-step process that you can follow to ensure you arrive at a high-quality research topic . Follow these steps and you will formulate a well-suited, well-defined core research question .

There’s a helpful clue already: your research ‘topic’ is best understood as a research question or a problem . Your aim is not to create an encyclopedia entry into your field, but rather to shed light on an acknowledged issue that’s being debated (or needs to be). Think research  questions , not research  topics  (we’ll come back to this later).

Overview: How To Find & Choose A Research Topic

• Get an understanding of the research process
• Review previous dissertations from your university
• Review the academic literature to start the ideation process
• Identify your potential research questions (topics) and shortlist
• Narrow down, then evaluate your research topic shortlist
• Make the decision (and stick with it!)

Step 1: Understand the research process

It may sound horribly obvious, but it’s an extremely common mistake – students skip past the fundamentals straight to the ideation phase (and then pay dearly for it).

Start by looking at whatever handouts and instructions you’ve been given regarding what your university/department expects of a dissertation. For example, the course handbook, online information and verbal in-class instructions. I know it’s tempting to just dive into the ideation process, but it’s essential to start with the prescribed material first.

There are two important reasons for this:

First , you need to have a basic understanding of the research process , research methodologies , fieldwork options and analysis methods before you start the ideation process, or you will simply not be equipped to think about your own research adequately. If you don’t understand the basics of  quantitative , qualitative and mixed methods BEFORE you start ideating, you’re wasting your time.

Second , your university/department will have specific requirements for your research – for example, requirements in terms of topic originality, word count, data requirements, ethical adherence, methodology, etc. If you are not aware of these from the outset, you will again end up wasting a lot of time on irrelevant ideas/topics.

So, the most important first step is to get your head around both the basics of research (especially methodologies), as well as your institution’s specific requirements . Don’t give in to the temptation to jump ahead before you do this. As a starting point, be sure to check out our free dissertation course.

Step 2: Review past dissertations/theses

Unless you’re undertaking a completely new course, there will be many, many students who have gone through the research process before and have produced successful dissertations, which you can use to orient yourself. This is hugely beneficial – imagine being able to see previous students’ assignments and essays when you were doing your coursework!

Take a look at some well-graded (65% and above) past dissertations from your course (ideally more recent ones, as university requirements may change over time). These are usually available in the university’s online library. Past dissertations will act as a helpful model for all kinds of things, from how long a bibliography needs to be, to what a good literature review looks like, through to what kinds of methods you can use – and how to leverage them to support your argument.

As you peruse past dissertations, ask yourself the following questions:

• What kinds of topics did these dissertations cover and how did they turn the topic into questions?
• How broad or narrow were the topics?
• How original were the topics? Were they truly groundbreaking or just a localised twist on well-established theory?
• How well justified were the topics? Did they seem important or just nice to know?
• How much literature did they draw on as a theoretical base? Was the literature more academic or applied in nature?
• What kinds of research methods did they use and what data did they draw on?
• How did they analyse that data and bring it into the discussion of the academic literature?
• Which of the dissertations are most readable to you – why? How were they presented?
• Can you see why these dissertations were successful? Can you relate what they’ve done back to the university’s instructions/brief?

Seeing a variety of dissertations (at least 5, ideally in your area of interest) will also help you understand whether your university has very rigid expectations in terms of structure and format , or whether they expect and allow variety in the number of chapters, chapter headings, order of content, style of presentation and so on.

Some departments accept graphic novels; some are willing to grade free-flow continental-philosophy style arguments; some want a highly rigid, standardised structure.  Many offer a dissertation template , with information on how marks are split between sections. Check right away whether you have been given one of those templates – and if you do, then use it and don’t try to deviate or reinvent the wheel.

Step 3: Review the academic literature

Now that you (1) understand the research process, (2) understand your university’s specific requirements for your dissertation or thesis, and (3) have a feel for what a good dissertation looks like, you can start the ideation process. This is done by reviewing the current literature and looking for opportunities to add something original to the academic conversation.

Kick start the ideation process

So, where should you start your literature hunt? The best starting point is to get back to your modules. Look at your coursework and the assignments you did. Using your coursework is the best theoretical base, as you are assured that (1) the literature is of a high enough calibre for your university and (2) the topics are relevant to your specific course.

Start by identifying the modules that interested you the most and that you understood well (i.e. earned good marks for). What were your strongest assignments, essays or reports? Which areas within these were particularly interesting to you? For example, within a marketing module, you may have found consumer decision making or organisation trust to be interesting. Create a shortlist of those areas that you were both interested in and academically strong at. It’s no use picking an area that does not genuinely interest you – you’ll run out of motivation if you’re not excited by a topic.

Understand the current state of knowledge

Once you’ve done that, you need to get an understanding of the current state of the literature for your chosen interest areas. What you’re aiming to understand is this: what is the academic conversation here and what critical questions are yet unanswered? These unanswered questions are prime opportunities for a unique, meaningful research topic . A quick review of the literature on your favourite topics will help you understand this.

Grab your reading list from the relevant section of the modules, or simply enter the topics into Google Scholar . Skim-read 3-5 journal articles from the past 5 years which have at least 5 citations each (Google Scholar or a citations index will show you how many citations any given article has – i.e., how many other people have referred to it in their own bibliography). Also, check to see if your discipline has an ‘annual review’ type of journal, which gathers together surveys of the state of knowledge on a chosen topic. This can be a great tool for fast-tracking your understanding of the current state of the knowledge in any given area.

Start from your course’s reading list and work outwards. At the end of every journal article, you’ll find a reference list. Scan this reference list for more relevant articles and read those. Then repeat the process (known as snowballing) until you’ve built up a base of 20-30 quality articles per area of interest.

Absorb, don’t hunt

At this stage, your objective is to read and understand the current state of the theory for your area(s) of interest – you don’t need to be in topic-hunting mode yet. Don’t jump the gun and try to identify research topics before you are well familiarised with the literature.

As you read, try to understand what kinds of questions people are asking and how they are trying to answer them. What matters do the researchers agree on, and more importantly, what are they in disagreement about? Disagreements are prime research territory. Can you identify different ‘schools of thought’ or different ‘approaches’? Do you know what your own approach or slant is? What kinds of articles appeal to you and which ones bore you or leave you feeling like you’ve not really grasped them? Which ones interest you and point towards directions you’d like to research and know more about?

Once you understand the fundamental fact that academic knowledge is a conversation, things get easier.

Think of it like a party. There are groups of people in the room, enjoying conversations about various things. Which group do you want to join?  You don’t want to be that person in the corner, talking to themself. And you don’t want to be the hanger-on, laughing at the big-shot’s jokes and repeating everything they say.

Do you want to join a large group and try to make a small contribution to what’s going on, or are you drawn to a smaller group that’s having a more niche conversation, but where you feel you might more easily find something original to contribute? How many conversations can you identify? Which ones feel closer to you and more attractive? Which ones repel you or leave you cold? Are there some that, frankly, you just don’t understand?

