Bachelor's Thesis Winter Term 2026

General information about the Bachelor's thesis at the BIM chair

Before you consider to apply for thesis supervision at the BIM chair, please carefully read the following:

1) Do not write your thesis under our supervision if at the same time you plan to work full time, do an internship, travel the world, or still need to do a large number of other courses! The thesis is an integral part of your study program and, thus, should be in the focus of your attention. You will need all the time to be able to deliver the best package (we fully understand that most of you have a student job and this is perfectly doable). All students who despite our warnings still started a full-time job or internship struggled with finishing their thesis in time and delivering the desired quality. YOUR thesis should be YOUR first priority!

2) Only write your thesis under our supervision if you are commited, motivated, and responsible as well as willing to accept new challenges! If you consider to write your thesis at the BIM chair, you should be well-organized, be able to motivate yourself to achieve your goals, and be willing to independently learn new skills (e.g., learn new analytical approaches largely on your own). Writing your thesis with us inlcudes to go beyond what you have learned in your seminars and lectures. We expect that you are proactive and motivated. Our job is to reduce uncertainty. Be prepared for all meetings and show us that you invest effort and time to solve issues yourself. This is YOUR thesis, work for it!

3) We are not your personal assistant. Our job is to supervise your thesis with respect to the topic and method as well as the general content and process (e.g., literature search, writing, etc.). It is not our job to remind you of deadlines, to fill out your documents, or to replace your own efforts to understand the submission procedure. All this information is publicly available on the website of our faculty, specifically the examination office. We are not your internet search engine substitude. If you schedule a Zoom meeting with your supervisor, it is your responsibility to send him/her a Zoom link from your official OVGU Zoom account (https://ovgu.zoom.us/). This is YOUR thesis, YOU need to organize it!

Registration form Bachelor's thesis: Click here
Submission procedure of your Bachelor's thesis: Click here
General information for your study program (including all information in case of illness): Click here

4) Time problems on your side do not create time pressure on our side! It is part of the mission of the BIM chair to provide students with timely answers to their questions as well as a timely feedback and grading after submission. Time constraints on your side do NOT create time issues on our side. Our aim is to answer questions and requests via e-mail within two working days. We are usually much faster than that, but if you send your question Friday late in the afternoon, you cannot expect an answer on the same day. Organize yourself and try walking in the shoes of the members of the BIM chair. The same applies to the situation once you have submitted your final thesis. If you want to start a job or internship, have visa requirements or travel plans, if you want to/need to move out of your apartment, or if you want to get back your semester fee, this is all your business and your responsibility. We have eight weeks to finish the grading of your thesis (see the study regulations), and while we aim for a much shorter time, it will not always be possible to finalize within two weeks. Each member of the BIM chair at any given point in time during the year is supervising at least five Master's thesis students, five Bachelor's thesis students, seminars, scientific projects, and several internships, etc. We simply cannot take into account all particularities for each and every supervised student, as this would already completely fill our schedule. All submitted theses are graded on a first come, first served basis. If you need your grade as soon as possible, make sure to submit early. YOUR issues, YOUR business!

Bachelor's Thesis Organization at the BIM chair

Bachelor's thesis supervision at the BIM chair during winter term 2026/27 is organized in the following way:

Application: To participate in the Bachelor's Thesis Seminar, please apply via the Office of Study Affairs' registration form and via the E-Learning platform. For more information, click here.

Topic: Once you are assigned to the BIM chair, you will receive an e-mail asking for your most preferred topics. The topic preferences you send us should not be changed, as we will try to assign you to a supervisor considering your first priority.

Cooperations with companies: It is generally possible to write your thesis in cooperation with a company. Please note that we only supervise theses in cooperation with a company if the topic has a strong connection to Behavioral International Management. Before signing any agreements with external partners, please discuss your thesis plans with us. Supervision is only possible if the topic fits and sufficient capacity is available. A signed agreement with a company does not automatically secure supervision. The regular application deadline and timeline for completing the thesis in collaboration with a company also apply here.

