The importance of digitization in business has increased significantly in recent years. These developments build on existing themes such as Information Systems and e-commerce, but also contain more technological and methodological elements as data science, block chain and artificial intelligence.

Given the importance of this field, the Groningen Digital Business Centre (GBDC) organizes the Digital Business thesis award in collaboration with the Ubbo Emmius Fund of the University of Gronngen. The GDBC and Ubbo Emmius Fund look back on a successful first edition last year and have decided to award this thesis prize annually to Master’s students of the University of Groningen.

For whom?

This award is intended for graduate Master’s students of the University of Groningen who have written a thesis on a subject related to the field of ‘Digital Business’. The field of Digital Business is interpreted broadly. The subject can be related to all disciplines within business and management, including accounting, finance, HRM, innovation management, marketing, supply chain management and operations.

Participation in the thesis award is open to any recent or nearly graduated student at the University of Groningen (all faculties) who has successfully completed his or her master's thesis or graduation project in the relevant calendar year. For the GDBC Digital Business Thesis Award of a specific year (e.g. 2021), the thesis must be completed in that year (2021) and defended in that year or in the beginning of the next year (2022).

Topics

Examples of relevant thesis topics are for instance (and certainly not exclusively):

• Business applications of AI and Data science
• Business applications of robotics
• Advancements in AI, data science and digital technology relevant for business
• Digital strategy and digital transformation of organizations
• Data readiness of organizations
• Digitalisation and sustainability
• Smart industries
• Ethical and legal aspects of AI / Data science
• IoT applications in business
• Applications of robotics in organizations
• Online retail, digital multi-channel management
• Communication in digital business environments

Nominations and winner

In principle, three theses will be nominated by a jury composed of people from the GDBC network and from scientific education in the field of digital business. The three nominated students will be invited to present their work at the GDBC conference in September. At this conference, the jury will decide on the final winner.

What are the prizes?

Ultimately, there will of course be one winner who receives the thesis prize and an amount of 2000 euros. There are also honorable second and third prizes, of 1000 and 500 euros. Apart from the cash prizes, the three winners will also be given the opportunity from partner NOO to access the NOO platform with knowledge and experience in the field of Digital Business.

How to participate?

The closing date to send in a thesis for this year’s thesis award (thesis’s written in 2021) is Sunday 1 May 2022. The student or graduate must send their thesis as a PDF file by e-mail to the GDBC: gdbc rug.nl.

The submission for the thesis prize must be accompanied by the following information:

• name, address, telephone number (s), e-mail address, date of birth of author
• faculty, name of the study program, title of the thesis, the grade with which the thesis was assessed and (intended) graduation date
• names, titles and e-mail address of the thesis supervisor(s).

Objectives of the award

The thesis award was created to stimulate the attention of students in academic education for digital business. With the Digital Business Thesis Award, the GDBC wants to encourage students to choose thesis subjects in the field of digital business and encourage them to contribute to the solutions of digitally related business administration issues. The GDBC hopes the award helps to showcase the broad possibilities and high quality of graduation projects in the field of Digital Business.

You can read our blog about last year’s edition and watch the aftermovie.

History of the award

This thesis award is a continuation of the earlier Aart Bosman Award and is made possible by a donation from Dr. Gezinus Hidding, an alumnus of the Faculty of Economics & Business. With the award, Dr. Hidding, now associate professor at Loyola University of Chicago, wants to thank his former tutor, Professor Aart Bosman (1930-2008). Bosman was a professor at the University of Groningen and a pioneer and founder of the field of Information Science in the Netherlands. As a continuation, the GDBC has adopted this initiative and it will be continued under the name Thesis Award Digital Business.