Now, choose a couple of groups who are discussing something you feel interested in and where you feel like you might want to contribute. You want to make your entry into this group by asking a question – a question that will make the other people in the group turn around and look at you, listen to you, and think, “That’s interesting”.

Your dissertation will be the process of setting that question and then trying to find at least a partial answer to that question – but don’t worry about that now.  Right now, you need to work out what conversations are going on, whether any of them are related or overlapping, and which ones you might be able to walk into. I’ll explain how you find that question in the next step.

Need a helping hand?

Step 4: Identify potential research questions

Now that you have a decent understanding of the state of the literature in your area(s) of interest, it’s time to start developing your list of possible research topics. There are (at least) three approaches you can follow here, and they are not mutually exclusive:

Approach 1: Leverage the FRIN

Towards the end of most quality journal articles, you will find a section labelled “ further research ” or something similar. Generally, researchers will clearly outline where they feel further research is needed (FRIN), following on from their own research. So, essentially, every journal article presents you with a list of potential research opportunities.

Of course, only a handful of these will be both practical and of interest to you, so it’s not a quick-fix solution to finding a research topic. However, the benefit of going this route is that you will be able to find a genuinely original and meaningful research topic (which is particularly important for PhD-level research).

The upside to this approach is originality, but the downside is that you might not find something that really interests you , or that you have the means to execute. If you do go this route, make sure that you pay attention to the journal article dates, as the FRIN may already have been “solved” by other researchers if the article is old.

Approach 2: Put a context-based spin on an existing topic

The second option is to consider whether a theory which is already well established is relevant within a local or industry-specific context. For example, a theory about the antecedents (drivers) of trust is very well established, but there may be unique or uniquely important drivers within a specific national context or industry (for example, within the financial services industry in an emerging market).

If that industry or national context has not yet been covered by researchers and there is a good reason to believe there may be meaningful differences within that context, then you have an opportunity to take a unique angle on well-established theory, which can make for a great piece of research. It is however imperative that you have a good reason to believe that the existing theory may not be wholly relevant within your chosen context, or your research will not be justified.

The upside to this approach is that you can potentially find a topic that is “closer to home” and more relevant and interesting to you , while still being able to draw on a well-established body of theory. However, the downside is that this approach will likely not produce the level of originality as approach #1.

Approach 3: Uncensored brainstorming

The third option is to skip the FRIN, as well as the local/industry-specific angle and simply engage in a freeform brainstorming or mind-mapping session, using your newfound knowledge of the theory to formulate potential research ideas. What’s important here is that you do not censor yourself . However crazy, unfeasible, or plain stupid your topic appears – write it down. All that matters right now is that you are interested in this thing.

Next, try to turn the topic(s) into a question or problem. For example:

• What is the relationship between X, Y & Z?
• What are the drivers/antecedents of X?
• What are the outcomes of Y?
• What are the key success factors for Z?

Re-word your list of topics or issues into a list of questions .  You might find at this stage that one research topic throws up three questions (which then become sub-topics and even new separate topics in their own right) and in so doing, the list grows. Let it. Don’t hold back or try to start evaluating your ideas yet – just let them flow onto paper.

Once you’ve got a few topics and questions on paper, check the literature again to see whether any of these have been covered by the existing research. Since you came up with these from scratch, there is a possibility that your original literature search did not cover them, so it’s important to revisit that phase to ensure that you’re familiar with the relevant literature for each idea. You may also then find that approach #1 and #2 can be used to build on these ideas.

Try use all three approaches

As mentioned earlier, the three approaches discussed here are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the more, the merrier. Hopefully, you manage to utilise all three, as this will give you the best odds of producing a rich list of ideas, which you can then narrow down and evaluate, which is the next step.

Step 5: Narrow down, then evaluate

By this stage, you should have a healthy list of research topics. Step away from the ideation and thinking for a few days, clear your mind. The key is to get some distance from your ideas, so that you can sit down with your list and review it with a more objective view. The unbridled ideation phase is over and now it’s time to take a reality check .

Look at your list and see if any options can be crossed off right away .  Maybe you don’t want to do that topic anymore. Maybe the topic turned out to be too broad and threw up 20 hard to answer questions. Maybe all the literature you found about it was 30 years old and you suspect it might not be a very engaging contemporary issue . Maybe this topic is so over-researched that you’ll struggle to find anything fresh to say. Also, after stepping back, it’s quite common to notice that 2 or 3 of your topics are really the same one, the same question, which you’ve written down in slightly different ways. You can try to amalgamate these into one succinct topic.

Narrow down to the top 5, then evaluate

Now, take your streamlined list and narrow it down to the ‘top 5’ that interest you the most. Personal interest is your key evaluation criterion at this stage. Got your ‘top 5’?  Great!  Now, with a cool head and your best analytical mind engaged, go systematically through each option and evaluate them against the following criteria:

Research questions – what is the main research question, and what are the supporting sub-questions? It’s critically important that you can define these questions clearly and concisely. If you cannot do this, it means you haven’t thought the topic through sufficiently.

Originality – is the topic sufficiently original, as per your university’s originality requirements? Are you able to add something unique to the existing conversation? As mentioned earlier, originality can come in many forms, and it doesn’t mean that you need to find a completely new, cutting-edge topic. However, your university’s requirements should guide your decision-making here.

Importance – is the topic of real significance, or is it just a “nice to know”? If it’s significant, why? Who will benefit from finding the answer to your desired questions and how will they benefit? Justifying your research will be a key requirement for your research proposal , so it’s really important to develop a convincing argument here.

Literature – is there a contemporary (current) body of academic literature around this issue? Is there enough literature for you to base your investigation on, but not too much that the topic is “overdone”? Will you be able to navigate this literature or is it overwhelming?

Data requirements – What kind of data would you need access to in order to answer your key questions?  Would you need to adopt a qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods approach to answer your questions? At this stage, you don’t need to be able to map out your exact research design, but you should be able to articulate how you would approach it in high-level terms. Will you use qual, quant or mixed methods? Why?

Feasibility – How feasible would it be to gather the data that would be needed in the time-frame that you have – and do you have the will power and the skills to do it? If you’re not confident with the theory, you don’t want something that’s going to draw you into a debate about the relative importance of epistemology and ontology. If you are shy, you won’t want to be doing ethnographic interviews. If you feel this question calls for a 100-person survey, do you have the time to plan, organise and conduct it and then analyse it? What will you do if you don’t get the response rate you expect? Be very realistic here and also ask advice from your supervisor and other experts – poor response rates are extremely common and can derail even the best research projects.

Personal attraction – On a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about this topic? Will addressing it add value to your life and/or career? Will undertaking the project help you build a skill you’ve previously wanted to work on (for example, interview skills, statistical analysis skills, software skills, etc.)?

The last point is particularly important. You will have to engage with your dissertation in a very sustained and deep way, face challenges and difficulties, and get it to completion. If you don’t start out enthusiastic about it, you’re setting yourself up for problems like ‘writer’s block’ or ‘burnout’ down the line. This is the reason personal interest was the sole evaluation criterion when we chose the top 5. So, don’t underestimate the importance of personal attraction to a topic – at the same time, don’t let personal attraction lead you to choose a topic that is not relevant to your course or feasible given your resources. 

