Statistics & Empirical Research

Bachelor

The students
• understand the fundamentals of the research process.
• understand the ethical aspects of scientific work and know how artificial intelligence should be used.
• can formulate research questions appropriately.
• can plan methodological approaches to answer research questions.
• can research, evaluate, and cite academic literature.
• understand the structure and format of a scientific work.
• can draft a research proposal.
• are familiar with various forms of scientific knowledge acquisition and can formulate empirical research questions appropriately.
• can plan and apply methodological approaches in the research process.
• are able to design and apply appropriate selection, data collection, processing, and analysis methods.
• know the criteria for the quality of quantitative and qualitative social research and can apply them correctly in seminar and bachelor's theses.
• are able to structure and compile large datasets using spreadsheet software.
• can analyze statistical data using spreadsheet software.
• possess basic knowledge of quantitative methods in business administration and economics and basic knowledge of statistical methods and procedures for describing and analyzing data.
• can apply descriptive statistics and selected testing procedures.

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Part A: Fundamentals of Scientific Work:
• General rules of scientific work
• Ethical aspects and plagiarism / Use of artificial intelligence in the research process

Part B: Aspects and Techniques:
• Identifying a research gap
• Literature review (books, academic journals, digital library, internet)
• Introduction to reference management software
• Formulating research hypotheses and questions
• Citation and citation styles
• Objectification of research findings

Part C: Content and Structure of a Scientific Work:
• Structure of a scientific work
• Execution of problem statement & relevance
• Presentation of the aim of the work
• Construction of the table of contents
• List of figures and tables
• Compilation of source or reference lists
• Other elements of a scientific work (Declaration of originality, Abstract, Appendix etc.)

Part D: Statistics with Spreadsheet:
• Building data and calculation tables for statistical evaluations (data entry, automatic data generation, formatting, data structures)
• Application of basic arithmetic operations on statistical data (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, powers, etc.)
• Use of selected special functions (e.g., financial mathematical or statistical functions)

Part E: Fundamentals of Statistics
• Introduction to descriptive statistics (graphical representation of data and distributions, calculations of statistical measures of central tendency and dispersion, test for normal distribution of data) and data interpretation
• Introduction to inferential statistics (difference tests for nominal, ordinal, and cardinal scaled data)
• Introduction to correlation and factor analysis

Part F: Construction of a dataset and variable declaration:
• Structure and organization of a dataset for statistical analyses using software
• Determination and development of variables (dependent, independent, dummy, interaction) and scaling (nominal, ordinal, interval, cardinal)
• Application of basic statistical methods using datasets

The deepening of (theoretical) content is carried out through practical examples including software support.

• Bänsch, A., & Alewell, D. (2020). Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten. Berlin/Boston: Walter De Gruyter GmbH.
• Bamberg, G., Baur, F., & Krapp, M. (2022). Statistik: Eine Einführung für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftler. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH.
• Braunecker, C. (2021). How to do empirische Sozialforschung: Eine Gebrauchsanleitung. Wien: Facultas Verlags- und Buchhandel AG.
• Häder, M. (2019). Empirische Sozialforschung: Eine Einführung. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag.
• Oehlrich, M. (2022). Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten und Schreiben: Schritt für Schritt zur Bachelor- und Master-Thesis in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag.
• Schira, J. (2021). Statistische Methoden der VWL und BWL: Theorie und Praxis. München: Pearson Deutschland GmbH.
• Sibbertsen, P., & Lehne, H. (2021). Statistik: Einführung für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftler. Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.
• Theisen, M. R., & Theisen, M. (2021). Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten: Erfolgreich bei Bachelor- und Masterarbeit. München: Verlag Franz Vahlen.

Exam
Seminar paper

German

6

The course is conducted in a blended-learning-format. A combination between online phases (inductive method for the independent acquisition of knowledge and the practice of tasks) and presence phases (deductive method, in which assistance is given in the learning process and knowledge is imparted via frontal lectures) is used.

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