Open topics
Bachelor Theses
Topic | Supervisor |
Use cases for scientific value creation from donated dataApplications are closed for summer semester 2024.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enables citizens to access data that instiutions or companies have on them. These retrieved data can then be donated to scientists to be used in research. There is a lot of potential in using donated data, for example personalized nutritional advice based on shopping data (Lee et al., 2021), or health advice based on data from wearable fitness trackers – just to name a few. As a part of the project DataDonations4SustainableChange, our chair aims to explore the possibilities of using donated data to foster desirable and sustainable changes in behavior. The aim of this thesis is to …
Reference: Lee, C. L., Aveyard, P. N., Jebb, S. A., & Piernas, C. (2021). Using supermarket loyalty card data to provide personalised advice to help reduce saturated fat intake among patients with hypercholesterolemia: A qualitative study of participants’ experiences. Nutrients, 13(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13041146
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Leonie Manzke |
Selfless motivation or good marketing? ‘Purpose’ as an influencing factor on the willingness to donate dataThe EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enables citizens to access data that institutions or companies have stored about them. Digital technologies in various areas of life are promising application contexts for data donations to increase the common good, especially for complex challenges like healthcare and the environment. Why do citizens (not) donate their data to science? Factors such as a sense of social duty and potential personal benefits can motivate people to donate their data (Skatova & Goulding, 2019). The authors also mention the relevance of understanding the purpose the data would be used for. At the same time, their results show a higher hypothetical willingness to donate for a generic vs. a specific purpose. The aim of this thesis is to conduct a literature review to determine how the perception of the intended purpose influences the willingness to donate / actual donation rates. This thesis will be supervised in the context of the research project DataDonations4SustainableChange. Reference: Skatova, A., & Goulding, J. (2019). Psychology of personal data donation. PLoS ONE, 14(11), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224240 |
Leonie Manzke |
The willingness to donate data – A review of influencing factorsApplications are closed for summer semester 2024.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enables citizens to access data that institutions or companies have stored about them. Digital technologies in various areas of life are promising application contexts for data donations to increase the common good, especially for complex challenges like healthcare and the environment. Why do citizens (not) donate their data to science? Factors such as a sense of social duty and potential personal benefits can motivate people to donate their data (Skatova & Goulding, 2019). However, complex data disclosure processes can then lead to low donation rates among willing participants (Silber et al., 2022). The aim of this thesis is to conduct a literature review to identify factors that act as drivers or barriers in the data donation process and influence participation rates in data donation studies. These can vary greatly between different data types and contexts. Authors may choose a preferred focus area or application context. This thesis will be supervised in the context of the research project DataDonations4SustainableChange. References
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Leonie Manzke |
Incentives for a productive use of CRM systemsMotivation Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are an extremely important tool for supporting, organizing and steering large sales teams. However, the implementation of CRM systems is challenging, as system adoption is often low, resulting in low usage rates, poor data quality, and thus imitation value creation. Suitable incentives for productive system utilization of CRM systems could help to steer and support their adoption. Methodology: Literature and internet research, possibly interviews Tasks
Special prerequisites Reading, interviews, and structuring Expected results Students are expected to hand in substantiated report |
Laura Schneider |
Indicators for the productive use of CRM systemsMotivation Methodology: Task
Special prerequisites Reading, interviews, and structuring |
Laura Schneider |
How to integrate custom-built widgets in CRM systems? An experimental studyMotivation Methodology:Online research & system setup Task
Special prerequisites Some coding, ability to work independently |
Laura Schneider |
Master theses
Topic | Supervisor |
Campbell's data donation – Study on willingness to donate dataThe EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enables citizens to access data that institutions or companies have stored about them. Digital technologies in various areas of life are promising application contexts for data donations to increase the common good, especially for complex challenges like healthcare and the environment. Why do citizens (not) donate their data to science? Factors such as a sense of social duty and potential personal benefits can motivate people to donate their data (Skatova & Goulding, 2019). However, complex data disclosure processes can then lead to low donation rates among willing participants (Silber et al., 2022). Between different platforms, conditions for data donations are inconsistent, and can change over time. How do privacy concerns and the assessment of the necessary effort influence the willingness to donate data? The aim is to conduct a quantitative online study. The design should be based on the so-called Campbell paradigm (Kaiser et al., 2010): According to this paradigm, the attitudes towards purpose can be derived from how much people are willing to for it. This thesis will be supervised in the context of the research project DataDonations4SustainableChange. Previous experience: Having previous contact with experimental methods, e.g. through our course “Experimental Behavioral Research in Data Science (EVIDS)” is not required, but highly recommended.
