16795203364122023_Bachelor Thesis guidelines (ST ETIENNE) (1)

Prévia do material em texto

BACHELOR THESIS 
4A4MRA 
ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023 
Guidelines 
2 
 
 
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 4 
2. The Bachelor Thesis ......................................................................................................... 4 
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 4 
What is a Bachelor Thesis? ..................................................................................................... 5 
Choice of the subject and issue ............................................................................................... 6 
Producing the Bachelor Thesis ................................................................................................. 7 
Recommended references for Bachelor Thesis ............................................................................... 7 
Constructing the Literature Review from a Bibliography ................................................................ 8 
Research Issue .................................................................................................................................. 8 
Student’s mentoring ............................................................................................................. 9 
3. The main steps .............................................................................................................. 10 
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................. 10 
Proposition of thesis topic ..................................................................................................... 10 
a) Company Diagnosis .......................................................................................................... 11 
b) Annotated Bibliography ................................................................................................... 12 
Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 12 
Applied research ................................................................................................................ 13 
Writing the Bachelor Thesis ................................................................................................... 15 
The Personal and Professional Project (PPP) ................................................................................. 16 
Final Submission ................................................................................................................. 17 
Plagiarism ........................................................................................................................ 17 
Thesis Defense ................................................................................................................... 18 
Authorization for Thesis Defense ............................................................................................. 18 
4. Evaluation of Bachelor Thesis............................................................................................. 19 
5. Methodology sessions (4A4MRA) .......................................................................................... 20 
6. Additional resources available via Brightspace ........................................................................ 20 
7. FAQ / Contacts .............................................................................................................. 21 
8. Deadlines ..................................................................................................................... 22 
9. Appendices ................................................................................................................... 23 
Appendix 1: Confidentiality Agreement ..................................................................................... 23 
Appendix 2: Grading Rubric for Literature Review (15%) ................................................................ 24 
Appendix 3: Grading Rubric for Methodology & Results (15%) .......................................................... 25 
Appendix 4: Relation with thesis supervisor (15%) ........................................................................ 25 
Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis evaluation sheet (35%) ..................................................................... 26 
Appendix 6: Oral presentation evaluation sheet (20%) ................................................................... 26 
Appendix 7: Bachelor thesis graphic template ............................................................................ 27 
Appendix 8: Recommended Bachelor Thesis Outline ..................................................................... 29 
3 
 
 
 
 
4 
 
 
 
1. Introduction 
 
The Bachelor Thesis is the driving force of your fourth year within the Global BBA program, and the 
culmination of four years of coursework. 
The subject of your thesis is based on your Year 4 internship responsibilities, the sector of activity of 
your internship and/or the choice of your major. The thesis contributes in a reflective, constructed and 
argumentative way to a field issue. 
The successful completion of both your Year 4 internship and the Bachelor Thesis (BT) are key to 
validating the final requirements of your graduation. Without successfully validating one or the other, it 
is not possible to graduate in time with your cohort. The Bachelor Thesis represents 10 ECTS as part 
of the Year 4 coursework, whereas the Year 4 internship represents by itself another 7.5 ECTS. 
This document presents the expectations of emlyon business school about this work including: 
• The expectations for the Bachelor Thesis 
• The major components of the Bachelor Thesis 
• Resources 
 
 
2. The Bachelor Thesis 
 
Introduction 
A manager within the 21st century cannot solely mobilize the skillset of efficient report writing to prove 
his/her competencies. (S)He should also demonstrate his/her skills in terms of organization, modelling, 
intellectual creativity, and an open mindedness towards the scientific/research community as well as 
towards businesses. 
Therefore, most business schools, including emlyon business school, have included in their curriculum 
the production of a bachelor thesis that reflects the student’s ability to produce a written document which 
has a clear academic component. 
Producing a Bachelor Thesis in the final year of the Global BBA program fits in this philosophy by 
demonstrating that economic efficiency is not opposed to this approach. On the contrary, it allows for a 
dynamic whereby the personal involvement of the student is integrated in a more collective endeavour. 
More precisely, the Bachelor Thesis is a written document of approximately 50-60 pages in which the 
student analyzes an existing issue in a specific sector or company, to provide an answer and a structured 
argument. This issue must be directly related to your company assignment or to your Year 4 major, 
regardless of the chosen track (internship, apprenticeship, or student entrepreneur). Remember that a 
Bachelor Thesis is not descriptive, but it has to analyze the environment of your 4th year internship. 
 
5 
 
 
 
The main objectives of the Bachelor Thesis are as follows: 
• Analyze a detailed, global theme based on a specific methodology 
• Uncover new knowledge, methods or designs for topics related to the content of the courses in 
the program 
• Allow students to synthesize the coursework as seen over the duration of the program 
• Serve as a general reference in the future career of the student, in line with his/her professional 
and personal goals. 
 
The pedagogical objectives are: 
• To analyze a concrete, contextual issuefrom the field (internship, apprenticeship, 
entrepreneurship) 
• From this issue, building a reflexive and analytical research topic 
• To access relevant information, qualify the information, find the best sources (scientific and 
academic literature) 
• To build a research problem and hypotheses 
• To develop a relevant and efficient research methodology to generate new knowledge 
• To analyze information and develop a general and theoretical reflection applied to more 
operational issues 
• To know how to navigate in complexity 
• To become autonomous and effective in the development of a large-scale individual project 
• To ask the right questions and present a robust approach to propose answers. 
• To analyze and synthetize ideas based on your reflection and not presenting others’ ideas as 
your own (i.e., avoiding plagiarism) 
 
What is a Bachelor Thesis? 
Writing a Bachelor Thesis consists of producing a document of around 50 to 60 pages1, with the help of 
a thesis supervisor, and presenting the main results of your Bachelor Thesis during an oral presentation 
(thesis defense). The process of creating a Bachelor Thesis is presented during a session at the 
beginning of the school year with follow-up sessions scheduled over the rest of the academic year. 
These sessions are therefore crucial to a clear understanding of the requirements and steps to be 
followed for a successful completion of the Bachelor Thesis. Note: some of these sessions would be 
scheduled during your Year 4 internship. It is up to the student to ask permission from their internship 
supervisor to be able to attend the coaching sessions. These sessions are not recorded. 
The Bachelor Thesis is an applied research project. As such, the research issue has to be identified 
among the context of the internship field challenges. Your research issue must therefore be validated 
beforehand by the school tutor. It is not possible to work on any research issue of your choice 
without prior validation from the thesis supervisor. 
 
