The Chair of Information Systems and Strategic IT Management is looking for master’s students planning to write their final thesis on the field of IT management in the near future. We offer a master’s thesis topic that is of growing interest to most IT organizations: IT vendor management (ITVM) plays an increasingly relevant role in IT organizations; many companies already spend more than half their IT budgets on external provider services. Despite the importance of ITVM, many IT organizations struggle to implement an effective and efficient ITVM that can select the right vendors, maintain beneficial long-term relationships with vendors, and steer the provision of services and products. Currently, academic literature offers limited advice on how to successfully implement ITVM. The master’s thesis should help close this gap. To reach this goal, master’s students are invited to participate in a research project involving researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University of Bayreuth. The students will be contributing to the (further) development of a viable and useful vendor management framework that helps organizations design the relevant processes, organizational structures, and governance regimes. The work involves the refinement of the framework, its proper depiction, documentation, and evaluation. Further information can be found here.