Narrow down to 3, then get human feedback

We’re almost at the finishing line. The next step is to narrow down to 2 or 3 shortlisted topics. No more!  Write a short paragraph about each topic, addressing the following:

Firstly,  WHAT will this study be about? Frame the topic as a question or a problem. Write it as a dissertation title. No more than two clauses and no more than 15 words. Less than 15 is better (go back to good journal articles for inspiration on appropriate title styles).

Secondly, WHY this is interesting (original) and important – as proven by existing academic literature? Are people talking about this and is there an acknowledged problem, debate or gap in the literature?

Lastly,  HOW do you plan to answer the question? What sub-questions will you use? What methods does this call for and how competent and confident are you in those methods? Do you have the time to gather the data this calls for?

Show the shortlist and accompanying paragraphs to a couple of your peers from your course and also to an expert or two if at all possible (you’re welcome to reach out to us ), explaining what you will investigate, why this is original and important and how you will go about investigating it. 

Once you’ve pitched your ideas, ask for the following thoughts :

• Which is most interesting and appealing to them?
• Why do they feel this way?
• What problems do they foresee with the execution of the research?

Take advice and feedback and sit on it for another day. Let it simmer in your mind overnight before you make the final decision.  

Step 6: Make the decision (and stick with it!)

Then, make the commitment. Choose the one that you feel most confident about, having now considered both your opinion and the feedback from others.

Once you’ve made a decision, don’t doubt your judgement, don’t shift.  Don’t be tempted by the ones you left behind. You’ve planned and thought things through, checked feasibility and now you can start.  You have your research topic. Trust your own decision-making process and stick with it now. It’s time to get started on your research proposal!

Let’s recap…

In this post, I’ve proposed a straightforward 6-step plan to finding relevant research topic ideas and then narrowing them down to finally choose one winner. To recap:

• Understand the basics of academic research, as well as your university’s specific requirements for a dissertation, thesis or research project.
• Review previous dissertations for your course to get an idea of both topics and structure.
• Start the ideation process by familiarising yourself with the literature.
• Identify your potential research questions (topics).
• Narrow down your options, then evaluate systematically.
• Make your decision (and don’t look back!)

If you follow these steps, you’ll find that they also set you up for what’s coming next – both the proposal and the first three chapters of your dissertation. But that’s for future posts!

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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23 Comments

I would love to get a topic under teachers performance. I am a student of MSC Monitoring and Evaluations and I need a topic in the line of monitoring and evaluations

I just we put for some full notes that are payable

Thank you very much Dr Caroline

I need a project topics on transfer of learning

m a PhD Student I would like to be assisted inn formulating a title around: Internet of Things for online education in higher education – STEM (Science, technology, engineering and Mathematics, digital divide ) Thank you, would appreciate your guidance

Well structured guide on the topic… Good materials for beginners in research writing…

Hello Iam kindly seeking for help in formulating a researchable topic for masters degree program in line with teaching GRAPHIC ART

I read a thesis about a problem in a particular. Can I use the same topic just referring to my own country? Is that being original? The interview questions will mostly be the same as the other thesis.

Hi, thanks I managed to listen to the video so helpful indeed. I am currently an MBA student looking for a specific topic and I have different ideas that not sure they can be turned to be a study.

I am doing a Master of Theology in Pastoral Care and Counselling and I felt like doing research on Spiritual problem cause by substance abuse among Youth. Can I get help to formulate the Thesis Title in line with it…please

Hello, I am kindly seeking help in formulating a researchable topic for a National diploma program

As a beginner in research, I am very grateful for this well-structured material on research writing.

Hello, I watched the video and its very helpful. I’m a student in Nursing (degree). May you please help me with any research problems (in Namibian society or Nursing) that need to be evaluate or solved?

I have been greatly impacted. Thank you.

more than useful… there will be no justification if someone fails to get a topic for his thesis

I watched the video and its really helpful.

How can i started discovery

Analysing the significance of Integrated reporting in Zimbabwe. A case of institutional investors. this is my topic for PHD Accounting sciences need help with research questions

Excellent session that cleared lots of doubts.

Excellent session that cleared lots of doubts

It was a nice one thank you

Wow, This helped a lot not only with how to find a research topic but inspired me to kick it off from now, I am a final year student of environmental science. And have to complete my project in the coming six months.

I was really stressed and thinking about different topics that I don’t know nothing about and having more than a hundred topics in the baggage, couldn’t make the tradeoff among them, however, reading this scrubbed the fuzzy layer off my head and now it seems like really easy.

Thanks GRADCOACH, you saved me from getting into the rabbit hole.

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Options for students

For more information about each option  read “Example” boxes below. 

For more information about each option read “Example” boxes below. 

Requirements :  Only bachelor and master students of WU Vienna can apply. 

Thesis scholarships : Our partner companies want to support students to write their thesis.  Depending on the company and student, purpose, predefined topics, access to data, financial incentives and internships are offered. You can choose from two approaches to write a company thesis. 

Apply to area of interest :  First, a company states their area of interest. Second, you draft a first proposal for a thesis paper in this area and send it to us. Third, the company tells you within a week if they want to give you a thesis scholarship. Fourth, you find a university supervisor. 

Apply for predefined topics : First, you apply to write a thesis about a predefined topic provided by the company. If chosen you get a thesis scholarship. Second, you find a university supervisor. Sometimes a supervisor can be provided as well. 

Apply to a company's area of interest

Apply with a topic within the area of interest​.

• In this box, companies write down their “area of interest”. 
• If you want to write a thesis within this area of interest, you need to apply with a short proposal and your CV.
• It is your responsibility to find a topic within this area of interest. 
• Click on “Thesis scholarship”, “Company”, “Apply” and “Questions”

In this box, companies tell you what they can offer you if they accept your thesis topic proposal. However, the concrete thesis scholarship depends on the topic and the student individually. Incentives can be 

• Financial incentives
• Access to data
• Interview partners
• Office space
• Internships

In this box, there is a short description of the company. 

In this box, are the steps and deadlines for theses applications. 

In this box, contact information is provided for any questions you have.

• Gas exploration
• Sustainability in the plastic industry
• Business model innovation

OMV (formerly abbreviation for Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung (English: Austrian Mineral Oil Administration)) is an Austrian multinational integrated oil and gas company which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The company is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, OMV Group was ranked as the 441st -largest public company in the world.

[email protected]

• Business model innovation in construction industry
• Competitive analysis
• Digitalisation in the construction industry
• Business model innovation in the pharmacy industry
• Digitalisation in the  pharmacy industry

Novartis International AG is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies by both market capitalization and sales. Novartis is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

• Business model innovation in the banking industry
• Digitalisation in the  banking industry

Apply for a predefined topic

• In this box, companies write down the headline of their predefined topics. 
• More details are in the other tabs. 
• If you want to write about a thesis about this topics you need to apply with a short letter of motivation and your CV.

More information about the topic and thesis sponsorship benefits. 