1 This corresponds to a total character limit of 25000-35000 characters, excluding appendices. 
6 
 
 
The production of the Bachelor Thesis must include a primary data collection and a subsequent analysis 
phase for this primary data (generally referred to as the “field” or “empirical corpus”), or an original and 
relevant analysis of an existing database. At the same time, the work must be part of a rigorous 
methodological approach. 
In order to fully understand the nature of a Bachelor Thesis, it is pertinent to specify what it is not. A 
thesis is not a journalistic work: it cannot be limited to a synthesis of existing texts, possibly accompanied 
by comments collected in an informal interview. The empirical part is imperative and consists of either 
collecting primary data according to a specific methodology, or analysing secondary data with a rigorous 
data analysis approach in line with the research issue and the thesis topic. 
Nor is the Bachelor thesis an internship report, in which a company-specific problem is analysed and 
solved, without any theoretical framework or without any justified choice of a research method and 
subsequent data analysis on the data collected. 
Nor is it a question of presenting an astonishing report; the collection and processing of data must be 
carried out systematically and in accordance with a precise methodological approach to respond to the 
research issue validated beforehand by your thesis supervisor, with the research method also 
following strict data collection protocols after prior validation of research method by the thesis 
supervisor. 
The construction of a Bachelor Thesis requires different elements. Once the research issue has been 
defined, you will need to: 
• Analyze the internship structure to extract the dominant issues and build the research topic 
• Study the existing theoretical references linked to your research topic (literature review), 
• Define the theoretical reference framework 
• Propose a research problem and research hypotheses (or research propositions for qualitative 
research methods) 
• Choose a methodology and define the techniques for collecting and/or processing information 
• Propose an analysis of the information collected, applicable to your internship structure. 
 
Choice of the subject and issue 
The research issue of your Bachelor Thesis must be connected with: 
• The context of your internship company, or your apprenticeship company 
• A real-world business problem that the company would be facing currently, anchored within the 
domain of management sciences 
• Your professional missions 
• Your functional and/or sectorial options 
• Your professional projects 
It should of course treat various notions and topics related to management sciences (strategy, finance, 
marketing, human resources). 
We invite you to pay the utmost attention to the choice of your research issue. You should especially 
verify beforehand several books, reports, articles on your topic in order to perform a literature review. 
Also check that your issue fits with your professional missions and wait for the validation of the 
research topic by your thesis supervisor before starting your work. 
7 
 
 
 
Producing the Bachelor Thesis 
The first step in the production of the Bachelor Thesis is to understand your company's environment in 
order to highlight issues. It is therefore a question of carrying out an in-depth internal and external 
diagnosis of the company in which you work. Thanks to this diagnosis, you will be able to identify a 
problem, an issue, a research question which will be the guideline of your thesis. 
For example, you can take into account the notion of social responsibility, the role of new technologies, 
the awareness of ethical issues in key business functions, the interplay and interdependencies of 
business functions including accounting, finance, information systems, management, marketing, hu-
man resources management. This company diagnosis will shed some light on your research topic. 
It is then time to move on to a more conceptual stage: to place the issue in a theoretical framework 
through a literature review. 
This step begins with the development of a bibliography, which is an alphabetically ordered list (sorted 
by the last name of the first author; APA standards) of all the documents you have been able to identify 
and locate on your topic. You will create it using the various databases that you have access to, via the 
Library’s website (https://library.em-lyon.com/). A set of video vignettes dedicated to searching for 
academic sources, searching for information on companies are available via the course Brightspace 
page (2023_4A4MRA), which will help you in your research. 
Recommended references for Bachelor Thesis 
The references included at the end of the thesis within the bibliography must also be cited within the 
body of the Bachelor Thesis. Otherwise, this would potentially count as plagiarism. Here is a list of the 
different type of documents that should be prioritized as academic references and which should 
obligatorily be present within your bibliography: 
• Books, written on your research topic 
• Book chapters, from books related to your research topic 
• Scholarly articles, discussing notions related to your research topic 
• Research papers, published in peer-reviewed journals 
• Conference proceedings, referenced and accessible via Library’s databases 
• Reference books previously consulted as part of a course 
• Market studies/sectorial studies/industry reports, to analyze and present the business issues 
present within the market sector, industry or within the company itself 
This list cannot include : 
• Blogs/blog posts 
• Twitter posts/Twitter profiles 
• Facebook posts/Facebook pages 
• Videos/documentaries from streaming platforms (ARTE, Youtube, Netflix, PrimeVideo etc.) 
• Wikipedia 
• Personal webpage 
 
https://library.em-lyon.com/
8 
 
 
Your bibliography needs to be composed of a mix of academic references, created with the help of 
different databases (EBSCO Discovery Service, ProQuest One Business et al.) using a precise search 
strategy. Multiple short videos, available via Brightspace (2023_4A4MRA), are dedicated to sharing 
some best practices in terms of searching these references via the Library’s dedicated search bar. For 
example, the video titled “Searching for academic articles” available on Brightspace would show you 
how to search for academic research articles via the Library’s databases. 
Constructing the Literature Review from a Bibliography 
Three successive steps are related to the overall synthetic reading process for a Bachelor Thesis: 
• the composition of a bibliography: in other words, find and list articles, books or documents that 
address the research question. A bibliography is therefore a structured list, categorized in 
alphabetical order by first author’s last name. 
• thereafter comes the annotated bibliography: it is a manner of commenting on at least 10 articles, 
books, or documents from this list that you consider relevant. This is a submission that you would 
have to send to your thesis supervisor before the first meeting, one month into your 
internship/apprenticeship. 
• the literature review, which is no longer a list but an articulated commentary on several articles, 
books and documents. In other words, a literature review consists in describing and synthesizing 
readings in order to highlight research hypotheses that need to be studied. This is the most 
demanding stage in intellectual terms because it involves writing a structured and synthetic report 
based on a large number of texts/sources. 
 
To build this literature review, you will mostly (and essentially) use scientific references2 found on the 
Library’s platforms. Further details, articles and videos on this part would also be available on the course 
Brightspace page. 
 
Research Issue 
An exchange with your two supervisors (company manager & thesis supervisor) is essential to make a 
link between what is observed inside the company and your research, and insights from your numerous 
readings. At that point you will be able to elaborate the research issue and research hypotheses (or 
research propositions). 
Indeed, the research issue is declined into research hypotheses. The research hypotheses thus 
identified will lead to setting research objectives, which in turn will determine the research methodology 
to be used. One can opt for the analysis of secondary data, a collection of data by means of a 
questionnaire, which is a type of quantitative research, or in-depth interviews and thus, research of a 
qualitative nature. The choice of a methodology depends on several factors, it must in any case be 
 
