We are seeking ambitious master's students interested in exploring topics related to digital innovation and artificial intelligence. As a participant, students will contribute to DIG and the advancement of knowledge through collaboration with our business partners. 

As a DIG student, you will join the DIGdeeper master's program, which provides access to activities, support, resources, and connections with DIG partners. Our students are also integrated into a digital community, benefiting from research tutorials, Q&A sessions, NDAs, guidelines, etc.

With the agreement of a supervisor, students may apply for financial support for travel, data collection, and other research-related expenses. You may submit your work in either English or Norwegian.

MASTER’S THESIS THEMES FOR AUTUMN 2025

• Applied Network Analysis and Business Intelligence

  Applied Network Analysis and Business Intelligence

  Applied Network Analysis and Business Intelligence

  The dynamic nature of social network formation requires the development of multidisciplinary methods for effective business analytics. Research in this direction is motivated by the necessity to overcome the limitations of using analytical methods from originally disconnected research domains, such as graph theory, algorithm theory, data analytics, and so on. Master students with a strong quantitative background and a passion for social network analysis are welcome to apply. Prospective work is related to the following areas: organizational networks, social media networks, and complex networks.

  Contact person: ivan.belik@nhh.no

• Adoption of technologies and innovations

  Adoption of technologies and innovations

  Adoption of technologies and innovations

  Digital innovations and new services are of little value unless they are adopted by end-users. As the majority of new products and services in fact fail, it is crucial for both commercial firms and government institutions to understand the drivers and barriers of new service adoption, as well as how to change consumer behavior in digital environments. 

  DIG will study how organizations can increase commercial success by lowering consumer adoption barriers, removing uncertainty and ‘nudging’ consumers to change their behavior in digital environments and complex service systems. Digital services are radically different from traditional services in their reliance on platforms, co-creation with other consumers, and sharing/subscription rather than ownership. Together with industry partners, DIG will offer new perspectives and tools for understanding and influencing how consumer’s think and act in such complex decision contexts.

  DIG will also focus on how organizations can build and maintain trust when customer interactions are primarily digital, as well as study how consumers react to the use and application of personal data in such interactions.  

  Current projects on consumer adoption include:

  • New approaches and perspectives for understanding consumer adoption
  • Consumer reactions to sharing-economy services
  • Consumer adoption of new sustainable products and business models
  • The different facets of digital trust in adoption of novel services
  • Reactance and resistance to the use of end-users personal data
  • The role of consumer movement in decision-making
  • Consumer interaction with robots/AI
  • The role of VR in destination marketing
  • The effects of quantification on consumer behavior
  • Improving decisions and changing behavior via digital nudging

• Digitalization and Sustainability

  Digitalization and Sustainability

  Digitalization and Sustainability 

  If you're passionate about sustainability and digital innovation, these topics offer a chance to explore how digital technologies are reshaping business models for a more sustainable future. As companies face mounting pressure to reduce their environmental footprint and contribute positively to society, digital tools like AI, blockchain, and IoT are emerging as powerful enablers of change.

  Key questions to explore include:

  - Circular Business Models and Digital Technologies: Enablers and Challenges

  • How do digital platforms, blockchain, and IoT facilitate circular business models?

  - The Role of AI in Enabling Sustainable Business Models

  • How can AI-driven decision-making contribute to sustainability in business models?
  • What are the risks and ethical dilemmas of AI-enabled sustainable business models?

  -Sustainable Platform Business Models:

  • How can digital platforms genuinely integrate sustainability into their business models?
  • What are the key success factors for digital platforms that promote sustainability (e.g., sharing economy, regenerative business models)?

   By tackling these questions, you'll be at the forefront of understanding how technology and sustainability intersect in business models—a space where research is urgently needed and where real-world impact is possible. Whether you’re interested in the opportunities, barriers, or long-term implications of digital transformation in sustainability, these topics provide a compelling foundation for a meaningful thesis. 

  Contact: Tina Saebi, Associate Professor 

• The Norwegian Innovation Index (NII)

  The Norwegian Innovation Index (NII)

  The Norwegian Innovation Index (NII)

  Recognizing that it is customers’ adoption and usage decisions that determine the success of new products and, ultimately, of innovators themselves, a research team at NHH – Norwegian School of Economics has developed a novel, outside-in and bottom-up approach to evaluating innovation efforts – the Norwegian Innovation Index (NII): The world’s first customer-based ranking of most innovative firms!

  NII is a theoretically derived measurement instrument that rests on two assumptions:

  countries cannot be innovative — companies can; and leaders and experts are not the final judges of innovations—customers are.

  Through a carefully designed procedure, NII captures both firms’ innovations and customers’ perceptions of changes in value co-creation that result from these innovations. The focus is on assessing perceived firm innovativeness and on examining the effects of perceived firm innovativeness on firms’ strategic positioning and customer loyalty. Today, the NII-approach is adopted in five other countries and operated by leading business school: Sweden (Karlstad business school; Denmark, Århus University-business school; Finland, Hanken Business school; Belgium, Hasselt University - business school, and USA, Fordham Garibaldi School of Business.

