The Student's Research Companion : The Purpose-driven Journey of Scientific Entrepreneurs

Abstract Many students (and also supervisors) struggle with their final academic projects (and their supervisions). This struggle has taken away from the great potential of a learning experience the thesis, dissertation, or capstone project has to offer. We invite our readers to learn and reflect our thoughts on how a final academic project can turn into a purposeful journey of scientific entrepreneurs – and not just the final examination to be crossed off before finally being allowed into “the real world”. This book contains reflections on and suggestions how to tackle 50 common challenges that students tend to struggle with when working on the final academic projects of their bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral programmes. The presented mindsets are reflections by the co-founder and managing director and core faculty members of the twelve-year number-1-ranked (Financial Times Global Master’s of Management Ranking) Master in Strategy and International Management at University of St. Gallen. The mindsets are contextualized by the thoughts of 10 academic mentors from around the world and across disciplines. Our thoughts captured in this book do not deal with specific methodology, theory, and ways to cut corners, complete faster and easier. Instead, we focus on academic culture and a purposeful attitude for young, talented, and motivated human beings who seek to apply their academic skills to help solve problems. We instruct our readers to experience the process of their final academic project as a self-directed, productive, and healthy challenge and not a grinding overload. cover titlepage copyright dedication Foreword Preface Contents The authors Introduction Our motivation About this book The contributors Approach Skills and the will to grow Relevance follows audience Rigour suggests approach Deduce the research design The purposeful scientific entrepreneur Renewable research energy Why even bother? Preparation determines motivation A peer called supervisor Countless shades of supervision Begin Conduct a project Follow one trajectory Try not to build roof-down Build well-dimensioned bridges Impression management Maturing your mind Comparing with others A researcher's humility Theory is there to help Castle under siege Conduct Growing into an expert Help others understand you Strange birds Writing as modern architecture A magnetic introduction A contextualizing theory chapter An instructive methodology chapter A resolving findings chapter A progressive discussion A consolidating conclusion Complete Revise frequently Core motivator, key critic Frustration is a fuzzy teacher Relaxation as a research methodology Fear of writing Mitigating mental overload Write like a journey Be kind to yourself Necessity of ownership Throwing off a weight Continue afterwards Take in your accomplishment Feedback eats grades for breakfast Your degree is a trusted symbol Do good for yourself and others Keep in touch Career serendipity Never consider yourself unfree Fortify your academic skills Grow forward Share the fire Index Doing research means to bravely battle several challenges at once: not only do you try to come to grasps with your topic, conduct a useful project, and write it all up. You also serve as crucial motivator and hardest critic. You are expected to challenge yourself enough to grow, but not enough to lose your wits. And those are only two of the countless difficult balances to keep. No wonder that especially junior researchers feel exhausting stress, encounter intellectual and emotional cramps, and sometimes seemingly turn into thoroughly drained ghosts at the end of their research journey. If you are wary of your upcoming final academic project since you have seen how others have struggled, this book is for you. It draws together fifty useful mindsets throughout the thesis process that can help you keep your nerves together, your mind sharp, and your productivity up. The (junior) research experience needs to improve. This book will help find ways to optimize this experience. It follows the notion to consider junior researchers first as human beings, second as citizens, and third as researchers. Researchers are not algorithms that pick and apply methodology to problems - researchers are people who seek opportunities to help solve societies' problems by growing into the ability to reliably answer questions. If you agree, then this book is for you. This book will aim at better understanding, elaborating on, and inspiring the creation of more purpose-driven research. It sees the potential of a thesis to be more than an examination.