2) Find a topic that is your passion
Before starting the exercises and working on the literature review (which usually comes before writing the introduction), it is recommended to invest a fair bit of time to find a topic area that is of great interest to you, or that is even your passion.
For this, please give yourself time to carefully read all theme descriptions provided in the Syllabus to see which theme(s) you could imagine to be the potential topic of your Master’s thesis (or a similar research project). 28 possible topics are provided in the Syllabus from which you have to choose one. However, you can (and it is even recommended!) that you consider merging insights from multiple topics if you think it supports the development of an interesting research question and framework for your paper. You can also propose your own topic if you feel that your preferred work is not related to any of the suggested themes. If so, please send an explanation to virva.salmivaara@aalto.fi.
For finding a topic area that is close to your passion and that is of great relevance given the existing knowledge, you may find the following video and article very useful:
Colquitt JA, George G. (2011). Publishing in AMJ: Topic Choice, Academy of Management Journal 54: 432-435.