  From the annual survey we collect data from all countries and store them in a database at NHH Norwegian School of Economics organized by country, year, industry, firm, and constructs. Data is, on request, made available for research.

  Contact person: kristina.heinonen@nhh.no

• Strategy for complex partnerships

  Strategy for complex partnerships

  Strategy for complex partnerships

  In a world with increasing levels of digitalization, we see that organizations often operate within so-called digital ecosystems. Thus, understanding digital ecosystems is relevant because it represents a new way of organizing economic activity, and because this new way is rapidly capturing “market shares” from alternative and more traditional ways of organizing and coordinating economic activities. By traditional ways we mean those methods of organization and coordination that rely on integrated hierarchical solutions within one diversified firm, as transactions between independent parties in a market, or by regular alliances or collaboration-projects.

  What sets digital ecosystems apart is that they typically arise in situations where a range of different technologies and areas of expertise are needed to interact (seamlessly and continually) to realize a value creation potential or some specific value proposition. These technologies and areas of expertise are possessed by more than one organization, often with diverse backgrounds, which requires coordination. This coordination is mostly achieved by standardizing the interfaces between the different modules of the system. If this interface is respected, modules will work together even if those working on the different modules remain independent firms. Data and information can flow unrestricted across modules, participants in the system can specialize on different modules and innovate and experiment on their own - without the need for permission or funding from some central decision maker. As a result, digital ecosystems have in many settings demonstrated an ability to innovate faster, specialize more, and create bundles of complementary goods and services that users value more effectively than alternative arrangements

  Despite this common understanding, academics and practitioners struggle with several core aspects of digital ecosystems which ultimately affects their ability to create and capture value from operating in such systems. On one hand, the large variation, complexity and dynamism of these systems make it difficult to understand how they are born/created, how they function, how they compete and change, and how to navigate and position within them. Or in more general terms: how to think about strategy in and for digital ecosystems.  

  Some suggestive themes based on ongoing work at DIG could be:

  Organizational identity paradoxes within Ecosystem settings: How do top managers perceive ecosystems? Do they strategize differently when they are part of an ecosystem vs when they are on their own? If so, how? What do they do differently vis-a-vis consumers when they are part of an ecosystem vs when they are not?

  Types of Ecosystems from a consumer purchasing point of view. What are the different types of ecosystems for a consumer and how does that influence their purchasing choices? What does this mean for the participating firms within this ecosystem? What kind of collaborative (or competitive) dynamics may this give rise to?

  Contact person: vidya.oruganti@nhh.no 

• The silver economy

  The silver economy

  THE SILVER ECONOMY

  In the next decade, Norway, along with 30 other developed economies, will become a super-aged society with more than 20% of its population aged 65 or older. This demographic shift, virtually unprecedented (except in Japan), will have profound social and economic implications. This research topic within DIG aims to provide business-focused solutions through two overarching research streams.

  First, by working to transform workplaces to support sustainable careers and successful aging. Master students can focus on the future workforce by examining how organizations can effectively harness intergenerational diversity to enhance team dynamics and organizational performance.

  Contact person: Therese Egeland

  Second, by emphasizing innovations aiming to improve senior consumers' well-being and ease welfare system pressures. Despite the growing market (estimated by European Commission, 2018 to be worth 5.7 trillion Euros in 2025) and the significant purchasing power of the elderly, many industries overlook this market, resulting in a lack of systematic knowledge regarding firms’ engagement with the Silver Economy. Master students can focus on innovative products and services by examining:

  (a) business strategies and product innovations targeting the growing Silver Economy market

  Contact person: Inger Stensaker, or

  (b) the various needs and preferences of this rapidly growing consumer segment and the underlying mechanisms for well-being and happiness among the elderly 

  Contact person: Kristina Heinonen

• HR for the future

  HR for the future

  HR FOR THE FUTURE

  We are interested in how technological and societal changes have implications for HR-activities. Digitalization and AI provide new sets of tools for managing work. Parallel, the aging population and demands for sustainable development place pressures on organizations. We are seeking students who specialize in Strategy and Management (STR) and preferably have taken a course in human resource management.  

  Contact person: Karen Olsen

• Effective Teams

  Effective Teams

  Effective Teams

  Teams are often used to ensure efficient deliveries and sharing of highly specialized knowledge. Modern technology and the need to solve the “grand challenges” imply an increasing reliance on cooperation within and across organizations and borders. We seek to better understand collaboration in this context. For example, how can teams facilitate and plan for a constructive collaboration in the initial phase and how can teams leverage the differences in diverse teams (e.g. intergenerational teams, interprofessional teams).

  Contact person: Therese Egeland

• Purpose-driven leadership

  Purpose-driven leadership

  Purpose-driven leadership

  A company’s mission has the potential to engage employees in the pursuit of goals and outcomes. Purpose-driven leadership focuses on the impact that the organization’s work has on society and others. We are interested in how purpose-driven leaders use the mission as a source to motivate employees and the challenges that they face.