More info about the company

Thesis 1 – Business model innovation in the banking industry Thesis 2 – Competitive analysis  Thesis 3 – Digitization in the banking industry

Apply for an thesis internship

• In this box, there is an overview of what internships companies are offering. 
• Thesis internships are internships where you start working in the company and together find a topic for your thesis
• If you want to make a thesis internship  you need to apply with a short letter of motivation and your CV.
• 20h per week
• 400€ per month
• Tasks: …….
• Thesis topics about area of interest

Internship 1 –  Marketing department Internship 2 – Business development department

Other impactful topics

1 Der Europäische-Emissionshandel: Die Rolle von CO2-Zertifikaten in der Praxis 2 Gender in the economy, Human Capital Gaps, Income and wealth inequality 3 Geschlechtsspezifische Arbeitsmärkte, Segregation am Arbeitsmarkt, zur Frauenfrage in der Ökonomie, How compatible are Capitalism and Democracy? 4 Platform capitalism and climate change 5 Gender Budgeting, Wirtschaftspolitik und Gender 6 Sustainable development, Feminist aspects of political economy / feminist economics 7 Development Economics 8 Economics of Inequality 9 European Regional Development, International Development, European Integration 10 Gender differences in the labor market 11 The impacts of immigration policies on children’s economic prospects, assimilation and labour market outcomes 12 Unemployment, Employment Policies, Discrimination and Anti-Discrimination Policies, Tax Evasion 13 Wage Discrimination 14 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 15 Migration, Distribution of Income and Wealth 16 Economics of Inequality 17 Corporate Governance 18 Corporate Governance 19 Economic consequences of changes in accounting and banking regulations, such as the introduction of new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or Basel III 20 Value Reporting 21 Socially responsible investing 22 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 23 Non-financial reporting 24 Women in Mathematics (http://statmath.wu.ac.at/~boehm/topics.pdf) 25 Invisible work and invisible skills; socialization of migrants in the workplace, nation branding, city branding 26 Business communication and sustainability/inclusive business practice 27 Organisational cultural change towards sustainability; Socially responsible leadership; Corporate sustainability initiatives 28 La Responsabilidad Social Corporativa en la industria petrolera (un análisis de informes de RSC) 29 Problemas medioambientales, economía sostenible desigualdad de las condiciones laborales entre la mujer y el hombre 30 Nachhaltigkeit, soziale Verantwortung, Migration: Little Italy, Expat 31 Responsible global leadership, a contemporary approach to global leadership studies with a particular focus on ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) 32 Sustainability in the global textile industry 33 Drivers of corporate responsibility and irresponsibility, grand societal challenges and their implications for strategy and management, the changing nature of global work, and the challenges facing global migrants 34 Sustainable internationalization strategies; FDI & sustainable development 35 ESG performance, SDGs 36 Various topics on sustainability (e.g. ESG performance & internationalization) 37 Social enterprises 38 City Logistics, Sustainability aspects in SCM 39 Nachhaltige Logistik 40 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 41 Seminar Green Logistics 42 Sustainability in Transport, Logistics und Supply Chain Management, Quantifying and monetary assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and congestion 43 Sustainability aspects in employee attitudes, affect, and/or behaviors with an international focus 44 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 45 Open (Government) Data 46 Business and societal impact of emerging technologies Social technologies (e.g. Web 2.0/ Social Media) for knowledge creation and sharing 47 Security and Privacy aspects of the Semantic Web, Next Generation Internet (NGI), distributed data and decentralised applications, and trust and transparency mechanisms 48 Human needs & values, digital privacy, human-centric information systems and algorithmic accountability, empower humans and develop sustainable solutions in the digital economy 49 Sustainable Computing, Ethical IT Systems Development Lifecycle Management, Privacy, Information Security 50 Ethical issues arising from the digitalization of everyday life and the prominence of new media, social issues such as civic engagement, gender equality, human rights, youth issues and urban development 51 Human-centered design and sustainable IT, impact of technology on our lives and psychological wellbeing, a challenging topic considering an environment dominated by new technologies and medialooking into ethical IT design & innovation and technology attitudes 52 Societal Impacts of IT 53 Food supply chain management (e.g. reduction of food waste); see more here: www.christianfikar.com 54 Sustainable finance; environment, sustainability, governance & banking/lending; industry 4.0; digitalization of finance 55 Humanitarian Logistics, Sustainable Logistics 56 Sustainable Operations 57 Economic and environmental sustainability in supply chains, Resource efficiency in supply chains 58 Gender and class related inequalities in careers 59 Environmental and/or social sustainability and business responsibility 60 (In)Equality issues in education, Drop out research (early school leaving, drop out in higher education) 61 School Research: Segregation, Migration Studies:Education Level of Refugees 62 Participation and collective action (eg in alternative organizations), Gender issues in organizations 63 Category of cultured animal products with a focus on cultural, institutional, and organizational change 64 Business Ethics, Diversity 65 Die Beziehungen zwischen sozialen Bewegungen und Organisationen (z.B. Veganismus, Klimagerechtigkeit, Mobilität), Ethik in der Wirtschaft und in der Wissenschaft 66 Corporate social responsibility initiatives in China and Europe, organizations in transition economies, and professions and fields undergoing major change 67 Gender- und Diversitätsmanagement in Organisationen mit Fokus auf Personal- und Organisationsentwicklung, speziell Karrieren, Führung und Teams sowie Interkulturelles Management unter Einsatz von qualitativen Sozialforschungsmethoden 68 Gendered and Organization Theory; Theory of Social Practices; Diversity and Intersectionality Research; Gender Diversity and Technology 69 Gendered and Organization Theory, Theory of Social Practices, Translating Organizational Change, Ageing, Diversity and Intersectionality Research 70 Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations, Diversity Management, Gender and Diversity aspects of Political Campaigning 71 Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality Research 72 Gender and Diversity in Organizations, Organizing and Managing Diversity, Intersectionality and queer perspectives, Subtexts in Organization Theories 73 Skilled migration 74 Nachhaltiges Personalmanagement, Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung / GRI 75 Green Human Resource Management 76 Sustainable HRM, Green HRM, Sustainability Reporting, New Forms of Organizing and HRM 77 Vergleichendes Green HRM 78 Comparative Green HRM 79 Internationale, globale NPO, Global Civil Society, Zusammenarbeit zwischen NPO und staatlichen Akteuren (Gemeinden, Staat, EU) 80 Demokratie in Organisationen 81 Social entrepreneurship and social innovation 82 Philanthropy, Corporate Volunteering, Food Banks in times of Austerity 83 Social Innovation, Volunteer Management, Volunteering and Social Inequality 84 Sharing Economy: Was können Unternehmen von neuen Organisationsformen in der Sharing Economy lernen? 85 Leitbilder der Stadtpolitik: Wie wirken sich neue Stadtkonzepte und -strategien (Sharing City, Smart City, Green City, …) auf die Organisationslandschaft in urbanen Räumen aus? Welche Formen der Steuerung von Leistungsnetzwerken („Public Governance“) treten dabei zu Tage? 86 Neue gemeinwohlorientierte Organisationsformen: Wie etablieren sich neue gemeinwohlorientierte Kapitalgesellschaftsformen (etwa nach dem Vorbild der B-Corp in den USA)? 