Supervision approach: An important aspect of the Bachelor's thesis is to work independently on the topic. Individual supervision meetings should not exceed two to three appointments of 30 minutes each (not including a meeting to specify the topic). In the meetings, your supervisor is not a substitute for your own efforts to solve problems. Thesis supervision does not include prior review of parts of the thesis or a "first draft". All thesis supervision meetings take place face-to-face on campus.

Formatting guidelines: All material (formatting rules, Word template, presentation examples, etc.) will be provided to accepted students via e-learning.

The thesis should include a minimum of 25 text pages plus references, tables, and figures, etc. Students provide an overview of their findings in a 15-minute presentation held after submission of the final thesis. We will ask questions and discuss the findings afterwards (about 10 minutes). Depending on the regulations of your specific study programme, you can write the thesis in English or German (check the IBE and IM regulations, respectively). Given that the literature is in English, we recommend to write in English.

Registration: For the thesis registration, please check (a) again whether you fulfill all the requirements to register for the Bachelor's thesis before sending us the registration form and (b) then send us your current transcript of records together with the registration form via e-mail. If it becomes apparent after the reading period has begun that you do not meet the requirements (for example, because you have failed a course for which you had not yet received a grade), please let us know IMMEDIATELY.

Submission: Submission of the thesis is no later than December 18th 2026 (see the website of the examination office for further details on the new digital submission requirements and process from ST26 on: Click here).

Defenses: All thesis defenses take place in January 2027 (15 minutes presentation of your thesis and 10 minutes questions - the ppt slides do not need to be submitted earlier) - about 45 to 60 minutes in total to have time for feedback.

Questions: Please read the above carefully. If you have any questions not answered by the above information, contact Ida-Anna Thiele (ida-anna.thiele@ovgu.de).

Important dates summary:

Topic assignment period:	October 5th-October 8th 2026 (usually, students can work on their first preference; start of the two-week reading period is the day after the assignment period)
Kick-off meeting (on campus, mandatory)	In the first week of the lecture period (tbc)
First meeting with supervisor:	Before October 30th 2026
Registration of the thesis:	Until October 11th 2026 (responsibility of the student)
Thesis submission:	Latest by December 18th 2026
Thesis defenses:	January 2027 (tbc)

Bachelor's thesis topics in winter term 2026/27

This is the final list of topics offered in winter term 2026/27. These are broad topics and they need to be specified in the individual meetings with your supervisor. Own research ideas are very welcome, but also need to be discussed sufficiently in advance. Usually, all students can work on their first priority.

Topic 1: A systematic literature review of the mediating role of cross-cultural adjustment

Since the seminal model of Black et al. (1991), cross-cultural adjustment has occupied a fixed position in expatriate research: it is the variable through which antecedents are assumed to reach distal outcomes such as job performance, turnover intention, or job satisfaction. This mediating role has become so conventional that adjustment is frequently placed between two other variables almost by default. What is far less clear is how carefully this convention is applied. Is adjustment explicitly conceptualized and labelled as a mediator, or is it simply positioned between a predictor and an outcome without being named or tested as such? Is its mediating role derived from theory, or assumed? And in which relationships, and with which samples, is it actually deployed?

The instrument at the center of this literature is the cross-cultural adjustment scale developed by Black and Stephens (1989), which distinguishes three facets — work, interaction, and general adjustment. The objective of this Bachelor's thesis is to systematically review how the Black and Stephens (1989) conceptualization of cross-cultural adjustment is used as a mediator in the literature. The review is restricted to quantitative empirical studies that (a) use the Black and Stephens (1989) adjustment scale or an adaptation thereof and (b) place cross-cultural adjustment in a mediating position between a predictor and a distal outcome. For each included study, students will code: which adjustment dimension is used (work/interaction/general/aggregate); whether all three dimensions are tested, only selected ones, or a single aggregated score; whether adjustment is explicitly labelled and tested as a mediator or merely positioned between two variables without being named or tested as such; whether a theory is invoked to hypothesize the mediating role, and if so which; the specific predictor–mediator–outcome relationship examined; and the sample type (expatriates, migrants, students, other). The result is a structured map of how, and how rigorously, cross-cultural adjustment is used as a mediating mechanism in this field.

