INTM001CL - Business Research Methods Assignment

Assignment Task

Research Background and Problem Statement

State the main problem (a practical business issue), mention other studies in this area and explain the additional contribution of your research.

One research question and research objectives

State one research question and three research objectives. The research question and objectives should be stated clearly and concisely and must be related to the literature review.

Justification/Rationale / Significance of the study

State how and to whom the research be of significance to Invest time in explaining a compelling reason for the study rather than just showing past literature that found similar results.

Academic Context/Literature Review

List the top most important or significant studies or theories. Show how these studies will contribute in terms of theory, definitions, variables or methodology. These articles must be mainly journal articles and show that most of the journal articles are from credible sources (from databases such as Science Direct, Sage, Ebscohost, and Emerald). You should summarise the information in a table format.

Draft of the conceptual framework

State a few main dependent, independent variables. You may have around 3-5 independent variables with a dependent variable. It would be good if you can also have a mediating or moderating variable to strengthen your framework. The final framework however will depend on your literature review. Your explanation may include the conceptual and operational definitions (indicators) for the constructs.

Research Proposal

Your research title must be related to a business or management issue. A good topic indicates there is a problem to investigate, there is a research gap, you have good literature base and you are not reinventing the wheel. In addition, you will provide a research methodology section and you should also able to justify your methodological approaches accordingly.

Introduction

Research background

• Establish the context of the research by providing some background information relating to the area of study to show that there is a need to conduct a research in this area or to show a problem exists and needs to be examined.
• Information can be obtained from newspapers, magazines, journal articles, reports and others. Provide some figures to strengthen any claims made.
• This information should then lead to the problem statement.

Problem Statement

• Start with one or two sentences of the problem – summarise the information given in the background and show what is needed.
• Describe past research on what has already been studied on the problem.
• Explain the research gaps – what has not been researched before in the area.
• Describe your research and how it will address the needs and gaps.
• The purpose statement – one or two sentences to explain your study.

Research Question and Research Objectives

• State research question.
• The research question is the purpose of the study framed in the form of a question
• State objectives.
• The objectives are what needs to be done in order to achieve the overall research aim.
• The objectives should be measurable.
• The objectives should be related to the problem statement and research question.
• The objective should be in the form of bullet points.

Literature Review

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of what others have written on the topic.
• Explain how your proposal relates to the academic debate which has been identified as part of the literature review.
• Key theories and concepts pertaining to the topic are present.
• The literature review should be linked to the research question and objectives.
• The literature review should be focused and should not have irrelevant information.
• The structure of the literature review should be grounded to the key constructs / variables of the study
• The literature should be structured well – i.e. according to important themes or chronologically
• Information from different studies should be synthesized well
• Information should be critically evaluated. Arguments should be supported by evidence.
• Information should be obtained from a variety of relevant, credible sources i.e. from refereed journals such as those obtained in databases such as Science Direct, Sage, Ebscohost, Emerald and other good databases.
• Develop the theoretical framework
• The literature review should be concluded well, by summarizing main findings.

Methodology

Relates to your research questions and research objectives and shows how you will achieve them.

Consists of:

(1) Research Design and Data collection –Identify how specifically the data will be collected, the sampling method used and what information will be obtained, to review related search on their methodological approaches and to justify your approach.

(2) Operationalization and Measurement of variables – the operationalization and measurement used for the dependent and independent variables.

(3) Reliability and Validity – Explanation of the tests for reliability and validity.

(4) Data analytical method – evaluate the data analytical method used and justification for the use of this method

(5) Research Ethics

• Identify and discuss the procedures for implementing the study (permissions, treatment of human subjects and data gathering).
• The Ethics Form must be completed and submitted as a separate Appendix in the Research Proposal Assignment.

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