2 As a reminder, scientific articles are different from journalistic articles because of their objectivity. A 
newspaper article (blog, press...) is written by a journalist; whereas an academic article is written by a scientist 
who is an expert in his/her field of research and the article is double blind peer reviewed before publication. 
9 
 
 
validated by the school tutor. Once the data have been identified or collected, their analysis will have 
to provide an answer to the issue and the various hypotheses that have been set. 
Beware of overly broad questions ("How will green products reduce the carbon footprint?") or overly 
simplistic questions ("Does an increase in salary increase employee motivation?") or multiple questions 
("Does increasing the number of in-store promotions attract more people and does the average basket 
increase? Are promotions as effective on websites?”). Remember that you will have to validate the 
issue you choose, in a short period of time and with few resources (data collection would be 
carried out by yourself). 
Also remember that the research issue is not the title of your Bachelor Thesis. 
When the analysis of the data would be complete, the conclusion of the thesis will focus on revisiting 
the issue and assessing whether the data collection has validated the issue or not. Taking a step back 
is also essential to be able to draw practical lessons from the results, but also to list the limitations of 
the work and thus, possible areas of further investigation. 
To be as effective as possible, it is recommended to start writing quickly and to keep a steady pace of 
involvement, for example 3 hours per week at a minimum. It is also necessary to submit the regularly 
written parts to your thesis supervisor. 
Once you have finished writing the Bachelor Thesis, proofread it carefully (or have it proofread by 
someone close), you will submit it to your company manager (if applicable) before giving it to your thesis 
supervisor. After the submission of the Bachelor Thesis, you and your two tutors will agree on a date, 
time and place for the oral presentation. This is the last step to validate your work. 
Student’s mentoring 
There are two forms of mentoring: monitoring by the school tutor and the methodology workshops. 
1) The thesis supervisor has the required skills to supervise the work of a Bachelor Thesis, may 
recommend academic references (books, articles) or could advise you on how to improve/refine 
your research issue. The research issue as well as the methodology must be validated by 
the thesis supervisor before starting the data collection. 
Mentoring can be done face-to-face or remotely, depending on arrangements made with the thesis 
supervisor. The link with the thesis supervisor is very important, but it is the student’s responsibility 
to maintain it. 
2) The research methodology workshops are held by the course leads for Bachelor Thesis. The 
aim of these sessions is to present the theoretical foundations of the Bachelor Thesis as well 
as to answer the most frequent questions. These workshops are mandatory. 
Again, the Brightspace 2023_4A4MRA course contains a non-negligible set of resources for 
successfully completing the Bachelor Thesis. Use these resources wisely, and make it a personal priority 
within your agenda to consult these resources regularly by yourself. 
You should also not neglect the involvement of the company manager; it is important to mobilize him/her 
on this topic before starting to write your thesis topic ideas. It is important to get your research issue and 
research methodology validated by the internship manager, so that the company would be aware of 
your research topic and your data collection protocol. Finally, it is important that the final version of the 
10 
 
 
Bachelor Thesis be read and commented by the company tutor before handing it over to the thesis 
supervisor. 
3. The main steps 
 
Executive Summary 
The Bachelor Thesis should always start with a concise and comprehensive executive summary, on a 
single page. The executive summary should allow the reader to understand the essence of the bachelor 
thesis, the research issue, major highlights from the research methodology used. It should also include 
the main results achieved and uncovered thanks to the research methodology, to suggest overarching 
recommendations for the business context in which your bachelor thesis is anchored. Finally, the 
executive summary should also include main practical implications for the company and the major take 
home points from the bachelor thesis that a reader should retain after having read your bachelor thesis. 
 
Proposition of thesis topic 
This 10-page document will present the chosen topic, the context in which it fits - in particular with 
regard to the challenges of the company - and the various relevant references identified, 
accompanied by a commentary of 50 to 100 words for each academic reference. The objective of this 
first submissionis: 
• to diagnose and highlight the main issues for the company 
• choose a specific issue that could potentially be the starting point to your thesis topic, and 
• provide detailed commentary of 10 academic references to indicate the existing knowledge 
of this topic. 
This document is the first formal submission from your end to your thesis supervisor. It is thus a way for 
you to show your motivation towards the thesis topic that you would like to work on. In addition to this 
aspect, this document will truly be your launching pad for the rest of the work to be done. The first 
meeting between you and your thesis supervisor is supposed to revolve around a lengthy discussion 
based on the contents of this document. After this meeting, you should have a clear idea on which 
approach to adopt in terms of the company diagnostic, how should the research idea be formulated 
differently, and if you need to read any further/different types of academic references to build your 
literature review. 
 
The submission will be online via Brightspace as well as by email to your thesis supervisor. Both 
of these should be done before 5pm (French time) on the date of submission. 
- For internship students: 10th February, 2023 (before 5pm French time) 
- For apprenticeship students: 31st October, 2022 (before 5pm French time) 
 
This document would have two specific parts to it. 
11 
 
 
 
a) Company Diagnosis 
Similar to the internship report in BBA3, you should start with a thorough and relevant diagnosis of the 
company. This means that for the internal diagnosis you need to analyze the situation of the company’s 
internal context over a period of time, taking into consideration the main figures in order to understand 
where the company stands. Be sure to use relevant models of analysis that were taught in your BBA 
classes. 
Depending on your subject, you will use relevant diagnostic tools and above all, you will carry out a 
diagnosis and not a description of the company. This is the first part of the initial document that you 
will submit to your thesis supervisor (after prior validation by the company tutor), along with your personal 
research from various databases (from the Library’s website) to objectively assess the company’s 
situation from the point of view of various industry reports, published reports, market studies. This would 
allow you to compose a diagnosis that is both synthetic and detailed. 
As a reminder, an internal diagnosis can address the following points: 
• A presentation of the activities and products/services offered by the organization 
• An analysis of the organization's business model and turnover (global turnover, by activities, by 
products, by country, by customers, etc) 
• An analysis of the organization's marketing mix (product/service policy, pricing, distribution, 
communication) 
• A financial analysis of the organization (balance sheet, income statement, budgets) 
• An analysis of the internal organization of the structure and its main services 
To collect and analyse this information, use the organisation's website and internal documents (e.g., 
financial, published accounts of the company). You can also conduct exploratory interviews with some 
members of the organization, in order to better understand the context of the company and its main 
issues. For financial information, you can use the ORBIS database (accessible from the Library’s 
website3), Bloomberg database (also accessible via Library’s website4), market studies from Xerfi5 or 
Statista6 or the website "societe.com". If the organization wishes to keep these elements confidential, 
please respect this confidentiality by signing a confidentiality agreement between you, thesis supervisor, 
internship manager and emlyon (Appendix 1: Confidentiality Agreement). 
The external diagnosis is similarly very important as it takes into consideration the external factors, 
opportunities and threats for the company, including the level of competition. Again, be sure to use the 
relevant models to identify the most relevant issues arising. Although not necessarily true in all 
instances, a SWOT matrix usually gives a good point of departure. 
 