To keep the search tractable, the sample is built through citation searching rather than open keyword search. The starting set consists of the primary studies included in the meta-analysis by Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al. (2005), together with all forward citations of Black and Stephens (1989), Black et al. (1991), and of Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al. (2005).

Starting literature

Bhaskar-Shrinivas, P., Harrison, D. A., Shaffer, M. A., & Luk, D. M. (2005). Input-based and time-based models of international adjustment: Meta-analytic evidence and theoretical extensions. Academy of Management Journal, 48(2), 257-281.

Black, J. S., & Stephens, G. K. (1989). The influence of the spouse on American expatriate adjustment and intent to stay in Pacific Rim overseas assignments. Journal of Management, 15(4), 529-544.

Black, J. S., Mendenhall, M., & Oddou, G. (1991). Toward a comprehensive model of international adjustment: An integration of multiple theoretical perspectives. Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 291-317.

Hechanova, R., Beehr, T. A., & Christiansen, N. D. (2003). Antecedents and consequences of employees’ adjustment to overseas assignment: A meta‐analytic review. Applied Psychology, 52(2), 213-236.

Schlaegel, C., Richter, N. F., & Taras, V. (2021). Cultural intelligence and work-related outcomes: A meta-analytic examination of joint effects and incremental predictive validity. Journal of World Business, 56(4), 101209.

Takeuchi, R. (2010). A critical review of expatriate adjustment research through a multiple stakeholder view: Progress, emerging trends, and prospects. Journal of Management, 36(4), 1040-1064.

Topic 2: A systematic literature review of the determinants of expatriation intention

The willingness of individuals to temporarily relocate for work (i.e., expatriation intention) is a critical factor for the success of multinational corporations. Research has identified several determinants of expatriation intention, including cultural intelligence (CQ), representing the psychological ability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings, and language proficiency (LP), representing the technical tool for communication across borders. Yet the evidence on how strongly and how consistently CQ and LP relate to expatriation intention remains scattered across studies that use different definitions, measures, and samples.

The objective of this Bachelor's thesis is to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge and expand the understanding of CQ and LP as determinants of expatriation intention through a systematic literature review. The thesis includes a comprehensive critical review of the most common definitions, conceptualizations, and measurements of CQ, LP, and expatriation intention. The thesis should further include an abstract, an introduction to the topic (including a short summary of the results), a detailed and replicable description of the literature search and review process, the results of the literature review, a vote-counting of outcomes (if applicable), and a discussion of the findings and their implications for the field. The systematic literature review requires a thorough literature search, coding, and analysis of articles on the relationships between CQ/LP and expatriation intention. The literature search involves the use of a variety of databases and should be guided by predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The identified studies will be critically evaluated and analyzed to extract and synthesize the main findings. If a sufficient number of quantitative empirical studies have examined the relationships between CQ/LP and expatriation intention, a vote-counting approach should be applied (i.e., a minimum of five studies for a relationship). The vote-counting approach refers to counting the number of studies that support or refute a particular hypothesis on an association (e.g., CQ is positively associated with expatriation intention) to provide a quantitative assessment of the current state of the literature and would help to identify areas of agreement and disagreement among the studies. The literature review aims to identify gaps in the current research and suggests areas and methodological approaches for future study.

Starting literature:

Ng, K. Y., Van Dyne, L., & Ang, S. (2012). Cultural intelligence: A review, reflections, and recommendations for future research. In A.M. Ryan, F.T.L. Leong, & F.L. Oswald (Eds.), Conducting Multinational Research: Applying Organizational Psychology in the Workplace (pp. 29-58). American Psychological Association. Link: https://soonang.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Ng_Van-Dyne-Ang-2012-CQ-review-reflections.pdf

Tenzer, H., Terjesen, S., & Harzing, A. W. (2017). Language in international business: A review and agenda for future research. Management International Review, 57(6), 815-854.