87 Changing civic engagement and its new challenges for public policy and management; The increasing importance of bureaucratic reputations and the influence on citizens’ and public servants’ behaviors 88 Social biases, such as stereotypes and prejudice, in the decision-making and the behavior of individuals and asks how this contributes to inequalities 89 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 90 Sustainable Marketing, Sustainable Consumption, Consumer Behaviour 91 CSR and Communication 92 Sustainable Consumer Behavior / Consumption, Collaborative Consumption 93 Sharing Economy, Sustainable Consumer Behavior / Consumption 94 Sustainable Consumer Behavior/Consumption, Sustainable Marketing 95 Consumer behavior in the Sharing Economy, Sustainable Consumption 96 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 97 Sharing Economy 98 Alternative retail formats and social supermarkets, Food waste in retailing, Shopping behaviour and impoverished consumers 99 Marketing and the Climate Crisis (see our ongoing project: co2mustgo.eu) 100 Legal Work and Social Inclusion, Challenges for European Social Dialogue in a Time of Crisis. New Governance for Transnational Solidarities, between Complementarity and Innovation 101 Antidiskriminierungsrecht in Österreich und der EU, Gleichbehandlungsfragen im Betriebspensionsrecht, Nichtraucherschutz im Arbeitsverhältnis 102 Mutterschutz und Soziale Sicherheit 103 Arbeitsrecht und ihre Schnittstellen mit Ökologie und Nachhaltigkeit 104 Recht der betrieblichen Altersvorsorge, ausgewählte Aspekte des Sozialversicherungsrechts (insb. Krankengeld, Wiedereingliederungsgeld, Leistungen beim Versicherungsfall der Mutterschaft, befristete Neuregelung für durch Covid-19 besonders gefährdete Personen) 105 Antidiskriminierungsrecht, Menschen mit Behinderungen im Arbeits- und Sozialrecht 106 Grundrechte 107 Demokratie und Rechtsstaat 108 Grundrechte (insbesondere Datenschutzrecht und Religionsfreiheit) 109 Europäische Integration, Grund- und Menschenrechte 110 Umweltrecht 111 Integrationsverfassungsrecht, Grund- und Menschenrechte, Europäische Integration 112 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 113 Tax Administrations in Interagency Cooperation 114 European Human Rights 115 European and International Human Rights Protection 116 Systemfragen des europäischen Grundrechtsschutzes 117 Österreichischer, Europäischer und Internationaler Menschenrechtsschutz 118 Macroeconomics & Environment: forecast socially and ecologically sustainable economic trajectories in the light of pressing social and environmental issues, growth, income and wealth distribution, and productivity and their application to ecological problems like climate change and other market failures 119 Sustainability and transformational learning/education, Smart cities topics, Sustainability driven entrepreneurship 120 Industrial Ecology, Environmental Accounting, Material Flow Analysis, Environmental Extended Input-Output Analysis (EEIOA), Analytical Tools in EEIOAa 121 Climate change impact on the growth-finance-inequality nexus, Indicators of financial portfolios’ exposure to carbon stranded assets, Alignment of investments’ flows to the 1.5 degrees target and the Sustainable Development Goals, Stock-Flow Consistent macroecological models, Climate stress test of the financial system and macro-financial networks, Climate change adaptation through the food-water-energy nexus 122 Sustainable Work: relationships between economic development and (un-)employment, identifies key labor market challenges for the transformation to sustainability, and develops alternative institutional designs 123 Policies affecting food consumption in western societies, Participative management of common pool resources, Social networks in agriculture Environmental inequality 124 Industrial Ecology, Environmental Accounting, MFA, Land use, Input-Output Analysis, LCA 125 Industrial Ecology, Environmental Accounting (in particular material flow analysis), Environmental Footprinting (in particular env. ext. input-output analysis), Global Responsibility 126 Socio-Ecological Transformation 127 Effects of environmental policy on pollution, health, growth, and/or employment, Determinants of consumerism, Effects of rising income inequality on well-being of societies, Effects of financial development or liberalization on growth, output volatility, crisis and/or employment 128 Global Resource Use: quantifying society’s use of natural resources and its consequences 129 Ecological Economics, Industrial Ecology, Environmental Accounting, MFA, Water accounting, Global Responsibility 130 Geoinformatics, Satellite time series analysis, Environmental modeling 131 Inequality/Distribution of (mainly) income and wealth and economic development in the long-run 132 Business Ethics & Classes on “Sustainable Economics and Business II: Sustainability, an Area of Conflict in Economic Reality?” 133 Rising Inequality, Gentrification and social exclusion in cities, Socio-economic changes and the rise of the populist right, A project related to a topic in economic geography 134 Spatial variation of increasing inequality (literature review and GIS-based analysis focusing on a single country or region), Changes in the Vienna housing market and social segregation (GIS-based space-time panel analysis) 135 Environmental law, Aarhus Convention, Paris Climate Accord 136 Evaluation, CSR, Sustainable Development, Knowledge Brokerage 137 Social and ecological transformation, Socioeconomic development, Comparative Developments Studies, Participation and socioeconomic democracy, Social innovation 138 Economic and environmental interactions, environmental values and the transformation of the world political economy to a more socially and environmentally just system 139 System approach nature-economy 140 Regional policy, European regional development, EU regional policy, Globalisation and regional development 141 Sustainable Mobility 142 Social movements, democracy and governance, degrowth, political ecology political thought and philosophy, social-ecological transformation, ecological economics 143 Philosophy of Science, Logic and Ethics 144 Philosophy of Science, Logic and Ethics 145 Democracy and sustainability; societal transformations, political and social movements 146 Democratic research, Citizen demonstrations, social movements, political parties, political participation 147 Environmental Sociology and Politics, Theoretical Sociology, Gender and Sustainability, Post-Growth Societies, Degrowth 148 Social Change, Sustainability, Social Movements, emancipatory Politics, Social and Democracy Theory 149 New Social Movements, Societal Transformation, Social Practice Theory 150 Transformative economics, ethics in sustainability 151 Gesellschaftliche Transformation 152 Collective Alternative Everyday Practices, Prefigurative Politics, Post-Growth Societies, Theories of Modern Society, Subject Theory 153 Social Services Secor, Market dynamics in social service providers 154 Gerechtigkeit und Sozialpolitik, transnational and cross-border issues in social policy, access to social services 155 (Forced) migration and social policy, integration (policy), social inclusion, and anti-discrimination 156 Poverty, Inequality, Social Investment, Theoretical Foundations of Social Policy 157 Armut (in Österreich & Europa), Poverty & Social Exclusion, Health & Economic Inequality 158 Sustainable Development (e.g. SDGs 3 and 5) 159 Social Inequality (e.g. educational disadvantages, income and wealth inequality, precarisation, social problems) 160 Xenophobia, racism and group related misanthropy – theoretical, empirical and practical perspectives 161 Socioeconomic perspectives on inequality 162 Work and gender; care; reproductive work; concepts of work; concepts of work-life-balance; working conditions in low-wage service sectors 163 Sociology of sustainable development, Sustainable consumption 164 Social movements, protests, and their political outcomes, Measurement of human rights, Determinants of human rights violations 165 Topics regarding social inequality (e.g. educational and income inequality; poverty; precarisation and de-standardisation), The phenomena of ‘Working Poor’ in Europe, Gender inequality (e.g. occupational gender segregation) 166 Questions of global sustainable development and an interdisciplinary Sustainability Science 167 Social inequality and its specific effects in the Corona crisis 168 Social determinants of mortality, Global economic integration 169 Social & Humanitarian Entrepreneurship 170 Responsible Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility 171 Strategy implementation and performance management in social enterprises and NGOs 172 Implementation of Sustainability/CSR strategies 173 Sustainability/CSR and social and environmental reporting as well as in socio-economic trends, wealth disparity 174 Link between the permanent and temporary organization, and sustainable development 175 STaR faculty member, topic infos not available yet 176 Sustainable Development & Project Management 177 Digital strategy, digital organization, digital sustainability, sustainability transition management 178 Economics of long-term care services and informal care; Quality of long-term care, focus on outcome measurement; Evaluation of active and assisted living (AAL) systems; Evaluation of new technologies for older people and for long-term care provision

