Applied Business Research
Written Proposal: The proposal will contain the following information:
1. Title Page
2. Abstract/Executive Summary
3. Introduction to the research (assessment 2, revised if necessary)
4. Research Problem and Research Objective (assessment 2, revised if necessary)
5. Theoretical Background/Literature review (Based on assessment 3, expand and elaborate)
6. Research Methodology
7. Reference List: Formatted using Harvard (Anglia) style.
8. Appendix: include proposed ethical approval form and informed consent form if relevant.
Guideline
1. Title Page
Choose an interesting title for the report, the title should indicate the nature of problem/research being investigated. If client organisation is used, the name of the organisation should be part of the title.
2. Abstract/Executive Summary
Executive summary should provide key information of your research, 1 page is preferable. Provide summary of:
- The introduction of the research
- The matter being investigated
- The research design and methodology
3. Introduction to the research
This section should give convincing background about the research and why the topic is worth to research, by providing evidences to support your arguments. Key points to be included in this section are:
- Introduce the topic of the research
- Overview of client organisation (if any)
- What real problem does the research seek to resolve and why is it important to research this topic
- Outline the structure of this proposal.
4. Research problem and research objectives
This section should be straightforward, state the overall research problem and research objectives based on your brief research plan (A1), revised A1 if necessary.
5. Theoretical Background/Literature review
This section is expected to be the extended version of your A3 (structure literature review), therefore, you should not copy paste your A3 into this section, instead you need to use your A3 is a basis to do a comprehensive literature review. Around 10 extra literatures are required (on top of the four articles you used in your A3). Link your literature review back to your research problem.
6. Research Design and Methodology
This section should provide detail plan of research design and research methodology. It should consist information:
- Inform and justify the type of research (exploratory, descriptive or causal)
- Inform and justify the research approach (quantitative, qualitative or mixed approach)
- Describe the type of data will be used (primary or secondary data)
- Describe how data will be collected: interview, focus group or observation for qualitative research, and/or survey and experiment for quantitative research
- Describe and justify the sample: sampling frame, sampling methods and technique, sampling characteristics and size.
- Inform how the data will be analysed : theme-based analysis for qualitative research and statistical analysis for quantitative research, or a combination of both for mixed approach)
- Explain how the methodology plan address all ethical concern.
Please note: only provide an overview of YOUR research design and methodology, do not discuss theory on research methodology.
7. Reference List : Formatted using Harvard (Anglia) style.
Topic: Summary of the proposed research project, including brief description of methodology (bullet points where applicable)
Ethics Checlist (Participants)
How do you propose to select your participants ?
Will your research involve adults who might be identified by you or anyone else reading the research ? (Yes/No). If yes, how will you obtain their consent ?
Does your research involve children under eighteen years old ? (Yes/No)
Will your research take place in an institution ? (Yes/No)
Are in a position of power over participants ? (Yes/No), if yes, describe any ethical implication an dhow you deal with them
Describe any risk or harm to participants which might be associated with yoru research and how would you propose to minimese these risks
Privacy and Confidentiality
How will you protect the confidentiality and privacy of your participants ?
Will it be possible to identify participants from published data ? (Yes/No), if yes, is there any ethical issue which may arise from such identification.
Data Collection and Storage
Who will have access to the data ?
How will you store the data in order to ensure its security
Oral Presentation:
Students are to present their proposal to the class as if the audience had the authority to grant
approval for the research to ‘go ahead'.
The presentation should contain the following information:
a) Research project title
b) Introduction to the research
c) Research problem and objectives
d) Literature review
e) Research design and methodology
f) Ethical consideration
g) Summary
Presentation Details
- Individual Assessment
- Oral Presentations should be 5 minutes
- The slides should be be supported using appropriate visual, Presentation power point template is provided (downloadable from Moddle).
- Students should not just read their proposal - students reading rather than presenting will find it difficult to pass this part of the assessment.
Attachment:- Ethics Approval Form.rar