 
3 https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/105985/orbis-neo 
4 https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/106000/bloomberg 
5 https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/105994/xerfi 
6 https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/213989/statista 
https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/105985/orbis-neo
https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/106000/bloomberg
https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/105994/xerfi
https://library.em-lyon.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/213989/statista
12 
 
 
The external diagnosis can address the following points: 
• The description and cost structure of the market(s) in which the organisation is evolving and its 
evolution(s) over the last 3 years (in volume and/or value) 
• Analysis of the supply on the market, i.e., the organisation's main competitors and their relative 
importance (market share) 
• Value chain analysis (suppliers and service providers) 
• The analysis of any other environmental factors (regulation, laws) impacting consumer 
behaviour and the functioning of the organisation 
The objective is to present a relevant diagnosis of the company, not to list all the factors that can have 
an impact on the company and even less to apply all the models and matrices you have seen during 
your prior coursework. You should construct your diagnosis carefully, taking into your proposed research 
topic. 
Keep in mind that your diagnosis is made in relation to your subject, whether it’s marketing, 
finance, human resources or business development. You must therefore construct, refine and 
modulate your diagnosis. 
The diagnosis should allow you to generate several issues, but you will have to choose one, or 
synthesize two or three of them in order to keep only one. 
b) Annotated Bibliography 
After choosing your research issue from the company diagnostic, you will have to produce the second 
part of the initial document to be submitted to your thesis supervisor before the first meeting. This is 
the annotated bibliography. 
At least 10 annotated references are needed for this part, to which you can add any additional references 
that you might have identified (beyond the tenth reference). In other words, this document uses the 
bibliography, but builds up further on that by accompanying each reference with a commentary of 50 to 
100 words. It is mandatory to add a commentary paragraph of 50 to 100 words for at least 10 references. 
Please refer to the section Recommended references for Bachelor Thesis to recheck that you are using 
the right type of references for the annotated bibliography. The section on Constructing the Literature 
Review from a Bibliography explains how the annotated bibliography would link up with your Literature 
Review and subsequently uncovering your research issue within the thesis. The course Brightspace 
page also includes further details (via readings, videos and external links) on how to read research 
papers/academic articles, how to take notes from research articles and keeping notes from research 
papers. 
Literature Review 
Once you would have identified your research subject, the next step would be producing a literature 
review as explained in Constructing the Literature Review from a Bibliography. A literature review is a 
comparative synthesis of existing knowledge on a subject. Its main purpose is to position the research 
issue within the existing scientific debate (based on all the knowledge that exists to date on your 
research topic) and to present different notions/definitions/ideologies in line with your research context. 
A literature review is also often called a state of the art on a specific research topic. 
As previously explained inConstructing the Literature Review from a Bibliography, a literature review 
always starts by first creating a bibliography, namely a list of books and relevant research articles dealing 
with the subject to be studied. It is then pertinent to dig further by reading carefully the content of these 
13 
 
 
different academic references and selecting the ones that seem the most relevant to your research topic 
in terms of the research context, key notions, variables or theoretical framework. These are the 
references that you will have to read further in-depth and synthesize. 
You will find a host of information on how to find academic references, how to be efficient while searching 
for research articles via the Library’s search bar and how to write your literature review on the course 
Brightspace page. In addition, emlyon business school's library7 gives you access to a wealth of 
resources to help you conduct a comprehensive literature review. 
Databases via the Library’s website8 give you access to different types of content: 
• Academic articles 
• E-books 
• Statistics 
• Market research/Market studies 
• Comprehensive data (financial) on companies 
• In-depth country based studies on different sectors 
 
You must present your research issue explicitly and in a concise manner at the end of your literature 
review. Please check the section on Research Issue to ensure that you are correctly following the 
instructions. 
The literature review must be submitted before 5pm (French time) for all students. This is a graded 
submission worth 15% of the final grade (Appendix 2: Grading Rubric for Literature Review (15%)). Hence, 
failure to submit your document in time would lead to a grade of zero being allotted 
automatically. It is your prerogative to ensure that you make timely progress on this document and that 
the literature review is submitted before the deadline. The submission has to be done obligatorily via 
Brightspace, with a subsequent email submission of the same document to both supervisors (thesis 
supervisor and internship/apprenticeship manager), as per the following dates. 
- For internship students: 17th March, 2023 (before 5pm French time) 
- For apprenticeship students: 10th January, 2023 (before 5pm French time) 
 
Applied research 
Keep in mind that your Bachelor Thesis must include an applied part, this means that you will have to 
collect some data or analyze existing data in order to answer your research issue. This should be with 
the objective of testing your research hypotheses (quantitative research) or research propositions 
(qualitative research), as explained in Research Issue. There are several methodologies for data 
collection. The choice of one methodology over another should be done in consultation with your thesis 
supervisor and at times also with your company tutor. Having prior validation from your company 
manager ensures that he/she is also okay with any data collection done within the company for your 
Bachelor Thesis. You can refer to the various documents on Brightspace and the content of Session 3, 
to help you choose the most appropriate methodology for collecting and analyzing your data. 
 
7 https://library.em-lyon.com/ 
8 https://library.em-lyon.com/SearchMinify/8d4e9d15de3af2ace06399ef9ffcd2c3 
https://library.em-lyon.com/
https://library.em-lyon.com/SearchMinify/8d4e9d15de3af2ace06399ef9ffcd2c3
14 
 
 
You would have the choice between qualitative approaches (semi-structured individual interviews, 
retrospective interview, focus groups, content analysis, projective methods), quantitative approaches 
(surveys, panel data, secondary data), or direct/indirect observations (unobstructed observation, 
ethnography). Please ensure that this methodology is compatible with your responsibilities in the 
company (internship/apprenticeship) and the means at your disposal (e.g., sampling frame). 
If you choose a qualitative approach, you will need to formalize your interviews (or focus groups) by 
drafting interview guides/focus group guides, interview reports and a detailed transcription of each of 
these interviews/focus group within the Analysis & Results section of your Bachelor Thesis. When using 
interviews as the research method for your Bachelor Thesis, a minimum of 10 interviews is mandatory 
to be able to draw conclusions and validate your research propositions. If you would be using focus 
groups instead, it is obligatory to conduct at least 5 focus groups with each having around 4-6 
participants per focus group. The inclusion of your entire dataset is a compulsion that also needs to be 
fulfilled in line with standard data collection, verification and data archiving procedures. Therefore, the 
entirety of these ten (or more) interviews or five (or more) focus groups should be fully transcribed and 
included within the appendices of your Bachelor Thesis. 
If you choose a quantitative survey approach, make sure that your sample is representative of the 
population being studied (quotas or simple random sampling). If you wish to design an online 
questionnaire, these should only be done via Sphinx Campus. Using Google Forms, Survey Monkey or 
another survey tool for your questionnaire design would not be accepted. You can request the creation 
of a Sphinx Campus account (contact: cmarrel@em-lyon.com). If using questionnaires as the data 
collection method, a minimum of 100 valid respondents should be included within your dataset. The 
inclusion of your entire dataset is a compulsion that also needs to be fulfilled in line with emlyon’s data 
archiving policy. Therefore, the entire dataset from your questionnaire, with valid answers to all 
your questions (by at least 100 valid participants) should also be attached as a separate file 
along with the submission of your methodology. 
For students with less than 10 interviews, less than 5 focus groups or less than 100 valid respondents 
on the questionnaire within their dataset, the Bachelor Thesis would not be considered as valid. These 
students would therefore have to redo their Bachelor Thesis, by re-enrolling for an extra semester and 
a retake of the Bachelor Thesis. The grade for this second attempt would be capped at 10/20. 
The description of the research methodology, justification of the research methodology in line with your 
research issue and literature review, and the methodological tool used for data collection (interview 
guide, discussion guide, questionnaire design) must be validated by your thesis supervisor before 
the start of data collection. If the data collection method is not validated by the thesis supervisor and 
the student proceeds with data collection of their own accord, such a Bachelor Thesis would not be 
validated. All such students in this case would proceed directly to a retake for the Bachelor Thesis and 
re-enrollment for extra semester, without presentation to the graduation jury. 
A detailed document justifying the choice of research methodology and describing the research 
methodology, data collection method, preliminary analysis of data collected must be submitted. This is 
a graded submission, amounting to 15% of the final grade (Appendix 3: Grading Rubric for Methodology & 
Results (15%)). The document should be submitted via Brightspace sent via email to the two tutors 
(internship/apprenticeship tutor & thesis supervisor), as per the following dates. 
- For internship students: 28th April, 2023 (before 5pm French time) 
- For apprenticeship students: 15th April, 2023 (before 5pm French time) 
mailto:cmarrel@em-lyon.com
15 
 