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Company Law Dissertation Topics – Based on Industry Oriented Practices

Published by Ellie Cross at December 29th, 2022 , Revised On August 15, 2023

Company law regulates how companies operate. Dissertation topics on company law are based on a company’s life cycle, business model and other operating features. Company law dissertation research ideas must explore the difficulties businesses have controlling and following the company laws and rules throughout their business cycle.

Related Subject Links:

• Law Dissertation Topics
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• Employmeny Law Dissertation Topics
• Contract Law Dissertation Topics
• Commercial Law Dissertation Topics
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We’ve compiled a list of appealing company law dissertation topics to help you kickstart your dissertation without any further delay.

Company Law Dissertation Topics

• Should the Corporate Veil be breached due to Human Rights Violations by Subsidiaries and Controlled Supply Chains?
• Does the Companies Act of 2006 properly safeguard outsider rights?
• How much have the responsibilities of directors been expanded by Sections 170-174 of the Companies Act of 2006?
• The limited liability partnership model has successfully replaced the incorporation complexity and the personal risks connected with partnership legislation, right?
• How much do corporate liability and vicarious liability overlap in environmental law?
• Are corporate environmental law violation penalties sufficient to serve as a deterrent?
• Should the European convention on human rights include the right to environmental quality to effectively enable public interest litigation?
• A review of the multinational organisations under the united kingdom’s system of accountability
• How are shareholders influential under UK business law?
• An analysis of corporate governance at a multinational company in the UK
• The effect of corporate governance on organisational structures and international laws
• An explanation of how accountability is established in service sector businesses in the US
• A comparison of the laws governing corporations in the US and the UK
• An examination of the British Board of directors’ function
• A thorough analysis of the shareholders’ legal foundations in UK corporate governance
• The purpose of corporate law is to protect outsiders’ rights
• An analysis of the regional, national, and global regulations affecting corporate governance in US-based companies
• The significance of institutional investors in influencing European corporate legislation
• A review of the scholarly literature on company law and the factors that influence it
• An analysis of the effects of CSR on business performance and value generation
• What are the UK’s corporate law governance challenges and opportunities?
• What effects do the socio-political circumstances have on the corporate governance of international businesses in the UK?
• What part do external auditors play in an organization’s internal governance in the UK?
• What role does social media play in British corporate governance?
• The impact of blockchain technology on the UK’s corporation legislation
• What potential prospects can blockchain, big data, and smart cities present for business law in the future?
• How do institutional investor rules affect local corporate governance in the UK, and what is their impact?
• What difficulties does the UK have in implementing business law?
• What role does social media have in influencing company governance?
• What are the UK’s top company law practices?

Students at most UK institutions must write a dissertation on a unique company law topic, which must be relevant and focused. Undergraduate students can explore existing literature, whereas postgraduate students must find a new research gap to enhance the credibility of their research. 

Dissertation writers at ResearchProspect are qualified experts who can come up with exciting company law dissertation topics . It will not be a problem for one of our writers to produce a flawless thesis paper on any of your chosen company law dissertation topics, no matter the urgency or complexity involved. We guarantee the dissertation completed by our writers will follow your school’s exact guidelines. Go ahead and place your order now !

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to find company law dissertation topics.

To find company law dissertation topics:

• Study recent legal developments.
• Explore corporate governance issues.
• Analyze regulatory challenges.
• Consider international comparisons.
• Examine shareholder rights.
• Select a topic aligned with your career aspirations.

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Here is a list of English 101 dissertation topics to help you choose the one studies anyone as per your requirements.

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A strong analytical question

• speaks to a genuine dilemma presented by your sources . In other words, the question focuses on a real confusion, problem, ambiguity, or gray area, about which readers will conceivably have different reactions, opinions, or ideas.  
• yields an answer that is not obvious . If you ask, "What did this author say about this topic?” there’s nothing to explore because any reader of that text would answer that question in the same way. But if you ask, “how can we reconcile point A and point B in this text,” readers will want to see how you solve that inconsistency in your essay.  
• suggests an answer complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of discussion. If the question is too vague, it won't suggest a line of argument. The question should elicit reflection and argument rather than summary or description.  
• can be explored using the sources you have available for the assignment , rather than by generalizations or by research beyond the scope of your assignment.  

How to come up with an analytical question  

One useful starting point when you’re trying to identify an analytical question is to look for points of tension in your sources, either within one source or among sources. It can be helpful to think of those points of tension as the moments where you need to stop and think before you can move forward. Here are some examples of where you may find points of tension:

• You may read a published view that doesn’t seem convincing to you, and you may want to ask a question about what’s missing or about how the evidence might be reconsidered.  
• You may notice an inconsistency, gap, or ambiguity in the evidence, and you may want to explore how that changes your understanding of something.  
• You may identify an unexpected wrinkle that you think deserves more attention, and you may want to ask a question about it.  
• You may notice an unexpected conclusion that you think doesn’t quite add up, and you may want to ask how the authors of a source reached that conclusion.  
• You may identify a controversy that you think needs to be addressed, and you may want to ask a question about how it might be resolved.  
• You may notice a problem that you think has been ignored, and you may want to try to solve it or consider why it has been ignored.  
• You may encounter a piece of evidence that you think warrants a closer look, and you may raise questions about it.  

Once you’ve identified a point of tension and raised a question about it, you will try to answer that question in your essay. Your main idea or claim in answer to that question will be your thesis.

• "How" and "why" questions generally require more analysis than "who/ what/when/where” questions.  
• Good analytical questions can highlight patterns/connections, or contradictions/dilemmas/problems.  
• Good analytical questions establish the scope of an argument, allowing you to focus on a manageable part of a broad topic or a collection of sources.  
• Good analytical questions can also address implications or consequences of your analysis.
• picture_as_pdf Asking Analytical Questions

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I've Co-founded Over 20 Firms — These Are the Five Critical Questions You Need to Ask to Evaluate Your Startup's Health Have you checked your startup's pulse recently? If not, here are five questions to assess how your company is doing and which areas need more attention.