Wang, C. H., Varma, A., Hung, L. S., & Wu, P. Y. (2024). A meta‐analysis of the antecedents of employee willingness to expatriate. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 62(1), e12359.

Topic 3: The relationship between expatriate personality traits and work-related outcomes: A systematic literature review

Individuals’ personality traits are commonly measured with the Five-Factor Model of Personality (Big Five), encompassing emotional stability, openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. The objective of this Bachelor’s thesis is to provide an overview of the previous research investigating the relationship between the Big Five and two central outcomes along the expatriation process: cross-cultural adjustment, including its dimensions of general, interaction, and work adjustment, and job performance. The thesis includes a comprehensive critical review of the most common definitions, conceptualizations, and measurements of personality traits. The thesis should further include an abstract, an introduction to the topic (including a short summary of the results), a detailed and replicable description of the literature search and review process, the results of the literature review, a vote-counting of outcomes (if applicable), and a discussion of the findings and their implications for the field. The systematic literature review requires a thorough literature search, coding, and analysis of articles on the role of personality traits.

The literature search involves the use of a variety of databases and should be guided by predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The identified studies will be critically evaluated and analyzed to extract and synthesize the main findings. If a sufficient number of quantitative empirical studies have examined the relationships between the Big Five and the two expatriate outcomes, a vote-counting approach should be applied (i.e., a minimum of five studies for a relationship). The vote-counting approach refers to counting the number of studies that support or refute a particular hypothesis on an association (e.g., emotional stability is positively associated with job performance) to provide a quantitative assessment of the current state of the literature and would help to identify areas of agreement and disagreement among the studies. The literature review aims to identify gaps in the current research and suggests areas and methodological approaches for future study.

Starting literature:

Caligiuri, P. M. (2000). The big five personality characteristics as predictors of expatriate's desire to terminate the assignment and supervisor‐rated performance. Personnel Psychology, 53(1), 67-88.

Han, Y., Sears, G. J., Darr, W. A., & Wang, Y. (2022). Facilitating cross-cultural adaptation: A meta-analytic review of dispositional predictors of expatriate adjustment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 53(9), 1054-1096.

Harari, M. B., Reaves, A. C., Beane, D. A., Laginess, A. J., & Viswesvaran, C. (2018). Personality and expatriate adjustment: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 91(3), 486-517.

Topic 4: Quantifying openness: A systematic review of open science in international management research

Are you interested in to what the degree and how the open science revolution is reshaping international management research?
International Management (IM) research stands at a crossroads. The broader scientific community is rapidly adopting open science—a movement aimed at making scientific research, data, and dissemination accessible, transparent, and reusable for everyone. Enabled by digital technology, this shift is transforming how we validate knowledge. As a result, the pressure is mounting for IM scholars to open the black box and share the critical decision points and judgment calls behind their findings. This includes not only the raw data, code, and supplemental materials but also the use of multiverse analysis, allowing researchers to demonstrate how results hold up across a wide array of alternative data-processing and modeling choices.
The research task: The core of this thesis involves a systematic empirical audit of current practices. You will systematically search the six leading IM outlets (e.g., JIBS, JWB, IBR, MIR, GSJ, and JIM) to assess the adoption of open science, i.e. open access, open data, open material, and open code in recent publications. You will specifically evaluate if and how researchers provide transparency in their data collection, data curation, and analytical workflows. This thesis offers you the opportunity to dive into the meta-research by studying how management knowledge is created, validated, and shared. Key questions include:

To what extent are top-tier IM journals and IM scholars adopting open science (i.e., open access, open data, open code, preprints, etc.)?
Does opening the black box lead to higher citation counts and greater impact (i.e., use the Category Normalized Citation Impact in Web of Science or compare the citations of an open science article with the median citation count for all articles published in the same journal)?

What you will gain: This topic is specifically designed for students that are intending to pursue a Research Master and a PhD. It offers a unique opportunity to gain the methodological rigor and meta-research skills required for an academic career. Open science is becoming a requirement for PhD programs and you will be at the forefront of this shift. Further, this topic is for students that are generally interested in and curious about the how behind the what in IM research and that want to develop a deep understanding of reproducibility and the latest research standards.
We are seeking a motivated student with a strong interest in research ethics, digitalization, and empirical methods. If you are, this is the topic for you.