 
It is your prerogative to ensure that you make timely progress on this submission and on the 
Bachelor Thesis in general. Thus, failure to submit your document before time would lead to a 
grade of zero being applied automatically. 
Please note: all intermediate contact and communication with your thesis supervisor wouldbe graded 
in an overall follow-up component and is worth 15% of the final grade (Appendix 4: Relation with thesis 
supervisor (15%)). 
 
Writing the Bachelor Thesis 
You must pay particular attention to the presentation of your Bachelor Thesis, especially your syntax, 
grammar and spelling. Indeed, the structure of the document is also tantamount. Please follow the 
presentation rules and use the available 2023 Bachelor Thesis emlyon template available on 
Brightspace. 
The title of your thesis should reflect the research issue or the research context that you investigated, 
in a few words. Do not use the research issue as is for the title of your thesis. 
Presentation Rules: 
• Use the document template of emlyon business school graphic layout (see document 
available on Brightspace) 
• 50 to 60 pages excluding appendices (approximately 500 words per page) 
• Font : Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri 
• Size: 12 pt 
• Inter-line spacing: 1.15-1.5 
• Margins: 2.5 cm / 1 inch 
• All pages should be numbered (except for the cover page) 
• Use an automatic table of contents9 at the start of the document 
• Use the same heading/title formats as indicated within the 2023 Bachelor Thesis template 
• Cross-referencing appendices within the body of the thesis to create links with them 
 
Content (standard outline): 
• Executive Summary 
• Introduction 
• Company Diagnosis: It is very important to highlight the research topic in this diagnosis 
• Literature review and Research Issue 
• Presentation of the Research Methodology 
• Presentation and Analysis of the Results: Answering (with detailed arguments) to the research 
problem via hypothesis testing or tabulation of results from data coding of qualitative data 
• Limitations: improvements that could have been made towards research method, sampling 
method, research sample, data analysis, research issue 
 
9 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/insert-a-table-of-contents-882e8564-0edb-435e-84b5-1d8552ccf0c0 
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/insert-a-table-of-contents-882e8564-0edb-435e-84b5-1d8552ccf0c0
16 
 
 
• Recommendations: strategic recommendations to the company in light of your results, 
research methodology and the literature review. Verifying if your results are in agreement or 
are contrary to the literature review 
• Conclusion: final chapter of the thesis serving as a recap for main results in comparison to the 
literature review, practical implications of the thesis for the sector, avenues for future research. 
Also includes The Personal and Professional Project (PPP; refer below) 
• Bibliography (APA format) 
• Appendices (extra charts and figures that may be supplementary to understanding the 
contents of the thesis, includes the dataset or a link towards the actual dataset from research 
methodology) 
 
We advise you to ask for prior validation of the detailed outline for the Bachelor Thesis from your 
thesis supervisor, before starting to write your thesis. 
 
The Personal and Professional Project (PPP) 
The PPP aims to take stock of the 4 years spent at emlyon business school (or 2 years for double degree 
students), thinking in terms of the Global BBA program and projecting one’s self into the future. It should 
be a part of your conclusion, trying to find links between your professional goals and how the results 
obtained from your bachelor thesis would play a role towards the future predictions for the implied 
research context of your thesis. This portion (PPP) should not exceed more than 4 pages. 
To build it, you will have to analyse the different steps of your coursework: explaining the different 
questions that led you to the direction you finally chose. It must insist on the progressive construction of 
your professional goals, retrace some key decisions you made during the GBBA program, the questions 
that you were confronted with, all of which could have brought you towards working on this research 
topic for the Bachelor Thesis. This part should also highlight your acquired key competencies and skill 
sets, and how you plan on acquiring further skills to better integrate into the job market of the future. 
It could be relevant to highlight major components of your coursework: 
- The courses you took: which skills did you develop for your first job or to prepare for your 
exchange semesters? 
- Professional experience in companies: How did the different experiences in companies allow 
you to refine certain skill sets, or to take on a challenge for the first time, or to develop additional 
skills? It is important to draw a link between these experiences and your thesis topic. Would 
these companies or sectors also be impacted in some ways by the results obtained from your 
Bachelor Thesis? 
- Involvement in student societies: which skill sets did they help you develop? How do these link 
with your personal reflection on where you are today in terms of acquired competecencies? Is 
it possible to see things in a new light for these student societies, with the results obtained from 
your Bachelor Thesis? 
- Sports involvement: similarly, skill sets developed, and link with/implications derived from 
Bachelor Thesis 
- Languages learnt: skill sets obtained and how do these languages influence the way in which 
you thesis topic can be considered from a different lens? 
If, at the end of this analysis, it seems that there is a need for further development of certain skill sets in 
light of the results obtained from your Bachelor Thesis, you should identify ways in which these new 
competencies could be developed (or the ways in which you are planning to work on them by yourself). 
17 
 
