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Assignment Title: Research Proposal
Description of the assignment:
This assignment is important in preparation for your final MSc IB Major Research Project which is a 60-credit module (weighting 1/3 of your degree).
It requires you to develop a detailed research proposal, which will identify and elaborate a contemporary business issue to be addressed for a specified organisation (it could be a well-established brand); research aim, objectives, including proposed research question(s); an appropriate research methods and scope of the project. You must also identify and critically analyse an appropriate, up to date and relevant literature, indicate expected outcomes of your project and include a detailed project plan.
Specific instructions
The word count should not exceed 2000 words (+/- 10%). Title page, references, and appendices (if used) are excluded from the word count. You can include tables, diagrams, and images where appropriate, but these must have a caption and be appropriately referenced. The use of Harvard Referencing style is essential. The font size (11or 12) must be the same throughout the proposal and you are expected to use either Arial or Times New Roman, as your font option. Your research proposal should include the following sections:
1. Contemporary business issue, research aim, research objectives and research question(s)
In this section you should explain what the contemporary business issue is and why it is important to be addressed in your chosen organisation There are four elements to this section:
- Research background and importance of the research-what is the problem and why it is important to investigate
- The overall aim of the project - describe what you hope to achieve
- The research objectives - how you are going to achieve the research aim
- The research question (s)- formulate the research problem that you want to investigate
Your aim should clarify what the overall achievement is intended to be and should reflect the title of your work. It will probably begin with something like: The aim of this project is to evaluate… or the aim of this project is to explore…and it should reflect the overall deliverable of your project. You should then have a list of measurable objectives to undertake your study, for example ‘undertake a review of the literature’, ‘identify a suitable methodology’, ‘collect data, ‘analyse data’ and ‘draw conclusions’. Identify specific research question(s) to show exactly what you will be focusing on in which organisation. You should also indicate the academic area your research falls under, for example ‘strategy’ or ‘project management’ or ‘marketing’ etc. This section might have approximately 400 words.
2. Literature Review
Key to this section is a good range of up to date and relevant academic literature to discuss relevant concepts, models and theories. You should consider:
- What is published on this topic and who are the main contributors?
- What are the relevant concepts and theories?
- What methodological positions have been adopted in this area?
- What are the main issues identified in the literature?
- What is specifically relevant to your research questions?
(approx. 800 words)
3. Research Design and Methodology
This section should provide a clear rationale for the research design and methodology that you will adopt to undertake your project, including data/information gathering, sampling and data analysis methods (Quantitative and/or Qualitative).
This section should identify methods that you are actually intending/proposing to use including:
- Clear rationale for the research design and methodology
- A brief description and the advantages and disadvantages of chosen methods
- Any strengths or limitations of the proposed methods
- Relevant research methods for data gathering (e.g. questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, etc.)
- Sampling strategy (who are the respondents, how many there are and how they were selected?)
- Proposed data analysis methods.
(approx. 600 words)
4. Expected Outcomes
Here you should explain how the results of this study might add value to your specified organisation (approx. 200)
5. Project Plan
Project plan must be developed using an appropriate tool (e.g., MS Project, Excel, or any online Project Planning tool). The charts should reflect how you will complete your IB Research Project and meet the submission deadline of the dissertation. In this section you should show how the project is broken down into manageable tasks, what the main milestones might be and any dependences between the tasks.
6. References – HBS Harvard Referencing (See CASE website)
7. Appendices – If any.
Please Note:
- Do not use Wikipedia as a reference – perhaps instead use it to find links to case studies and other published material. Use the UH online library for literature searches of academic peer-reviewed journals. Consider using search engines such as Google Scholar and Scopus for practitioner-focused trade publications and news sources.
- As you write and structure your report, refer carefully to the grading criteria and assess how well you are addressing the marking scheme.
- The CASE Guide to Harvard Referencing is an essential resource.
One copy of the final work submitted for marking must be uploaded to the module assignment portal by the Monday 29th of April @ 23:59pm
It is essential that you:
- Include at least 12 academic sources
- Show ability to describe theoretical concepts and then use examples as illustrations of how theory is linked to practice.
- Use Harvard Referencing throughout the report.
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