Topic 5: Systematic review of meta-analyses on the relationship between cross-cultural training and cross-cultural adjustment

This Bachelor’s thesis topic addresses a critical question in global talent management: Does preparing employees for international assignments actually work? While individual studies often show conflicting results, a review of reviews allows you to synthesize decades of high-level data to determine the true efficacy of training interventions. By examining existing meta-analyses, you will evaluate how different types of CCT—ranging from didactic language instruction to experiential immersion—impact the multifaceted process of adjustment, including psychological well-being, social integration, and work performance. This topic is particularly compelling because it moves beyond the if and into the how, requiring you to analyze the moderating variables that make training successful, such as the duration of the program, the cultural distance between countries, and the individual's prior international experience. It offers a sophisticated methodological challenge, as you will compare different statistical aggregations and conceptual frameworks, ultimately providing a state of the science report. This research is highly relevant for multinational corporations seeking to reduce the high costs of expatriate failure and for scholars looking to bridge the gap between theoretical training models and practical adjustment outcomes.

Starting literature
Chenyang, L. (2022). Meta-analysis of the impact of cross-cultural training on adjustment, cultural intelligence, and job performance. Career Development International, 27(2), 185-200.

Deshpande, S. P., & Viswesvaran, C. (1992). Is cross-cultural training of expatriate managers effective: A meta analysis. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 16(3), 295-310.

Littrell, L. N., Salas, E., Hess, K. P., Paley, M., & Riedel, S. (2006). Expatriate preparation: A critical analysis of 25 years of cross-cultural training research. Human Resource Development Review, 5(3), 355-388.

Morris, M. A., & Robie, C. (2001). A meta‐analysis of the effects of cross‐cultural training on expatriate performance and adjustment. International Journal of Training and Development, 5(2), 112-125.

Topic 6: From AI users to AI leaders in-the-loop? Navigating the transition to agentic leadership in an international management context

The rapid evolution of large language models and the progression toward artificial general intelligence have moved AI beyond the role of a passive software into the realm of AI agents—entities capable of autonomous reasoning, goal-setting, and execution within complex business environments. For students in International Management, this shift represents a fundamental change in the human-machine hierarchy: employees are no longer just “users” of AI tools but are increasingly assuming a leadership role over agentic AI systems. This thesis topic explores the emergence of “Agentic Leadership”, a novel paradigm where managers must orchestrate, delegate to, and provide ethical oversight for autonomous digital “employees” across diverse cultural and regulatory landscapes. The thesis will focus on a comparative conceptual analysis or a structured case study approach, evaluating how traditional leadership frameworks (e.g., Transformational or Situational Leadership) must adapt when the “follower” is an AI agent. Students will investigate the specific competencies required for this transition, such as algorithmic delegation, prompt-based goal alignment, and cross-border AI governance, while addressing the “trust gap” currently hindering agentic adoption in global firms. The thesis will utilize a multi-disciplinary framework, drawing from recent discussion in the literature and foundational leadership and followership theories to propose an implementation strategy.

Starting literature
Basu, S., Majumdar, B., Mukherjee, K., Munjal, S., & Palaksha, C. (2023). Artificial intelligence–HRM interactions and outcomes: A systematic review and causal configurational explanation. Human Resource Management Review, 33(1), 100893.

Budhwar, P., Malik, A., De Silva, M. T., & Thevisuthan, P. (2022). Artificial intelligence–challenges and opportunities for international HRM: a review and research agenda. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(6), 1065-1097.

Malik, A., Budhwar, P., & Kazmi, B. A. (2023). Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted HRM: Towards an extended strategic framework. Human Resource Management Review, 33(1), 100940.

Mendy, J., Jain, A., & Thomas, A. (2025). Artificial intelligence in the workplace–challenges, opportunities and HRM framework: a critical review and research agenda for change. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 40(5), 517-538.