Business research proposal

Business Management Business Research Methods – C19RH

Coursework 2: Research Proposal II

Overview

Your second assignment in this course is to complete the Methodology section of your research

proposal. Your assignment should be 1,500 words ±10%. The submission date is Thursday

the 6th of August 2020 by 12pm (noon). The Turnitin link can be found in the ‘August

Resubmission Information’ tab on the Vision page. Only a soft copy submission is required.

This assignment, in conjunction with the first assignment, forms your complete research

proposal. This will serve as a guide to your dissertation next year, and should contain the

follow sections:

Methodology

1. Research Philosophy. In which philosophical paradigm are you rooting your dissertation?

[Lecture 4] [350 Words]

2. Data Collection Methods. How are you getting your data and which tools for data collection

are you using? [Lectures 5, 6, 8, 9 and Tutorials 6&7] [500 words]

3. Data Analysis Techniques. How are you going to analyse your data when you have collected

it? [Lectures 6, & 9 and Tutorials 6&7] [400 Words]

4. Ethical Issues. How will your research comply with the principles of ethical research?

[Lecture 10] [250 Words]

N.B. Please remember that the Methodology section should be heavily referenced, drawing on

general methodology textbooks, books that focus on particular data collection methods and

analysis techniques and ethics, and journal articles. The number of references will vary, but

you should be aiming for at least 20 to 30.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How does this relate to the first assignment?

A. You may want to include a couple of lines introduction, outlining your CW1, as often when

justifying your choices, you will justify it based on your theory/context from CW1. However,

CW2 is not marked in reference to CW1. They are marked independently, but you may find

that your theory/context helps to justify your methodological decisions (it certainly will in

the final dissertation).

Q. What do you mean by research philosophy/philosophical paradigm?

A. Try these links if you are unsure how your philosophy, data collection, and data analysis all

fit together: http://methods.sagepub.com/methods-map https://onion.derby.ac.uk/

However, these are not replacements for good academic research, and should only be used

as a guide. Philosophy is linked to methods of data collection and analysis. Qualitative

methods (interviews, focus groups etc.) are nearly always rooted in an interpretivist

philosophy, while quantitative methods (surveys, some forms of secondary data collection)

typically stem from a positivist philosophical position. There are some students emailing

about mixed methods. You may wish to consider critical realism as a dualistic approach

between objective and subjective. Or choose which is the dominant method in your research,

and choose the appropriate philosophy, and justify the other as a complimentary form of

research.

Q. Do I just write about the methods I’m using, or should I write about others too?

A. Good examples of this assignment will thoroughly justify the choice of philosophy and data

collection/analysis techniques. You should talk critically about your choices and justify these

in comparison to other choices available, the existing literature, and why yours are the most

appropriate choices for your particular investigation.

Q. How detailed should I be? For example, should I include questions I’d ask participants?

A. There is no need to include the actual questions you are going to ask in your research

methodology, but your data collection section should make it clear how exactly you would

conduct your study, to the point that someone else could set up a similar study.

Please note that it is your responsibility as an adult learner to seek out and study the

meanings and applications of the various aspects of research methods beyond the lecture

materials. Writing and responding to emails asking for definitions and meanings that are

freely available in libraries (on and offline) is not a good use of anyone’s time. Please also

refer to the examples of previous submissions on Vision. While these are not perfect, they

are a useful guide.

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