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2020/2021

Master's Dissertation

Code: 42231 ECTS Credits: 10
Degree Type Year Semester
4313148 Marketing OB 0 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Jordi López Sintas
Email:
Jordi.Lopez@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)

Teachers

Jordi López Sintas

Prerequisites

Students must form a work team consisting of 2 or 3 students and make a research proposal related to any topic developed in the master program. The module coordinator, once the proposal has been received and approved, assigns a tutor to the Master's thesis project.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The objectives that are intended to achieve in this module are:

- Integrate and apply the acquired marketing knowledge to a specific marketing problem.

- Design innovative marketing plans according to professional criteria of effectiveness and efficiency.

- Develop a new marketing topic.

- Correctly formulate a research problem, design the project and execute it in a professional or academic way.

- Elaborate coherently the different elements that make up a project.

- Develop communication skills in oral presentations to critical audiences

Competences

  • Design and carry out market research.
  • Design and implement marketing plans, applying criteria of effectiveness and efficiency.
  • Develop communicative skills in oral presentations before critical audiences.
  • Draft clear, precise reports on commercial problems.
  • Generate innovative, competitive ideas and solutions.
  • Integrate and apply the new trends in marketing within the business, profitably and effectively.
  • Lead processes of innovation in marketing.
  • Work in interdisciplinary teams.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply the acquired knowledge professionally to a particular business situation.
  2. Develop communicative skills in oral presentations before critical audiences.
  3. Draft clear, precise reports on commercial problems.
  4. Efficiently use the appropriate methodology to meet the research objectives of the master's dissertation.
  5. Exploit knowledge of new trends in marketing in the master's dissertation.
  6. Generate innovative, competitive ideas and solutions.
  7. Influence and motivate people involved in a work team.
  8. Work in interdisciplinary teams.

Content

This module aims to advance the integration of curricular knowledge of students with the development of a master thesis project in the professional or academic modality in the field of marketing and is based primarily on the tutorial action and teamwork for the development of it.

However, 4 sessions will be programmed to show the use of instrumental tools, the bibliographic reference managers, the integration of the reference managers with the text editors, the search for appropriate biblical references, the search for data sources, and the organization of an academic or professional research work.

Each project is assigned a tutor, and under this tutelage the team involved will agree on a work schedule and tutorials to carry out this work with rigour and professionalism.

The student must demonstrate their knowledge and participation in the process of carrying out the work, as well as actively participate in their defense or public oral presentation before a court demonstrating that they have acquired the set of competences of the Master and their ability to relate and integrate them and that they train to start professional practice.

In order to increase the quality of all the works that are presented in the master's degree, we indicate some lines to be taken into account for its development:

- It must be original, developed entirely by the students and address a current topic and interest in the field of marketing.

- It must present a state of a current marketing topic that is addressed according to a review of reliable and / or prestigious bibliographic sources.

- A rigorous investigation of markets must be carried out.

Methodology

The characteristics of this module imply the use of certain methodologies.

1. Tutorials: The student has a few hours with his tutor where he can solve the doubts and problems that arise in the realization of the project.

2. Team work sessions: The student during these work sessions will propose common ideas and solutions for the development of the project.

 

3. Autonomous work: the student will independently perform various activities such as reading articles. consult books or interviews that can help illustrate, clarify relevant aspects of the content of the project.

4. Workshops: the teacher develops the fundamental concepts in the realization of a project of these characteristics. Specifically, 4 sessions will be programmed to show the use of instrumental tools, the bibliographic reference managers, the integration of reference managers with text editors, the search for appropriate bibliographic references, the search for data sources, and the organization of an academic or professional research work.

5. Public defense: the student makes an oral and public presentation before a committee of two people where he or she must present and defend his master thesis. 

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Workshops 12 0.48
Type: Supervised      
Oral presentation 3 0.12
Tutorial sessions 15 0.6
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous work 166 6.64
Working sessions 50 2

Assessment

The evaluation and accreditation of the apprenticeships will be carried out through the public defense of the Final Master's Project before a two-member tribunal.

The system of evaluation of the acquisition of the competencies of the Master Thesis is structured as follows:

- Report of the tutor/director responsible for the end of master's work: 30%

Management of the process of preparing the master's thesis

The management of the evidence of interaction with tutors will be carried out with the application tfe.uab.cat

Student-Tutors Engagement Sheet: It must be delivered through the tfe.uab.cat application before 31 January.

The deadline for the delivery of the master's thesis is the May 31

Procedure for the delivery of the master's thesis: with the tfe.uab.cat

Format of the master's thesis: Citations and bibliography in APA format.

- Report of two evaluators (court) of work and public defense: 70%

 

The defence of the Master thesis will be carried out, normally during the month of June once the classes are finished. Those Master Thesis that are not considered suitable by the court will have two weeks to present a new version of the Master Thesis. That is why the period of presentation of the Master thesis ends during the month of July.

Valuation criteria will be used, such as the following:

- Interest and current topic.

- Consistency, clarity and precision of the objectives.

- Methodological rigor.

- Adequacy, justification and legitimation of the design and development of the master thesis.

- Opportunity, relevance and reality of the marketing problem.

- Other criteria related to the formal, expository clarity and overall coherence of the presented project. 

General rules of the Master Thesis (final written report)

The written report of the Master Thesis will have an approximate length of50 pages (approx.), maxim -without including bibliography and annexes- that must follow the standard rules of the structure of written reports. The American Psychological Association, APA, will be followed for the preparation of the academic papers. See: http://www.apastyle.org/ 

General rules of the Master Thesis (oral presentation)

The oral presentation of the Master Thesis will have a maximum length of 30 minutes where all the members of the team participate actively. The exhibition must follow the standard guidelines of a professional oral communication

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Oral and public defence 70 2 0.08 2, 6
Supervised work 30 2 0.08 5, 1, 3, 4, 7, 8

Bibliography

-         COROMINA, E. CASACUBERTA, X. Y QUINTANA, D. (2002). El trabajo de investigación. Barcelona: Octaedro.

-         PUIG, I. (2001). Cómo hacer un trabajo escrito. Barcelona: Octaedro.

-         RIGO, A. Y GENESCA, G. (2002). Cómo presentar una tesis y trabajos de investigación. Barcelona: Octaedro.

-         RIBERO, L.E (2008). Guía práctica para la presentación de documentos escritos según normas APA. Medellín: Corporación universitaria.

-         COMCOMUNICAR: 50 Consells pràctics per fer exposicions orals eficaces. Servei de Llengüas de UAB idiomas.

-         Association, A. P. (2013). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition (6th edition). American Psychological Association.

-         Center for History and New Media. (2016). Zotero Quick Start Guide. Retrieved from http://zotero.org/support/quick_start_guide

-         Tips&Tricks. (2016). Retrieved from https://blog.mendeley.com/category/tipstricks/

-         Links | Reproducible Research. (2016). Retrieved from http://reproducibleresearch.net/links/

-         Gandrud, C. (2013). Reproducible research with R and RStudio. London: Chapman & Hall/CRC.

-         Vissoci, J. R. N., Rodrigues, C. G., de Andrade, L., Santana, J. E., Zaveri, A., & Pietrobon, R. (2013). A Framework for Reproducible, Interactive Research: Application to health and social sciences. arXiv:1304.5688 [cs, Stat]. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.5688