Doctoral Program

Content analysis refers to a family of research methods concerned with the systematic inference of meaning from communications. Content analytic research spans the divide between qualitative and quantitative research, facilitating research that marries the richness of qualitative techniques with the generalizability of quantitative techniques. This seminar provides a broad understanding of content analytic methods and how they can be applied in organizational research. A specific emphasis of this seminar is to provide an overview of techniques associated with computer-aided text analysis (CATA), a valuable technique for extracting meaning from texts such as mission statements, annual report narratives, political speeches, and other forms of written or transcribed communications. Examples will largely focus on discussing research design ideas for quantitative studies in the areas of entrepreneurship and family business.
Registration:
Prof. Dr. Nicola Breugst nicola.breugst@tum.de

In this course, we want to familiarize students early in their PhD with organization theory—this should be the first course you take on this topic. We will first scrutinize what theory is and how you enter an academic conversation, before we move on to jointly discuss eight “brands” of theory that are currently influential in management research. Of course, this list is not exclusive, and we strongly encourage you to (at least!) use this course as a launch pad to endeavor on more in-depth explorations of those branches of management theory that are most relevant to you. Finally, we will look at how contributions to theory can be made today.
While we welcome students from all disciplines of business administration, we will focus largely on those subfields that are represented by Academy of Management division that conduct research at the firm-level.
Registration: Please submit to Prof. Alexy a cover letter and up-to-date academic resume. In your cover letter, please specify the topic and state of your PhD thesis (if you have no topic yet, say that), and why and how you think that taking this specific course will help you become a better scholar, and what scholar you would like to become.

This PhD course will cover recent (unpublished) finance research. Renowned researchers from various European universities will present their latest research in the fields of asset pricing, corporate finance, and financial intermediation. Extensive discussion in class is encouraged. Thereby, students will learn to know and discuss critically current topics in finance. They will also learn more about state-of-the-art research methodologies.
Registration: daniel.urban@tum.de
October 20, 2017

Introduction to the management research process; Epistemology and philosophical worldviews; Theory and observation; Deduction, induction and theory construction; Research questions and hypotheses; Research designs (quantitative and qualitative); Measurement and sampling; Doing management research; Research ethics
Especially suitable for first-year doctoral candidates

Econometric methods are important in many fields of management research. In order to derive meaningful and robust results, one has to know these methods and understand them well. Building on the brilliant introductory course taught by Prof. Alexy each winter term, this course shall convey advanced econometric methods. A list of potential topics is given below. Depending on the participants’ needs, some of these can be dropped and others can be added. We will discuss the selection of topics at the kick-off session. The focus will be on applicable knowledge, not so much on details of the theory.

Preliminary list of topics:
• Extensions of logit and probit models. Ordered logit, rank-ordered logit, generalized ordered logit, multinomial logit, mixed logit, conditional logit, nested logit; marginal effects
• Heckman selection models
• Count data. Poisson, Negative Binomial, Zero Inflated
• Survival models. Hazard rate models, accelerated failure time models
• Path Models, Structural Equation Models
• Panel data regressions. Pooled, fixed effects, random effects
• Time series regressions
• Instrumental variables

The seminar “Economics of Aging” will cover several sociological and economic aspects of demographic change. A special focus will be given to the analysis of: 1) the consequences of aging for the sustainability of the social security systems; 2) the interactions between economic decisions and health outcomes and 3) the consequences of aging on labor, capital and goods markets.
Basic knowledge of the empirical research methods is essential. The successful completion of courses like “empirical research methods”, “angewandte Statistik”, “empirische Wirtschaftsforschung”, “consumer behavior research methods” is highly recommended.

In this seminar, recent contributions to the field of Operations & Supply Chain Management are presented, mainly by participating doctoral students and visiting researchers. Participating doctoral candidates are expected to actively engage in discussions, as well as give presentations of recent research results relevant to Operations & Supply Chain Management. The goal of the seminar is to gain an overview of recent scientific contributions, learn how to critically evaluate these contributions, as well as develop ideas for future research. To successfully complete the seminar, students are expected to attend for 2 semesters, and give at least one presentation during that time frame.

In this course, we discuss contemporary papers in empirical financial reporting, highlight their contribution to the literature, critically analyze their setting and methodology and generate ideas for future research. Some background in financial accounting and econometrics is required.

This course gives an overview of experimental research in economics. Emphasis is put on the design of experiments and implementation of experiments in the lab. The discussion of research papers provides examples of good research. The course includes a visit to the lab to familiarize participants with the experimenTUM facilities.

The course will introduce choice modelling techniques for consumer and marketing analysis. Starting with the theory of consumer choice, the course will discuss different data types available for choice analysis. It will then focus on the specifics of choice experiments, discussing advantages and disadvantages of different experimental designs and data collection procedures. Participants will be familiarized with data handling and analysis considering conditional logit, random parameters logit and latent class analysis. To obtain an overview of the literature, participants will present the papers from the relevant field. Software used in the computer exercises includes SPSS and Stata.

