In this research seminar, students are given the opportunity to contribute to a research project. Over the course of the semester, students will go through a complete research cycle in which they will have the opportunity to apply the knowledge they have acquired from previous courses and conduct an empirical study. Under supervision, students will participate in small groups in a current research project: a laboratory experiment will be planned and carried out, to which the students will contribute with their own thematic focus.

Thematically, this course deals with financial market communication and investor relations. The focus is particularly on the information behavior of (young) investors on the financial market. In addition, the topic is linked to aspects of social media communication and digital, interactive communication. Prior knowledge of the topic is an advantage but not a prerequisite for the course. During the course, students will contribute to developing a scientific model that will subsequently be applied in a laboratory experiment.

Thus, students will contribute not only to the conception of the study, but also to the design and realization of the experiment. Students will read academic literature, contribute to a scientific model, develop their own research questions and hypotheses in the context of the overall topic, collect data as part of the experiment, analyze data, and finally present the results in a project report.

Attendance is compulsory for the course to pass the course. Details will be explained in the first session.

• 20% Attendance, participation during class, and “lab service” (individual)
  • Participation in discussions, group exercises, short presentations, etc.
  • Participation in conducting an experiment
• 20% Contribution to the research project (in groups)
  • Contributing to the planning and implementation of a running research project
  • Recruiting participants for the experiment
• 20% Set-up of an own small project within the overall project (in groups)
  • Developing and structuring an own approach within the given topic
  • Setting up research focus, research questions, and hypotheses
• 40% Final report (in groups)
  • Analyzing collected data
  • Writing a report about the completed project

A note on plagiarism and AI-generated content:

Please note that all of your submissions have to be your own work, it has to comply with WU policies regarding plagiarism, cheating and collusion, and it may be subject to potential plagiarism checks. Using ChatGPT, Bard, or other AI-generated content is prohibited.