By Hilt Tatum IV • May 10, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Ask yourself the following five questions: How are my employees doing and how can I improve their well-being? How are we handling failure? Are we attracting the correct type of people to hire? How well do you understand where you're spending money? Are your employees taking initiative?

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you ask me, entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging roles you could ever undertake. The stress and burden of starting and building a successful business — not to mention the pressure of keeping people gainfully employed — falls squarely on your shoulders.

It can be far too easy to become distracted by growing your revenue and sales to appease your investors that you forget to look at your company's health. The bigger your company gets, the heavier that load becomes. Yet, for those who have the fortitude to take it on, it's an exciting and rewarding experience, full of daily joys and challenges.

Regardless of your business type, every entrepreneur must take a step back from the daily grind and evaluate where their company is and if it is healthy . As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I always try to judge the overall well-being of a startup and focus on these five areas to make it a healthier company.

Related: I Wish I Received This Advice as a Young Entrepreneur

1. How are my employees doing and how can I improve their well-being?

No healthy startup stays that way if the people who keep it moving aren't healthy. If the pandemic showed us anything, it's that providing support and resources for health and wellness can positively impact employee morale .

A startup's commitment to creating a supportive and healthy work environment can help reduce stress and improve employee motivation, increasing engagement and productivity. I'm not talking about a general, one-size-fits-all approach that will simply be seen as a half-measure. Every person on your team is different, and each person's wellness needs differ.

Improving employee wellness

If your startup is still small, don't be afraid to talk to your employees directly to ask them how they're doing and to understand their wellness routines. These conversations will help you develop an informed strategy for the company to support their needs better.

For larger companies, reach out to an employee wellness consulting firm. Ask them to collect employee feedback, find out what your competitors are doing and use these data points to build a customized plan for your workforce. Don't exclude your own health in this area, either. As a leader, you must be on top of your game, setting an example for others to do the same.

2. How are we handling failure?

Depending on your personality type, risking failure may be the best or worst part of your startup life.

Most entrepreneurs realize that failure can be a good thing, but only if it's handled in the right way. While this can be hard to measure, here are a few probing questions to help get a clearer picture:

• Do I or my team dwell on failures longer than we should?
• Are we consistently repeating the same mistakes?
• Does fear of failure impact our motivation or creativity?

Strong leadership is critical

Ultimately, it falls on the leadership team to encourage a culture of learning from failure and implementing structures to leverage these lessons while preventing reoccurrences.

Encouraging leaders and employees to think critically and evaluate where things went wrong is vital. Meet with your teams and discuss these questions:

• What was in their control vs. out of their control?
• Looking back, were there any early signs that now seem apparent this would be a failure?
• What can we change in our process to better detect issues earlier?

Related: The Difference Between Startup Success and Failure Comes Down to This One Thing

3. Are we attracting the correct type of people to hire?

There are generally two types of employees: those working for a bigger paycheck and those working because they believe in the direction and culture . Is your business built for one type over the other?

It is vital to focus on building a business where people want to work rather than those who will just work there because they get paid above market rates. With younger employees, compensation is essential, but role and company fit are equally if not more important. This is another challenging area to check the status of, but a good sign is that you regularly receive inbounds on LinkedIn and directly from job seekers.

Hiring the best fits for your startup

So, where can you find suitable candidates?

Your employees are your greatest advocates , and while you need to be careful, you often find high-quality candidates from within their networks. Encourage your employees to take some ownership and let them be more involved in the hiring process, especially if your team is smaller.

4. How well do you understand where you're spending money?

You would be shocked at how often companies do not know how much money they spend per month, quarter or year. If you find yourself in this category — and it's okay to admit it — or you want to understand your financial picture more clearly, here are a few questions to ask yourself and your team:

• Do you have a budget, and is it realistic? Have other people in the organization sanity-checked it?
• How are you currently tracking compared to your budget?
• How well is spending aligned with your core strategy compared to new opportunities or potential distractions?

These are simple questions, but they can help you uncover significant flaws in your financial process.

An early focus on finances

Building a robust financial function early in the company's life cycle may cost more upfront. Still, it saves you and your startup headaches and costs in the future, especially when you start dealing with investors and auditors.

If your company is more mature and making significant financial progress, it may be time to invest in a strong CFO if you haven't done so already. You'll want to bring someone in who can tie company strategy back to your budget and spending and support the finance team.

5. Are your employees taking initiative?

Earlier, I mentioned the importance of hiring the right people for your organization. This aspect becomes solidified when you examine how often employees step up and take ownership — and whether you, as a leader, are encouraging it. As they experience the ins and outs of company life daily, your employees likely know the inner workings of your business better than you do. This is a good thing. It means they're deeply involved and invested.

However, it's essential to recognize whether your employees are bringing you new ideas of their own volition or simply obeying orders. Are they expressing their thoughts and opinions in meetings or sitting silently and listening only?

Promoting a culture of initiative

One of the best things you can do as a leader is to take the initiative yourself and speak with your employees, encouraging them to be critical of operations and providing them with a safe environment in which to do so. On certain occasions, this is better done through an external firm or using an anonymous method. As an investor, I've found more success speaking with employees directly and communicating feedback to management.

Related: 7 Easy Steps for Encouraging Employees to Take Initiative

A healthy perspective

Evaluating the overall health of your startup means paying attention to details beyond financial metrics. An entrepreneur must consistently assess the company's well-being and adjust as necessary to ensure long-term success. These five questions aren't comprehensive, but they are essential to building a healthy and sustainable business.

All of these require a keen sense of self-awareness as a leader. Leaders often operate isolated with "blinders on" in pursuit of their goals or revenue objectives, sacrificing the broader foundation of the business and how it will affect future scalability. As a long-term investor, I firmly believe in building a solid foundation, even if it means taking things a bit slower.

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

CEO of Dale Ventures Group of Companies

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We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

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Ford shareholders ask what the heck is going on with electric vehicle costs, losses

Ford CEO Jim Farley and company executive chair Bill Ford fielded questions from shareholders on Thursday about the viability of electric vehicles and concerns about the billions of dollars in losses being reported quarter after quarter.

Most recently, Ford's first-quarter earnings report in April included news of $1.3 billion in losses within its Model e division. Farley said at the time that the electric vehicle unit was "a huge drag" on the bottom line but also indicated "tremendous progress" in cutting losses and growing market share with new consumers. Overall adjusted earnings for the quarter before interest and taxes totaled $2.8 billion.

"We remain excited about EVs, which offer incredible value, performance and convenience for many of our customers," Bill Ford said at Thursday's annual virtual shareholder meeting.

"We have a very good balance of propulsion across our lineup," Ford said. "We're America's No. 1 brand for gas vehicles, No. 2 for EVs and No. 3 for hybrids. In the U.S., the No. 1 gas, hybrid and electric trucks were all produced by Ford."