This course gives an introduction to the psychological theories and concepts that have been most influential for management research and practice. At the end of the course participants will be familiar with the key concepts, respective empirical findings, and their application to management practice. To this end each participant will be asked to present recent research pertaining to the theory he/she chooses to the group and to conduct and interactive exercise to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the theory’s relevance for management theory and/or practice. On the first day of the course, participants wil receive an introduction to psychological research and its relevance and will be asked to choose one of the theories, so attendance on that day is required.

The course exposes doctoral candidates to the research frontier in experimental economics. By reading, analyzing and discussing some of the most influential experimental economics papers of recent years, students shall develop a good sense of the current state of the literature and learn how to identify an interesting research question, formulate testable predictions, and develop an appropriate experimental design. It is recommendable to do this course as a follow-up to Prof. Mohnen’s course “Behavioral Economics and Experimental Design”. In addition, some background in game theory and statistics is recommended.

This doctoral course will present a review of research topics in the area of asset management and allows participants to obtain feedback on their research. The course will be devoted to lectures discussing different topics and empirical strategies in asset management. Potential topics include factor models, cost of capital, price rigidities, etc. We will discuss motivation and key insights of different papers, their data, empirical strategy, and main limitations. This will provide participants with exposure to various research topics within asset management and to different state-of-the-art empirical methodologies. Parts of the course will be built around (i) presentations of doctoral research papers written by the participants; and (ii) discussions of (others) recent (working) papers by participants. All presentations should be performed in a way that all of us learn something about these papers. For papers written by participants: It is fine to present papers that are preliminary and early work. The course will also be used to discuss interesting institutional features of academia, including how to write and structure papers and the role of conferences and finance journals.

In this course, we learn the principles of excellent academic writing. To that end, we start with macro issues (finding your story, developing claims, elements going into the sections of a paper, etc.) and then move on to increasingly more micro issues such as good paragraphing, building strong sentences, choosing the right words, and avoiding German English. Importantly, we also consider ethical issues related to academic writing and publishing. Finally, participants will learn more about the publication process and submit their own writing to peer review by a group of 3-4 other participants. Thus, at the end of the course, everyone will be equipped with a writing toolbox as well as feedback on their own written work.
Prequisit for participation: Participants need to have written at least one research paper.

Introduction to the management research process; Epistemology and philosophical worldviews; Theory and observation; Deduction, induction and theory construction; Research questions and hypotheses; Research designs (quantitative and qualitative); Measurement and sampling; Doing management research; Research ethics Especially suitable for doctoral candidates in the first year.

The seminar “Economics of Aging” will cover several sociological and economic aspects of demographic change. A special focus will be given to the analysis of: 1) the consequences of aging for the sustainability of the social security systems; 2) the interactions between economic decisions and health outcomes and 3) the consequences of aging on labor, capital and goods markets. Basic knowledge of the empirical research methods is essential. The successful completion of courses like “empirical research methods”, “angewandte Statistik”, “empirische Wirtschaftsforschung”, “consumer behavior research methods” is highly recommended.

In this seminar, recent contributions to the field of Operations & Supply Chain Management are presented, mainly by participating doctoral candidates and visiting researchers. Participating doctoral candidates are expected to actively engage in discussions, as well as give presentations of recent research results relevant to Operations & Supply Chain Management. The goal of the seminar is to gain an overview of recent scientific contributions, learn how to critically evaluate these contributions, as well as develop ideas for future research. To successfully complete the seminar, students are expected to attend for two semesters, and give at least one presentation during that time frame.

Sustainability has played an increasingly important role in operations management. The quantification of environmental impacts as well as their consideration in quantitative operations management methodologies does however often lead to complex multiobjective optimization problems. This course focuses on the challenges of including sustainability in operations management. The course includes an introduction to sustainability, and especially focuses on quantitative approaches for sustainability assessments (i.e. life cycle assessment), and their consideration and integration in mathematical modelling approaches for operations and supply chain management. Using different research papers and cases, we investigate and illustrate different aspects of sustainable operations. Where possible, we will identify research papers and cases that are close to the topic of the doctoral thesis of the participants. The participating students are expected to have an advanced background in quantitative operations management methodologies from e.g. a master program in Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, or Industrial Engineering.

Students will be exposed to essential process-related concepts underlying research activity, and explore them in more detail within the context of the Entrepreneurship field. Specific knowledge goals of the course include, but are not restricted to: • Understanding what makes for a good research question and developing the ability to identify promising research questions for own thesis and further research projects • Understanding what constitutes an academic conversation in the field of entrepreneurship and identification of key theoretical paradigms in the field – especially as they relate to students’ own research question field. Accordingly, upon completing this course, students should have in hand a broad survey of key literature that informs their dissertation-related literature inquiry going forward • Ability to understand appropriateness, relevance and possible trade-offs of research methods available for addressing identified research questions • Ability to appreciate the intricacies of a solid research design, as they relate to identifying sources of data, collecting and analyzing data, designing questionnaires / interviews, operationalizing key constructs – especially as they relate to the student’s research question • General stronger ability to engage in a research conversation and a key set of skills in advancing own research program during doctoral studies.