  Contact person: Alexander Sandvik

• Telenor: Evaluate the preliminary effects of the new, value-stream based operating model. Potential focus areas include culture, leadership, innovation and partnerships.

  Telenor: Evaluate the preliminary effects of the new, value-stream based operating model. Potential focus areas include culture, leadership, innovation and partnerships.

  Telenor: Evaluate the preliminary effects of the new, value-stream based operating model. Potential focus areas include culture, leadership, innovation and partnerships.

  Telenor Norway’s organization has for a long time been a classic hierarchical organization with clear top-down reporting lines. We have now started a radical transition towards what we call a value stream-based operating model. We define value streams as customer-centered networks of cross-functional teams organized around the same purpose and with a high degree of autonomy. Our ambition for this new organizational set-up is the following:   Firstly, a value-stream based organization is intended to radically improve customer value and our ability to develop value propositions that meet customer needs. Secondly, we will shorten time-to-value and increase organizational efficiency through standardization, automatization and a new way of working. Thirdly, a value stream-based set-up will allow us to optimize business outcomes through a data-driven approach and a dynamic execution model that allocates resources where needed most. And fourth but not least, this transition is intended to engage and motivate employees.

  Contact persons: Kristin Ringvold, kristin.ringvold@telenor.no , Frank Elter, frank.elter@telenor.com  and Gerd S. Løland gerd.stilloff-loland@telenor.no

• Abelia: Omstillingsbarometeret

  Abelia: Omstillingsbarometeret

  Abelia: Omstillingsbarometeret

  Abelia is the national association within the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) for knowledge and technology enterprises. We organize approximately 2,800 enterprises, representing over 65,000 full-time equivalent positions.

  Each year, Abelia's Omstillingsbarometer measures Norway's ability to adapt relative to other countries. In the most recent barometer,  Norway is positioned in the middle of the pack, trailing behind several of our Nordic neighbors. Although the Norwegian economy is performing well today, there are several aspects of it that weaken our ability to handle economic downturns or future societal challenges.

  Based on this adaptability barometer, Abelia is interested in exploring the following themes, which could be relevant for a master's thesis as part of the Digital Innovation for sustainable Growth research center:

  • Technology Utilization in Business: Given that the overall trend is downward, there must be many laggards - what characterizes them?
  • Research Effort in Business: How much do companies spend on research vs. development - can we observe performance differences?
  • Access to Expertise: The impact of generative AI on bridging the competence gap.
  • Sustainability and Profitability in Norwegian Tech Companies: Is there genuinely a twin transition occurring?
  • Societal Accounting for Foreign Tech Talents: An exploration into the economic and social impact of international tech experts in Norway.
  • Internationalization of Norwegian Tech: What characterizes those who succeed on a global scale?
  • Future Niche Markets: Investigating the sectors that will sustain us in the future.

• NHHE: Do you want to study the significance culture can have as a strategic resource?

  NHHE: Do you want to study the significance culture can have as a strategic resource?

  NHHE: Do you want to study the significance culture can have as a strategic resource?

  NHH Executive has, over an extended period, provided competency development for Uniconsult, including assisting them on study trips to top international business schools such as HEC Paris, MIT Boston, and Bocconi. This professional development is essential to Uniconsult's competency strategy and targeted cultural development efforts. In 2023, Uniconsult celebrated its 25th anniversary and has grown to just over 60 consultants. In this context, Uniconsult wishes to highlight the significance culture has played in their positive development in general and growth and good results in particular. If you are interested in contributing to this work and gathering data for your own master's thesis, please feel free to contact Tore Hillestad at tore.hillestad@nhh.no or 90184583. More information about Uniconsult: Om oss - Uniconsult

  Contact person: Tore Hillestad

Application

To apply for admission as a DIG Master Student, please complete the online application form, including your grade transcripts and a concise application letter (maximum 1 page). Your letter should detail your background, motivation for studying your chosen topic(s), preliminary research questions, and the planned date for thesis submission. 

Please note that having a supervisor from the DIG research center is a mandatory requirement. Your application is strengthened when you have discussed possible topics with DIG faculty. For an overview of NHH faculty associated with DIG, see here. 

Conditions 

• A dedicated DIG advisor specialized in your topic.
• An advisor with connections to partners and networks, who can often assist with gaining necessary access. In some cases, you may be able to base your thesis on existing data.
• You will be part of DIG, a leading Norwegian research center focused on your area of study.
• Financial support of up to NOK 10,000 per thesis for travel and other expenses, subject to supervisor approval. 

Qualifications 

• Average grade B
• Excellent communication skills are required. Students are expected to present their findings to the research group and/or business partners. Additionally, students will have to write a blog post for publication on DIG's website. 

Application deadlines  

• To write your thesis in the autumn semester: 15 March
• To write your thesis in the spring semester: 15 October 

APPLICATION FORM