'We are absolutely crushing it'

Ford's international operations are now profitable after years of reporting losses. And Ford Pro , the business-to-business arm of the company that sells vehicles and software subscriptions, is a nearly $60 billion company within the automaker. It's all helping to offset costs of EV production and development. And costs in EVs are projected to fall with new products, Ford executives said.

Despite last fall's UAW strike, Ford remains on plan and continues to return profits to investors, Ford said. He delivered prepared statements and also responded directly to callers, as is custom during the hourlong meeting.

Farley said he is committed to growing the value of the automaker. His decision to split the company into three units offers more transparency and spotlights strengths and weaknesses, he said, citing revenue and growth increases. Farley noted that Ford is anticipating that earnings before interest and taxes could reach $12 billion in 2024, a record for the 120-year-old automaker.

"We are absolutely crushing it," Farley said.

Ford is benefiting from the huge demand for work trucks and national infrastructure projects, he said.

Hybrid sales rise amid EV adjustments

"The road to consumer adoption for EVs, and, eventually, profitable EV business, for sure is a bumpy one for our whole industry, including Ford," Farley said. "But we remain nimble and continue to recalibrate our EV strategy in an increasingly dynamic and global marketplace, adapting and evolving our spending and investments to right-size our capacity, balance growth and profitability and compliance to optimize the total Ford enterprise. Affordability matters for the early majority of EV adopters."

A pricing premium that existed early " proved to be untenable " and didn't really reflect the majority of customers and their willingness to pay, Farley said. "Customers want choice as they move toward full electric ..."

Ford is working to making new EVs more affordable and more profitable, but for now Ford is focusing on geographies and segments where the company dominates.

Hybrid vehicles are "especially important to bridge customers to adopting pure EV," Farley said. "Ford has been investing in hybrid technology for more than 20 years, and it's really starting to pay off. Hybrid sales in first quarter were up 36% and we're on pace to expand this business 40% this year — and it's led by Maverick."

More: Teen Mustang owner fighting cancer likens racetrack experience to Taylor Swift concert

More: They're some of the women behind Ford's Ranger, F-150 launches

The best vehicles at the lowest costs will win the EV war, Farley said. The automaker is focused on recruiting the best EV and software engineers in the world to challenge not just Tesla but fast-growing Chinese automakers moving into the EV segment globally.

"I am so excited about the future we're building together," he said.

Contact  Phoebe Wall Howard :  313-618-1034  or  [email protected] . Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter  @phoebesaid . Read more on  Ford  and sign up for our  autos newsletter .

Why everyone’s mad at Apple’s new iPad ad

The company has lived long enough to see itself become the villain.

Forty years ago, the upstart computer company Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial symbolically aligned the company with the resistance of the human spirit to the mechanistic forces of conformity.

Today, the company—now a $3 trillion global goliath — has sparked a blowback with an ad that seems to do just the opposite. If the ad wasn’t intended to illustrate how Apple risks becoming the villain of its own hero myth, the reaction to it sure does.

The commercial, which touts the latest iPad Pro, shows an intimate studio brimming with analog instruments and art tools: a mechanical metronome, a vinyl record player, a film camera, jars of paint, a piano. The scene resonates as warmly nostalgic until the ad cuts to a wider view, revealing an enormous slab of metal looming above it.

As the mass slowly descends to physically crush the instruments, sending shards and paint flying, the realization hits: The mass is Apple, inexorably pulverizing these beloved emblems of human creativity, one after the next. As the crusher withdraws, the studio and all its contents are gone — replaced by the company’s new tablet.

The spot was intended as a clever play on a genre of video popular on TikTok, in which hydraulic presses or car tires crush objects that pop, crumple or explode in sensorily satisfying ways. The payoff is meant to be that these tools of creativity actually haven’t been destroyed, just consolidated into a single, sleek gadget.

Yes, the iPad is a versatile device, and many creative professionals use it for a wide range of tasks. Posting the video on X, Apple CEO Tim Cook boasted of the latest device’s “advanced display” and powerful M4 chip, adding: “Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create.”

But the ad hits at a time when artists feel a heightened vulnerability to the march of automation. The latest AI tools can mimic an artist’s work on command; machine-generated articles, songs and images are mingling with and increasingly displacing the work of humans. No wonder they’re a bit sensitive.

While Apple may not be driving that particular upheaval, its iPad event leaned into what Cook has called the “transformative power and promise of AI.” Historically, the company has played a leading role in disrupting creative sectors through software such as iTunes. (Remember “ Rip. Mix. Burn. ”?) More broadly, its ubiquitous devices have come to represent the triumph of the digital over the analog world.

One of Steve Jobs’s early achievements was to position the company’s computers as friendly and helpful. (Think of the simple Apple logo, the Happy Mac icon or the cheerful, colorful iMac.) But over the years, including under Jobs, the company’s obsessions with sleekness, power and efficiency have lent its image a colder, harder sheen. That could be a liability at a time when even some former tech lovers are becoming Luddites .

As for crushing things in a vise grip, that happens to be what Apple stands accused of doing to independent app developers in an antitrust lawsuit filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s remarkable that the company’s marketers didn’t see a problem with that visual metaphor.

Now, many of the creative types the company seemed to be courting with the iPad ad are jeering it instead. Here’s a sampling of the reactions:

Crushing the symbols of human creativity to produce a homogenized branded slab is pretty much where the tech industry is at in 2024 https://t.co/BzOKsx8sX6 — Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) May 8, 2024

So painful to watch, especially given the current climate of artists being crushed by the unrelenting decimation of the arts by generative AI. https://t.co/tmCT7kcrOA — Jingna Zhang (@zemotion) May 8, 2024

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Reddit is including Redditors in its first earnings call since going public

The company has included its users in every stage of its public debut.

Reddit reports earnings tomorrow after the bell. In an unusual move, the company will be taking questions from its very own users.

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Redditors can post questions in the subreddit r/RDDT, and the company will respond during the question and answer part of its first quarter earnings call with investors. Reddit has made an effort to make its users a part of its public debut, reserving 8% of its IPO shares to its most devoted Redditors with no lock-up period in March.

Raymond James analyst Josh Beck reiterated his strong buy rating of Reddit’s stock in anticipation of its earnings report Tuesday, given its “encouraging” user trends and demand for its data to train generative AI models. Bank of America analysts gave the stock a neutral rating but still anticipate a 30% increase in Reddit’s first quarter revenue compared to the prior year, especially given its data licensing agreement with Google.

Reddit shares stood at nearly $49 at market close on Monday, above Reddit’s IPO price of $34 but well below the stock’s all time high price of about $75 in the week following its public debut. Reddit hasn’t turned a profit since it was founded in 2005 . The social media site posted a loss of $91 million in 2023, according to the company’s IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission .

But the losses are getting slimmer. The company’s total loss shrunk 43% between 2022 and 2023, when Reddit started charging fees to third-party developers using its application programming interface (API). The move sparked outrage among Redditors , but their protests had little effect .

Reddit sales increased about 21% to $804 million last year.

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