Qualitative research has become an established method of inquiry in human and social sciences, including management and organizational research. In this course the doctoral candidates of the TUM School of Management will learn about the nature, designs, and methods of qualitative research, including organizational ethnography and case studies. Apart from the collection of qualitative data in different forms (verbal, written, visual) a special emphasis is put on the systematic analysis of qualitative data. In this context, an introduction into Maxqda is given, a leading software programme for the documentation and analysis of qualitative data.

Based on basic stochastic modeling and optimization knowledge, latest research topics and challenges in logistics and supply chain management will be presented and discussed and venues for innovative research followed. Therefore, knowledge of the Masterlevel course on stochastic modelling and optimization is a pre-requisite for this advanced research seminar.

The seminar discusses topical issues in the field of energy markets. Topics include but are not limited to:
(1) Pricing and hedging for structured contracts and physical resources on energy markets
(2) Modelling of energy prices
(3) Modeling and managing risk in energy markets
(4) Efficiency and market power in power markets
(5) Renewables: Cost efficiency, subsidies, and market integration
(6) Fundamental models for power markets

This doctoral course aims at giving doctoral candidates an overview of the essentials quantitative methods. We will not focus on
the econometrics, but aim at developing the doctoral candidates’ understanding of what the methods are all about and how they
work in practice. The course is taught over five days. We expect all doctoral candidates to read all the required readings and be
prepared to discuss as the class will be interactive. Attendance is mandatory! We have combined lectures that provide an overview
of the different concepts as well as more applied exercises that employ the techniques we will discuss. All examples will be
illustrated using STATA.
Knowledge Objectives
In this course, we strive to familiarize you with key building blocks of applied econometrics: where data comes from and how it can
be analyzed. We will do so in an applied fashion, using actual data and software tools. Specifically, we will be working with the
econometrics software package STATA.
Skills Objectives
• Improve diagnostic and analytical skills
• Enhance verbal skills via class and group discussions
• Build up critical thinking and interpretation skills
• Build up quantitative reviewing and research design skills
Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, doctoral candidates will be able to demonstrate understanding, critical assessment and application of the
following:
• Generic design of a quantitative research question or research proposal
• Their own, as well as others’ quantitative research method and design choice
• Fundamentals of econometrics so as to be able to join more advanced econometrics courses
• Ability to execute standard econometric analyses using STATA

This seminar is a 3-day intensive seminar. During the seminar current journals on the use of conjoint analysis in the scientific field are discussed, and the advantages and disadvantages of this method identified. Also part of the seminar is the development of a procedure to set up a conjoint analysis, which is elaborated within group work. The aim of the seminar is that participants can apply the conjoint analysis specifically in their research environment to conduct empirical research. The seminar is aimed at graduate students of the TUM School of Management, showing a special interest in the research area of CRM and market research. The number of parTcipants for this seminar is limited to 30 parTcipants to maintain high-quality discussions.

In this course, we learn the principles of excellent academic writing. To that end, we start with macro issues (finding your story, developing claims, elements going into the sections of a paper, etc.) and then move on to increasingly more micro issues such as good paragraphing, building strong sentences, choosing the right words, and avoiding German English. Importantly, we also consider ethical issues related to academic writing and publishing. Finally, participants will learn more about the publication process and submit their own writing to peer review by a group of 3-4 other participants. Thus, at the end of the course, everyone will be equipped with a writing toolbox as well as feedback on their own written work.

An important success factor in academia as well as in business (and life for that matter) is the ability to make a case for my ideas, my findings, my recommendations or my work.
Depending on the circumstances, we might be called upon to be convincing in formal presentations, in discussions, while giving speeches or in one-on-one situations, in conferences, in informal settings or in front of a group of high level decision makers. Studies have shown that speaking in front of an audience is one of the most stressful situations and feared by many. There are few who are natural gifted speakers, but many who have to work for it.
In this seminar, we will discuss theoretical and practical basics of communicating with external and internal audiences. We will learn and practice how to apply commonly used tools and techniques in communicating with others – in other words, how to make our case in a given situation. This will include networking situations, the famous elevator speech, and hiring situations. We will discuss the challenges of communicating between experts and lay-people, learn how to engage an audience, practice how to handle Q & A sessions and will consciously use voice and body language while presenting.
We will ensure that the basics are right by working on developing and structuring a presentation and we will let you test your presentation skills in role plays with camera feedback.

The course exposes doctoral candidates to the research frontier in experimental economics. By reading, analyzing and discussing some of the most influential experimental economics papers of recent years, doctoral candidates shall develop a good sense of the current state of the literature and learn how to identify an interesting research question, formulate testable predictions, and develop an appropriate experimental design. It is recommendable to do this course as a follow-up to Prof. Mohnen’s course “Behavioral Economics and Experimental Design”. In addition, some background in game theory and statistics is recommended.