This Master’s thesis is situated at the intersection of the platform economy and digital responsibility. As digital platforms and technologies become increasingly embedded in society, organizations face growing pressure to develop, deploy, and govern them in a responsible manner. Managing digital responsibility is a complex, socio-technical challenge that requires navigating competing priorities and value logics. 

This thesis aims to deepen scholarly understanding of how organizations manage digital responsibility from a managerial and institutional perspective. Specifically, it explores how responsible practices can be embedded in organizational operations, governance, and strategic decision-making, while acknowledging the trade-offs involved. 

OpenAI is a compelling case for this research. Founded as a non-profit to ensure safe and broadly beneficial AI, it later transitioned to a "capped-profit" model, an institutional innovation designed to balance public interest with commercial viability. The 2023 board crisis, followed by leadership restructuring and high-profile departures, exposed tensions between profit-oriented and mission-driven goals. These developments make OpenAI an ideal case for studying hybrid organizational logics in the context of AI governance. 

Five Days of Chaos: How Sam Altman Returned to OpenAI - The New York Times 

The student will investigate OpenAI as a hybrid organization. “Hybridity” here refers to institutions that combine for-profit logics with social or environmental missions. Core guiding questions may be: 

• How has OpenAI’s organizational hybridity evolved over time? 
• What critical junctures have shaped OpenAI’s development as a hybrid organization? 
• How has OpenAI navigated tensions between profit-oriented and mission-driven logics in its institutional development? 
• In what ways does OpenAI’s evolution differ from that of other AI actors (e.g., Google AI or Anthropic) with regard to managing hybridity? 
• How hybrid is Open AI today? 

The research will apply Historical Institutionalism to trace the evolution of AI organizations. This approach emphasizes how institutions develop along path dependencies, with critical junctures offering opportunities to reshape regulatory and strategic trajectories. The thesis will reconstruct these historical developments to understand how foundational decisions shape the current and future governance of AI. 

A dual case study (e.g., OpenAI vs. Google AI or Anthropic) based on publicly available documents will allow for comparative analysis of differing institutional strategies and governance models. 

The exact research question and approach will be defined during the exposé phase. 

• The thesis must be written in English and conform to the submission guidelines of the BISE Journal (» Submission Guidelines - BISE) – approx. 20 pages including references. 
• Ideally, you can begin work on the exposé immediately and start the thesis by July 1 
• You should enjoy reading
• No prior knowledge is required. However, interest in topics such as digital responsibility, platform economy, and hybrid organizational structures and strategies is beneficial.
• Please contact lea.kuhlmann@offis.de, if you are interested and attach your CV and your current transcript of records. We look forward to working with you!