 
Final Submission 
The final version of your Bachelor Thesis must be uploaded on Brightspace (PDF format) before 19th 
June 2023 at 5:00 pm (French time). The same document in its final version is supposed to be 
submitted to your thesis supervisor as well as to the company tutor via email. Your original dataset from 
the Bachelor Thesis also needs to be submitted, via a separate dropbox on Brightspace. No 
submission after 5pm (French time) will be taken into consideration. The final submission of the 
Bachelor Thesis counts for 35% of the final grade towards the thesis (Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis 
evaluation sheet (35%)). 
Students who are planning to apply for a Master’s degree after graduating should therefore submit their 
Bachelor Thesis earlier than 19th June, in order to schedule their thesis defense during the first slots. 
Students who submit their Bachelor Thesis after 5pm (French time) as of the 19th of June, 2023 would 
not be authorized to schedule the thesis defense for their Bachelor thesis. All such students would go 
straight to the retake for the Bachelor Thesis, and re-enrollment for an extra semester. 
Plagiarism 
Any form of plagiarism is strictly prohibited in all academic and research work. If you want to cite 
text, charts, graphs or statistics from an author, be it an institutional author (such as your internship 
company itself), you must clearly indicate the original source of all documents/information via quotation 
marks. In addition, you are obliged to follow the standard in-text citation rules and bibliography format 
following APA citation standards. Failure to do so (in text citation + citation within the bibliography for all 
sources used within the thesis) would result in plagiarism. 
Furthermore, you cannot use all or part of a work that was previously done, by you or by another student, 
in a previous year. This includes all group projects, group presentations, internship reports, field studies, 
mission projects and any individual submissions. 
Your Bachelor Thesis will be submitted to the anti-plagiarism software Ouriginal and any detected 
plagiarism will be subject to penalties ranging from a simple grade reduction up to a FAIL on your 
Bachelor Thesis. You will find allthe details on this tool and tips to avoid plagiarism on the Library’s 
website in the sections “Learn → Writing tips → Produce” and “Learn → Writing tips → Ethics and law”. 
Do not hesitate to contact Library representatives10 in case of any doubt regarding plagiarism. 
Please take note of the following penalties that would be applied in case plagiarism is detected 
from your Bachelor Thesis. 
a) Up to 15% plagiarism: acceptable threshold, with points reduced from the final grade of 
Bachelor Thesis for plagiarism close to 15% 
b) Higher than 15% plagiarism detected: re-writing the Bachelor Thesis for a second submission 
in December 2023 with grade capped at 10/20. No presentation to graduation jury in September 
2023. Re-enrollment for additional semester 
c) For severe cases of plagiarism: disciplinary committee or exclusion from the Global BBA 
program 
 
10 library@em-lyon.com 
mailto:library@em-lyon.com
18 
 
 
For all cases mentioned above, the Pedagogical Referent for the Bachelor Thesis would advise on 
taking respective decisions after consulting with thesis supervisor for said student and Direction of the 
Program. 
Thesis Defense 
The thesis defense for a Bachelor Thesis takes place in front of two jury members: thesis supervisor 
and company manager. It is up to you to collaborate with both jury members and find the best, earliest 
time slot available to schedule your thesis defense. Both members of the jury evaluate the thesis 
defense, hence it is all the more important that both of them should be present for the thesis defense. 
You should talk to your company manager from day one about this obligation of attending your thesis 
defense. 
The oral presentations will take place in two different slots: 
- between 20th June and 2nd July 2023, OR 
- between 7th July and 17th July 2023 
Students who are applying for a Master’s should submit their thesis before the 19th of June, 2023 and 
should therefore schedule their thesis defense during the first slot for thesis defense (i.e. between 20th 
June and 2nd July). If they don’t do so, the institute would not be able to provide transcripts and 
provisional certificates to these students before mid-August. 
The oral presentations will last 1 hour: 
• 20 mins for the presentation of your research 
• 20 mins for questions / answers 
• 20 mins for deliberation, evaluation and feedback 
For this presentation, you should: 
• Summarize the main elements of the thesis with the research issue, research methodology 
and your main results plus recommendations for the company 
• Develop future avenues and concrete strategic recommendations related to your research 
question studied. You should be able to share certain foresight for the company/sector based 
on the resolution of your research issue from the thesis 
You will have the possibility to invite your parents/friends to the thesis defense, subject to validation from 
both jury members. These external guests are not allowed to ask any questions after the presentation 
and they would have to leave the room once the Q&A session would be finished. They can, however, 
come back to the venue once the jury has finished deliberating on the thesis defense grade. 
The thesis defense is the last graded component for the Bachelor Thesis, counting for 20% of the final 
grade for the Bachelor Thesis (Appendix 6: Oral presentation evaluation sheet (20%)). 
Authorization for Thesis Defense 
In order to be able to schedule your thesis defense, your thesis supervisor has to first give you the 
authorization for this. In certain cases, you will not be allowed to organize your thesis defense. Here are 
the different reasons for this: 
19 
 
 
- if the student has never made contact with his/her thesis supervisor 
- if the last meeting with the thesis supervisor was 2 months ago 
- no intermediate submissions have been made on the literature review or on the methodology, 
- thesis supervisor did not validate your research issue and the research methodology 
- the Bachelor Thesis does not correspond to academic expectations 
- student did not hand in his/her thesis at least 10 working days before the scheduled thesis 
defense date 
- For students with less than 10 interviews, less than 5 focus groups, or less than 100 valid 
respondents on the questionnaire, the Bachelor Thesis cannot be considered as valid. The 
student would have to complete it within an extra semester during a retake and would not 
be authorized for thesis defense. 
- Submission of Bachelor Thesis after 5pm on 19th June, 2023 
Should any of these conditions happen, you would have to submit a new version of your 
Bachelor Thesis by 10th December 2023 and schedule the thesis defense before 9th January, 
2024. The Bachelor Thesis grade in this case would be capped at 10 out of 20. 
4. Evaluation of Bachelor Thesis 
 
Your Bachelor Thesis will be evaluated as follows: 
• Completion of Digital Literacy module: pre-requisite for accessing Brightspace dropboxes 
• Literature Review: 15% of overall grade (Appendix 2: Grading Rubric for 
Literature Review (15%)) 
• Research Methodology & Results: 15% of overall grade (Appendix 3: Grading Rubric for 
Methodology & Results (15%)) 
• Relation with thesis supervisor: 15% of overall grade (Appendix 4: Relation with 
thesis supervisor) 
• Bachelor Thesis: 35% of overall grade (Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis 
evaluation sheet (35%)) 
• Thesis Defense: 20% of overall grade (Appendix 6: Oral presentation 
evaluation sheet (20%)) 
 
Your thesis will be evaluated by your academic tutor as follows: 
• General presentation of the thesis (using emlyon Bachelor Thesis template) 
• Writing skills / no spelling mistakes 
• Highlighting the research context via a detailed company diagnostic at the beginning 
• Presentation and justification of the framework of your Research 
• Research Methodology 
• Density of the research work, rigor in data collection 
• Quality of the various data analyses done on your data 
• Responding to the research issue and presenting recommendations 
 
20 
 
 
Your oral presentation will be evaluated by the members of the jury as follows: 
• Quality of your oral communication 
• Professional presentation of your slides (PowerPoint / Prezi etc) 
• Presentation of the research context (why is the research issue important for the company?) 
• Relevance of your analysis & results 
• Answers to the research issue & argumentation 
• Added insights & future avenues 
5. Methodology sessions (4A4MRA) 
 
The GBBA4 course schedule includes 4 required research methodology sessions throughout the year. 
 
The first session (in September/October 2022) will introduce you to the general guidelines for the 
Bachelor Thesis, as well as the resources available on the course Brightspace page. 
 
