CEMS Graduate Rupert Paul Ottinger Wins in ESOP Contest

Every academic year, the best students’ written works are awarded in the ESOP (Excellent Student Professional Theses) competition. This time, another CEMSie notch goes to our graduate, Rupert Paul Ottinger, for his Master thesis dealing with what impact nationality can have on the negotiation behaviour of Generation Z.

The Best Master Thesis Awards Announcement

The committee of the Research and Science Center has evaluated the spring nominations for the Best thesis competition. Of the theses submitted, our CEMS student Rupert Paul Ottinger came out as winner with his thesis “Negotiating with Gen Z: Will Nationality Really Matter?” (supervised by doc. PhDr. Daniela Pauknerová, Ph.D.)

The thesis tests whether nationality has a significant impact on the negotiation behaviour of Generation Z.

In an empirical survey based on the antecedent of Salacuse (1998), 135 business and management students from ten nationalities provide insights on ten factors of negotiation behaviour. The results show that among the respondents, nationality is not significantly associated with behavioural differences in negotiations, thus challenging the applicability of national characterizations of negotiation styles in Generation Z.
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Apart from providing deep insights into the issue of intercultural negotiation, the student also managed to maintain a balance in describing the possible pitfalls resulting from national stereotypes of negotiators, while pointing out the need for a deeper, unsimplified understanding of the cultural background of the negotiating parties.

The best thesis will be announced at the graduation ceremony, and the winner will receive a scholarship.

A round of applause for Rupert is in order! Congratulations!