References
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Leonie Manzke |
'Well, if that's the case...' – Quantitative study on the relationship between willingness to donate data and its intended purposeThe EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enables citizens to access data that institutions or companies have stored about them. Digital technologies in various areas of life are promising application contexts for data donations to increase the common good, especially for complex challenges like healthcare and the environment. Why do citizens (not) donate their data to science? Factors such as a sense of social duty and potential personal benefits can motivate people to donate their data (Skatova & Goulding, 2019). The authors also mention the relevance of understanding the intended use. At the same time, their results show a higher hypothetical willingness to donate for a generic vs. a specific purpose. With an experimental online study, the aim of this thesis is to find out what influence different kinds of intended purpose have on the willingness to make a hypothetical or simulated data donation. This thesis will be supervised in the context of the research project DataDonations4SustainableChange. Previous experience: Having previous contact with experimental methods, e.g. through our course “Experimental Behavioral Research in Data Science (EVIDS)” is not required, but highly recommended.
Reference: Skatova, A., & Goulding, J. (2019). Psychology of personal data donation. PLoS ONE, 14(11), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224240 |
Leonie Manzke |
Shopping for a better world – processing loyalty card dataTo address issues of health and sustainability, the scientific community seeks to understand food shopping behaviour. To do this, many researchers rely on retrospective self-reports from consumers. This approach can suffer from biases such as respondents’ memory lapses or social desirability (“I only eat organic meat from happy animals!”).
Thanks to digital transformation, more and more supermarket chains have loyalty card programs. By leveraging their data infrastructure, these offer a way to analyze actual purchase data, instead of having to rely on self-reports. There is great potential in making use of this data for the greater good (see e.g., Nevalainen et al., 2018). Tasks
Students should be … Reference: Nevalainen, J., Erkkola, M., Saarijärvi, H., Näppilä, T., & Fogelholm, M. (2018). Large-scale loyalty card data in health research. Digital Health, 4, 205520761881689. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207618816898
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Leonie Manzke |
Incentives for a productive use of CRM systemsMotivation Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are an extremely important tool for supporting, organizing and steering large sales teams. However, the implementation of CRM systems is challenging, as system adoption is often low, resulting in low usage rates, poor data quality, and thus imitation value creation. Suitable incentives for productive system utilization of CRM systems could help to steer and support their adoption. Methodology: Literature and internet research, possibly interviews Tasks
Special prerequisites Reading, interviews, and structuring Expected results Students are expected to hand in substantiated report |
Laura Schneider |
Indicators for the productive use of CRM systemsMotivation Methodology: Literature and internet research, possibly interviews Task
Special prerequisites Reading, interviews, and structuring Expected results Students are expected to hand in substantiated report |
Laura Schneider |
How to integrate custom-built widgets in CRM systems? An experimental studyMotivation Methodology: Task
Special prerequisites Some coding, ability to work independently Expected results Students are expected to hand in substantiated report |
Laura Schneider |
Heating management in non-residential buildings – Where are we and were could we go?Motivation Non-residential buildings are responsible for 43% of building-related energy expenditure in Germany, with the majority being used for heating. Many of these buildings are operated as a 24/7 “steady-state” with little or no management. Therefore, there is significant untapped savings potential! Digital technologies like smart thermostats/meters or window sensors allow building managers to identify and leverage opportunities to save energy. Previous efforts have identified heating management according to occupants’ thermal comfort to be a worthwhile measure to achieve energy savings (Aghniaey et al., 2018). The task of this thesis is to gain an understanding of currently used practices and technologies in the thermal energy management of non-residential buildings. Tasks
Prerequisites
Reference: Aghniaey, S., Lawrence, T. M., Mohammadpour, J., Song, W., Watson, R. T., & Boudreau, M. C. (2018). Optimizing thermal comfort considerations with electrical demand response program implementation. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 39(2), 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143624417752645
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Leonie Manzke |