The second session (in January, 2023) will focus on the construction of your research question, after 
having identified the research topic. The third session (in March, 2023) will be based on the different 
types of research methodologies that you can choose based on your thesis topic. Finally, the last session 
(in April, 2023) will be dedicated to the preparation of the oral defense. The schedule for all Bachelor 
Thesis sessions is available on Brightspace via your course calendar. 
 
Sessions 2-4 will also be the opportunity to answer your common questions and to review your progress. 
For internship students, these three sessions would be scheduled during lunch break when you would 
have already started your internship. It is your job to discuss with the company to not schedule any 
meetings during the timeslot for these sessions. 
 
None of the methodological sessions would be recorded. 
 
6. Additional resources available via Brightspace 
 
In addition to the methodological sessions scheduled for the Bachelor Thesis, there are also a number 
of additionalresources available via the course Brightspace page. Some of these resources would be 
visible right away, whereas would start showing up upon completion of certain modules. 
- Video capsules by Library on searching for academic articles and company specific information 
via the Library’s databases 
- Digital Literacy module 
- Documentation by Library on citation standards, bibliographic norms to be followed (APA 
citation format) 
- 2023 Bachelor Thesis template emlyon (Appendix 7: Bachelor thesis graphic template) 
- Videos, readings and revision content for identifying a research topic, refining the research 
issue, choosing the appropriate research methodology for your research topic and issue 
- Miscellaneous quizzes/surveys via Brightspace (ungraded) 
- A recommended outline for the Bachelor Thesis (Appendix 8: Recommended Bachelor Thesis 
Outline) 
 
It is your job to consult and visit all content via Brightspace on a consistent basis. Furthermore, all 
submissions have to be obligatorily made via the Brightspace dropboxes. Failure to do so in time would 
result in a grade value of zero being applied for said submission(s). 
21 
 
 
 
7. FAQ / Contacts 
 
Pedagogical coordinators: 
Faheem AHMED 
MRAGBBA4@em-lyon.com 
- Coordination of 4th year BBA Internships & Bachelor 
Thesis 
- Validation of the work placement information form 
- Attribution/management of thesis supervisors 
For apprenticeship students 
Maud BURTIN 
- Coordination of 4th year apprenticeship 
- Validation of the apprenticeship position/responsibilities 
- Point person for questions about the apprenticeship 
Company Relationships: 
Muriel PONT : pont@em-lyon.com 
- Leads the Career Coaching program 
- Can advise on searching for internship / apprenticeship 
Internship 
Anne GORCE 
internship@em-lyon.com 
- Manages the work placement application forms & 
agreements 
- Contact for administrative changes to internship contract 
(dates/internship manager) after prior approval from 
pedagogical coordinator 
Library: 
library@em-lyon.com 
- Advice for your company diagnosis / literature review / 
bibliography / citation standards / avoiding plagiarism 
- Advice on the use of the Library’s data bases 
Thesis supervisor 
- Is your main contact during the internship 
- Validation of your research project 
- Evaluation of your Bachelor Thesis and oral presentation 
- Contact with the professional tutor within the company 
Company Tutor 
- Is your daily contact during the internship 
- Management of your professional missions 
- Evaluation of your internship / apprenticeship 
- Evaluation of your oral presentation 
School follower (ONLY for apprentices) 
- Provides a link between the company and emlyon 
- Fills out the apprentice's evaluation booklet (Lé@) 
- Carries out visits to the company. 
- Is assigned by the Alternance & CFA pole 
 
 
mailto:MRAGBBA4@em-lyon.com
mailto:pont@em-lyon.com
mailto:internship@em-lyon.com
mailto:library@em-lyon.com
22 
 
 
 
8. Deadlines 
 
What ? When ? Who ? / How ? 
Dates and duration for 
professional experience 
Internship: 24 weeks starting from 2nd 
January 2023 
Apprentices: 1 year from 1st 
September, 2023 
Internship 
ahmed@em-lyon.com 
Apprenticeship: 
alternance@em-lyon.com 
Work Placement 
Application Form 
At least 2-4 weeks before the start of 
your internship 
A. GORCE 
internship@em-lyon.com 
Work Placement Agreement 
Must be signed BEFORE the start of 
your internship 
A. GORCE 
internship@em-lyon.com 
F. AHMED 
ahmed@em-lyon.com 
Proposition of topic for 
Bachelor Thesis 
Internees: Before 10th February 2023 
Apprentices: Before 31st October, 
2022 
To be uploaded on 
Brightspace and sent to 
your tutors 
Literature Review 
Internees: Before 17th March 2023 
Apprentices: Before 10th January, 
2023 
To be uploaded on 
Brightspace and sent to 
your tutors 
Methodology and Results 
Internees: Before 28th April, 2023 
Apprentices: Before 15th April, 2023 
To be uploaded on 
Brightspace and sent to 
your tutors 
Bachelor Thesis Before 19th June, 2023 
To be uploaded on 
Brightspace and sent to 
your tutors 
Thesis Defense 
Between 20th June & 2nd July, 2023 OR 
Between 7th & 21st July, 2023 
To be uploaded on 
Brightspace and sent to 
your tutors 
 
mailto:ahmed@em-lyon.com
mailto:alternance@em-lyon.com
mailto:internship@em-lyon.com
mailto:internship@em-lyon.com
mailto:ahmed@em-lyon.com
23 
 
 
9. Appendices 
 
Appendix 1: Confidentiality Agreement 
Your company may require you to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding information about your 
internship/apprenticeship structure. In this case, you must complete and sign the confidentiality 
agreement available on Brightspace. This document would be available via Course Content on 
Brightspace. In addition, after the final submission of your Bachelor Thesis, you would need to indicate 
that you do not wish for your document to be stored in its entirety within the anti-plagiarism database 
due to confidentiality reasons. Here are the steps on how you can do this. 
To enable OURIGINAL’s confidentiality option on the final Bachelor Thesis dropbox, follow the 
instructions below: 
1. Submit your work in the dropbox for the Bachelor Thesis via the MRA Brightspace page 
2. Wait for the plagiarism analysis to be completed 
3. Click on the "Ouriginal" link available in the "Evaluation/assessment" tab of the Brightspace 
course. 
 
 
4. Search for the documents submitted in the concerned dropbox by clicking on " Show Details 
[+] " 
5. Click on the document you wish to make confidential and choose the "Opt-out" option 
24 
 
 
 
6. By doing this, only you and your proofreader will be able to see the document. Your document 
would not be archived on the Ouriginal database once the plagiarism analysis would be 
completed. 
 
 
Appendix 2: Grading Rubric for Literature Review (15%) 
Grading criteria Weightage 
General presentation of the document (formatting, structure, using page numbers, 
presence of bibliography at the end) 5% 
Using accurate citation standards (APA) 10% 
Pertinence of literature review (recent references, published/peer-reviewed references, 
academic references) 15% 
Relevance of literature to chosen topic (choosing the right type of sources; not citing 
literature on HR for thesis on marketing, at least half of the references should be from 
books and published academic articles in research journals) 
10% 
Highlighting the research context (justifying the research issue on the basis of existing 
literature) 10% 
Presenting hypotheses/research questions/research propositions 
10% 
Ability to synthesize/analyse existing literature 15% 
Presentation of specific variables/concepts to operationalize the research framework 
10% 
Concrete, specific, actionable problem statement/research issue 15% 
TOTAL 100% 
 
 
25 
 
 
 
Appendix 3: Grading Rubric for Methodology & Results (15%) 
Grading criteria Weightage 
General presentation of the document (formatting, structure, using page numbers, 
presence of bibliography at the end) 5% 
Methodological rigor (interview guide, measurement items for questionnaire chosen from 
existing literature) 10% 
Pertinence of methodological choice (justifying qualitative/quantitative method with respect 
to your research issue) 15% 
Generalizability of results (100 responses on questionnaire OR 15 interviews OR 5 focus 
groups) 15% 
Presenting methodology (extensive details on research sample, justifying the choice of 
questions, re-transcription of interviews) 10% 
Presenting results (coding of interview data, cross tab analysis) 
15% 
Testing the hypotheses/propositions presented within literature review 10% 
Being able to provide answers to the research issue with the chosen research 
methodology and from the data collected 
20% 
TOTAL 100% 
 
 
Appendix 4: Relation with thesis supervisor (15%) 
Grade values(from 20) Details 
0 to 5 =; =; =; = uninvolved student, did not submit any interim work 
5 to 10 minimal involvement, multiple submissions handed in late 
10 to 15 fairly involved student, engaged in the relationship, listens to advice 
15 to 20 highly involved student, who takes initiative and has shown 
commitment/perseverance in interim work 
 
 
 
26 
 
 
Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis evaluation sheet (35%) 
 
CRITERIA WEIGHT 
General presentation of the document (formatting, structure, using page numbers, using 
emlyon template) + spelling/grammar 
10 % 
Executive summary (introduces the topic, with practical implications and future avenues) 15 % 
Company diagnostic: In-depth analysis of the company, highlighting the research 
context (justifying the problem in a real-world business context) + introducing the 
research subject in light of this diagnostic 
15 % 
Literature review (thorough synthesis of the topic based on academic references; 
references within the bibliography should be cited in-text within this section) 
20 % 
Description of Research Methodology 15 % 
Presentation & analysis of results 12.5 % 
Response to the research issue & recommendations (conclusion) 12.5 % 
TOTAL 100 % 
 
 
Appendix 6: Oral presentation evaluation sheet (20%) 
 
CRITERIA WEIGHT 
Oral presentation (posture, oral expression, gestures, fluency, confidence) 5 % 
Quality of slides/materials used 10 % 
Ability to answer questions 15 % 
Time management 5 % 
Presentation of the context (company/service/department/customers) + 
linking the research context with the research issue 
15 % 
Justifying the use of an appropriate research methodoology 15 % 
Presenting results and main findings from data collection 15 % 
Response to the research issue / Argumentation 10 % 
Added insights and future avenues, in addition to the written document 10 % 
TOTAL 100 % 
 
 
27 
 
 
Appendix 7: Bachelor thesis graphic template 
Please refer to the separate Word file attached to this effect on Brightspace. 
 
 
BACHELOR THESIS 
 
 
First Name FAMILY NAME 
BBA4 2022-2023 
 
TITLE OF THE BACHELOR THESIS 
*Warning: the title is not the issue. 
 
 
Academic Tutor: 
Professional Tutor: 
 
Date: 
 
28 
 
 
Graphic standards: 
Font : Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri 
Size: 12 pt 
Spacing: 1.15-1.5 
Margins of 2.5 
Page numbering (except for the cover page) 
Use of an automatic summary 
Do not exceed 40,000 words in the text 
Use this model to create titles 
 
1 FIRST LEVEL TITLES 
1.1 Second level titles 
1.1.1 Third level titles 
1.1.1.1 Fourth level titles (to be used parsimoniously) 
 
 
29 
 
 
Appendix 8: Recommended Bachelor Thesis Outline 
Page 1: Cover page (Do not add page numbers on the cover page) 
Page 2: Acknowledgements 
Page 3: Outline (Use Word Automatic Outline) 
Page 4: Introduction (approx. 3-4 pages) with 1/ executive summary; 2/ presentation of the 
company's framework and missions 
Part I: the company diagnosis (about 10p) with 
1/ Internal diagnosis; 
2/ External diagnosis and study of the competition; 
3/ a mix of diagnostic tools such as SWOT, PORTER, PESTEL to explain the issue 
Part II: Context of the research issue (about 15-25pgs.) with 1/ Theoretical context; 
2/ Research Methodology 
Part III: Results (about 20-25p) with 1/ Presentation; 2/ Analysis; 3/ Recommendations 
Conclusion (about 4-6pgs.) with the synthesis of the research, recommendations for the 
company, practical implications, future avenues and PPP 
Bibliography 
Appendices 
 
 
Be sure to spell carefully: use the automatic proofreader in Word and re-read your thesis 
before the final submission. Bachelor Theses with too many spelling mistakes/ 
grammatical errors will be penalized and would have to be redone. 
Convert your document to PDF before submitting it via Brightspace. Only PDF version 
should be sent to your two tutors. 
The document must be submitted no later than 19th June, 2023 on Brightspace. A 
printed version can be provided to your thesis supervisor and/or company tutor if they 
request it, otherwise you must send them an electronic version. 
 
	1. Introduction
	2. The Bachelor Thesis
	Introduction
	What is a Bachelor Thesis?
	Choice of the subject and issue
	Producing the Bachelor Thesis
	Recommended references for Bachelor Thesis
	Constructing the Literature Review from a Bibliography
	Research Issue
	Student’s mentoring
	3. The main steps
	Executive Summary
	Proposition of thesis topic
	a) Company Diagnosis
	b) Annotated Bibliography
	Literature Review
	Applied research
	Writing the Bachelor Thesis
	The Personal and Professional Project (PPP)
	Final Submission
	Plagiarism
	Thesis Defense
	Authorization for Thesis Defense
	4. Evaluation of Bachelor Thesis
	5. Methodology sessions (4A4MRA)
	6. Additional resources available via Brightspace
	7. FAQ / Contacts
	8. Deadlines
	9. Appendices
	Appendix 1: Confidentiality Agreement
	Appendix 2: Grading Rubric for Literature Review (15%)
	Appendix 3: Grading Rubric for Methodology & Results (15%)
	Appendix 4: Relation with thesis supervisor (15%)
	Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis evaluation sheet (35%)
	Appendix 6: Oral presentation evaluation sheet (20%)
	Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis evaluation sheet (35%)
	Appendix 6: Oral presentation evaluation sheet (20%)
	Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis evaluation sheet (35%)
	Appendix 6: Oral presentation evaluation sheet (20%)
	Appendix 5: Bachelor Thesis evaluation sheet (35%)
	Appendix 6: Oral presentation evaluation sheet (20%)